Lebanon - Exploring Beirut

Day 7 (Dec 27)

Continuing my adventure in Beirut, I walked around Hamra. Hamra is a university area - home to the American University of Beirut. Lots of cute restaurants and nightlife (more bars than clubs).

Took a walk north of Hamra to the Corniche. I guess Corniches are a relatively consistent presence in many Middle Eastern cities, including the two I visited in Doha and Beirut. It's basically a waterside promenade, but while Qatar's opens up to the financial district skyline, Beirut's fronts the Mediterranean sea. I got scared at times while walking there cos I'm notoriously bad at directions and Beirut's roads are notoriously poorly named, and the streets didn't have much human traffic (some didn't even have much vehicular traffic). Very bad combo. But eventually, after long windy paths, glimpses of derelict buildings (would get Mugatu very excited), graffiti-sprayed walls, and even a MhdDonald's (this would become an important piece of knowledge 2 days later), my spidey sense and I found my way to the Corniche. The smell and sound of the sea is very distinct (thank God).

I figured I'd walk the entire promenade all the way to the end, which was a place very unattractively named Pigeon Rock, and then head back to Hamra to await Shanaz's arrival. So off I went on a slow romantic stroll down the Corniche.

The best thing to do on a lazy sunny Mon afternoon is to people-watch. I saw middle-aged men fishing, young Lebanese mothers pushing baby prams in killer heels, teenagers hanging around watching you watching them, couples engaged in heart-to-hearts... I even saw a man taking a dip in the cold sea in nothing but speedos! I got a sneaky picture in thanks to the powerful zoom on my parents' camera teehee.

Before I knew it, the sun was starting to set but it was only 4ish in the afternoon!! I only made it to the amusement park and Pigeon Rock seemed rather far away. A bit nervous since I was a stranger in a foreign country, I abandoned my quest to see Pigeon Rock and instead took a brisk walk back to Hamra.

Got back to hotel right around 5PM when darkness fell. That was pretty much the end of my day. I hung out at the hotel till Shanaz arrived. Yay. Reunited!

We were craving some good Lebanese so we headed to Walimat Wadeh in Hamra. Unfortunately, we got rejected from the half empty restaurant cos they were expecting a ton more guests for a late night gig. Stinging from the rejection, we headed to Istambouli, also in the neighborhood. Pretty decent food except for the rude Lebanese server, who clearly had no time for our questions about the menu as he had to serve the TWO other tables in the practically empty restaurant. Shanaz must have been tired from the Damascus-Beirut trip cos she accidentally left him a tip.