Beirut – an impressive city full of contrasts

The Lebanese capital has a lot to offer. As I’ve already mentioned in my previous post about Lebanon, it is a cosmopolitan city full of contrasts. You can see churches next to mosques, skyscrapers versus small houses, buildings destroyed in the war and a lot of new construction areas, etc. As a place where East meets West, it’s very culturally diverse and multilingual place.

 

Languages: Arabic – official, English and French widely spoken

Currency: Lebanese pound (LBP), US dollars widely accepted

Time zone:  GMT +2 hours

 

I keep repeating all the time that my favorite way of exploring new city is by walking, so, that’s how I met Beirut, too. Spontaneously, a group of approximately 10 people gathered and we started roaming around the streets. Our lovely new friend Marysse was our tour guide for a day. Thank you, honey, for that. 😘

Here are my impressions..

 

Streets of Beirut

The above mentioned contrasts are the most visible in the streets. There are a lot of buildings still sitting destroyed, but on the other side you can also see a lot of new buildings and construction areas. It was very interesting seeing something like that around the city.

 

Mosque

After roaming for a while, we made a stop in front of the Blue Mosque (The Mohammad Al-Amin Mosque). The interior of the mosque is very spacious and impressive. To enter the mosque, women need to cover their clothes with the abaya (long dress) you get at the entrance.

 

Zaitunay bay

We continued walking to Zaitunay bay. It is modern place with a marina full of boats and yachts. Across the bay there are a lot of skyscrapers, and in the marina there is a great variety of nice cafes and restaurants. You can sit somewhere and have a meal or you can simply enjoy walking by the marina and admire great view.

 

Corniche

The Corniche is a long promenade along the Mediterranean Sea characteristic for Middle Eastern countries. It is also place with a contrasts, full of people different nationalities and religions. It is nice place for relaxing during the day, but during the night it is very vivid. There are benches on the sidewalk with interesting and colorful mosaics, where you can sit and relax if you want.

 

Pigeon rocks

One of the Beirut’s most popular landmarks is definitely set of rocks formed in the prehistoric era by a geologic movement known as Pigeon rocks. It’s a 60 meters high formation and it is fascinating.

Well, honestly, finding this landmark of Beirut wasn’t that easy for us. 🙂 The thing was, they told us it is near Zeitunay bay, so we expected to come there quickly, however it turned out to be quite long and exhausting walk to the totally opposite side of the town. 🙂 But, it was definitely worth it! We were mesmerized by the view.

 

Boat ride 

While there, we spontaneously decided to go on a short boat ride. We were taking a tour around the rocks and through the arch of larger one and we really had a great time. From the boat you have a nice view of the skyline. After the ride, we had a chance to enjoy spectacular sunset, too.

 Make sure to negotiate the price for the boat ride upfront. 😉

 

‘I love Beirut’ sign

Numerous cities around the world have ‘I LOVE’ signs, Beirut is one of them, too. Everywhere it is very popular spot for taking pictures. But who can blame us? It’s always fun to make personal postcard from cities you’ve visited, right? 😉 It’s such a great memory.

 

Nightlife

Beirut has a vivid nightlife and is known as party capital of the region. The city is full of pubs, bars and nightclubs. During the summer season the most popular places are rooftop bars. We spent our nights in some nice cafes and had a pleasant time hanging out with our new friends.

 

Traffic

The only thing I would recommend avoiding is traffic – which is totally craaaazy there. So, if you don’t need to drive, skip it, because you need to have guts to drive there. Just saying. 🙂 I was amazed by our local friend Marita’s driving skills. I have to admit, at first, I was a bit scared, but that didn’t last long, because she is an excellent driver. Thank you Marita for taking us everywhere. 😘 They have public transportation which is cheap but it is not really organized, as I heard from locals.

Unexpectedly, I had the most amazing time during that few days. This was a very special and unique trip to me. I met wonderful people, both Lebanese and Serbian, saw new places, learn new things, etc. and this magical trip will stay forever in my mind and heart. 💜

You guys are phenomenal. Thank you!

Hope to see you again soon! 😉

 

Who wants to visit this amazing city? Who is with me? 🙂

 

2 Comments

  1. Jo
    January 30, 2018 / 2:35 pm

    Woowww..I am amazed. I wanna pack my bags immediately!!

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