The Best of the Old (& New)

So, everyone in the group has been begging Melkar to show us one of Beirut’s famous night clubs, any which have apparently been responsible for making Beirut listed in 2010 as “Sin City” for the extreme night life it offers.  Fady, being the awesome dude that he is, managed to get the Lebanon Renaissance Foundation to fit this into our schedule before we leave for the U.S. tomorrow night.  LRF had already arranged for us to visit the Beirut National Museum, too, which is how we spent our morning.  The short video we watched when we got there was really interesting, especially when it talked about the destruction of the museum artifacts when the Civil War took place and the museum was closed.  Restoration of the museum did not begin until 1995, but fortunately it only took two years before it could open its doors.  I’ve seen a lot of museums in my days, so there were just a few things that stood out to me.  Namely, the colorful “The Rape of Europe” tiled mosaic, which our Byblos tour guide had informed us of earlier, claiming that this picture was stolen and used on the Greek euro as he pulled one out of his pocket to show us.  The historical make-up cases and the ancient board games were all exceptionally preserved as well.  If nothing else, I enjoyed taking pictures, playing with the lights and shadows in the massive museum.

By now, everyone was still exhausted from our lengthy road trip yesterday and being out in the hot sun only made us sleepier.  So after a bit more shopping, we retired to the hotel for the afternoon and took naps/updated blogs/skyped with loved ones/or otherwise occupied our time preparing ourselves for the evening of awesomeness.  Once it was good and dark outside, it was at last time to party it up in Lebanon so we boarded the bus in our nicest clubbing clothes and drove to Beirut’s coast.  From there, our driver drove us down a street that seemed to lead for a mile into the water and I began to develop a small feeling that I was in a thriller movie or something, driving out in the pitch black night surrounded by nothing than water.  But it was no wonder why the Sky Bar is in the middle of no where: once we finally got out, got past the bouncers, and took an elevator up a converted-looking warehouse building, the view from the top was the best view I had seen all week and a half.  City views at night make my top five on the list of Coolest Sights to See and the rooftop bar definitely offered a lot to view.  The entire night was just awesome; I love to dance, and the excitement of getting to experience this part of Beiruti life made it just that much better.  Then throw in the bar’s special effects of synchronized jet flames and fog machines surrounding the perimeter of the rooftop and the two walls of changing scenes, and you’ve got an evening that offers a suitable scene for college students looking to celebrate a wonderful 10-day cultural immersion learning experience together before heading back to their own corners of the American country a day from now.  I can’t

believe this adventure is almost over.  Even now, I still want to ask my roommate Laura to pinch me so that I am reassured that this is real; I am actually in Lebanon speaking with some of the country’s most successful executives and witnessing cultural events unparalleled in any other country. 

What a life I live.