Blogs from Jerusalem, Jerusalem District, Israel, Middle East - page 52

*Our Favorite Things 1) Serengeti Safari 2) Jerusalem 3) Istanbul *It takes at least an hour to get food after you order in East Africa *Africa has the worst public transportation we've seen *Sarki's Sausage Sandwiches are just really good kofta *People in this area of the world can't handle fast boats *There are a million ways to wear a headscarf *Anyone trying to scam a Westerner is "Christian" *There are many swastikas in East Africa, but they don't mean what you think they mean *Most mosques do not welcome visitors *We were open to experiencing Islam in its native land, and while it certainly isn't destructive, it isn't entirely benign either *Everyone's "brother" owns a hotel, shop, cafe, when that's what you're looking for *Sports jerseys of all types eventually end up in Africa ... read more

Hello again. Since last speaking with you from Eilat (southernmost point in Israel), we began driving north through the Negev desert, stopping in Mitzpe Ramon, a city that sits on the edge of a steep cliff overlooking the Ramon crater, a deep bowl in the desert whose rocks contain fish fossils, since the crater was underneath the sea millions of years ago. Then we drove towards Beer Sheva and spent a few days living with a bedouin family who now live in a city with homes and streets. Almost every home has a tent outside where the men sit every evening, drink bedouin tea and coffee, and smoke tobacco in the nargila. The father is the principal of a school for blind bedouins, and the wife stays home and prepares food for the family, consisting of ... read more

Walking the Stations of the Cross while hearing the Muslim call to prayer, stepping out of the Armenian quarter and into the Jewish quarter in a few quick steps, so much diversity into such a small area. Settling in and moving slow, travelling with six it would be theme that not all of us would make it to our chosen destination. Food seemed to be a reason for it, Israel has amazing food, it lead me off in strange directions constantly. Two pints of fresh strawberries for five shekels, (1.10us,) the supposed best soup you have ever tasted, felafel and sharwma sandwiches at every turn. Best of all, the real Israeli hummus is so good and creamy, what ever they have in the States, its not hummus. Fumbling our way to the Western Wall and visions ... read more

When we decided to travel down through the Middle East to Egypt we had no intention of visiting Israel or Palestine. This was partly because we wished to travel on to other Islamic countries who would not grant us entry visas if we had been to Occupied Palestine (as they refer to it), and partly because of our own, particularly my own, political views and prejudices in favour of the Palestinian cause, their right to their own state and the end of the Israeli occupation. I had spent several years boycotting Israeli produce for instance, as my own way of not giving any support to what I viewed as the illegal activities of the Israeli state, and was happy to rant to anyone about how unjust the situation was and how I never intended to visit ... read more

I arrived in Israel late on the 25th of January. I then crashed for the night, only to be awoken by a little Muslim boy kicking a car parked outside of my window, making the alarm go off. Hehe... I went into the Old City and wandered around for a bit. Well, for about three hours. I saw the Tomb of David, the Church of dormition, and a few other random sites that I bumped into. I spent about a half an hour taking with some old man, but I had convinced him that I spoke no English. Heh heh heh. He knew jsut a tiny bit less Russian than I know, but it was effective. I could string together enough intellegent sentances (or almost intellegent sentances) to get by. Hehe... It was great fun! Then ... read more