Beirut, Lebanon

Last night I stayed at a hostel that charged to use toilet paper. Screw that. If that's how it is, I'd rather just pay a little more money for a decent hotel. For the record, I did not pay for toilet paper. I stole some from the bathrooms at Starbucks! The language situation here is interesting. Everybody speaks French, mostly fluently, but it's not necessarily used in everyday conversation. Rather, Arabic conversations are sprinkled with random French words. The traditional Arabic greetings are rarely used, and it's more common to hear "bonjour" and "bonsoir." "Merci" is almost always said instead of "shukran," except for the young hipsters who like to say "thank you" instead. The younger generation does speak English very well, but in general it's not used as much as French. But that will probably change. Last night I indulged in alcohol for only the second time since Heathrow, since in this Christian city it's everywhere. Almaza, the local beer, is alright but very weak. I wanted to try out the new budget airlines of the Middle East, so tomorrow I'm taking a Jazeera Airways flight to Kuwait.