Beirut – where woe meets wow

Tags

Beirut, cities in the Middle East, Lebanon, past and present, pictures of Beirut, travel

Not sure when I heard of Beirut for the first time.

It must have been at some point during my childhood. When the TV screens were showing the world a bitter, soul destroying war which took 15 years and thousands of lives in a long river of destruction and despair.

Fast forward 20 years. Beirut has rebuilt itself. And much like somebody coming out of a lethal relationship, it licked its wounds, made itself pretty again and went out to charm.

This new B is excessive, blonde, plastically- enhanced and extremely fancy. B wears the shortest skirts and the highest heels you’ll see in the Middle East, a heart-stopping combo for the innocent traveller from Amman or Cairo whose jaw drops and car engine stops in the middle of the unforgiving traffic.

Beirut smells heavy and green as it whizzes past in a red car, gusts of laughter and shiny hair. 

But underneath the glamour and the ease, Beirut hasn’t forgotten. Its bullet holes, its beautiful yellow villas now blind, torn inside out, the tanks going through the city in the middle of the day. The restlessness, the anguish. The memories. It all still hurts. 

I don’t know how or when the wounds will heal completely. But one thing is certain. Beirut the charmer, the woe and the wow, will not leave you untouched. 

 

Through the looking glass and what Alice found in Dubai

Tags

Dubai, Gulf, hotel balconies, international workforce, Malls in Dubai, picture, sky-scrapers, travel

I landed in Dubai on a hot, steamy morning and made my way through the shiny lobby to a shiny car which took me to my shiny hotel. My little capsule of cool air proceeded to glide noilessly on the wide road, among other white capsules sailing the river of traffic between silver giants.
I pressed my nose against the glass and looked at the occupants of the other white capsules. Some contained energetic Indians, some bored-looking Russians and some impeccably white-clad locals glued to super phones.

I stayed in one of Dubai’s towering hotels. 
All have alluring balconies lining up against the milky sky. Magnificant balconies, thousands of them all through the silver city. All sealed off. After an hour of pressing my face to the glass in silent desperation, I asked Reception. ‘Government regulation, ma’am’ chirped the pleasant young woman from the Philippines. 

In the evening I rode the metro with the thousands of people who work hard in the city of glass and are barely able to keep their eyes open at the end of a hard, long day. Heads lolling against the glass.

I went to a mall with a huge tank inside. Where some people were diving and others were watching them on the other side.

Pressing their faces against the glass.

Come to Dubai, it’ll be class, oh my my, you can touch the glass!

Why are we so obsessed with weekends?

Tags

Chit chat, Cultural differences, European abroad, expat, Expectations, travel, Weekend

I’ve had several revelations since I moved here. Having to do with Europeans abroad and how we roll. And expect the world to roll.  

We are obsessed with weekends. 

“How was your weekend? What are your plans for next weekend?” we chirp merrily at whoever crosses our path.

Upon being thus questioned, people here scratch their heads and try hard. “I sit with my family” they say. More scratching. Benevolent confusion. What the hell is she expecting me to say? 

“Ok, but what did you do?” we press on energetically.

The truth is not much. It’s just not that big a deal. A few hours of not having to go to work. Good. You eat and talk to your family and then eat some more.

Next weekend you do the same. What is there to talk about?

But we won’t stop. Worried that the weather is not of sufficient variety to allow for extensive chit chat, we desperately cling to weekends and holidays.

“And your last holiday?” we ask hopefully.

“I sat with my uncles”. Little changes but the tense. 

I kept at it. Until one day a guy stopped me as I was forming the word “how”. “Was” never came out.

 “Please”, he said. “Don’t ask me about my weekend again. When I do something I’ll tell you.” 

He hasn’t yet been in touch. 

 

 

How do you survive group dinners?

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Bills, Bore, Dinner, Etiquette, Going out, Group behaviour, Restaurant, Socialising

The thing is I never know where to sit.

And I always hope to do better this time.

But as I plunge towards the seat next to the Funny Smart One, somebody outruns me and throws their bag on the chair with Olympic precision.

Ok, that settles it. Once again, I am wedged between the Drunken Chatterbox and the Self-Obsessed Bore.

There is something as implacable as a rainy November afternoon in Basingstoke about where you have stationed yourself. You are there for the duration of the next fraction of the Earth’s spinning class and there is nothing you can do about it.

And just as dinner comes to an end and you start to see the light of dawn (not literally, one hopes), here comes the bill. And there is always a self appointed Guardian of the Bill. And once the G of the B has stood up, glasses halfway down nose wrinkled in concentration, bill in hand, you know it can only go one of two ways.

The first approach is the communist one. Right, there are 10 people here, you are to dish out 27.52 whatevers. Don’t care that you here had 28 beers and half a cow and you over there in the corner had bread, peas and water. We are in this together.

The second one is the liberal school of thought. Why don’t you all put in what you owe? Oh jolly good. The Drunken Chatterbox has stopped droning on about his fishing trip to Scotland last year. He is now tasking you with adding up his beers and finding the forever elusive price of mashed potatoes on the menu.

Oh joy oh rapture, we are done. Nothing to do but look forward to our next dinner.

Are we human or are we skaters? Cirque de Glace comes to town

Tags

athletes, circus on ice, Evolution, human body

Last night I went to see Evolution, a theatre on ice performance by Cirque de Glace retelling the story of the humans’ presence on and relationship with Earth.

This is the first time in my life I saw anything like this, which is why I went with no expectations.

And I loved it.

The show is basically a colorful eruption of magnificently flexible bodies, which fly around the room, cling on to improbable little hooks and ropes and then land on ice skates with the same assurance you and I get out of bed in the morning.

Magnetic feet, lean arms, iron legs and beautiful skating tell the story.

From the dark beginnings of Earth to the invention of the wheel, the Middle Ages and then a leap to the Industrial Revolution and climate change.

I spent half my journey through time pressing my knees together and hoping no bones will break and the other half musing over the limits (or lack thereof) of the human body.