Our unique city

My friend wrote me a letter two days ago. He has recently immigrated to London. In the letter, he confesses how much he misses Beirut. And I can really understand. This city has a charm of its own.

The noise, the dust, the sun and the smiling faces combine together to create a cozy atmosphere that gets into you. You cannot help but love Beirut. Once you've lived there, it will be hard for you to leave. You'll get acquainted to the gray streets colored with people, from your neighbor drinking coffee on his first-floor balcony to the shouting ambulant merchant and the little beggar around the corner.

You'll see rich people in their latest Mercedes and poor people striving to feed their families. You'll enjoy jogging at the Corniche, shopping in Hamra, sightseeing in the old downtown and dining in Verdun. Anywhere you live, you'll always have a supermarket, a bakery, a laundry and a hair dresser nearby.

You'll never need anything for you have your family, your friends, your neighbors and even the strangers in the streets to assist you. You might feel annoyed about people's superficiality but you always think they have other qualities to overbalance it. You might get angry from the excessive traffic and the dominating chaos but, paradoxically, these characters have a charm of their own. It is precisely in such a paradox that lies the secret of Beirut's loveliness and beauty.