Beyrouth is a mixture of old and new, bombed and pristine. There is the hulk of a Holiday Inn just up from the harbour where we are moored. Damaged in one or another bombing of the city, it stands whole, it's drained pool at its feet glowing turquoise amid the wreckage. I know this building was/is? a Holiday Inn due to its distinctive 1970's Holiday Inn architecture, visible in many cities of the world. Much of the downtown core has undergone extensive construction and rebuilding. Here there is a much more visible military presence, soldiers stationed on all corners. I don't actually care much for this newly created neighborhood. It somehow fails to capture the beauty of Beyrouth's older areas. Until very recently the city had a height restriction for apartment buildings. Beyrouth rises in a series of hills out of the sea, which means that most of the buildings had sea views. Now, like many "modern" cities, there are a number of new high rises sprouting along the water's edge, obscuring the views of all behind them. Two of these 35+ story buildings are located right in front of the Warrior. It is fascinating to watch the speed with which they are being constructed. There are many cranes, working 6-7 days a week, 10 hours a day. The noise is quite loud during the day. At the end of the workday we can see a line of construction workers hanging out on the balcony of one of these unfinished buildings, having what we surmise is a cold beer. The view must be magnificent.

The other day I went on a shopping mission with the chief mate. I call it a mission because, in a foreign country, shopping for specific ship's spares becomes a mixture of perseverance, luck, and tons of patience. We had jumped into a taxi to go to an area of town that was supposed to have hardware and paint and electrical shops. Unfortunately for us, this was Friday the 13th and the anniversary of the start of the war here. That meant that in addition to a number of demonstrations going on in the city, the traffic was horrendous. After trying to get us to our desired destination for 55 minutes, our frustrated taxi driver dumped us off on a corner. We knew that we were somewhere in the vicinity of the neighborhood we were looking for....but had no idea in which direction to head. A couple of hours later we had had some small success at locating varnish and paintbrushes and were in desperate need of caffeine. However we were obviously in a caffeine free zone. Finally stumbling upon "Patisserie Robert" we gratefully plunked ourselves down in one of the two little tables outside and waited for someone to come and bring us coffee. The patisserie was ill named as there was not one cake, cookie, bread, or any food at all in fact. It looked like it had at one time been a patisserie, there were display cases and a stack of cardboard cake boxes on one of the counters. This dude dressed in a suit, asked us if he could help us and Jolien asked for coffee. After inquiring as to whether we would like american, espresso or arabian coffee he wandered off into the back. A little while later he came back out with a pot of arabic coffee, glasses of water and a bowl of sugar. In the meantime, a couple of other suits came and went with money and bits of paper. Jolien and I came to the conclusion that perhaps this was a bookie's shop, a location to place bets. After finishing our coffee we asked the dude how much we owed him. He looked over from his television (parked right in middle of the patisserie) and said that the coffee was complimentary and anytime we came by we were welcome to take coffee. I still don't know what business is actually conducted in the Patisserie Robert, but the coffee was delicious.