<div>should we proud about this? although it is nice and modernity in this way is a plus too, yet economic, educational, cultural... reforms and investments are more promising for the future i guess!! </div>
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<blockquote class="gmail_quote" style="PADDING-LEFT: 1ex; MARGIN: 0px 0px 0px 0.8ex; BORDER-LEFT: #ccc 1px solid">> New Arrivals<br>> St Tropez? Passé. Ibiza? So over. The hottest spots for bars and<br>> clubs in Europe right now are not where you'd expect...
<br>> <a href="http://www.businessweek.com/@@jD6DRocQJ8oYwxwA/magazine/content/05_48/b3961413.htm">http://www.businessweek.com/@@jD6DRocQJ8oYwxwA/magazine/content/05_48/b3961413.htm</a><br>><br>> Beirut<br>> Vibrant Beirut was at one time the Paris of the Middle East, a magnet
<br>> for nightclubbing hedonists from East and West. A long civil war<br>> tarnished its cosmopolitan character yet, in the 15 years since the<br>> ceasefire, Beirut has rebuilt its reputation for fun in the sun. The
<br>> bustling playground of the Levant is swinging harder than ever, alive<br>> with alfresco cafes, designer shops, exclusive beach clubs and<br>> all-night clubs.<br>><br>> The best place to start a long, heady night is around the pool of the
<br>> swanky open-air Sky Bar at the top of the Palm Beach Hotel (Ain<br>> el-Mreisseh; +961 (0) 1 369 113), which offers cocktails, DJs playing<br>> loungey sounds, and magnificent views across the Med.<br>><br>
> Stunning Lebanese girls, flashy local celebrities and monied<br>> businessmen then move on to Zinc (37 Seifeddine el-Khatib Street;<br>> +961(0) 1 612 612), a classy, dimly lit restaurant and bar in a<br>> French colonial villa that was taken and retaken so many times during
<br>> the war that it was eventually nicknamed the "Bitch of Beirut".<br>><br>> After midnight, revellers head to Monot Street, a hilly road lined<br>> with bars and clubs that lies beside the infamous Green Line, which
<br>> once divided Christian East Beirut fromthe Muslim West. Here, the<br>> party continues at a knowingly war-themed bar called 1975 (Monot<br>> Street; +961 (0) 3 323 700), named after the year that the fighting
<br>> kicked off. Inside, mortar shells stand on the bar, fake sandbags are<br>> piled up in the windows, and the waiters wear fatigues and combat<br>> helmets, while your drinks are served in old ammunition boxes.
<br>><br>> Near to Monot Street is the plush and baroque Crystal (243 Monot<br>> Street; +961 (0) 1 332 523), Beirut's largest and flashiest club.<br>> Dressing up is positively encouraged here. Whenever a punter buys one
<br>> of the ?2,500, nine-litre bottles of Moët & Chandon, the music stops,<br>> a spotlight is beamed onto them and an anthem is played as two<br>> waiters carry over their order.<br>><br>> Hottest Spots for bars in EuropeThe late-night partying continues
<br>> until 7am at the legendary BO18 (Lot 317, La Quarantaine; +961 (0) 3<br>> 800 018), a rather eerie underground bunker that looks like a cross<br>> between a bomb shelter and a mausoleum. The club has a domed roof
<br>> that retracts to allow the ravers to dance to house and techno under<br>> the warm, starry sky.<br>><br>> Lisbon<br>> The fun and friendly Portuguese capital has undergone a quiet<br>> renaissance in the past few years, transforming itself from a
<br>> charming backwater into one of Europe's most vibrant cities. Lisbon<br>> has elegant avenues, soulful fado music, clanking yellow trams and<br>> nearby beaches, and now boasts a great-value, all-night party vibe
<br>> that puts Barcelona and Madrid to shame.<br>><br>> Cool and casual locals, flashy African dudes, beautiful Brazilian<br>> girls and super-smart Euro-weekenders kick off long evenings in the<br>> busy bars of the historic Barrio Alto area, then head out to the
<br>> redeveloped Docas district for offbeat clubs located in converted<br>> dockside warehouses.<br>><br>> Hippest stop-off is the Alcântara Café (15 Rua Maria Luisa<br>> Holstein;+351 (0)21 363 7176; <
<a href="http://www.alcantaracafe.com">http://www.alcantaracafe.com</a>><br>> <a href="http://www.alcantaracafe.com">www.alcantaracafe.com</a>), a bar and restaurant in a capacious former<br>> printing works. Decorated with ruby velvet drapes, sweeping ceiling
<br>> fans, oversized mirrors and a glam Art Deco flourish, the<br>> industrially chic Alcâ ntara has a vast, high-ceilinged dining room,<br>> a bar serving the best caipirin has in the city and a dance floor<br>
> playing house and electronica (check out the club's eponymous CD for<br>> a preview).<br>><br>> The hip crowd then dance all night at Lux (Avenida Infante D<br>> Henrique; +351 (0)21 882 0890; <<a href="http://www.luxfragil.com">
http://www.luxfragil.com</a>><br>> <a href="http://www.luxfragil.com">www.luxfragil.com</a>), a club in a labyrinthine riverside warehouse<br>> complex part-owned by John Malkovich. Lux's main dance floor hosts<br>
> superstar DJs such as St Germain and Dorfmeister. A large<br>> retro-styled upstairs bar has balconies, chill-out zones, Sixties<br>> sofas and video projections. There's also a rooftop terrace. Next<br>> day, clubbers siesta in the sun on the beaches at Estoril and
<br>> Cascais, a short train ride away.<br>><br>> Berlin<br>> Not since the decadent Thirties has Berlin's nightlife burned so<br>> brightly. The city's vibrant club scene blossomed out of the derelict<br>> buildings of the former East Berlin back in the early Nineties and
<br>> has been thriving since. The Euro-home of a certain renegade edge and<br>> freeform kookiness, boomtown Berlin's bar and club scene has never<br>> been hotter, especially among the artist, designer and fashion crowds.
<br>><br>> Clubbers meet early evening at White Trash (201 Torstrasse), an old<br>> Chinese restaurant crossed with a Tex-Mex cowboy diner, where<br>> bohemian types mingle with transvestites and biker gangs (the owner
<br>> is a motorcycle-riding, tattooed American). They move on to Greenwich<br>> (5 Gipsstrasse, Mitte; +49 (0)30 2809 5566), a laidback cocktail bar<br>> decorated with cowhide panels and illuminated fish tanks framed with
<br>> lime-coloured leather, or Universum Lounge (153 Kurfürstendamm; +49<br>> (0)30 8906 4995), a glam former Bauhaus cinema with sleek, space-age<br>> furnishings and gold lunar-landscape wallpaper.<br>><br>
> All-night ravers then head for the emergency services-themed<br>> Ambulance Bar (27 Oranienburger Strasse, Mitte), a lounge-style DJ<br>> bar, or Dangerous Drums ( <<a href="http://www.dangerous-drums.de">http://www.dangerous-drums.de
</a>><br>> <a href="http://www.dangerous-drums.de">www.dangerous-drums.de</a>), a roaming techno and breakbeats night found<br>> at the Pfefferbank club (176 Schönhauser Allee).<br>><br>> Very late (after 8am), dedicated revellers drop into the infamous
<br>> KitKatClub (2-14 Bessemerstrasse), a leather-and-chains SM nightclub<br>> that hosts a hip after-hours party, and then finally on to Cafe<br>> Einstein (5 Kurfurstenstrasse; +49 (0)30 261 5096), a historic<br>
> Viennese-style coffee house that serves all-day breakfasts.<br>><br>> Moscow<br>> Fifteen years of the Russian free market revolution has created a<br>> sybaritic and super-rich class of New Muscovites with an unbridled
<br>> passion for partying and the high life. Moscow's nightlife scene<br>> buzzes with nouveaux riches young millionaires, gorgeous Russian<br>> society girls and louche Euro jet-setters. This hot entrepreneurial
<br>> city overflows with Bentleys, Prada, caviar, Champagne and ice-cold<br>> Stoli.<br>><br>> The in-crowd mingle at the "eclectically baroque and decadently<br>> maximalist" bar and restaurant Milk &Honey (38 Ulitsa Myasnitskaya;
<br>> +7 (0) 095 928 9947). The colourful and kitsch interior is a playful<br>> riot of Victorian antiques, red velvet curtains, crystal chandeliers<br>> and gilt-edged mirrors. Vodka shots and Champagne -- either vintage
<br>> Moët or Cristal Rosé, by the magnum of course -- are de rigueur in<br>> the downstairs bar, where on any given night the fashion-conscious<br>> rub shoulders with Russia's artists and thinkers and the place buzzes
<br>> with conversation.<br>><br>> Drinkers stay to eat in the restaurant, serving delicious French food<br>> from chef Charles Lefebre, before party people move on to the<br>> ostentatious and staggeringly expensive new VIP venue Osen (3
<br>> Teatralny Proyezd; +7 (0)095 921 9888), or to Cabaret (8a Strastnoi<br>> Bulvar; +7 (0)095 789 8315), a club designed by the team behind Caves<br>> du Roy in St Tropez. But be warned -- both clubs practise Moscow's
<br>> infamous "face control" door policy.<br>><br>> Serious ravers finish with breakfast at Mix (11 Novinsky Bulvar; +7<br>> (0)095 255 4333), a favourite after-hours club that stays open until<br>> the very last punter decides to leave -- often as late as 3pm the
<br>> following afternoon.<br>><br>><br>><br>> By Philip Watson<br>> (<a href="http://www.businessweek.com/@@jD6DRocQJ8oYwxwA/magazine/content/05_48/b3961413.htm">http://www.businessweek.com/@@jD6DRocQJ8oYwxwA/magazine/content/05_48/b3961413.htm
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http://mailman.mit.edu/mailman/listinfo/lebanon-articles</a><br></blockquote></div><br>