What is Beirut like? A first impression

Is Beirut what I had imagined? Courtney asked me yesterday as we went for yet another walk, this time with the sole purpose of keeping ourselves awake (yes, we're jet-lagged!). Not quite. I had actually imagined it to be less developed; more bullet holes, torn down buildings, and misery. Instead, Beirut is the very definition of potential. It’s like a giant construction site with plenty of vision and investment. Everywhere you look, if there isn’t a new or newly restored building in place, it’s a construction site. They’re not like Egyptian construction sites either, with make-do scaffolds and projects that drag on for years, probably even decades. What I like about it compared to Cairo, is that there’s less traffic and much less garbage in the streets. You’ll even see recycling stations around, and the streets have plenty of trashcans that seem to be used AND emptied on a regular basis; recycling trashcans, at that.