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A Lebanese Blog

Tag: Beirut

  • The Ultimate Guide to 2015 Summer Festivals in Lebanon

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    The good people at Lebtivity have the full program for nearly each and every festival going around the country this summer. So I thought it would be nice to compile them all in one post to help both tourists and locals better know about them and pick the concerts and events they would like to attend. Clicking on each event will lead you to its respective program on Lebtivity.com.

    Byblos Festival

    The International Festival has been held annually since 2003, in July. It takes place by the seaside in the historic quarter, in front of the castle built by Crusaders in the 12th century.

    Baalbeck International Festival

    The festivals date back to the mid 20th century with the first organizing activities being held in 1955. After one year, presiden Chamoun named it the Baalbeck International Festival, which became a governmental institution whose goal was to promote tourism and Lebanese culture.

    Beiteddine Art Festival

    The Beiteddine Festival was launched amidst war and destruction in the middle of the 80’s. It came as an act of faith in Lebanon’s cultural specificity and its power of creativity and artistic freedom. It was a call for normality in the middle of the chaos and madness of the civil war. The festival takes place in the large 200-year old Beiteddine Palace.

    Jounieh International Festival

    Jounieh International Festival was launched in 2011 is now famous for the opening ceremony marked by the synchronized fireworks show along the bay of Jounieh. The festival takes place at Fouad Chehab stadium.

    Zouk International Festival

    Zouk International Festival was launched in 2010 and attracts guests from all over the country and abroad. Zouk Mikael is 10 minutes away from Beirut, perched on a hill of Kesrouwan overlooking the Mediterranean. Its roman styled amphitheatre with a capacity of 2500, built for major events, hosts the festival.

    Batroun International Festival

    The festival had a shy and amateur debut in the early 90’s until it acquired international standards and earned its place among international cultural festivals. In 2009, the Batroun International Festival was born and started hosting leading local and international artist from all over the world.

    Ehdeniyat – Ehden International Festival

    Ehdeniyat, which started in 2004, flourished from a local and national event to an International festival of Music and Art. But above all this, Ehdeniyat became an experience of glamour, culture and tradition; “An Experience that Never Ends”.

    Beirut Holidays

    Beirut Holidays is a series of concerts and shows in the heart of Beirut Souks. Launched in 2012, the festival brings together diverse musical performances and talents, local artists and international performers, from East and West mixing varying genres and tastes.

    Cedars International Festival

    After almost half a century, the Cedars International Festival will return this summer to Bsharri. The northern town will host several of Lebanon’s top artists as part of an effort to revive tourism in the district. The four-night festival will feature a wide range of musical and artistic performances.

    Dbayeh Festival

    An enchanting event taking place in Dbayeh this summer. An initiative by Tajammo Ahel Al Mahabba for the fifth consecutive year to raise the voice of hope and peace in Lebanon.

    Moreover, the below smaller festivals will also be happening.

  • Yohan Storm Damages Ain El-Mreisseh Cornishe

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    This Yohan storm might not be as intense and cold as Zina that Lebanon witnessed a few weeks ago, but it is sure bringing massive high waves and very strong wind.

    These photos were all taken this morning by Tarek Hajjar and Bilal Soubra and show the damage caused to the cornishe in Ain El Mreisseh due to the high waves. I also heard on the news that part of Dbayeh maritime road close to Nahr El Kalb collapsed due to the storm.

    On the bright side, fixing the barrier may now get the municipality a bit busy now and probably distract them from the possible removal of the the cool graffiti around Beirut.

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  • Roadster Diner Opening Soon in Zaitunay Bay

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    I just stumbled upon this photo by Roadster diner on Facebook announcing that they’re opening soon in Zaitunay Bay.

    With Classic Burger Joint and some coffee shops already operating there, I believe it’s pretty good to see Roadster opening as well which helps making Zaitunay Bay more accessible to average people, especially that it was labeled as a spot for the rich people when it was first launched.

    Update:

    As per Beirutista, P.F. Chang’s is also coming to Zaitunay Bay.

  • Shit You Only See in Lebanon

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    Where else other than Lebanon do you get to see some guy pulling a stunt on a busy intersection and saluting a police officer?

    video via Rabih Wehbe

  • The 2015 New Year Fireworks Show in Dubai

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    I wish this was about some cool fireworks show in Beirut, but it was the same boring scene here with stupid people firing rounds of bullets at midnight.

    On the other hand, Dubai dazzled the world once more with amazing fireworks that lit up Burj Khalifa. And while they’re at it, they broke a Guinness world record by covering the tower with the largest LED display consisting of 70,000 LED bulbs.

    You can also watch a behind the scenes video here on how EMAAR made it all happen.

  • 15 Ideas for New Year’s Eve in Beirut

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    It’s true it’s almost new year but most of my friends and myself have absolutely no idea yet what are we doing on Wednesday night. But this is of course a déjà vu since we always end up coming up with a last minute plan to gather at somebody’s home. So for people like us who’ve got no plans yet for new year’s eve but don’t like to spend it home or at their friends, this post is for you with 15 ideas from Lebtivity.com.

    You can of course find much more parties at Lebtivity’s dedicated page for NYE, but the above 15 were my favorites.

    This is also an opportunity to tell you that starting next week I’ll be teaming up with the good people at Lebtivity to let you know about the most interesting events happening in Lebanon on a weekly basis. So stay tuned!

  • Merry Christmas!

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    Merry Christmas! May it bring you joy and happiness.

    Photo via Lebanon POW

  • Beirut airport has food products that expired 20 years ago!

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    Can you imagine how does a food item that has expired in 1995 look like now?! I’m seriously interested to know!

    “The minute you walk into the warehouses, you feel like you entered a dump,” Abu Faour said after inspecting the airport along with Transport Minister Ghazi Zeaiter.

    The health minister revealed that some of food products still in storage had expired nearly 20 years ago.

    “Dates on some foods showed they had expired in 1995,” he said.

    You can read the full story here.

  • My best sushi experience

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    Three years ago I hated sushi. Today, it is one of my favorite type of food. I won’t bug you with the story of how I became a fan, what I will do however, is share with you the best sushi experience I had lately which can be summarized in two words: WOK W.O.K!

    I visited WOK W.O.K at Phoenicia hotel on a Thursday evening, which is one of two weekdays when they offer open sushi/salad/dessert (2nd open sushi night is Monday). This not your average cheap sushi you find on open sushi day at some other places. What was available was actually a large variety of fresh salads, mouth watering sushi, and satisfying desserts. The bar offered a wide range of salads including beef, chicken, crab, salmon, etc, the tastiest sushi and sashimi that I’ve had so far (their salmon is just wow, uber wow) and the desserts themselves were not bad at all considering it is not WOK W.O.K‘s specialty.

    In addition to the great food experience, the service of the super professional staff made my evening very enjoyable.

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    You can devour as much salad, sushi and dessert as physically and humanely possible for 45$. I highly recommend you give WOK W.O.K a try.

    First photo is via phoeniciabeirut.com

  • Allo Taxi App gets the job very well done!

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    I’ve been using the Allo Taxi app for a while now and am really loving it. I actually used their rides several times before and was satisfied with their service, and the new app now makes the whole booking process much easier.

    Now you may ask why am I writing about Allo Taxi instead of “being cool” and writing about Uber. Well, I’ve tried Uber twice and my main concern was their arrival time. Uber operates less cars and can therefore take a bit of time to reach your place, whereas Allo Taxi on the other hand are literally everywhere and seriously never took more than 10 minutes to reach my location. Moreover, unlike with other apps, Allo Taxi accepts cash instead on insisting to bill your credit card, so it’s more convenient for people who don’t have credit cards and those who prefer not to use it online.

    Placing an order on Allo Taxi app is quite easy, you either enter your pick up place manually or let the GPS do it for you, then set the drop off location and get the tariff immediately calculated for you. You usually get a phone call from your driver asking for directions a couple of minutes after placing your order, and will eventually be billed once the trip is over.

    In addition, in my opinion a major advantage that Allo Taxi has with the app is the ability to pre-order a ride. For instance, if you have an outing planned for the next day, you can book your ride ahead of time and never worry about it, which is not possible with Uber.

    So there you go, next time you hear some bad news about Uber whether here in Lebanon or worldwide, you know you got yourself another much more reliable option!

    The Allo Taxi app is available for both Android [Here] and iOS [Here].