‘Dream as if you’ll life forever, live as if you’ll die tomorrow’
Certainly one of the most over-memed (or ‘grammed) quotes out there. Gandhi must be pissed www.replicaforbest.co.uk. Yet it is also seemingly the most apt way to describe Lebanon’s approach to happiness.
It was perhaps a rather foolhardy visit – the foreign office advised against all travel to Lebanon, there was a bombing in Southern Beirut the Thursday before I travelled to the country replica breitling Aeromarine , and two Turkish Airlines pilots had been kidnapped the week before that (yep, I was flying Turkish Airlines based on the very loose premise that lightning doesn’t strike in the same place twice).
I was given confidence by my UN-based friend who, displaying a thoroughly blasé attitude throughout our travels, managed to convince me that despite it being “a little bit bomby” (his words), we’d probably be fine. He’d spent the last year living in Jerusalem, so he should know. Sort of.
And he was right. Aside from a huge explosion in the northern town of Tripoli, narrowly avoiding a kidnapping of our own, and being inadvertently led to a brothel, things went pretty well. We were thrown, whether we liked it or not, into Beirut’s incredibly thriving party scene as one of the most obvious ways to completely escape all that was going on around us. When in Beirut, do as the Beirutis(?) do.
We were extremely fortunate to have many HBSers, and Harvard aficionados (such as the staff at Le Gray, who were incredibly hospitable during our visit), to help us navigate the town and its beauty. They also helped to put into context the internal contradictions of the country – from religious alignment, to huge wealth disparity, to violent conflict, to intense partying.
It often bellies belief to observe the intensity of the party scene in Beirut when such revelry (from chopping the top off champagne bottles to dancing with the most plastic-fantastic of them all) comes amid a national crisis, intense suffering and the possibility of chemical warfare across Syria and the Middle East. Though perhaps it is only in this context that the Beirut party scene makes sense – when you have no idea what tomorrow may bring, anything (and everything) goes.
This country of dreamers appears to have conjured up some of the most incredible nightclubs, restaurants, beaches and vineyards one has ever seen replica breitling bentley 6.75. It really is the Paris of the Middle East. Yet the intensity of revelry and an air of superficiality continually leave the impression that it’s not all here to last. The only logical conclusion is to join the Beirutis and enjoy it while you can (though maybe don’t fly Turkish Airlines).
