Digging Beirut

This is a fun city. Its also an old city. Thousand year old rivalries and conflicts are as strong today as they were ages ago.
This was put to us today when taking a little detour off the tourist track to Bourj Hammoud, a heavily populated district in northeastern Beirut where a big Armenian population resides. We were recommended by our hotel to head there to find second hand camera equipment.
We also met a very helpful young man in a coffee shop. He is Turkish, wants to go to England to participate in some hooliganism and has a Hitler speech as the ringtone on his phone. He also talked about the Armenians and how they were just greedy and wanted to take all the Turks land.
I understand that this young man was not the best representation of the Turkish population in Beirut but I think it gave me a reminder about how people can cling onto something that happened 90 years ago.
Sorry about the sophomoric philisophical musings.
Anyhoo, whilst there I took some snaps at some of the religious iconography in the area.

Jesus on a street corner in Bourj Hammoud

Jesus graffitti in Bourj Hammoud

After, We went to the Rawcheh Rock formation which is the most famous natural feature of Beirut. Went to a cafe near there and took this photo of a nargileh or hookah attendant preparing it for a customer.

Preparing the hookah at sunset