Monday 8 Apr 13
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| Ruins, mosque, church, construction = essence of Beirut |
After a leisurely morning at home cooking and eating (leftover) breakfast, Jen (who arrived late last night and found me in my PJs dozing off with a book on my face), J, bebe E (100 days today!) and I decided to take the stroller and take a stroll across central Beirut. Roads and pavements in Beirut are not exactly stroller friendly, however. So mama J carried the baby in front of her the whole time, while Jen took the stroller, and I took pictures.
We started our journey along
Hamra Street (of Hamra area, which I was told was the 'Muslim' district), got fruit juice on the way, and trotted towards the city centre. All along the way, my mind was constantly being fascinated by and frantically taking in the surrounding environment - the colourful graffiti in english and arabic, run-down buildings with exotic architecture, construction sites everywhere, houses decorated with bullet holes and some just tired from time and from war...not to mention the sounds - rusty engines, constant honking of cars, excited children on a school playground, and the unexpected "welcome!" and "hello!" and "picture picture!" where some people have gestured at my pro-looking (i.e. chunky) camera, asking me to take pictures of them. Still baffles me to this day why they did that.
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| RM Private Museum |
At one point we very randomly chanced across a luxurious and wonderfully preserved building & huge garden - we poked our nose in and walked through the gates into the garden, where there was a decent collection of statues and columns and other relics from around the Byzantine period (that's like 1700 years ago). We later found out that it was
the Robert Mouawad Private Museum that was in the guidebooks, but at the time we were too chicken to go inside the building.
We finally reached the city centre, the
Place de l'Étoile, and sat down at
Al Balad for lunch, followed by a very leisurely afternoon cuppa at a
non-smoking cigar lounge in
Le Grey Hotel - living the Lebanese 'tai tai' life in Beirut.
After tea, Jen and I, not being able to take any more of bebe E's cuteness, abandoned the mother and child (who was joined by their father, don't worry), dropped by the beautiful and magnificent (but not old)
Mohammad Al-Amin Mosque and continued East to the (supposedly) 'Christian' district of
Achrafieh in East (side of) Beirut. We took more photos of crumbling buildings, was
WELCOME-ed by the Le Chef boss, chatted up some uncles sitting by a construction site, exchanged phone numbers with a cutie from a vintage light repair shop, stared at cats staring at birds, took photos of a random group of finely-suited (mafia-looking!?) uncles, all the while sticking out like a sore-thumb (and screaming
tourist!) with our fair skin and big cameras.
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| How can one not love this face!? |
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| Leisure-ing in Le Grey |
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| Mohammad Al-Amin Mosque |
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| Creativity |
Dinner was simple but delightful, at a newly opened little restaurant around the corner from home. We tucked into an array of home-style dishes, no clue as to what they were called...but it was nothing short of
pure joy.
*disclaimer - don't take my word as any factual reference. Do your own research. Ha.
4 comments:
Wow! How did I not know about these posts! I came here via Ivershens' blog. it's so nice to reminisce about our Lebanese adventures! Can't wait for more stories :)
Hello! I just came across your blog through Janie's blog - Ivershen and her recommendation to check it out on her blog. One thing did stick out in your post for me and I am now curious. In your definition of what Hamra is in the first few paragraphs of the post - how did you come to the conclusion that Hamra is a muslim district - because in Lebanon - the only type of Lebanese who would define it that way is someone who still lives in the civil war days. They would call it "West Beirut." I just think its important for your readers to understand that. Especially those who have never been to Lebanon and choose to learn about it from your eyes.
I also realized something else actually! Why did you put Achrafieh as the "Christian" side in quotations but for Hamra - its Muslim district in bold. What's the difference to you? Why did you choose to write it they way you did when describing those two areas?
yay comments! haha
hi may! thanks for dropping by and for reading my post in such detail and critiquing! really appreciate it :) regarding the muslim/christian distinction between the districts, i was simply told (by various sources) that these areas were defined by such a distinction. And being a fleeting (and under-researched) visitor, I do admit that I simply took their words for granted, and in my vague memory regurgitated what I was told. So, apologies if this is misleading and not applicable anymore!
And regarding the bold/quotation marks, i was being carelessly inconsistent and too lazy to proof read my post haha no significant meaning there really.
do you have a blog or know a good blog about lebanon? would love to read a local/resident's perspective on it.
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