On a Lighter Note
A one hour bus ride took us from Jerusalem to Tel Aviv. We noticed right away the atmosphere here was much more relaxed and secular. There is a nice long stretch of beach with hotels, bars, and restaurants just across the street. On the beach, you can see bocce being played everywhere, girls in bikinis, and guys working out by the muscle park doing sit ups and chin ups (“hunka hunka!” Oops did I say that out loud?). It was a drastic change of scenery from the old city of Jerusalem indeed. We weren’t able to book a hotel beforehand, so while the boys sat in the ice cream shop by the beach with our backpacks, Christine and I walked around probably the entire 5 mile radius to look for accommodations. It was the high season so all the reasonable midrange accommodations were fully booked. We finally found a decent hotel by the beach called the Savoy, a treat for us after walking in the 35C heat for almost 2 hours! They only have double rooms, so in order to save some money, Eug shared a double room with Tai (a cool guy from New Zealand we met in Wadi Rum and ran into in Jerusalem again), and I shared a room with Christine. The room was minimalistic modern but very small. I was laughing my head off when we walked into the room and saw two tiny single beds pushed together with barely any room on the sides to separate them. It was a romantic night for Eug and Tai.
Our other travel mate Tim, a young medical doctor from London, rented a car in Tel Aviv and the five of us were able to get around Israel fairly easily in the comfortable Kia. We chilled by the beach for the rest of the day with some beers as Tim kept pointing out all the ‘stacked’ guys on the beach. Thanks for noticing Tim! We went out that night to grab more drinks until 3am. It felt pretty good to have a night life again. We were given some great recommendations for Tel Aviv from the Jewish American couple we shared 5 bottles of wine with in Essaouira 4 months ago. The next day we visited Jaffa, and drove north to Nazareth. Christine has a lawyer friend from Toronto there and we met up with her and her 2 cute kids. Nazareth is Jesus’ hometown (even though he was born in Bethlehem) but he was unsuccessful as a prophet here. The largest Church in the Middle East is the Basilica of Annunciation in the centre of town. It is where Catholics believe the angel Gabriel announced to the Virgin Mary that she was preggo. We found the church to be an eye-sore, but it had some cool mosaics of different interpretations of saintly figures from different countries of the world including China. And there was a statue figure representation of Virgin Mary from Taiwan! We stayed in Nazareth for the night to hang with Christine’s friend while Tai and Tim headed towards the Galilee to do some hiking. They came to pick us up the next afternoon and we went for a winery tour at the Golan Heights winery. The Israeli side of the Golan Heights is completely different than the Syrian side, which as you might remember from a previous blog post is destroyed, demilitarized and under UN rule. There are nice residential areas, farms, vineyards, and wineries on the Israeli side of the fence. We couldn’t believe it was the same Golan Heights. That night Tim suffered the England loss to Germany in the World Cup. We were able to cheer him up with some decent Chinese food right by our hostel in Haifa, owned and run by some Hongers. They had been living there for 35 years! We wondered how they got there in the first place. Too bad we didn’t get a chance to find out. In Haifa, we visited the immaculate Baha’i Gardens and we learned a bit about the Baha’i faith from the free one hour tour of this multi-tiered sloped garden. They are one of the world’s youngest religions and they originated from Ali-Muhammed in Iran. There are about between 5 and 6 million Baha’i worldwide who believe in the equality and unity of all religions, and each member must perform a pilgrimage to the Baha’i Gardens at least once in their life, walking the 1400 steps up to the top of the garden. I guess it didn’t count for us since we walked down, not up.
Christine left us at the end of our Israel leg after one more night of drinks on the beach in Tel Aviv until the wee hours, sob sob… We couldn’t believe how fast the 2 weeks with her went by. Thanks for joining us Christine! It’s been awesome having you around. We had a blast with Tai and Tim as well. After Christine left the 4 of us crossed the border back into Egypt where Tim then proceeded to go onto Cairo. The remaining 3 of us went to Dahab, a laid-back diver’s town on the Red Sea. There we did a couple days of diving (that’s us up there!) and just loafing, it was exciting to be able to dive again! We saw a giant turtle, some lionfish, a big school of barracuda, eels, octopus, and of course the cute Nemo! The coral gardens were absolutely gorgeous and there was an astonishing variety of marine life. Now we know why the Red Sea is so famous around the world for Scuba. We both really liked Dahab and its chilled out vibe (unlike its crass and in-your-face neighbour Sharm El-Sheikh) and hope to return. We are currently waiting to fly to Cairo tonight, where we will be meeting with Andrea (Eug’s sister) to continue on to Tanzania. We’ll be on the slopes of Kilimanjaro in two days! Woo Woo!
As I finish this entry I realize by flipping through the pages of our very worn-out Middle East Lonely Planet that we’ve visited all the countries in this book except for Iraq! And we’ve pretty much been to all the photographed places in the ‘Middle East Highlights’ section in the front pages. It’s been an incredible 4 months in this part of the world. We’ve learned so much more about the history, the religions, the cities, the landscapes and best of all, the people. Just as Lonely Planet describes “it’s the people of the region who will leave the most lasting impression”. We really did lose count of the number of tea invitations we’ve received. They are warm and hospitable and always around to help if you seem lost. We’ve also met a lot of interesting travelers here. I can’t be thankful enough to have had the opportunity to travel through this region, and I’m glad I got to share this with Eug. And in turn through this blog, I’m glad we could share it with all of you
The Holy Cities of Israel and the Palestinian Territories
We took 3 short tours: one around old Jerusalem with a conservative Jewish guide, one around Nazareth with a Christian guide, and one around Bethlehem in the West Bank with a Palestinian Muslim. The result was three very different viewpoints on pretty much the same topics. I think you’d be hard pressed to find another area with so much to dispute about; be it history, land, or religion. We knew this coming here, and hearing so many different stories from even just secular travelers we were looking forward to forming our own opinions.
We started our time in Jerusalem, arguably the holiest city on Earth. According to the Jews, the foundation stone of the world is at the Temple Mount, an open plaza on the Biblical Mt Moriah. Abraham also offered his son Isaac to God here, and it is where of the ‘Holy of Holies’ lies. The Muslims also find the Temple Mount very sacred as it is where Mohammed ascended to heaven to be with Allah (this spot now covered by the gold-plated Dome of the Rock, pictured above and Jerusalem’s most iconic building). After Mecca and Medina this city is the 3rd holiest in Islam. Just a few minutes’ walk away from the Temple Mount you will find the Christian quarter of the old city where the Church of the Holy Sepulchre is. Christians around the world believe this is where Jesus was crucified, buried and resurrected. Can you imagine the religious fervour brought about by these few sites?
To the Jews the Western Wall (or wailing wall, named because the Jews used to cry here as this was all that was left of their scared temple that was destroyed by the Ottomans) is their holiest spot to come to pray. Many leave wishes in the wall on slips of paper as they supposedly have a higher chance of being answered. Soldiers in military garb, civilians in jeans and T’s, and orthodox Jews all dressed in black with matching hats and curly hair continually line the wall, facing it in prayer.
At the Church of the Holy Sepulchre you see Christians crying, overwhelmed by the supposed site of the crucifixion. Just outside Jerusalem is Bethlehem, which, as we all know from our Christmas carols is where Jesus was born. Here at the Church of Nativity a star marks the spot of Christ’s birth in a manger. As we descended the stairs to the spot a bunch of Christian pilgrims around us broke into holy song. They all proceeded to prostrate themselves and continually kiss this star while another guy in their group was reading the bible very monotonously in a trance like state. I actually started to feel uncomfortable, as I was unable to make up my mind as to if this scene was beautiful or a little scary. Behind these guys there were what seemed to be a group of new age hippies, dreads and all, meditating like they were Buddhists (with the legs crossed, soles facing up, and hands gently resting on knees with fingers pointing up) trying to soak in the religious energy.
I’m sure if we could have entered the Muslim holy sites we would have also witnessed something similar, with worshippers really being overwhelmed by the religious significance of where they were.
Being non-religious myself, I couldn’t get into the heavy atmosphere surrounding me. The thing I found by far the most moving in this city was the ‘security wall’ built around it. I won’t get into the politics of the situation, but basically a large wall was built to separate the West Bank where the Palestinians live and Jerusalem. In the West Bank there are many Palestinian refugee camps as well as new Jewish (and hotly contested) settlements. Seeing a new wall built in this day and age was extremely powerful and unfortunately very sad. You’d think that at this point of human development we’d be building bridges, and that walls would be a thing of the past. We were able to have a conversation with a headmaster of an elementary school we met in a square, and it really was quite sobering to hear what little hope he had for himself, his students, or Palestine.
As you walk around the old city of Jerusalem you’ll be passed by devout Muslims rushing to the Al-Aqsa mosque after their call to prayer. You’ll walk beside Christians following the path Jesus walked to his crucifixion, carrying heavy crosses on their back as well as they try to emulate the experience. And you’ll see Jews standing and rocking back and forth as they face the Western Wall praying to God, waiting for their Messiah. You take this in and you realize why this small city grabs so many of the world’s headlines. Even though you hear all the stories on the news as to why there’s conflict, you need to be here to really witness everything yourself to gain your own perspective. Don’t just buy the media’s version of events, as the exact same story can be reported as something completely different by Fox News, CNN, Al Jazeera News and CCTV. Come here and talk to people of all different faiths (including atheism), all different races, and all different backgrounds, including other worldly travelers. You’ll be drawn into the conversation that encompasses war, religion, politics, and history. Though the discussions can be hotly contested and turbulent, in the end you’ll be happy you were a participant, even if you were just a listener.
fromwonderintowonder 
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