A walk on Beirut's seaboard at night

After getting "stuck" in Lebanon for five days before heading on to Paris I finally got a ticket to to fly. For a brief moment I considered an overland trip from Beirut to Belgium, but that would have been
a) expensive
b) timely
c) less fun than my fantasies may have suggested.

So I waited to get a plane ticket. It turns out, that to get a "cheap" plane ticket you have to fly at painful o'clock. So I did. Thing is, that my flight was at 4:50 AM. That meant I needed to be at the airport by about 3:00 AM. So I decided that I'd go into Beirut with my cousin(s) and we'd hang out until a late hour, then he'd take me to the airport. We left the village at about 9PM and got into beirut about 9:45PM. We picked up another friend (who also happens to be a cousin) and the three of us set out for a shopping mall. I had nothing to do with this decision. However, my one cousin who was driving had a girl to go see. She works in said shopping mall. So now the four of us are out in Beirut with no mission. This, I should point out, is not the lebanese way. Usually there is some place or some activity in mind. I guess for my cousin, picking up a girl and dropping me off at the airport were the objectives. Somehow we missed that whole 5 hour span in the middle.

In any case, we drove around gemayze (beirut's party district) and didn't stop. We almost drove up to Jounieh (definitely my vote, I love jounieh) but didn't. In the end, we drove down the coastline a short way past the american university of beirut, past some old rundown buildings, past the old ramada inn and found a nice arguilleh bar and restaurant by the sea.

Quick Aside, I know I've mentioned it before, but the old ramada inn in downtown beirut is amazing. It's completely riddled bull of old mortar shells and bullet holes. And it's sitting amidst some of the most beautifully rebuilt pieces of downtown. It's really something to see. It reminds me of how horrible war is, but somehow it's a real piece of hope since it's STILL standing. If you can't knock down a major chain hotel over the course of nearly 20 years, you can't defeat the city in which it stands. Anyway, enough romanticizing.

We get to a restaurant and I immediately see Kibbeh Naye (raw meat) on the menu and jump on it. My cousins and random girl joining us were surprised that I'd eat such a thing. Come on people, it was on the damn menu. It's not like I asked for something illicit that no one would ever eat... Anyway, the common practice in Lebanon is to drink Arak with kibbeh naye to, you know, "kill the germs." So I ordered that. What!? No alcohol here? Isn't this an overpriced smoking lounge on the sea? It is? And you don't carry the national beverage? Not even if I ask for it "off the menu?" W. T. and F? So I sat and ate my raw meat which of course was delicious and drank a 7up. I felt like a kid. Here ibn ghazi, have your sandwich and your 7up while the adults smoke from pipes. A bit lame. BUT, there is a bright spot just ahead.

After the restaurant we went for late night coffee and tea (always a good thing) and parked right on the seaboard. Beirut has really done a nice job with the oceanfront recently. So we took a stroll for the remaining few hours. My cousin and his girl took off way ahead so they could "talk" (which apparently is exactly what they did...) and my other cousin and I walked far behind telling dirty jokes and talking about Lebanon's future developments. It's a beautiful stroll. IF you get a chance to be in Beirut at about 2AM go for a walk down on the seaboard and catch a glimpse of all the young folks smoking the arguilleh, drinking tea, and playing backgammon with fiendish intensity uncharacteristic of all the other activities taking place. I almost decided to get into a backgammon game, but I don't trust the guys who play every day for money and have a far greater knowledge of good cheats than I.