"Merry Christmas from the Bethlehem Ghetto"

7am came a lot quicker than I wanted it to this morning. I got up to catch my tour leaving the Jaffa Gate in Jerusalem to tour Bethlehem. I waited outside the gate until 8:30, it was supposed to leave at 8. Turns out the driver waited for me at my hostel while I was waiting for him at the gate. If you've just lol'd your sense of humor needs some refinement, mine does too I thought it was hilarious. Once I got on the bus I was among Russians, Indians, Germans, Australians, and Brits; I was the lone representative of the US of A. The bus took us through Jerusalem and into the West Bank. I was again greeted with the sight of the wall that separates Israel from the Palestinian Authority. It's huge, ugly(save for some awesome graffiti), and foreboding; I understand how Germans felt during the Cold War. The title of this post was written on a part of the wall in Bethlehem.

Once inside, Bethlehem was very nice. We went to all of the important Christian sites, and our tour guide did a good job describing the significance of each. The city has a very prominent Christian population, though they're a minority. Seeing places like the Church of the Nativity(where Jesus was born) and the field(which is still in use more than 2k years later) where the shepherds saw the north star and were brought to dear lord baby Jesus(+10 internets if you get the reference) was another amazing experience. This land is full of amazement. I greatly enjoyed experiencing what I've only read about in the old beat up Christmas book.



The tour guide told us a sad story...his. He is barred from entering Israel under any circumstances, including Jerusalem. He has family in the US, but he can only visit them by going to Jordan first. In Bethlehem he is only allowed to legally work as a tourist. Not tourists, no work and he can't go to Jerusalem where all the tourists are to promote himself. Yet he remains hopeful and optimistic. He told us Christians and Muslims live as brothers in Bethlehem and soon Christians, Muslims, and Jews would live as brothers in the holy land. He left us by saying, "I pray for peace, not just here but in all the countries in the world. I believe it will happen." I hope he is right.

Tiberias tomorrow!

A city of over 3000 years

 Today I successfully took the New Europe(still don't know why they don't call it new Middle East or something) tour of Jerusalem. The guide didn't have a cast on his finger so it must not have been him who cancelled yesterday, had it been I would have mocked him or at least thought about it. The tour was really pretty good, though not quite as good as say Berlin or Prague. My guide was Israeli, and thus spoke less than perfect English. On all the New Europe tours I took in Europe the guides were native English speakers, but this was only a minor complaint. The guide was quite knowledgeable and witty, he made a joke at the end which made me chuckle. The tour went to all the major sites in the city, and was very informative.

I visited the holiest sites in Christianity and Judaism, as well as the third holiest site in Islam on this tour. Obviously this is part of what makes this city so incredible and unique, nowhere else in the world do such massive history changing movements meet. The western/wailing wall was quite an experience, the remnants of the second Jewish temple that was destroyed by the Romans is amazing. No one spoke other than prayer, and some people were so emotional that they were crying. I felt something, not a deep spiritual Jewish connection, but something is definitely present there.

The Al Aqsa Mosque and the Dome of the Rock make up the holy site for Muslims. The prophet Muhammad ascended into heaven from this spot and returned. Unfortunately, the Dome of the Rock has been closed to non-Muslims since the second intifada. It is one of the most beautiful buildings I've ever seen, I would have loved to get into it. The Al Alqsa mosque was also closed to non-Muslims, and apparently has short sporadic openings for the outside world. At least I saw them from the outside. What was crazy was to see all the Muslims from all over the old city rushing to these mosques when the prayer was called. The dedication to the religion is impressive.

Finally was the Church of the Holy Sepulchre, and wow I can't really describe it. The place where Jesus was crucified, buried, and came back is this one church. I went inside Jesus' tomb...let me say that again so I'm sure it actually happened, I WENT INSIDE JESUS' TOMB! The amount of Christian pilgrims, mainly from Europe, in the church was overwhelming. I heard Greek, Russian, French, Spanish, Hungarian, and Amharic along with the big three of this country(Hebrew, Arabic, English). Also amazing is how the different denominations fight over the church. Catholics, Greek Orthodox, Syrian Orthodox, Coptic, and Ethiopian Orthodox have fought over who controls the church for centuries. Even down to a simple wooden ladder has not been touched in 160 years because of this. A Muslim family opens and closes the church everyday because of this as well, and they have since the days of Salahdin.

The history and culture of this city is unlike any other, and because of that it's easy to love it. It is also one of the most fought over cities in history and that is apparent sometimes. A Palestinian tour guide tried to pouch us from our Israeli guide and when no one defected he got angry. He called us "Jew lovers" and said we hated Arabs and only contributed to the Jewish occupation.

This is de facto Palestine

Does one need the use of all ten fingers to lead a walking tour? I assure you 9 fingers is plenty to point to something. A broken finger does not impair your ability to walk or lead a tour! We tried to get the New Europe tour in Jerusalem today, but apparently the tour guide's broken finger killed that plan. Instead we tried to go to the sites on the tour by ourselves, which failed pretty miserably. I did touch the Western Wall though, and I'm not sure how to describe the feeling and atmosphere of it.


Marnie and I walked around Jerusalem for awhile but grew tired of it pretty quickly. Marnie suggested taking the bus into the West Bank and going to Ramallah. This was something I had already planned on doing so of course I was on board. Now anyone reading this and starting to freak out pay attention; I went to Palestine and had a wonderful time, AND I didn't get killed. The border crossing was nothing going there, literally the bus didn't even stop. Going back to Israel was a different story, stay tuned for that.

Ramallah was very fascinating. It is very much a typical Arab city, a lot of people all over, markets seemingly around every corner, and friendly gestures and conversations, which may or may not be an attempt to get you to buy something. We walked around the city for an hour or so, and I noticed several things. First, there is no Israeli presence there. No Israeli soldiers to be found, instead Palestinian police. Israeli civilians are not technically allowed to travel into the West Bank either. No signs are in Hebrew, just Arabic and English. Apart from the Israeli New Shekel being the currency in use, you would never know that Ramallah was part of an occupied territory. The city is de facto Palestine, much more so than it is in any part of Israel. Also, its all built on hills which makes it impossible to navigate. We hung out in a Palestinian ripoff of Starbucks called "Stars and Bucks", gotta love it. I sipped hot chocolate while sweating in the heat of the day, and jammed out to T-Pain blaring throughout the cafe. Cross that one off the bucket list.

The way back to Israel was interesting. We had to take a taxi to the border, and then get on a bus to Jerusalem. At the border about half the bus was made to get off and go through a metal detector and get searched. As far as I could tell these were all Palestinians. For the rest of us the Israeli border guards came on the bus and check everyone's passports. Mine was no problem, I got the Israeli visa stamped directly on it. Some other people were not so fortunate and did not have an Israeli stamp, which held things up a few minutes. Ultimately everyone was allowed through and we made it back to Jerusalem.

Israel Is a Crazy Place

I left off last entry after the first day in Tel Aviv, so logically that's where I'll pick up. Tel Aviv was really hot at night, like REALLY hot. I woke up in a puddle of sweat, awesome. After a much needed cold shower, Marnie and I walked to Jaffa. Shabbat was beginning that night so we thought Jaffa would be more lively than Tel Aviv, as Jaffa mainly Arab. By the way, Tel Aviv and Jaffa are actually the same city its called Tel Aviv-Yafo officially. Jaffa is an ancient port city, in fact one of the oldest in the world. As Tel Aviv grew after the formation of Israel it kind of swallowed up Jaffa, but it retains a unique look and culture different from Tel Aviv. Jaffa is crowded, smaller, and older; a nice introduction into the Arab world for me coming from the modern European style city that is Tel Aviv. We saw the market which has everything you could never want to buy; who really wants a random AC adapter that may or may not blow up what you plug it into? But overall it was really cool. On the way back we went to the beach and I swam in the Mediterranean, no big deal. 

After Jaffa we went to central Tel Aviv and saw Rabin Square. The square itself is not really all that special physically, its a large public space in an urban setting. Maybe because I've been to Pariser Platz, Marien Platz, and the National Mall; but it was not that impressive. That said the importance of the space in the history of Israel is incredible. I really felt emotion of it all. Rabin's murder was terrible tragedy, a loss to the world not just Israel. Really, that is all I can say on the matter. Oh, and I ate the most delicious burger across from the square. Lamb and beef ground, with cheese and bacon on top; the most un-kosher meal ever but it was fantastic haha. 

This morning we left Tel Aviv and embarked on our journey to Jerusalem. We took a Sherut for the hour across the country. Sheruts are kind of like a bus but much smaller, more like a van or shuttle bus. They're crowded but cheap so it's pretty nice. But damn are Israelis strict! Our Sherut was pulled over on the highway and cops boarded it looking for people not wearing seat belts. Two guys were pulled off, interrogated and given tickets. The driver yelled out in Hebrew to put our seat belts on as he was pulling over, I couldn't understand him but just copied everyone else thankfully.

Upon making it to Jerusalem Marnie and I got lost several times over finding our hostel in the old city. Marnie got to show off her Arabic though, which I was very impressed with. The hostel itself is awesome, the building is 700 years old! Jerusalem just has so much history imbedded in it.  The rest of the day was spent exploring the old city and a bit of West Jerusalem. We met up with Marnie's friend Mohamed, he's a cool dude. Jerusalem is amazing, I can't wait to see more of it tomorrow.

You fly Tel Aviv?

It is now after midnight in the Israeli coastal city of Tel Aviv. Just over 24 hours ago I was leaving JFK to embark on a journey to the Middle East, and now I'm sitting in a hostel one block away from the Mediterranean beach. It's absolutely gorgeous by the way. 
 

The story of the how I spent my hours in between is pretty ridiculous and will serve as a nice opening to this travelogue. Leaving JFK was pretty straight forward, no real delays or any hiccups. However, once we took off a small child of about three years began screaming. He didn't stop...for an hour...and it was in Hindi! That aside the flight went well and landed in Frankfurt, Germany. The layover was excruciating though. A 5 hour wait is generally not that bad, but add in the fact that it was 5am Germany time and nothing in the airport was open, and that I couldn't leave. Plus I was to the point of exhaustion but couldn't fall asleep! Oh and the airport made me go through security 3 times, because third times a charm right?

Flying to Israel is crazy too. In Frankfurt my bags were inspected and scanned, I walked through a metal detector, AND was wanded. They even wanded the bottoms of my feet. I don't recall much of the flight to Tel Aviv, as I slept through major parts of it. At passport control in the airport I was interrogated for a minutes. "Why are you traveling alone?", "Have you been to Israel before?", "Why don't you fly home from Israel?", and other generally pointless questions. They let me through after about half an hour.


Oh and they call the airport Tel Aviv, but it is not in the city. It's actually in the town of Lod which 9 miles outside of the city. I took the train from the airport into the city, which was quite the experience. The first stop after I got on was Tel Aviv Ha Haganah("the defense" in Hebrew), aptly titled as 15 soldiers got on board and 5 of them were carrying M4s. Soldiers are everywhere in this country; the streets, the trains, cars, buses, etc. A huge number of them are women too, something that I've never seen anywhere else. From the train station I walked to the hostel and that was a lot further than I thought. I got lost a couple of times on the way too, thankfully so many Israelis speak English. 

After much walking, and sweating(its hot as hell here), I finally made it to the hostel and met up with my cousin Marnie. We went to the beach for a bit and got dinner at a really cool American style bar/restaurant looking at the Mediterranean. Marnie thoroughly enjoyed eating bacon, which is non-existent in Egypt haha. After dinner we walked around the city for awhile, it really is beautiful. Getting here pretty much sucked, but it was well worth it and this has been a great start to the trip.

The resurrection

About a year ago I started a travel blog as a way to keep people back home updated on my journey across Europe. People seemed to like (sort of)knowing where I was and what I was doing, along with my often humorous writing style. I found that it also served as a great way to document the trip as it was happening, before I forgot anything. With all this in mind, I have resurrected this travel blog to document my current endeavor into the Middle East.

When I told people that I would be traveling to the Middle East I got as diverse reactions as one could.
"What the hell is wrong with you?!?"
"Oh man I'm so jealous!"
"What's the Middle East?"
"Why don't you go to somewhere fun like Aruba?"
So many people just don't understand the region, many people hear about protests and wars and uprisings and nothing else. This is the image of the region that is so prevalent.
Stay tuned to this blog and I'm sure this image of the Middle East will be debunked.