Blogs from Israel, Middle East - page 149

We had spent most of the day walking through Jerusalem. I had a sprain and had ignored it through the three days now. Now being pretty tired the pain seemed to be amplified It took us about an hour by bus to get from Jerusalem to Tel Aviv. It was about 7pm when we got to the Central bus station. Our flight was at 6am the next morning. The trip being short enough we had decided to see a bit more of Tel Aviv and head directly to the airport rather than check into a hostel. But first things first. Find a pub and gulp down some Goldstars. Being in Czech company you can imagine how important a pub is. We must have walked almost 5 kms to find some resemblance of a pub. But all ... read more

If we were to use the GPS route to get to the Dead Sea we'd have reached long past sunset. So how did we get there? :) By road of course. No alien intervention We arrived just before sundown. The strip was quite empty. I guess most of the tourists had long gone. The stretch was totally ours! It was a major thrill to float on the Dead sea. It's just remarkable how such a place could exist in nature! I lay on my back with my hands beneath my head as i floated and watched the sunset in the distance. Wish i had taken my camera in the water to capture it. But then again after my canoeing escapade where i drowned my new Canon 7.1 mpx camera I decided I'd be a bit ... read more

The drive down to Eilat was interesting. You could see Jordan on the left and Egypt on the right as. I hadn't slept much the night before and so took the opportunity now to nap as much as possible in the car. Finding the hostel was easy. There was a Sudanese get together on the premises. We quickly checked in and head onwards to the seafront Eilat is Israel's southernmost city and has a beautiful Marina. The restaurants on the beach with latin music and the sea breeze were just great. After sunset we made our way to the city center to find some traditioal cuisine. It's a pity how the fast food chains have dominated the scene here. After inquiring a bit we finally head inwards to the quiter part of town. It was the ... read more

It is simply impossible to imagine a more religiously enigmatic city than Jerusalem. Amongst the old city of about 1 sq klm, the Big 3 religions have some of their most significant temples of worship all competing for a piece of the prime reverential real estate cake. I found it mindboggling to have the Wailing Wall butting up against the Al Aqsa Mosque. Watching orthodox Jews going through their paces against the Wall in the shadows of the Temple Mount on one side and the previously mentioned mosque on the other is prime front seat viewing. These orthodox Jews can be the subject of some cynicism on the part of the more secular section of Israel's populace, having the pseudonym of "penguins" bestowed upon them. Apparently the penguins are the only Israeli citizens exempt from the ... read more

Naturally, there are fruits and vegetables in the market that we don’t see at home. Here are two fruits that were new to us. This fruit is called as annona, אנונה in Hebrew. Elsewhere it goes by cherimoya or custard apple. It grows on a tree, Annona cherimola, that is native to Peru and Ecuador but is now cultivated in other parts of the world, including Israel. The fruit is rough and warty on the outside with a skin about the thickness of that on an avocado. The inside is filled with white flesh that is interspersed with large black seeds. The flesh is almost too sweet, with a flavor a bit like mango and strawberry. According to Wikipedia, Mark Twain described the cherimoya as “deliciousness itself.” We are inclined to agree with him. These shiny ... read more