… Yep, the same one that got Sietske into trouble when she was taking a photo of it. Fortunately no guards came to forbid me from shooting the tree though one of them saw me taking a panoramic photo using my cell phone, I believe it all depends on what gear you are using!
It’s pretty cool to see, in addition to the decoration they set up on the 3rd floor.
Thanks to global warming, the weather on the independence day in Beirut was just awesome! Warm temperature and -almost- clear blue skies made it perfect for a walk at Ain El Mrayseh.
Fortunately the corniche was not congested with joggers and bikers, but fishers were just everywhere, and standing at the most bizarre places!
… the guys above were actually standing right where sewage water is dumped into the sea!
How can they still eat the fish they get from the sewage water is beyond my understanding, unless they sell them to other people like the man below was doing.
However, I seem to have missed a cool initiative by the Lebanese army and Leo Burnett! At around 3:30PM, a military helicopter flew at low altitude over the Manara corniche, releasing thousands of red roses attached to miniature white parachutes, carrying a message “Bihimayat Al Jonoud, Tanmou Al Wouroud”, or “Roses flourish under the protection of our soldiers”. The operation was called “Roses from the Sky” (you can watch a video about it here)
@chaftari from Leo was kind enough to share these photos with me.
I personally had mixed feeling about this operation… what do you think?
I couldn’t resist taking a photo of today’s sunset when I saw how colorful it was, and wishing I was out of the office somewhere near the sea with my DSLR.
November usually carries the best times to shoot sunsets in Lebanon, but unfortunately the sun sets so early at 4:30PM nowadays, leaving too few opportunities for employees like me who like shooting photos.
Eid El-Adha is the time for Muslims to recall prophet Abraham’s obedience to god in his willingness to sacrifice his own son Ismail, before god intervened and gave him a ram to sacrifice instead. And so the act of sacrificing an animal later became a ritual for Muslims.
That’s when it becomes normal to see sheep stored at very unusual places in Beirut, like rooftops for example.
… and when it also becomes very normal to see butchers slaughtering sheep in the streets.
I took all of the below 4 photos at the Beirut Mall parking, and I really have not made any effort searching for these douchebags. I just parked my car and went straight to the elevator, so these were just the ones I encountered on my way!
First thing that came to my mind was this post from Body Wotwat! Seriously, بي يلي عطاكن دفتر سواقة @#$%
… and here’s a bonus photo I took earlier at ABC Achrafiyeh.
I just took these two photos from my workplace for what looks like a huge fire in the area of Dekweneh or Sin El Fil. I’ve checked news sites and so far no one mentioned anything… I hope it’s nothing serious.
Update:
A tweep (@jackoppy81) just mentioned it’s a fire at a plastic factory near Bassoul-Hneine, and the civil defense are working on putting it down.
A photography house called “Dar Al Mousawwer” has recently opened in a two story building in Clemenceau (Beirut as an initiative by an NGO called Zakira.
The first floor of the house is an under construction coffee shop, while the second has several rooms for workshops, studio, gallery space, development room.
As per the people behind it, the place has been made for people to rents cameras (and there are hundreds of them) and photography equipments, in addition to studio space and development rooms.
Definitely worth a visit if you’re into photography!
I would like to thank Ayman Itani from OnOffBeirut for providing all the details and photos about this photography house.
Last night marked the start of Hamra festival lasting till Sunday featuring a lot of live performances across three stages near Vero Moda, Jack & Jones, and Starbucks.
The festival started on Friday at 5:45PM with a street parade that lasted till 7:30PM, but unfortunately I couldn’t manage to get there before 9:30PM which explains why I only got back with a couple of snapshots! You may check Sietske’s and Rawad’s blog posts who were there and took cool photos of the event.
What was remarkable though during the walk I took is the number of people who got furious at the street blocks, so a lot of them took the liberty to just move them away and invaded the festival premises with their cars. The photo below shows one of them, a taxi driver.
The program for today and tomorrow is loaded with live acts starting 5PM till midnight, so make sure to be there!
Tripoli is one of the cities that I personally can never get bored of. I was there last Sunday and about to come back to Beirut at around 3:00PM when I decided to waste some additional time at any random souk since there was still plenty of time till Iftar.
And so I went to Al Tall souk (the same one I previously visited) to see how does it look like now in Ramadan. Needless to say, I was encountering sweets and juice vendors everywhere in the small souk, in addition to huge stocks of vegetables in the small stores since everyone gets crazy about buying them in Ramadan, and of course the place was much crowded than last time.
The guy in the left image is selling Kharroub, a sour juice that I disliked a LOT! While on the right image the guy is selling Moghrabiyyeh platters for 3,000 L.L only!
My next stop was at Abdel Sattar Al Tom sweets in Al Zahriyyeh.
Maamoul bi ashta, Kneifeh bi ashta, and Mafroukeh! *Yummy*
Across the street from Al Tom, there’s anther shop that sells almost all kind of kaak and bread. My favorite is the kaak that can be grilled with cheese stuffed inside (it’s called Alleeta there) which can be the best souhour in Ramadan!
I might be going to Tripoli again next week and probably the week after, what other places do you recommend that I go visit?
This is what happens when you do second and third row parking, you come to find your car in the middle of the road at the end of the day and sometimes disturbing the traffic flow.
Needless to say, some drivers are simply assholes and enjoy throwing their car anywhere. On the other hand, the number of cars in Beirut is way beyond the parking lots capacity in the city.
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