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This past weekend, C. and I flew to Lebanon to explore the city of Beirut.

Here’s a view of the bustling”Paris of the  Middle East”: Beirut, from the rooftop of our hotel.

We stayed at a fantastic boutique hotel called The Albergo in one of the oldest neighborhoods in the Christian part of Beirut.

Each room in the hotel was uniquely furnished. Here’s a photo of our room. It was so adorable; I didn’t want to leave.But the best part of the hotel was its fantastic garden roof deck. We spent many hours sitting up here, relaxing, and taking in the views of the city.

On our first day in Beirut, we met up with some Lebanese friends from our INSEAD days who drove us out of the city to visit the Grotte Jeita (the Jeita cave, in English).

The caves were massive! First, we took a funicular up to the top of a hill and walked down into one of the large caves to see the stalagmites.

While we were in the cave, though, Beirut had one of its twice daily brown outs (the power there goes out at roughly noon and at 6 pm every day). We had no idea that the brown out was going to occur, and all of a sudden, it was pitch black in the cave!!!!

Luckily, some back up generators came on a few minutes later which allowed us to (barely!) see the ground, and climb our way out. Yikes!

Then, we walked down a hill and entered the lower cave to take a boat ride through the cave, which was such a cool experience.

(Note: Unfortunately, you cannot take any photos in the caves, so the photos above are from a quick google search of the Grotte Jeida. )

Later that day, we walked through Beirut, and loved seeing the contrast in the city. For example, as you can see in the photo above, there is a brand new house (that looks fairly French) in the background, next to an older house in the foreground. There were scenes like this throughout the city, which showed us that the Lebanese are putting a lot of time, effort, and money into rebuilding their city after the awful civil war that took place in the country not too long ago.

We had dinner that night on the bustling Rue Gourard, with adorable cafes and bars lining the street. We stopped in at a French cafe to have a quick bite to eat, and felt like we were in Paris again (everyone was speaking French, the food was typical French cafe food…it was great!). Then we popped into a bar along that same street for a late night drink.

The next morning, after a fantastic Lebanese breakfast on the hotel’s rooftop garden, we headed out to explore the city some more.

First, we visited Beirut’s farmer’s market called Souk el Tayeb. There weren’t many vendors at the market, but those vendors that were there were selling some great looking produce, and some fun, ethnic foods. Of course, we sampled some dumplings (which looked to us like grandma’s pirogues) that were really yummy.

We saw some chili peppers hanging out to dry,……some adorable, little eggplants,

…and even some bees making honey! You could even buy the fresh honeycombs!

We then visited the City Center, a part of town with lots of upscale shops and restaurants. Then, on our way back from new, pedestrian only city center, we came across this crumbling building with visible bullet holes probably from the Civil War.

Again, you can easily see the contrast in this city, from old to new.

We also walked along the Corniche, to take in the views of the beautiful Mediterranean sea.

And we snapped some photos of Beirut’s famous roches in the Mediterranean.

And, on our way back to the hotel to get a taxi to take us to the airport, we walked right past a Christian wedding.

It just goes to show how many contrasts there are in one small city. From bombed-out buildings to new, high-class shopping centers. From Christian brides in their white gowns to Muslim women in their black sheilas….Beirut is a wonderful example of how a city can be so adaptable to change and acceptance.

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