Last week I left the chilly streets of Durham and set off on a Middle Eastern adventure. My destination was the city of Beirut in Lebanon on a trip to visit some brave Durham friends who are living there on their year abroad. I wasn’t sure what to expect when I arrived, as Beirut has not had the best rep in the media, especially recently due to its close proximity to Syria. However the city that I found when I arrived lived up to its reputation as the ‘Paris of the Middle East.’
The city is a ram shackled collection of shelled out buildings, apartment block monstrosities and beautiful French-style houses with shuttered windows. The streets are noisy and filled with cars, and there is a distinct lack of pedestrian crossings. In order to cross the road you have to dice with death, a traumatic experience for a country bumpkin like myself. However, underneath and hidden within this overwhelming exterior Beirut holds hidden gems. The city is filled with trendy restaurants, bars and cafes which would not be out-of-place in uber-hip Shoreditch. The walls are covered not in the usual scrawled graffiti but in beautiful murals promoting peace and love. The city also defies expectation when it comes to the dress code. High heels and mini-skirts can be seen alongside conservative head scarfs. And the women of Beirut were so well groomed I found myself feeling scruffy even on a trip to the supermarket.
Staying with Arabic speakers and people who knew where to go in the city allowed me to have the full Beirut experience. We could hop in and out of ‘Cervis’ – taxis – and zoom along to our next destination with no trouble at all. We took the bus to the seaside town of Jbeil which is said to be the oldest constantly inhabited city in the world. The town is beautiful, but when we visited there were almost no tourists, a reminder of the troubles that Lebanon is facing and the consequent decline in the tourism industry. The lack of fellow tourists was obvious in most places I visited in Lebanon. A visit to the Beirut National Museum was sadly equally as deserted, despite the museum holding an impressive collection of artefacts.
On the other hand the nightlife of Beirut continues to be buzzing. The bars and restaurants that we were visited were packed full of people every night and people were spilling out onto the street to drink and chat. Beirut loves to party! We went to a bar called Vyvyan’s in the hip Mar Mikhael district. The tables had big cogs next to them so that if you turned the wheel you could adjust the height of the table. Despite the tiny size of the bar (about four people wide) it had its own live DJ and everyone stood out in the street to drink and chat.
Beirut is a city unlike anywhere I have ever visited before it is a busy clash of cultures and sights. I only explored a tiny corner of what the city and Lebanon has to offer, and hopefully I will be able to go back and discover more!