The Paris of the Middle East?

That's what they used to call Beirut, where I'm off to tonight for a few days of work. I'm kind of intrigued to see how it has rebounded from the civil war a few years ago. Plus, I've never been to the Middle East, so that should be interesting (and I'm sure there's no need to worry that there was a car bombing yesterday--I mean, that kind of thing happens in Basel all the time, except here they have cow bombings). I had an interesting conversation with a friend who visits Beirut every year with his wife, who is from Lebanon. We were talking about places that might be worth visiting, and there were a few places where he said things like "you might not want to go there because Hamas (or Hizbollah) controls that area and has roadside checkpoints." While I'm not the boldest traveler in the world, I nevertheless try to go with the flow and not live in a cocoon, but I do have my limits...