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.
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.
No comments:
Post a Comment