Beirut

My first glimpse of Beirut I got from a minibus arriving from Baalbek and meandering through the outskirts of the city. The ravages made by the civil war were still visible here, crying out loud through gaping black holes in gray, abandoned apartment buildings. Amidst the rubble and the damaged buildings there were new buildings in construction, modern and striking. And traffic was horrible.
I presume that some people had nowhereelse to go or simply did not want to abandon their home and neighbourhood. A particular building caught my eye. It was gray and bleak with dozens of accusing black eyes staring at me, no doors, no windows, not even frames on the 8 or 10 floors except for a cluster of sparkling new windows. They were somewhere on the 5th floor, I think, clearly belonging to just one flat and I could not help but imagine how scary, ghostly the building must be like inside. How it must feel like to live amongst the memories of that place, to go up and down the deserted damaged floors having only ghosts as your neighbours.

It was the only time I saw these images because I avoided staying in the capital. Beirut is a big and modern city, expensive, very expensive and loud. Traffic is bad, construction is ongoing, tranquility hard to find.
The war has offered beautiful old Beirut an opportunity to renew its image, and it's an open cosmetic surgery all over. The new downtown area is ultra-trendy and equally expensive. I had a hard time finding a bench to sit on away from the cafes and restaurants, but I was compensated with a lovely encounter with a street sweeper which insisted on taking my bag of garbage (orange and banana peels mostly) to the next garbage bin a few meters away. He made it look like a personal humiliation if I did it myself. He smiled and asked me where I was from and was outstandingly friendly and polite at the same time. It was quite a contrast to the busy, preoccupied, trendy looking and important people in this area. I learned he was from India, labouring here and missing home and family.

Over 2 days in Beirut I walked the city East to West and then North to South and back. The dimensions of the city did not justify a bus ride.
What impressed me in Beirut though was the corniche, the seawall promenade which is wider than a street. It's a great and popular place for walking and jogging. Locals love it.
And I also enjoyed the National Museum with its small but very well labelled and displayed collection of archeological artifacts and a short but excellent documentary about the renovating and reopening of the museum after the civil war. It's great to see that during hard times people did stick to their values and protected their heritage.

Don't misunderstand me, please. Beirut is fantastic if you're into shopping, expensive shopping, excellent food, wandering from cafe to cafe and partying. The cultural scene is rich, with plays and concerts and exhibitions and interesting stuff. And Beirut has some excellent bookstores! But if partying is not your thing, and you don't have money to spend and you prefer silence and tranquility to listen to your thoughts and not fear traffic, then Beirut is not really the ideal place.

Yet I have to confess: I left the bookstores with a few more new books and it was hard, very hard to just stop exploring the shelves.