The time has come to say good bye. I'm writing this post from the airport in Tel Aviv where I accidentally showed up three hours early because I had become so used to following the plan the IYHA made for me that I didn't even question it or check for myself when it said on my schedule that my flight was leaving at 11:00. It's actually leaving at 14:00. Oh well, you live your learn.
Yesterday I was lazy and didn't leave the hostel until noon. I didn't have anything planned but decided to take advantage of the location of the Yitzhak Rabin hostel in Jerusalem and visit the Israel museum which is literally just next door. I thought it would be a quick 2 hour visit but in the end I spent the whole afternoon there, which wasn't enough time to see everything, and I would have stayed longer if it hadn't closed at 5. The Israel museum is unique in a way that it's a history museum, art museum and some sort of folk museum all in one. It gives you a good introduction to the country and houses everything from Israeli contemporary art, works by amazing artists like Picasso, prehistoric human remains and a comprehensive exhibition about the Jewish religion and everyday Jewish life around the world. I recommend that you visit the museum at the beginning of your trip to have a better understanding of the history in Israel.
At the moment they have an exhibition about Herod the Great who built the fortress of Masada that I visited a couple of days ago. It was amazing, after having visited the ruins, to learn about him and everything he left behind. At the siege of Masada, which was after Herod's time, around 1000 Jewish rebels committed suicide faced with becoming Roman slaves as they rather wanted to die free than live as slaves. Masada is an amazing place and I'm so glad I got to see it.
As I made my way into the museum the first art piece I saw was accredited to a name very familiar to me: Ólafur Elíasson. Although Ólafur is raised in Denmark he is Danish-Icelandic (his name certainly is Icelandic) and he's the one responsible for the amazing glass facade in the newly built Harpa Music Hall in Reykjavík. It was like being greeted by a little piece of home. It's totally irrelevant whether or not he feels Icelandic because to us he is.
After the museum I made my way to the the Mahane Yehuda Market where discount hour had already started due to the late hours and everyone was trying to get rid of their products. It was an interesting place and trying to find it took me through some "real" narrow Jerusalem streets. I had something to eat and tried some local microbrewery wheat bear and then headed back to the hostel. Despite my best efforts to figure out how to take the bus back (I took the bus to the city center so you would think I should have known my way) I couldn't work it out and hopped into a taxi where the driver told me he lived on Iceland street in Jerusalem for 20 years before recently moving. I'm pretty sure he was confusing Iceland with some other country because I somehow doubt they have Iceland street in Jerusalem but if I'm wrong - please correct me.
Thus ended my last day in Jerusalem, and de facto my last day in Israel since I'm only hanging out at the airport today (for 6 HOURS!). This trip has been amazing, weird, wonderful and everything in between and I've enjoyed every minute of it. Thank you Big Blog Exchange, IYHA, Uri, Anat, Ofer, Kayed (sorry for misspelling your name before), Mahady, Miki, Moshe, Esti, Hava and everyone else who made this possible. I will never forget it!
Showing posts with label Jerusalem. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Jerusalem. Show all posts
Monday, 17 June 2013
Sunday, 16 June 2013
Exploring the West Bank
Last night I was right in the middle of writing an epic post to describe the two previous days of my travel when I must have fallen asleep. I woke up this morning hugging the laptop and no longer feeling my legs that had been hanging out of the bed all night. I know I'm tall and all but there must be Israelis that are taller than me, why are these beds so short? It made me really happy when Anat, my contact while I'm here, called me to let me know I could stay in this hostel another night instead of moving because I'm so sick of packing my bag. I know it's only been 9 days but before that I did exactly the same for 10 day while I traveled around Iceland with my sister. As much as I'm sad about this trip coming to an end I also kind of look forward to getting back home and settling into the Icelandic summer as the months preceding the trip were so hectic. I look forward to coffee with my friends that I've hardly seen since Christmas, BBQs and lazy summer nights with the boyfriend and the princess and whatever else it is that we do in Reykjavík during summer.
I spent yesterday exploring the West Bank which is a Palestinian territory mostly ruled by the Israelis. I'm not really going to get into the history or the politics of the place but I urge you to look it up and read about it. Because I only had one day to do it I decided to do a tour which ended up being a good thing as I spent the day with fellow travelers which frankly I haven't seen much of on this trip. Traveling with locals is great but exchanging ideas with outsiders like yourself can really enhance your experience and give you an even wider perspective on things.
There were mainly three things that struck me about the West Bank: how easy it was to visit it, how different it seemed from Israel and the litter everywhere. We had to go through some check points to get there but we were never stopped and not once did I have to show my passport. I also didn't see a single soldier, Israeli or Palestinian, until we got to Arafat's tomb in Ramallah that was guarded by a couple of soldiers. Actually that's not completely true as there were two Israeli soldiers at the Jordan river next to the Jordan border. Everything was quiet around the separation wall and the only hassle I experienced was some people trying to sell us things. Not what I had imagined. The atmosphere of the places we visited was quite different, except maybe in Jericho, and more chaotic somehow. While in Jerusalem for instance people avoid eye contact and don't smile back at you in the streets, in Betlehem the street vendors are desperate for your attention and make a point of you noticing them. I also saw a lot more donkeys in the West Bank than in Isarel. Finally the litter. I don't know if it's a cultural thing or whether they just have such poor infrastructure that they can't deal with all the trash but there was litter everywhere. Everywhere! I think I remember reading something about this being a problem in many Arab cities so maybe it is a cultural thing but whatever it is, it's not at all pleasant. My favorite moment of the day was the utter chaos of trying to get out of Ramallah back to Jerusalem, where ignored traffic rules, horns being honked and street vendors walking between cars selling ice cream and water made me smile.
There are so many things I don't understand about this conflict: the way the land is divided, why the settlements are allowed to grow, how Arabs and Jews can live in harmony in once place and at the next place less than 100km away everything is messed up to name a few. At the same time I also understand the motives a bit better now, on both sides, although I don't always agree with the methods used. Most of all I think I've understood that unless you are born here and you live and breath this area, I don't think you'll ever fully comprehend this situation. Both sides really honestly and genuinely believe in their arguments and it's hard as an outsider not to respect that, whatever your own opinions are. Ultimately I think it's everyone's hope to find a solution and I hope for their sake that they do. I'm happy that I had the opportunity to explore the other side with a guide who in my opinion gave a pretty balanced view of the whole thing and I wouldn't have wanted to miss it.
I will have to tell you about Masada later, whether it will be here or on my own blog, because I don't want to spend my last day here in Jerusalem in front of the computer. I can't believe this adventure is almost over.
I spent yesterday exploring the West Bank which is a Palestinian territory mostly ruled by the Israelis. I'm not really going to get into the history or the politics of the place but I urge you to look it up and read about it. Because I only had one day to do it I decided to do a tour which ended up being a good thing as I spent the day with fellow travelers which frankly I haven't seen much of on this trip. Traveling with locals is great but exchanging ideas with outsiders like yourself can really enhance your experience and give you an even wider perspective on things.
There were mainly three things that struck me about the West Bank: how easy it was to visit it, how different it seemed from Israel and the litter everywhere. We had to go through some check points to get there but we were never stopped and not once did I have to show my passport. I also didn't see a single soldier, Israeli or Palestinian, until we got to Arafat's tomb in Ramallah that was guarded by a couple of soldiers. Actually that's not completely true as there were two Israeli soldiers at the Jordan river next to the Jordan border. Everything was quiet around the separation wall and the only hassle I experienced was some people trying to sell us things. Not what I had imagined. The atmosphere of the places we visited was quite different, except maybe in Jericho, and more chaotic somehow. While in Jerusalem for instance people avoid eye contact and don't smile back at you in the streets, in Betlehem the street vendors are desperate for your attention and make a point of you noticing them. I also saw a lot more donkeys in the West Bank than in Isarel. Finally the litter. I don't know if it's a cultural thing or whether they just have such poor infrastructure that they can't deal with all the trash but there was litter everywhere. Everywhere! I think I remember reading something about this being a problem in many Arab cities so maybe it is a cultural thing but whatever it is, it's not at all pleasant. My favorite moment of the day was the utter chaos of trying to get out of Ramallah back to Jerusalem, where ignored traffic rules, horns being honked and street vendors walking between cars selling ice cream and water made me smile.
There are so many things I don't understand about this conflict: the way the land is divided, why the settlements are allowed to grow, how Arabs and Jews can live in harmony in once place and at the next place less than 100km away everything is messed up to name a few. At the same time I also understand the motives a bit better now, on both sides, although I don't always agree with the methods used. Most of all I think I've understood that unless you are born here and you live and breath this area, I don't think you'll ever fully comprehend this situation. Both sides really honestly and genuinely believe in their arguments and it's hard as an outsider not to respect that, whatever your own opinions are. Ultimately I think it's everyone's hope to find a solution and I hope for their sake that they do. I'm happy that I had the opportunity to explore the other side with a guide who in my opinion gave a pretty balanced view of the whole thing and I wouldn't have wanted to miss it.
I will have to tell you about Masada later, whether it will be here or on my own blog, because I don't want to spend my last day here in Jerusalem in front of the computer. I can't believe this adventure is almost over.
Tuesday, 11 June 2013
People and places
I've been dealing with words my whole life. I've made it a hobby and sometimes a job to put them together in ways that attempt to excite and inspire. It's not mine to judge whether or not I have succeeded though. Today I'm a bit lost for words and this doesn't happen often. There are so many thoughts floating around in my head that maybe I need some time to digest them but at the same time I don't want to loose any of them to my sometimes patchy memory.
Today was full of contrasts, surreal little moments, doubts and fun in the sun. I don't think I've ever visited a place that has evoked so many emotions and left me with as many questions as Israel has. It really is a complex place and like my day, full of contrasts.
I started the day by visiting Yad Vashem and it was quite a powerful experience.At one point in the Holocaust museum (Yad Vashem is actually a complex made up of many different things, the Holocaust Museum being one of them) I felt physically sick to my stomach and I had to walk away because I couldn't take what I was looking at. It reminded me of the time I visited Krakow and had plans to go to Auschwitz and Dachau but backed out of them at the last moment because my little heart just couldn't bare to see those places. From the Children's Memorial I went straight to a bus to Tel Aviv where I was greeted by care free beach goers and short shorts all over. A far cry from the Orthodox people here in Jerusalem and a very strange next destination after learning about the massacre of millions of people.
In Tel Aviv I met with a girl who follows me on Instagram after doing a three month volunteer run in Iceland a couple of years ago. When she saw I was in Israel she sent me a message and we decided to meet up. She actually had some Icelandic text tattooed on her arm yesterday, which was one of the surreal parts, and she has some more Israeli friends that apparently love Iceland as much as see does. I met one of them later in the day and much to my surprise he spoke some Icelandic despite never have been to Iceland. When I told her about my experience at Yad Vashem she told me the story of her grandmother who was an Auschwitz survivor and who's boyfriend had worked at the crematorium at the camp. Unfortunately the boyfriend and her parents never made it out though. It was an amazing story but I don't think it's mine to tell so I'll leave at that.
A bit later we met up with some more people, a really cool blogger from Tel Aviv that publishes an alternative guide to the city that you must check out if you ever find you in this area and Adam, of Travels Of Adam, who also participated in the Big Blog Exchange but unfortunately didn't make it as a finalist. His pain is my gain because it was great meeting them both. Interestingly enough, Iceland also plays a role in his saga. My night with those random strangers, that yet felt so familiar because of our common grounds, is the reason why I travel. It's all about the people - the places are just an added bonus.
On the way back to Jerusalem an Israeli soldier fell asleep on my shoulder while his machine gun somehow made its way over to my lap. That was kind of odd.
Today was full of contrasts, surreal little moments, doubts and fun in the sun. I don't think I've ever visited a place that has evoked so many emotions and left me with as many questions as Israel has. It really is a complex place and like my day, full of contrasts.
I started the day by visiting Yad Vashem and it was quite a powerful experience.At one point in the Holocaust museum (Yad Vashem is actually a complex made up of many different things, the Holocaust Museum being one of them) I felt physically sick to my stomach and I had to walk away because I couldn't take what I was looking at. It reminded me of the time I visited Krakow and had plans to go to Auschwitz and Dachau but backed out of them at the last moment because my little heart just couldn't bare to see those places. From the Children's Memorial I went straight to a bus to Tel Aviv where I was greeted by care free beach goers and short shorts all over. A far cry from the Orthodox people here in Jerusalem and a very strange next destination after learning about the massacre of millions of people.
In Tel Aviv I met with a girl who follows me on Instagram after doing a three month volunteer run in Iceland a couple of years ago. When she saw I was in Israel she sent me a message and we decided to meet up. She actually had some Icelandic text tattooed on her arm yesterday, which was one of the surreal parts, and she has some more Israeli friends that apparently love Iceland as much as see does. I met one of them later in the day and much to my surprise he spoke some Icelandic despite never have been to Iceland. When I told her about my experience at Yad Vashem she told me the story of her grandmother who was an Auschwitz survivor and who's boyfriend had worked at the crematorium at the camp. Unfortunately the boyfriend and her parents never made it out though. It was an amazing story but I don't think it's mine to tell so I'll leave at that.
A bit later we met up with some more people, a really cool blogger from Tel Aviv that publishes an alternative guide to the city that you must check out if you ever find you in this area and Adam, of Travels Of Adam, who also participated in the Big Blog Exchange but unfortunately didn't make it as a finalist. His pain is my gain because it was great meeting them both. Interestingly enough, Iceland also plays a role in his saga. My night with those random strangers, that yet felt so familiar because of our common grounds, is the reason why I travel. It's all about the people - the places are just an added bonus.
On the way back to Jerusalem an Israeli soldier fell asleep on my shoulder while his machine gun somehow made its way over to my lap. That was kind of odd.
Sunday, 9 June 2013
Of hummus and the struggles with keeping an open mind
I think I'm going to convert to food blogging. It feels like all I've been doing the last 24 hours is eating. Eating delicious yummy food. IYHA, the Israel Youth Hostel association or Ana as they are apparently called in Hebrew, has really gone above and beyond to make sure I have a pleasant stay here in Israel. Apart from being really helpful with the whole luggage situation (which thankfully showed up today after its unexpected Paris excursion - yay) they were kind enough to let their New Media director Anat accompany me on my exploring last night and today. She is a fantastic food guide and took me, among other places, to her favorite hummus place. Hummus is to Israel what hot dogs are to Iceland so I had to try it. I think vegetarians must love the food here because so much of it is centered around dishes that don't contain any meat. Hanging out with Anat has also given me a unique opportunity to get to know the culture from a local and to ask all the questions I have about just about anything Israel related. I know how it is to be questioned about things that you haven't necessarily given much thought to about your hometown or country so I applaud her patience with me. I know few things better than good conversations over great food and I hope I have managed to give her a bit of insight into life in Iceland as well.
Apart from the food I've also seen some sights. I went to the old city of Jerusalem today and saw the amazing Dome of the Rock and left my wish and hopes at the Western Wall (also known as the wailing wall). Although I'm well aware of all the controversy surrounding Jerusalem and Temple Mount in particular (you can read about it by doing a quick Google search) I couldn't help but being impacted by the significance this place has to the Jewish people. Being from a country where religion doesn't play a big role in the daily lives of people it's interesting to experience things like the Sabbath where even the secular people partake in something so deeply rooted in religion. Mind you, not everyone in Israel agrees that this should be this way but I find it interesting none the less. I can imagine that many of the modern day pilgrims praying and kissing the wall today were experiencing the highlight of their religious lives.
I also went to the market briefly and I will have to visit it again before I leave. I love markets, especially markets that are filled with colorful aromatic things that you are not sure what to do with. After our short walk around the old city the plan had been to visit Yad Vashem, the Holocaust museum, but because we were running a little late and the Yad Vashem requires a bit of time we decided to visit the Bible Lands Museum instead. I think someone who's really read the Bible would enjoy this museum more than I did but it was still interesting to see artifacts that are thousands of years old. My favorite part was the Pure Gold exhibition that is focused around things made of gold and included a lot of ancient jewelry. I will be going to the Yad Vashem tomorrow instead before I head on over to Tel Aviv for the day.
I have to say that Jerusalem has surprised me. I didn't expect to like it nor did I think I would feel short for time during my visit. To be honest I didn't really know what to expect and sometimes uncertainty brings out sides of me I really wished would never rear their ugly heads. I'm glad I didn't give up this amazing opportunity like I was contemplating for a while and am thankful that the world (and the Big Blog Exchange of course) has brought me here. Controversies and all.
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| Dome of the Rock and the Western Wall |
Apart from the food I've also seen some sights. I went to the old city of Jerusalem today and saw the amazing Dome of the Rock and left my wish and hopes at the Western Wall (also known as the wailing wall). Although I'm well aware of all the controversy surrounding Jerusalem and Temple Mount in particular (you can read about it by doing a quick Google search) I couldn't help but being impacted by the significance this place has to the Jewish people. Being from a country where religion doesn't play a big role in the daily lives of people it's interesting to experience things like the Sabbath where even the secular people partake in something so deeply rooted in religion. Mind you, not everyone in Israel agrees that this should be this way but I find it interesting none the less. I can imagine that many of the modern day pilgrims praying and kissing the wall today were experiencing the highlight of their religious lives.
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| The market in the Jewish Quarter in Old Jerusalem |
I also went to the market briefly and I will have to visit it again before I leave. I love markets, especially markets that are filled with colorful aromatic things that you are not sure what to do with. After our short walk around the old city the plan had been to visit Yad Vashem, the Holocaust museum, but because we were running a little late and the Yad Vashem requires a bit of time we decided to visit the Bible Lands Museum instead. I think someone who's really read the Bible would enjoy this museum more than I did but it was still interesting to see artifacts that are thousands of years old. My favorite part was the Pure Gold exhibition that is focused around things made of gold and included a lot of ancient jewelry. I will be going to the Yad Vashem tomorrow instead before I head on over to Tel Aviv for the day.
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| Religion is not the only thing that has piqued my interest - I was uneasy every time I saw one of these guys today because I've never been anywhere where firearms are as visible out in the streets as here |
I have to say that Jerusalem has surprised me. I didn't expect to like it nor did I think I would feel short for time during my visit. To be honest I didn't really know what to expect and sometimes uncertainty brings out sides of me I really wished would never rear their ugly heads. I'm glad I didn't give up this amazing opportunity like I was contemplating for a while and am thankful that the world (and the Big Blog Exchange of course) has brought me here. Controversies and all.
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