Poor old Beirut got off to a bad start. I was hungover. And broken hearted. 😦

The flight took an hour and a half from Istanbul (after a lot of tears at the airport). Perfect flight. But when I arrived I spent 2.5 hours in a queue? maul? scrum? for passport control. An old lady in front of me fainted. A man started getting shouty, so some soldiers took him away. They do not like people traveling on new passports – which I am. The only stamp in it was Turkey. So I had to reassure them I’d never been to Israel, otherwise I wouldn’t get entry to Lebanon. The outside temperature at the airport was 38. Fuck knows what the temperature was inside.

The suitcases were just all in piles around the airport. I took an hour to find mine among some that had come from Paris. I’m trying to think if I’ve been to a worse airport … ?

The driver who was supposed to pick me up wasn’t there.

My (fancy, pretty expensive) hotel has no hot water. But I imagine that won’t be a problem after I’ve been walking around for a while.

I’m staying in Downtown which is nice. A pretty fancy neighborhood. Chanel, Armani, embassies. The parliament buildings are here so lots of soldiers and checkpoints. I feel like I’m in an episode of Homeland in places. Old churches. Mosques. In the morning I’m woken by church bells and the call to prayer. There can’t be that many places with that combination in the world.

The air is very hot. Its already 30 degrees at 8am. But a breeze is blowing off the sea. The buildings are all pale, sandy colored and the sky is a piercing bright blue.

The city is divided into two parts – Christian (civilized, very western, French, wealthy) and Muslim (not all those things). Hezbollah are in the southern suburbs so shan’t be going there. The city is on the coast looking out onto the Mediterranean. There’s a very busy, hustling corniche. And hills running up the back of the city towards the mountains.

The food is great so far. And the local beer is ok. Served with fresh carrots weirdly. Thats a thing here apparently.

That’s Pigeon Rock in the back ground, from a roof top bar. Today’s my 3rd day here so far, although the first day was just recovering from the airport mare. I’m hoping to get out of the city to the Bekaa Valley to visit some vineyards. And Cedar trees. Organising a driver/tour is surprisingly difficult. Maybe because its Eid.