Wave

With its lone shutter, I feel like this window is waving hello.

Or maybe it's winking at me.

Upstairs

Another urban ruin.

No windows, no doors, a ramshackle stairway that I would frankly fear to test with my own weight. I've shown other views of this building before. It's one of my local favorites. It's a gem. Check out it's other faces:

6 June
18 April
17 April

Red Shutters

This is very Beirut. The grays and monochromes, the antennas, the wires and crowding.

It looks piled up, like a child's set of blocks. I like the red shutters, the one very green balcony, the afternoon sun. I like the texture and shadows.

Noticing a Trend: Another Floor Plan

I took a little walk while waiting for my car to be washed in Ramlet el Baida, a neighborhood south of Beirut. Along the way I wandered past this floor plan outside a construction site in the neighborhood.

It's spacious and chic just like the others floor plans I've posted. It also has a lot of balcony space off the main living areas that (I think) lends itself to living fluidly between inside and outside. I like that. In addition to the double living room (which are formal, for company), this one has a separate, informal living room, which is nice. That's where the TV goes, and the family with it.

Spices

Spices in the souk in Sidon, half an hour south of Beirut.

Al-Amin Details

The web doesn't want for pictures of the Al-Amin Mosque. Google it. It's huge, new, centrally located, and all of that makes it an oft-photographed landmark in town.

There aren't as many shots of the detailed craftsmanship, and the Al-Amin Mosque is wonderfully ornate. Since I'm a little bit in love with details like these, that's what I'm posting.

Here's a sample, a small collage of the beautiful wood, metal, and stone work.

Unlike other downtown buildings, mosques, and churches, Al-Amin Mosque is not a historic building. For me, that makes the craftsmanship all the more impressive. It's true; they don't make them like they used to. But in this case, I think they really tried.

Lazy B

Not long ago we went to Lazy B, a private beach south of Beirut.

In a word, gorgeous.

It was really nice, really relaxing, and best of all, I swam for the first time in the Mediterranean. That's right folks. In all our years living within a stone's throw of it, I never had actually gotten all the way in, not until we came to Lazy B.

Scuba

In case you were wondering, because I'm sure that out there somewhere someone was wondering, you can take scuba lessons in Beirut.

And with that, summer just got a little bit better.

Vintage Rue 61 Ibn Sina

There are lots and lots of streets in Beirut, and (from what I've seen) they're all numbered. Some of them also have a name. Of the streets that are named, only a few are famous enough that people generally know and use the street's name. Because street names really aren't in use, directions rely on other things--you'll be told that your destination is near this or that business or restaurant, near thus and such square, plaza, or major round-about.

So I was intrigued by this old street sign, from the collection of photos of Beirut taken in 1965 that I linked to last time.

I decided to track this place down.

It took me a very long time to find the street, frankly, much longer than it should have. Ibn Sina is a major route that connects the Corniche with downtown and major highways that lead to other parts of the city. It's a one-way road at least six lanes across. People double park on both sides of it, which can reduce this thoroughfare to a mere one or two lanes. I'm almost never on foot here, because it's not really a destination. Honestly, I didn't even know this stretch of road had a name or a number.

These days, though, there isn't a single sign that actually lists the name 'Ibn Sina'. Instead, this is what you'll find:

And there aren't many of these either. I really hoped I'd be able to track down the exact place in the vintage photo, but I wasn't. But at least I found the street. At least it is still there.

Noon Day Sun

For photography, light makes all the difference, and the light of the noon day sun isn't the kind that most photographers prefer. It can wash out colors, cast disfiguring shadows, force people's faces into squinty contortions, and bring about other unpleasant effects.

But I liked the shadows it cast on this shutter hook. Which, by the way, is a name I made up just now because I don't know its proper name or if it even has one. Anyone out there know for sure?