On the ground

After a long circling approach, the wheels hit and held on runway 17/35 of Rafic Hariri International Airport and Ally and I were suddenly in Lebanon. The airport could not have been any calmer, and we were through immigration in minutes. I do not know what I had expected, but within an hour we had checked in at our hotel on a backstreet in downtown Beirut. Though the hotel seemed completely empty (with the predictable exception of some other Swedes on the rooftop terrace), no one mentioned what is obviously a very difficult time.

This morning, as I woke up before Ally, I could not resist the temptation to pull my signature move and go for a morning run through the city. Until I know the city a little better, though, I decided to stay fairly close to the hotel but, again, I must say that what really stands out is the normality of things.