Archiv der Kategorie: Middle East

Palestine, World Trip 2018-19

Visiting Palestine independently

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First of all, this is not a political blog and I don’t want this post to be political either -something that is difficult to achieve when talking about a piece of land that is either referred to as Palestine, the West Bank or even „disputed territories“. I will call it Palestine in this post, and that’s that. For me, it’s about travelling – and about meeting amazing people. On both sides.

When I planned to go to Israel, I had always contemplated visiting Palestine as well – however, I had wanted to go with a tour, as I did not know that this was easily possibly independently. Palestine is not a war-zone anymore. People live normal lives there. When I received an invite on Couchsurfing to stay with a girl in Ramallah, I was immediately excited and decided to make it my base for exploring Palestine for 2 days.

First, I left Jerusalem for Bethlehem Saturday morning. While no transport is going in Israel during Shabbath, busses to Palestine are operating their usual schedules. The drive was rather quick and could have been even quicker without the separation wall and checkpoints. The tourist information had offered to store my big backpack while I went sightseeing, but when I finally found their office, it was closed to my annoyance. Luckily a nice shop owner offered to keep an eye on my bag while I walked around…

First, I ventured to the Nativity Church to see the place where supposedly Jesus was born. Annoyingly, I had wasted too much time with storing my luggage so that it was very busy inside and I had to queue about 1h to be able to go down the little grotto to see the exact spot of Jesus‘ birth. It was certainly special to see and the experience was only slightly ruined by the massive tour groups and their respect-less guides who started shouting at each other about which group could enter first. Have I ever said I hate tour groups? I hate tour groups!

So I left rather quickly afterwards to see the milk grotto, a place where supposedly a drop of Mary’s breast milk dropped onto the ground. Hmm, was not that special though. I then walked around in the old town a bit which was nice and busy, and continued all the way back to the separation wall to see the cool graffiti on there, Banksy’s Armoured Dove nearby and the Walled Off Hotel. For me, that was actually the coolest part of Bethlehem!

I then took a shared taxi to Ramallah where I met up with Lama, my host, and chilled at her place for the rest of the day. In the evening, we cooked a traditional local dish together, containing pita bread, aubergine, tomatoes, yoghurt and a couple of spices. Simple, but so delicious!

Next day, I took a bus to Nablus, about 2h north of Ramallah. There aren’t any major sights, but the old town and market located in the little alleys – and I fell in love with it!! The locals were sooo friendly and just feeding me all the time. Everyone wanted to say hello, welcome, where are you from, take a picture or just said „come, try“ and gave me a date/chocolate/spices/some bread etc. It was so much fun!

If there is a dedicated attraction in Nablus, then it would probably be Al-Aqsa knafeh shop. The little shop sells the supposedly best knafeh in the Palestine and since this is the origin of knafeh, potentially the best one in the world. I don’t have any comparison yet, but what I ate in Nablus was truly, truly delicious!! Knafeh is a sweet dish that contains melted goat cheese and is best eaten hot. It’s difficult to describe, so you’ll just have to look at my pictures and trust me on this: Do try when in Nablus!

From Nablus, I took a shared taxi to Jericho where in the heat of the day I rented a bicycle to go around the city and see the different sights. Backpacker life! Distances were not too large though and the beautiful desert scenery made up for it. First I cycled to the cable car to get me up to the Monastery of Temptation. The ride was not cheap, but I wasn’t gonna hike up in the scorching midday sun. And it definitely was worth it! The views from the Austrian-built cable car were great already and once at the Monastery there were some really cool viewpoints as well from where you could see the Jericho, the surrounding area as well as some rock caves nearby. Super nice!! The monastery itself was not too special – it was more about the views in my opinion.

Next, I cycled to the excavations of Hisham’s Palace which were a bit better than expected but there’s still lots of work needed here to free the other mosaics and make the sight more appealing to the visitor.

Afterwards, my original plan was to see Wadi Qelt, but due to a misunderstanding I landed myself in the middle of nowhere, having to hitchhike my way back to Ramallah in the end. I did get some very nice views of the area before that, but sadly missed out on the true Wadi Qelt because of that. While I had never planned to hitchhike in the Palestine, it actually worked out pretty well and I made my way back to Ramallah safely. After heading out for some delicious Arab ice cream and a falafel sandwich, I said goodbye to Palestine and Lama early next day to make my way North to Tiberias…

Israel, World Trip 2018-19

Jerusalem – where religions meet

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I was so excited to finally visit Israel and especially Jerusalem! I had wanted to come here for a long, long time. Somehow, even though I’m not very religious myself, names like Jerusalem, Bethlehem, Nazareth etc. always evoked a certain excitement in me – and now I was gonna actually go and see all these places!

Since Transavia is flying to Tel Aviv now from Amsterdam, flights are very affordable. After landing, I was relieved to get through immigration rather quickly and without many questions. The search for the sherut to Jerusalem took a bit longer – helpful locals kept sending me wrong directions unfortunately. In the end, I made it to Jerusalem and walked the last 5 min or so into the old town where my hostel was located. I was very happy I had chosen such a central location where all the main sights were within 5-10 min walking distance.

Next day, I woke up early and excited to head out. My first stop: the Church of Sepulchure. As soon as I left my hostel, I bumped into an Asian tour group who were following their guide while chanting religious songs. The alleys were still dark, so it was a very mystical atmosphere! For the first time I did not mind following a tour group. At least they were also guiding me the right way like this… 😉 When I arrived at the church, the special experience continued: there was a mass going on and someone was just playing the organs. I can’t describe it, but experiencing how special this place is for many people and seeing their emotions while visiting certainly gave me some goosebumps!

Afterwards, I made my way to the Western Wall which was equally fascinating – this time being able to watch deep religious beliefs on the Jewish side. At 7.45 I was too late to climb up to the Dome of the Rock for now – a gigantic queue had formed already. There’s only certain times of the day when non-Muslims are allowed to enter the site, from the dedicated non-Muslim entrance at the Western Wall – so make sure to look these up before. So instead, I decided to explore the excavations nearby which unfortunately I wouldn’t consider worth the entry fee though. I continued my sightseeing along the southern part of the old city wall until I reached David’s Tomb on Mount Zion and the pretty Dormition Abbey. I walked a bit through both the Armenian and Jewish quarters of the town and then made my way back to the Dome of the Rock entrance for the noon time slot.

All the waiting was definitely worth it – the Temple Mount with the Al-Aqsa Mosque and the Dome of the Rock is very beautiful. Unfortunately, as a non-Muslim you cannot enter the buildings, but even the outside was pretty. I circle around the site, and decided to leave through Lion’s Gate in the North – as you can leave through any of the gates as you please.

Next to Lion’s Gate, I visited St Anne’s Church and the Pools of Bethseda where a choir was singing beautifully when I entered. Later, I walked through the Northern part of the old town, back in the direction of my hostel until I reached the Lutheran Church of the Redeemer. It’s not such a special church, but you can climb the tower for amazing views over Jerusalem which is what I did.

For my second day in Jerusalem, I had two things I wanted to see: the Mount of Olives and the Holocaust Museum Yad Vashem, both of which are located a bit outside the city. So first I took a bus up the Mount of Olives where I climbed the tower of the Ascension Church. Views were nice, but they have put a plastic fence against birds up there which essentially prevents you from taking any nice pictures at all. If I had known, I would have definitely skipped that climb… Afterwards, I walked down to the gardens of Gethsemane and Mary’s Tomb. From here, there were some nice views of the back side of the city wall and the old town.

I then walked back all the way to near Damascus Gate from where I could catch the tram until its last stop – Mount Herzl. This is where the Holocaust Museum Yad Vashem is located – a museum I consider essential to see when visiting Israel. Do not underestimate the size though – you could probably spend days there and still not be able to see the exhibition in all details. The museum is very well set up, I really liked the modern architecture and how it was used to display items and stories connected to the Holocaust. There is a good and extensive audio guide, which I decided to pay for and walk around. I’m usually bad with reading boards in museums, so an audio guide makes it easier for me to take the exhibition in. Overall, it was an impressive, moving visit for me after which I needed some cheering up…

…and what would have been better for that than a pre-Shabbath visit to Mahane Yehuda market back in the city!? I always love markets, and I certainly enjoyed this one. Walking around and watching everyone busily shopping for last supplies for dinner was fun, and I tried some little snacks here and there. With this, my time in Jerusalem had for now come to an end – for now.