The [broken] Paris of the Middle East

The majority of my time was spent in Beirut. For two weeks, Yasmina's home was my home. I shared her room, sprawled on a mattress on the floor. I by no means "roughed it."


Yasmina lives in Hamra

We spent each morning in Beirut; either enjoying a slow breakfast, or taking a tour of an adjacent neighborhood. We shopped. We tanned. We slept in. We lived like two 20-something girls with no responsibility.
During the day we would usually leave the city and go on an adventure (like the proceeding entries will detail) and return again in the evening to sample the night life.
Oh, the Beirut nightlife. I imagine that having money in any major city would give you a similar experience, but never having had a deep pocket nor having the sort of friends who would frequent such places as those we frequented, it was an absolutely frivolous, luxurious, and unquestionably unique experience for me.


AUB Aquatic Center by VJAA

I spent more time living than photographing the 'fun' parts, so the majority of my city shots are architectural- because the built environment was so strange, so foreign, and so fantastic I couldn't help but find 3000+ amazing things to record with my camera.


The Cheap Beach option

I know my next lines sound prejudice, but Lebanese society is still in fact very divided, and it has a strong correlation to religion.
I found Beirut particularly interesting because of its segregation. It is no secret that the Christians, who are rich, live on the west side of the city. Across the "green line" are the poorer Muslims in the east. While little in the West seemed unfathomably foreign (we shopped at Zara and laid out in bikinis), the East was something new. Here remains tangible evidence of warfare. Here the people dressed differently. Here the language spoken most often was straight Arabic, not the French-English-Arabic mash-up of the highly educated Westerns. The streets felt different. The city felt older, richer in substance. It remained a city with a difficult and complicated past.




I invite you to view more photos of Beirut at the Picassa album. It's worth it.