Schlagwort-Archive: backpacking

Israel, World Trip 2018-19

Nazareth – another special little town

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Nazareth was another place in Israel where I had always wanted to go, so when finally arriving in the afternoon from Tiberias, I was eager to just drop my stuff at the hostel and head out to explore! And that’s what I did. Equipped with a map from the hostel, I first made my way to St Gabriel’s church, Mary’s Well and the pretty square in front of them. The church was nice, but the well a disappointment and I continued my way to the main sight of Nazareth – the Church of the Annunciation.

This church was supposedly built at the location where Mary learned that she’d give birth to Jesus. I must say – I wasn’t expecting much since it’s actually a rather new church being built in 1969 only. It completely knocked my socks off though! It’s a huge and impressive church, built in a modern style with lots of modern art inside and outside. So far, my favourite church in Israel!

Also, St Joseph’s Church nearby is worth a visit. I continued walking through the little streets of Nazareth until sunset when the empty alleys became a little spooky and I returned to the hostel. I stayed at the Fauzi Azar Hostel, which is quite a special place since it’s located in a very old building with high rooms and paintings on the ceilings. It has a lovely courtyard, and runs a free city tour every morning which I joined the next day. It doesn’t bring you to the main sights but rather to some local businesses where owners introduce you to their life and work. While it was interesting, I had expected something a bit different. Quite some of the stops were shops and the owners were clearly interested in selling something to us. Since it was a big group, there were always people taking forever with their purchases. So in the end the tour took 1,5 h longer than expected and I had to forget about my plan of visiting Akko (north of Haifa) the same day. I still made it to Haifa of course, but wouldn’t have had enough time to go and see Akko anymore. In hindsight, I should have skipped the free tour, taken another quick walk around Nazareth myself and then gone to Haifa/Akko – but well!

Israel, World Trip 2018-19

Tiberias and the Sea of Galilee

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When I left Ramallah, I had to go back to Jerusalem to then catch a bus to Tiberias which would go into/through the West Bank/Palestine again. Makes no sense, but that’s how it is due to the political situation. Driving through the desert landscapes I remember thinking: would be nice to see some colours again. And Galilee region delivered! The landscape was finally green again which felt like a treat for my eyes.

I checked into my hostel in Tiberias and realized I still had some time to go see Safed, especially since the bus there was only gonna take about 30 min. In the end it took a little more than an hour and that without much of a traffic jam. Odd, but short bus rides so far always seem to take longer than announced – for no apparent reason. So once I got into Safed, I only had about an hour left to see the town before the sun would set and everything would close down. But I managed! Somehow. Because Safed is small, it is actually possible to explore the old town rather quickly. However, I ended up liking it more than I had thought and would have preferred a bit more time at my hands.

First, I climbed the little hill to get a bit of a view of the area. Then I descended into pretty little alleys which are dotted with small art galleries. They were so nice!! Of course, prices are high – but looking is free 😉 If you have the chance, I think Safed would make a nice place for an overnight stay – certainly a lot nicer than Tiberias.

Next day, I had a bucket list item on my list that was going to be a little difficult to reach: Since I had seen a picture of the Hexagon Pool somewhere in this www, I had always wanted to go see them. Only later on I found out there was no public transport to the pools. So I had to improvise. I found out that I could take the bus until Beit Zeida Junction and then hitchhike from there. And that’s what I did! Hitchhiking worked really well and quickly, and I was dropped off at the turn-off to the Hexagon Pools. Unfortunately I still had to walk about 30 min to the park entrance along the service road, with no car passing to get another ride. Once at the park, it was only about a 30 min hike down to Hexagon Pool – and it was completely worth the way! Just as amazing as I had expected. The black rocks look almost un-natural and reminded me of pictures of the Giant’s Causeway in Northern Ireland. Really really cool!

The way back was a bit easier: I joined some other visitors in their car back to the main road and then got a ride quickly on to Capernaum. Capernaum doesn’t have too much to offer, just a pretty church with red roofs. So after seeing that rather quickly, I suddenly came to the shocking realization that I was stuck again! The next bus from here to Tiberias was only gonna be in about 3h from now. No way I was gonna wait that long with nothing to do and see! But hitchhiking proved difficult since it was a big road and cars were passing too quickly to stop for me. I finally managed to get a ride back to Tiberias and was very relieved! Phewww, I definitely wouldn’t have gone to Capernaum if I’d known getting away from there would be so hard.

Back in Tiberias, I went for a quick walk to see what’s to see in Tiberias: not much. The sky was rather misty these days, so I didn’t get a clear view of the Sea of Galilee ever. The lake and horizon just melted together, you couldn’t see where one ended and the other one started… in other conditions I might have gone for a boat ride, but like this there was no point! So I packed up my stuff and hopped on a bus to my next destination – Nazareth.

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…