Beautiful Beyrouth

I'm turning 30 years young in a few weeks. To celebrate, Alice and I planned a little trip to Beyrouth, Lebanon. We've both been wanting to go for ages. 

The first thing that amazed me was how relaxed every one is. On arrival, the immigration guy joked around. He didn't seem too bothered about whether I knew the address where I was staying. He gave me a few recommendations of places to go. Our Airbnb host had arranged a car pickup. The driver was in fact the owner of the shop just next to the flat. The car was rather run down, like a lot of things in the country. I had just flown in from Dubai where everything is new - that's the only reason I noticed it. 

We stayed in a very cute flat in Mar Mikhael, probably the most happening place in town. We arrived on a Tuesday evening and everyone was out sitting at terraces sipping on a drink or smoking a chicha (or so we thought - it turns out that 'everyone' is actually much more people than that as we would find out on Saturday evening). 

We spent the next few days walking around the small streets. We didn't have much of an itinerary, just strolled around. People everywhere are really incredibly nice. They'll notice you in the streets, without bothering you. If you ask anything to anyone they'll try to help you. It's also strange to be in a place where so many people speak fluent French, Arabic and English. It's common to hear people greet each other in French "bonjour, comment ca va?" before switching to Arabic. 

The highlight of our stay, however, had to be the food. I developed an obsession for moutabal (babaganoush, or caviar d'aubergine in French). It took me the whole stay before I could remember the word moutabal (it became mataboul, moubatal etc in between). There was a tiny corner restaurant which sold some amazing stuff. AND it was opened all night! That means we went on average twice a day - once in the day and once at night coming back from a bar and in need of food to sponge all that Lebanese wine). 

Eating actually became a problem. As the days went by our trousers became harder to close. It was also a common sight to see each other, or our friends loosen their belt in the middle of the meal. 

There is so much more to see, and I think a summer stay must be the next trip there! 

PS - Another cool thing, this place is full of cats!