Jerusalem is a dirty town which all Semitic religions have made holy... In it the united forces of the past are so strong that the city fails to have a present; its people with the rarest exceptions, are characterless as hotel servants, living on the crowd of visitors passing through.- T.E. Lawrence quoted in Scott Anderson's Lawrence in ArabiaHis words, though very undiplomatic, are just as befitting for 2014 as they were back in 1915 when Lawrence wrote them in a WW1 report to the British War Ministry on the situation in the Middle East.The old city, which lies within Suleiman's 500 year old walls, is a city which in many ways lives in the past rather than looking towards the future. Overcramped with souvenir shops selling Chinese produced religious symbols catering to Christians, Jews and ... read more

Arriving in Tel Aviv We have arrived in Tel Aviv! After an extremely long and cold day in Vienna we were greeted by a night temperature of 19°C and a very clean and organised airport. But before writing about our amazing days in Tel Aviv, I'll add a few words about our journey from Austria. After a long and windy day in Vienna, we found ourselves finally boarding the flight to Tel Aviv, scheduled to land at 0:50. The boarding was in every aspect a different experience. The passengers were mainly Israeli and many of them Orthodox Jews with big black hats and beatiful facial hair. Everyone was carrying hand luggage that seemed to weigh several tonnes and getting everyone on board was a puzzle that I still don't know how was solved. The Israelis moved ... read more

I come from a rainy country, where we for the large part survive the rainy days with stories of how it rains even more on the British Isles. You might imagine my surprise when I arrived in Galway and Connemara - the wettest place in Ireland - and found it warm, sunny and with a clear blue sky. However, it didn't take me long to realise that the local population was just as surprised with the clear blue sky. Quite a few have commented on my luck in coming to Galway, at a time when the weather is so amazing and far from the rainy grey that normally clouds Connemara and the Burren. There have been two reasons for my visit to Galway. Firstly, it has been my dream to explore Western Ireland for some years ... read more

In Denmark, at least in some places, we refer to our family as the hunchbacks (pukkelryggede). For some reason comparing our loved ones to Quasimodo is a form of endearment. As such, you often hear someone say that they are going for dinner at the hunchbacks or for a wedding with the rest of the hunchbacked family. (I have to emphasise here that no one in my family is actually hunchbacked, and neither is kyphosis a common trait amongst Danes - at least not after we left behind our heavy Viking swords). However, you will allow me to find it particularly funny that I in April visited Notre Dame de Paris with the hunchbacks - I imagine the intro music to the Disney Classic, The Hunchback of Notre Dame, to play in the background by now. ... read more

'Hi, I'm Oscar from Barcelona, who are you?' 'I'm Erika from Finland' 'I'm Gosia from Poland' awkward silence... 'So what are you guys doing in France? Are you here for the meeting? Travelling?' And so on and so on. Having been abroad as much as I have and having encountered as many people through my travels, I have become quite used to the traditional greetings of backpackers and globetrotters. Thus, arriving at two o'clock at Chateau Rouge Metro station, finding 50 other travellers standing around in a loose formation didn't really freak me out. However, it always is a bit intimidating to get yourself out there and meet and greet new people. The reason that we all showed up at Chateau Rouge was because we had received a general invitation through the activity calendar of the ... read more