It’s Saturday afternoon in Beirut and the streets are unusually crowded. A street art event has invited people to one of the city’s old stairways, and a girl at the bottom of the stairs is giving directions over the phone: “You know that small corner shop with the sleeping dog outside? That’s it, I’m here.”

 

She hangs up her phone, sits down and waits beside an old golden retriever that is, indeed, asleep in the sun; her simple directions, a short reference to a neighbourhood shop, apparently more than sufficient.

 

Try to locate any place in the Lebanese capital and this, typically, is what you will hear: details and places, not the names of streets or their numbers. Whether visiting a friend for the first time or trying to find someone’s office, the best bet is always to find landmarks, not official addresses – they may exist, but probably won’t be of much help anyway, because no one really uses them. [Guardian]