lebanon

This trip happened by accident. I had a free week before visiting North and South Cyprus in August 2019. So I ended up in Beirut, a half-hour flight from Larnaca, with a friend who had previously shared a house with a Lebanese man in Yerevan. All it took was a casual summer drink together to decide to book the flight. At the time of the story, there had not yet been an explosion at the capital’s port, while the coronavirus had yet to be discovered. Lebanon had a government, the country was already facing default, but the currency drama seemed under control. We visited the whole country, from north to south, from coast to hinterland: Beirut, Tyre, Sidon, Baalbek, Bcharre, Tripoli, Baatroun, Byblos. I never wrote down the ending of this trip, somewhat out of laziness, but I got to know the unparalleled and unexpected beauty of Lebanon in the most adorably rugged and carefree way possible, perhaps that is why I agree with those who still call it a paradise on earth.