Steps!

Beirut is the hilliest city I have ever been to. Well, San Francisco comes closer to this one, but my friends thought that the Lebanese water had affected my brains too as I even dared to compare SF to Beirut! Oh well! Though Beirut is not aesthetically the best city you could come across, it has its own charm. The skyscrapers with their special window drapes, war-shaken, bullet-proof(ed) and completely destroyed buildings amidst these multi-story buildings, indescribable long traffic jams, cars/buses stopping randomly at the highways to drop-kick up passengers, the continuous honking, the extremely sloped highways and incredibly long staircases give Beirut its own style. For some reason, I am fascinated with these steps! With a pinch of exaggeration, I can say that you are always either climbing up or down in this city!

The steps that join the upper and lower streets of the city are quite unique in their appearance! They are long, colorful, irregular and even uneven! They represent the street art and generally are accompanied by very interesting graphite.  While you are reaching the top, if you turn around you can see the beautiful calm Mediterranean sea gazing at you. It's a very peaceful sight and makes you forget about all the traffic congestion, pollution, and the hustle-bustle that goes on on the streets below (or up!!). Usually, these giant staircases are adorned by very cute small beautiful houses with usually the hanging gardens where you can  expect to see small lemon trees with at least 10-12 lemons in the artistic balconies. I don't want to into the logic behind it, but generally, these steps are in very tranquil areas of Beirut and you can enjoy the much-needed disconnection from the city!

I think writing anything more about this steps won't help and will just be redundant! Plus you might wonder why a whole post for something as ordinary as staircases?! So here I present you some of the pics of these steps and you'll get an idea of what I am talking about! Every city has its characteristics and I think these steps give Beirut its unique mood.

Take a look and you will understand why!