Last days in Beirut
I had really become quite enthusiastic after our meeting at the Sports Club on Sunday night, and as a result I stayed up until 5am transcribing our interview with Ghassan. This was rather stupid, because it meant that I was much too tired to accompany either Alite or Nikos on Monday morning when they went respectively to visit the Dutch embassy and to interview Reine.
Once I was finally able to open my eyes again, it was time to get ourselves ready for our presentation on Monday evening at Samra, the bar below Zico House. Nikos had been working extremely hard on the presentation, and so it was a bit of a shame when almost nobody turned up. This seems to suggest two things:
- We didn’t publicise it very well – we had only sent out a proper invitation the night before, and even then to only a few people.
- People here do not care about our project – perhaps not surprising since we are trying to get people interested in something that happened two years ago.
I think it is fair to say that both are probably valid. Still, quite disappointing considering that we had come all this way and worked so hard.
Afterwards, we had a few beers in Samra before heading across town to Gemmayze, the (for now) hip area of town with lots of trendy bars and beautiful people. We spent the rest of the evening in Torino Express, a cosy wee bar which could easily have been in Barcelona or London.
This city is really confusing me. It is such a strange and overwhelming mixture of signals, lifestyles, images, and people that it is impossible to get an idea of what it is actually about. It is European and Middle Eastern at the same time, but this is far too simple to describe the situation. Every time I think that I am getting an idea of the place, I come across something else to complicate things. I must say that this is really intriguing, and I am getting more and more attached to the place.
After a few hours sleep, we had to get up again on time on Tuesday to go and interview Ali, another of the 2006 participants. Unfortunately he was not there to meet us, which at least means a bit less transcribing to be done later.
Due to complications when booking tickets, I was to stay a day extra. This was the last day for Nikos and Alite however, so we took the time to wander around in a relaxed manner. We met Reine for lunch in Gemmayze, and later on had one last drink in Barometre with Tony. We were all pretty tired, and since they had to get up at 4am for the plane, we all went to bed quite early.
On Wednesday morning I woke up alone in Zico House. I have to admit that this was actually a nice feeling, and that I was very happy indeed to spend a relaxing morning tidying up and drinking coffee. Later, I visited the National Museum, which has some very interesting displays of stone tools from the very beginning of western human civilisation. It is quite difficult to get a sense of time when you are confronted with a little stone ball and told that it was used to beat things 1 million years ago. I could just imagine some hairy caveman grunting and smashing at things with it – in some ways we have come a long way since then, but in other ways not so much at all.
Afterwards, I met up with Bchara for a look round his office. He works for a firm doing some very interesting architectural and sculptural projects, and when his boss found out that I originally trained and worked as an interior designer, he immediately asked if I would like to come and work for him! I really couldn’t tell if he was being serious or not, but after the experience of the last week I was in fact quite tempted to say yes. Alas, there are too many reasons to stay in Holland for now. Maybe some other time – he said that I was welcome to get in touch “any time in the next 100 years”.
I later had a wander round Ashrafiye, a predominantly Christian part of town, before meeting up with Bchara again to go to the cinema. I saw quite a few of the people from the Beirut art scene who we had met over the last few days, confirming my suspicion that it is indeed quite a small world here. Everyone seems to know everyone else, which could be a good or a bad thing depending on the circumstances.
Later we had one final drink (and a delicious sandwich) in Gemmayze before I headed back to Zico House to get packed and catch a few hours sleep before waking up in time for my taxi to the airport at 4.30am.
As with the outward journey, there is nothing of note to say about the return flight besides that it was long and uncomfortable – aeroplanes are of course not built for the percentile of people such as myself above 1.9m.
Back in Holland, everything seems so strangely quiet. To employ a cliché, Beirut is an assault on the senses – countless conflicting images, the smell of pollution, cigarette smoke, petrol, rubbish, and Arabic coffee, the sound of car horns and taxis with broken exhausts, and the clammy, sticky feel of the heat. Coming from this most chaotic place, Amsterdam seems like the most neat and orderly place in the world. Even the motorway near my house, which usually bothers me, is hardly noticeable.
So, while it is good to be home, I hope very much that I will get the chance to spend some more time in Beirut in the future. It is fair to say that it is one of the most fascinating places I have ever visited.
