Beirut across the Green Line
“Manouche?!” “How don’t you know it? It is a religion here in Lebanon.” That’s how the bartender exclaimed at Café Em Nazih within our Saifi hostel. “Manouche, and Fairouz in the morning”.
Dreaming Beirut
“By the way, my name is Hassan”. I wanted to land sitting by the window, as I hope to do every time I reach a new destination. So I had disturbed my
In the holy oblivion of David Gareja
Every day at 11 o’clock, the only private company that takes visitors to David Gareja, the ‘Gareji Line’, leaves from Freedom Square. I had spotted the vehicle through forums on Facebook and
To the unpronounceable Mtskheta, the Holy City
The itinerary was supposed to start from Tbilisi, I would have rented a car, perhaps one of those rickety jeeps that the online catalogues of local rental cars proudly offered at bargain
Tbilisi escape
We were looking for someone, Elena and I, that morning as soon as we got off in the chaotic Tbilisi train station. Suddenly Levani appeared. His surname ended in ‘-shvili’, and he
Baku-Tbilisi night train
The first time I went to Georgia was in June 2018… It was a cool spring evening in Baku. We could still dine with the window open in the city, before the
Wanna-be pilgrim in the Valley of Galilee
10.50 p.m. Nazareth, Galilee. Betharram Institute. I write by the outmoded window of my cell. The view is of downtown Nazareth, a carpet of lights in the distance inhabited by the Muslim
Tel Aviv was built on the sand
In a Tel Aviv just as technological and avant-garde as scruffy and oriental, I search for the symbol of the Zionist affluent at the beginning of the XX century, the Bauhaus houses.
48 hours in Tel Aviv – embarking
An ordinary Wednesday. Flight at noon, destination Tel Aviv. It was 9 a.m., the Israeli flight company Elal was asking to show up at the gate three hours in advance. In line