Incredibe weekend out in Beirut (Lebanon)

This time I am writing you after a more than exciting weekend in Beirut the capital of Lebanon. Katja and I decided to go to Beirut as Katja has never been there. I've been here before for business and liked it but of course I did not have a lot of time then as I flew in and out (as usual when I am on a business trip...). Katja booked the whole trip one night last week, more or less out of the blue. I just agreed to what she said as it just sounded great. Katja booked flight and hotel and told me where to be at what time and I was in ;-) We left Thursday evening from Amman after work and slept two night in Beirut. The first evening we arrived around 2100 in Beirut and were at the hotel at around 2200. The airport is really close and we were lucky that traffic was not too crazy. We arrived at the hotel and it was just „WOW!“ A beautiful hotel exactly the style I like. Minimalistic, cool but with style. Some highlights were the infinity pool and the 360 Bar, which the name already says, is a bar with a view on the city at 360 degree. A great place to hang out! Katja and I had our first dinnera t the hotel and enjoyed it so much. It was an international cuisine, very special but extremely “yummy”! As I worked all week and it already was after midnight when we finished dinner we only went to the 360 bar quickly and after having had a drink we went to bed. Next day we slept in, or at least we tried as we both woke up as it was thundering! We knew that the weather wouldn't be the nicest but thunders?! We slept in anyway and got up late morning. The sky was covered but not raining. We went out for a quick breakfast and started then mission “discover beirut”. We walked around in Solidere as our hotel was there and we didn't want to go too far. Solidere is something very interesting, read the text I found (on Wiki...sorry, I know, not academic at all... but at least I quote the source not like some other Ph.D. Or better ex-Ph.D. who even became minister in Germany ;-) Anyway read about a beautiful area in Beirut:

Solidere s.a.l. is a Lebanese joint-stock company in charge of planning and redeveloping Beirut Central District following the conclusion, in 1990, of the country’s devastating civil war. By agreement with the government, Solidere enjoys special powers of eminent domain as well as a limited regulatory authority codified in law, making the company a unique form of public-private partnership.

Solidere was founded on May 5, 1994 by then-Prime Minister Rafik Hariri and was incorporated as a privately owned company listed on the stock exchange. The name “Solidere” stands for Société libanaise pour le développement et la reconstruction de Beyrouth, French for “The Lebanese Company for the Development and Reconstruction of Beirut.”

Solidere is widely credited as the most important force behind Beirut’s reemergence, in recent years, as a bustling urban destination with a chance to earn back its ancient title of “Paris of the Middle East.” Solidere's main functions are the supervision of the government-authorized reconstruction plan, financing and developing the infrastructure, new construction and rehabilitation of war-torn structures, urban landscaping and the management of property.[1] Solidere has worked to attract global retailers such as Virgin Megastores to Beirut Central District. The company’s most significant single project to date has been Beirut Souks, a 100,000 m² retail center that was scheduled to open by year 2008, however opened in 2009. Other ongoing developments include the Hadiqat As-Samah (Garden of Forgiveness), Platinum Tower and the Marina Towers luxury residential complex, and now very majorly the Beirut Gate and Phoenician village projects planned for the near future.

So the area is actually central District and Solidere is the company but everybody calls it Solidere. It is just beautiful! The architecture is astonishing. They managed to build an amazing place out of the ruins of the war. The pictures above show you some impressions of the area. It is as nice as or even nicer as many western European city! You find everything in this area. All most famous brands are united here! Together with the nice architecture you have the impression to be in Paris (except that here it is nicer ;-)

Another amazing thing in Lebanon is, that from Beirut you can see the mountains with snow on the top of the mountains! I was told that with a telepherique you are there in some half hour or so! Mediterranean Sea on one side, snow half hour away...what do you want more?!

So Katja and I immersed into a never ending shopping expedition and we hardly realized that outside there was a pouring rain! After a long shopping day in the so called Beirut Soukh, which is a open shopping mall, means many shops next to each other, but not like a shopping mall but really like a Soukh, an Arabic market place, Katja and I headed slowly back to the hotel. It was around 1830 already when we went back to the room. We changed our cloth and headed to the gym to do something against to gain of weight as we knew that we would go again for a delicious supper and for drinks ;-)

After a shower and dressing up we went to the concierge to ask for a good place. Katja and I both agreed that we would like to go to an Italian again. We both love Arabic food but being close to the Sea and in a holiday mood we simply felt to go to an Italian. Th concierge was amazing and told us to go to a place that was just not from this world. Totally Italian (even with real Italians...), quality of food: “to die for” and just nice folks there. We had a great supper and after we headed to the party street in Beirut. The concierge told me where to go after the supper before I even asked him ;-) So imagine a street, I'd say some kilometer(s) long with one restaurant, bar, club, live club, gallery one next to the other! The street was just great! So full of life! Young people hanging out everyone in a party mood, loud music everywhere and one place nicer than the other. We did not know at all where to go and after having walked for while we decided to just enter into a bar and have a drink. The bar was cool as it was in some kind of a basement and you saw natural rocks on the ceiling. The ceiling was round like in a basement with a bar in it. We just had one drink and I saw from the window that many girls and some guys were waiting next to the window just next to our bar. We finished, paid and wanted to walk back to the hotel when I told Katja that I just wanted to go and check out why they were standing there. We went there and saw ther they were standing at the bottom of a big stair and left and right there were all clubs. We walked up and quite frankly speaking the clubs we discovered were among the coolest I've seen in my life! The first one was inside an old apartment totally renovated. The internal was till like during the war. All smashed walls, even still with some bullet holes in the wall! The crowd was amazing! All young party people, a DJ that was playing awesome music and all were just enjoying their life together! The second club was indeed an apartment but a huge one! It had a patio and inside some 6rooms with two bars and at least two rooms with tables to eat. Totally packed with an energized crowd, awesome music and an atmosphere that invites you to want to spend all night there and not to go to bed! The last club was a big villa with a steep stair and a small front door. Good that I was with Katja as they always were more than happy to leave her in and I was just behind her ;-) Imagine a big room huge, some 100 square meters and a huge bar in the middle surrounded by all dancing folks to Arabic music. The third one was a club where they played Arab music, the first and the second were western music (not country western of course ;-) Three amazing places, all one next to each other, all packed with a crowd dancing and just having fun, no violence, no bad feelings, just a wonderful place where everybody had fun! Amazing places where we will definitely go back, In Sha Allah. Another day with great impressions was almost over and I can only imagine how it will be in summer when the temperature outside will be higher and even more people will be in the streets enjoying their weekend! By the way, Lebanon's weekend is Saturday and Sunday and not Friday and Saturday as ours. We called it a day (or better a night) at the 360 bar and finally hit the sack at early morning. Again we slept in, went for breakfast, came back, packed and checked out. We left the luggage in the hotel and headed to a place where they sell Nespresso... unfortunately we still don't have a Nespresso shop in Amman, so we always ask everybody to bring some when they come visit us or whenever we go to places where they have a shop (Dubai, Beirut or Europe) we buy and bring back. So we asked for a taxi through the concierge. Taxis are extremely expensive in Beirut, not like in Amman. They drive without meter (I HATE IT!!) and you have to negotiate the price. It goes without saying that you always have the impression of being screwed... but in Beirut they have a specialty. There are the regular taxis with the taxi sign on the roof of the car. No big deal, you get in, say where you wanna go, negotiate the price and off you are. Then you have (usually old Mercedes) with red registration plates. They are taxis and “Service”. Service is a “taxi” service but the driver is allowed (and most probably will) embark other gusts during the ride to your destination! So you drive and then all the sudden he stops because somebody waved and somebody gets in. He asks the driver and if he agrees he's in! The nice thing is that such “service” costs a fraction of the regular taxi drive (during which the driver is not allowed to have a double fare). Contrary to many cities in the world getting a taxi in Beirut is the easiest thing! Whenever you walk along the street everybody honks and asks if you need a taxi! So you are constantly bothered by people asking if you need a taxi or honking...

As always,every city has something special and even more in this part of the world!

Take good care wherever you are in this world! A big hug from Amman!