Blogs from Middle East - page 1194

After arriving in Amman, Jordon on the 2am Lufthansa hop from Frankfurt, I got a few hours sleep before taking an early morning bus to Tel Aviv. Once we got to the border, it was a complicated mess of getting off the bus, taking care of exit visa matters, finding out I didn’t need an exit visa because I had flown in that day, getting back on the bus, going through the Jordanian security checkpoint, getting back on the bus, arriving at the Israeli side, going through Israeli security control, passport control (45 minutes here, more later) and then waiting in the rain under a moderately rain resistant cover for about 10 minutes before finding out that our new buses were waiting for us after some other checkpoint. The fact that I had stamps from Egypt, ... read more

Well, this travelling gets addictive! We'd only been home a few weeks from Bali when we both found ourselves with a weeks holiday from work. Couldn't stand the thought of England's grey skies so booked a flight to Turkey. We ended up in Marmaris, it was fairly quiet as it was the end of the season. The weather was a pleasant 25 degrees by day, a bit cool in the evening. We did plenty of running around on the dolmus buses, visiting Icmeler and Turunc. Both were lovely small towns backed by high mountains. On our last day we visited the famous rock tombs of Dalyan and also the supposed healing mud baths close by. This turned out to be quite a fun affair, although I have to admit that I declined from completly submerge myself ... read more

During my short stint in Jerusalem, one of the most memorable experiences was being able to spend a few hours over in the West Bank town of Ramallah. The trip started with a bus ride to the Israeli side of the security fence (read concrete wall). From there, a short walk to the Palestinian side and another bus to get to Ramallah. We arrived at around rush hour, and the traffic was fairly intense considering the limited space available for the buses to load. It took about 25 minutes to get to the center. I was surprised to see that the city seemed to be better off than many other parts of the Arab world. The explanation I was given was that the majority of NGO's and wealthy Palestinians live in the big cities, and that ... read more

Having had a sweet taste of Rome, I was drawn by the ancient spirits to that other ancient Roman capital, Constantinople. The ancients apparently like to dramatize their power on even the feeblest among mankind. As with Rome, I was made to wait at the airport for hours, as if to say these holy places cannot be reached without first learning a lesson in patience and humility. The ancients, though, have underestimated the ability of the ultra-modern Americans to blame all travesties on the lack of good service in Europe. And if you have spent any amount of time in Europe, you painfully know just how this stereotype is true. I went to Istanbul with two of the other exchange students at the Rotterdam School of Management. Carolina is doing her MBA at the Darden School ... read more

Last Sunday the campus at University of Haifa changed drastically from being nearly empty and occupied only by overseas students to being filled from wall to wall by 15,000 students in total. The hallways, elevators, and even outdoor grassy areas are crowded all the time. It's unbelievable. All of the sudden there is noise and activity. It's nice to finally feel a part of a university atmosphere. I am going to be a part of a dialogue group made up of 10 overseas students and 10 Israelis. We'll meet once a week, speak half in Hebrew and half in English, and talk about who knows what. It should be interesting. I'm also looking into joining club swimming--we'll see if that works out. Sunday, I visited Jerusalem with the rest of the Carmel group. We visited the ... read more