Three Deadly Sins

4 September 2009 - Beirut, Lebanon, Sinners on Gouraud Street in Gemmayzeh.


Friday I went to yoga in Gemmayzeh, Beirut’s party district, which requires a little less than an hour to walk from Hamra. People tend to think I’m nuts for walking in the Beirut heat, but this was my routine in London – to walk 45 minutes through Regents Park to get to Triyoga in Primrose Hill. I like having a similar routine here.

Chaz, the American guy I met at the ruins in Palmyra, met me on the sidewalk when I finished yoga and we went to dinner down the street at Le Chef. Arezoo, a traveler I met at a film festival a few weeks ago, sms-ed from Hamra that she was ready to meet us. I abandoned my original plan to shower and change out of my yoga clothes (gross, I know) and we moved a few blocks west for a drink. Spoon was too smoky for Chaz and me so after two drinks we moved to Sinners for decadent slushy vodka drinks. I sampled Envy, Chaz sipped on Sloth and Arezoo went for Lust. After we indulged our respective sins, we wanted somewhere quiet. Walking east on Gouraud Street we saw the collision between a speeding car and the door of a Mercedes being opened by a valet parking along the curb. The speeder jumped out of his car, a yelling match ensued, the speeder jumped back into his car and sped away. Hit and run is commonplace. Minutes later we were ejected from the Green Door because Chaz was wearing shorts. Next round was at a little Italian pub that looked like an old cave/castle inside and the music was good. Around 2am Arezoo arranged for a friend to take us to B018, the big after hours dance club that would surely keep us up ‘til well past dawn. By the time our friends came to pick us up, it was after 3am and we’d decided to head home instead. I needed some sleep before meeting at 11am at Starbucks in Achrafieh, packed for an overnight road trip with Chaz and his friends.

Arezoo and I shared a taxi back to Hamra and I was asleep by 4am with the alarm set for 9am.