The Elsewhere Diaries

I have now been here for four days and I still wake up in the morning, walk down to the street and still can't quite believe that I'm here. I am falling in loving with Beirut more-so, I think, than I thought I would. The Saifi Institute, where I start Arabic lessons on Monday, and the Urban Gardens, where I'm staying, are in Gemmayze, in East Beirut. It's an amazing place with a mix of backstreet cafes, little old school eateries and hipster bars and cafes. One of which, Urbanista, I'm in now because of it's functioning internet, as opposed to the internet elsewhere, which can only be described as tortuously lethargic. It's been a busy couple of days so I will try and condense this to summarise what I've been up to.

Flying from Dubai at six in the morning was less than ideal. For some reason the Emirates terminal building has been decked out in Times Square-esque lights and screens so stepping out of the cab was like stepping into a shit version of the Opening Ceremony. The overpriced bars (the only place in the airport you can smoke, obviously) were crowded with people drinking Chardonnay to wash down their toothpaste. One rather elderly, hagged Australian woman asked a Lebanese man who she was chatting up if “Lebanon was in Israel now”. Swiftly left and spent three hours next to an overweight man from China who grunted in his sleep.

I made it to Saifi with indicative and expected difficulty. My taxi driver didn't speak English or French and seemed to speak only two phrases: “I don't know English or French” and “OH MY GOD”, shouted wearily at traffic in general. I asked if it was busy because of the Pope and he responded with the two phrases in order. So perhaps that was a yes.

Besides the traveling everything has become a blur of walking through streets littered with bistros, cafes and bombed out buildings in regular intervals, drinking strong black coffee during the day and Almaza beer during the night. Besides Downtown, the new precinct surround Place d'Etoile in central Beirut, which is overpriced, snooty and devoid of any culture (reminded me of the UAE), Beirut seems not to abide by the same rules as normal cities. Walking down a street in Gemmayze, Hamra or Ashrafieh, (the three main distrcits i've explored so far) you notice that you don't really get the uniformity that you do in Europe. Rue Gouraud, near Saifi, has posh cafes, dingy local cafes, restaurants that advertise 'fusion cuisine', restaurants with no menus and everything in Between within about thirty paces. They have a feel plurality that I've never really experienced before, and Gemmayze especially has drawn people from all over Beirut to make it into an up-and-coming young, artistic centre. It's full of amazing bits of urban art like this one.

They're scrawled over crumbling buildings which are a constant reminder of the fact Beirut is still suffering from a war which threatened to consume it entirely and destroy any semblance to the pre-75 cosmopolitan city of the Middle East. It is beautifully, brilliant decrepit and at the same time avant-garde and exciting and seems to refuse classification as either a museum city or a sprawling modern metropolis. And I love it.

Kate, who has been my much esteemed tour guide, Arabic teacher and interpreter left yesterday and now it's down to me to take up the mantel and explore for myself. I ordered my first coffee in Arabic yesterday (he repeated it to me in English, “two espressos, yes?”) so I feel suitably equipped for anything. Luckily Zeina is still here (working at as an intern) and so I have at least one permanent drinking buddy on call. My room mate is a Mormon from Mississippi so not much hope there.

Will stop now as this is getting rather epic but I hope you're all well. Send me an email and say hello.

Love

Gx.

p.s
For those asking, my postal address at the moment is:

George Edward Connor
Post Restante 
LibanPost - Beirut Souks Post Office
Beirut, Beirut Souks, Downtown Beirut

Lebanon

But let me know if you do send anything so I can go and pick it up.