Yoooo last week I flew out to Beirut, Lebanon. Before flying out so many people expressed reservations about going on holiday to that part of the world, saying it wouldn't be for them. Good job they're not me then! While I was there I saw there's waaaay more to Lebanon than what you'd think. Here's the first part of my blog on Lebanon!
I was out there visiting my friend Tilley who works as a dancer in Beirut. The first day we were there we went downtown. It looked really like Paris. Every street was door to door with high fashion shops and little cafes.
Some of the architecture was so nice, I was so surprised over how it looked.
Beirut is still in the process of being built up. Wherever you looked there were construction cranes.
The maddest thing about downtown was how from one block to the next the scenery completely changes. From these clean, pristine streets to these abandoned building sites.
While we were just mooching about we chanced upon La Mosquée Mohammad Al-Amin.
Turns out it was open to visitors and we could go inside for a look. Tilley had to wear a burka off of a rack outside the Mosque. I was wearing shorts and a T-shirt. When we got inside a guy told her to do it up.
The mosque was so beautiful. The ceiling was so high and everything was clean and ornate. It was near silent. I've not been in a mosque since I was a kid, and it was so nice to see it, especially in a predominately Muslim country.
These photos really don't do justice to how amazing it was. I was stood under the high domed ceiling looking at all the perfect paint work and the structure and I was just amazed thinking that humans made this. Like non of this was here before. From things found on earth this structure was made. That was blowing my mind.
The Lebanese flag depicts the cedar tree. Locals use this wood and carve it for crafts.
We were looking at these ruins for a while, I don't know what they were from. It was mad, you'd walk past sky scrapers and these massive built up buildings and then turn a corner and they'd be a bomb site that was just left there.
A better photo of La Mosquée Mohammad Al-Amin.
The best church there was pretty amazing too. I couldn't really get a good photo of it because this woman was watching me.
Jos a little steak sandwich
I spent the first night we were there in the club that Tilley and her friends worked at. It was a massive open topped club with a massive video screen behind the DJ. Fascinating place to people watch haha. That went well until I got way too drunk.
We went to this place called Garten, this after club. Apparently it's some abandoned bomb shelter or something. I really don't remember much of this haha, it was such a good night.
The taxi drivers were all so mental. The roads are so fucked and they just weave in and out of each other beeping when they're in blind spots and so on. Nobody uses indicators. You pull out when you can and squeeze into the traffic. I was amazed I didn't see an accident while I was out there. Here's one of our taxi drivers having a little dance.
We spent the next day at this pool club. Check this photobomb, the guy backflipping in the background haha. It was so much fun, everyone had been partying all night.
This girl Tash, another one of the dancers had not slept since Friday morning. It was now Sunday night. We were the last ones in the pool club and she was running and jumping through this rubber ring she'd nicked from behind the bar hahahaha
That's all of part one, I'll put another bit up over the next couple of days!
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