Go to Israel. Plain and simple. I'm not a religious person, but any person with any belief (or non-belief) can go to Israel and appreciate the ever-changing history and countless stories it has to offer. Of course, some of the stories are conflicting, between the Jewish majority, the Muslims, and the Christians (both Orthodox and Catholics), but they are histories and stories nonetheless. And it's worth hearing and seeing first hand.
Israel is probably the most unstable, stable place in the world. To an outsider it can seem calm and safe and a place everyone should visit, then turn into a war zone to stay far away from the next minute. We never put it in the same category as other countries who are a few angry words away from starting a war, but the fact is that war could break out at any moment. People say that if there is a World War III, it will start in Israel (that, or on a soccer field).
A couple weeks before our trip, a conflict broke out between Hamas (the Gaza strip side of Palestine) and Israel. Hundreds of rockets were launched back and forth (including in civilian areas) and the thought of visiting was getting more and moreexciting worrying questionable. We closely monitored the news, and as we suspected, the fighting slowed until a cease fire was agreed to, just a few days before our trip.
In the end, we didn't notice any trace of the conflict, other than the lack of crowds, which was great! Our tour guide in Jerusalem estimated a 40% drop in tourists compared to normal December levels. We heard some fighter jets overhead, and saw a tank on the street, but we'll just pretend that's normal. People went about their business as usual. I can't imagine life for Jewish Israelis, who live their lives surrounded by countries who want to destroy them.
There is a great debate as to who is the instigator of this conflict. Generally the Israel supporters say that since Hamas attacks them, they should be able to attack back (against military personnel, weapons depots, etc) to protect itself. And since the other countries in the region are typically Muslim and don't recognize the Jewish state, Israel has its backs against the wall at all times. But can you really condone launching rockets into neighboring territories, killing innocent people? It's one of the great debates these days (along with which Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtle is the best and how many licks it takes to get to the center of a Tootsie Pop).
A couple months before the trip, Igors sent me a message asking if I wanted to go to Israel for 4 days, because the flights were cheap during Lot.com's Crazy Wednesday (every Wednesday flights go on sale). But why stay only 4 days? Within an hour, 6 of us were booked for 8 days in Israel. Another 2 got tickets later, bringing our total to 8.
But I didn't think I'd actually get there. My Polish residence card expired the day we left for the trip. My residence card is what allows me to stay in the EU for more than 90 days at a time (otherwise I'd need a visa, which I had, but only for my first year in Poland). Brilliantly, "someone" (not me) submitted the residence card renewal application too late for me to get a new one by the time it expired (to give you an idea as to how long of a delay it was, it expired in November, and I got a new one in January). Anyway, since I had been in EU for longer than 90 days without leaving (i.e. I had no passport stamps), without the residence card I would technically be here for longer than my authorized stay, and could be sent home. If our red-eye flight to Israel was 1 day later (or delayed by a couple hours), I would have been in trouble. We didn't even think about that when booking the trip. I don't know if they'd prevent me from leaving, but they may have prevented me from coming back in, thinking that I overstayed my welcome. Luckily there wasn't an issue, and because I got stamps from Israel and Jordan (not Michael), I was allowed to come back in, and my 90 day limit was reset. Thankfully, the mistake in the "process" didn't cause anything more than a bit of stress.
Our flight landed in Tel-Aviv before 4 am, which was a weird time for an arrival of a less-than 4 hour flight. We got our rental cars and got to the city with 6 hours to kill before our apartment's check in time. We stopped by a mini-mart and ran into a group of pleasantly drunk people on their way home from a club. We were both buying waters, but for different reasons, I imagine. The weather was 10 times nicer than in Warsaw so we got some breakfast and laid on the beach for most of the morning. After finding the apartment, going for a beach swim and "lunch" (at a place called Goocha, which had awesome calamari and seafood stew), it felt like midnight. It was dark and we were all tired from no sleep on the flight. I looked at my watch and somehow it was only 5:30 pm. Since we were so tired, we all agreed that we'd take a nap til 10, then get ready for a night out on the town. Yea right. We slept til nearly 8 the next morning.
Generally the apartments we stayed in were pretty nice. In Tel Aviv we had a 4 bedroom, 3 bath with a jacuzzi, and in Eilat a huge house with a pool. The Tel Aviv apartment came with a rule I never heard before (but understand): no cooking pork or seafood (to be kosher).
That night we wanted to play in the jacuzzi. I don't really know what I mean by "play", but I guess that's what we did. Usually you just relax and chat in a jacuzzi, but that's not what we did. The thing is that in my experience, jacuzzis have hot water in them. The water coming out of this faucet was ice cold. We didn't want to give up on the idea, since we had planned that Dominika would fan us with palm leaves in the jacuzzi, so we spent an hour boiling water in pots and the kettle to make hot water. That's not a joke. We were determined. This was somewhat gratifying to think we worked so hard for our jacuzzi (having to get up out of the half full tub every 5 minutes for more hot water) that we celebrated a bit too much with shouting, singing, and dancing both inside and outside. We were having so much fun that even the police knocked on our door because they wanted to join. But they forgot their swim suits so we didn't let them in (we have rules here). Or maybe they just wanted us to shut up, I'm not sure. Domi answered the door in her bikini, while we all hid in the kitchen and behind couches, so you'll have to ask her what they wanted. I haven't laughed that much in a long time. And it turns out there was a hot water switch that was turned off the whole time, so our problems could have been easily fixed by the flip of a switch. Oops. I guess 4 days of cold showers weren't so bad.
Then we spent a day and a half exploring Jerusalem, driving back and forth about an hour each way. Jerusalem is one of the most interesting places I have ever been. It's 4,000 years old, one of the oldest in the world, just a bit older than Seattle, for example. But outside of the Old Town city walls, everything is only about 150 years old.
Back in 1948, there was a war with Jordan (not Michael) after which Jerusalem was split in half. The West part stayed with Israel, while the East (including Old Town), went to Jordan (not Michael), until 1967. After 1967, Israel took back East Jerusalem, and still holds it to this day. However, Jerusalem is not recognized as the capital city of Israel, because the international community still considers it part of Palestine, under Israeli military occupation. It's all very confusing to me, but I think they want it to be confusing, so you don't know who to cheer for.
The Old City city is pretty small, split into 4 distinct and religiously different Quarters; Jewish, Muslim, Christian and Armenian (yea, when I first saw it, I thought the same thing you're thinking...Armenian???). It sits in the shadow of Mount Zion and the Mountain of Olives, which holds Jewish graves going back 3,000 years.
Due to the timing of the free and cheap city tours, and the fact there were so many of us, we decided to pay for a private tour guide (just a suggestion for anyone going - definitely book at least one of the scheduled, and/or free tours, otherwise you will have no idea where to go or what you are looking at). Irina conducted a thorough telephone interview process with 3 options (negotiating price, time, activities, hair color, and listening to if the person sounded fun), before finally settling on Dvir. He was really friendly, happy, and funny, and unbiased in his stories (it would be easy to slant a tour to be pro-Jewish, for example). Domi was disappointed he didn't have red hair, but in the end we were all happy with him. And for $200 for 4 hours, it was very affordable (and worth it).
One of the first things I asked him was if they felt safe in Jerusalem during the rocket launching fiestas a couple weeks before. He said that there are many Muslims in the city so he felt safe in Jerusalem, especially since he was standing at the Golden Dome during the rocket sirens. The Golden Dome sits on Temple Mount (which has changed between a Christian, Jewish and Muslim prayer spot over time), and is currently the third most important location in Islam. It would be the last place the Muslim Hamas would attack (or maybe third to last place).
Jewish people are not even allowed to go up to Temple Mount, partially to not cause any disturbance with the praying Muslims, but also so they don't pray in the wrong area. This is why the Western Wall, holding up Temple Mount, is the main Jewish prayer site in the World. They want to honor the original Jewish Temple (from 3,000 years ago), but since it is long destroyed, they pray at the base of the wall. We walked up to the wall to put our wish/prayer in one of the crevices, because, you know, when in Rome (but be careful that guys and girls go to separate parts of the wall). Jewish texts say that the Mount will be the site of the Third Temple, which will be rebuilt with the coming of the Jewish Messiah. This would mean that at some point the Muslim Dome would have to be destroyed to make room for the next Temple (something else that fuels the Jewish vs Muslim fire). It's incredible that the most famous holy sites for different religions can be right next door to each other.
One thing that they are not shy about in Israel is obvious racial profiling. At the car checkpoints on the highways, if you look non-Muslim, then you're allowed to pass, but if you look Muslim, have a Muslim name, or have a parent or grandparent with a Muslim name, then you get some hassle (like Renata did at the airport because they guards didn't like her grandfather's Muslim-sounding name). On the opposite spectrum, Muslims are allowed into the mosque area in Jerusalem just by looking Muslim (and non-Muslims are allowed only at certain times - and Jews not at all). It's a bit backwards, but the Golden Dome area is guarded by Israeli police, protecting a Muslim site, that used to be the Jewish temple (while the Jewish people are waiting for it to be destroyed so the Third temple can come). Dvir told us that the government is pretty good at being neutral towards all religions, and sometimes is even tougher on the Jewish, so not to look like they're being biased (which might cause conflict).
During the tour we visited many very historically significant spots in the city: the Virgin Mary's crypt (where exiting is not allowed), the dining room where The Last Supper was held (based on the Dan Brown book), and the church where Jesus was crucified, buried, and resurrected.
It was a fascinating city, and somewhere that everyone should visit sometime in their lives. My dad used to tell me that when I was a kid, but I always thought "yea yea, it can't be as cool as Disneyland". But now that I've been there, I have the same advice. Go to Jerusalem.
Coming next, Part 2: The Dead Sea, Eilat and Petra.
Israel is probably the most unstable, stable place in the world. To an outsider it can seem calm and safe and a place everyone should visit, then turn into a war zone to stay far away from the next minute. We never put it in the same category as other countries who are a few angry words away from starting a war, but the fact is that war could break out at any moment. People say that if there is a World War III, it will start in Israel (that, or on a soccer field).
A couple weeks before our trip, a conflict broke out between Hamas (the Gaza strip side of Palestine) and Israel. Hundreds of rockets were launched back and forth (including in civilian areas) and the thought of visiting was getting more and more
In the end, we didn't notice any trace of the conflict, other than the lack of crowds, which was great! Our tour guide in Jerusalem estimated a 40% drop in tourists compared to normal December levels. We heard some fighter jets overhead, and saw a tank on the street, but we'll just pretend that's normal. People went about their business as usual. I can't imagine life for Jewish Israelis, who live their lives surrounded by countries who want to destroy them.
There is a great debate as to who is the instigator of this conflict. Generally the Israel supporters say that since Hamas attacks them, they should be able to attack back (against military personnel, weapons depots, etc) to protect itself. And since the other countries in the region are typically Muslim and don't recognize the Jewish state, Israel has its backs against the wall at all times. But can you really condone launching rockets into neighboring territories, killing innocent people? It's one of the great debates these days (along with which Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtle is the best and how many licks it takes to get to the center of a Tootsie Pop).
A couple months before the trip, Igors sent me a message asking if I wanted to go to Israel for 4 days, because the flights were cheap during Lot.com's Crazy Wednesday (every Wednesday flights go on sale). But why stay only 4 days? Within an hour, 6 of us were booked for 8 days in Israel. Another 2 got tickets later, bringing our total to 8.
But I didn't think I'd actually get there. My Polish residence card expired the day we left for the trip. My residence card is what allows me to stay in the EU for more than 90 days at a time (otherwise I'd need a visa, which I had, but only for my first year in Poland). Brilliantly, "someone" (not me) submitted the residence card renewal application too late for me to get a new one by the time it expired (to give you an idea as to how long of a delay it was, it expired in November, and I got a new one in January). Anyway, since I had been in EU for longer than 90 days without leaving (i.e. I had no passport stamps), without the residence card I would technically be here for longer than my authorized stay, and could be sent home. If our red-eye flight to Israel was 1 day later (or delayed by a couple hours), I would have been in trouble. We didn't even think about that when booking the trip. I don't know if they'd prevent me from leaving, but they may have prevented me from coming back in, thinking that I overstayed my welcome. Luckily there wasn't an issue, and because I got stamps from Israel and Jordan (not Michael), I was allowed to come back in, and my 90 day limit was reset. Thankfully, the mistake in the "process" didn't cause anything more than a bit of stress.
Our flight landed in Tel-Aviv before 4 am, which was a weird time for an arrival of a less-than 4 hour flight. We got our rental cars and got to the city with 6 hours to kill before our apartment's check in time. We stopped by a mini-mart and ran into a group of pleasantly drunk people on their way home from a club. We were both buying waters, but for different reasons, I imagine. The weather was 10 times nicer than in Warsaw so we got some breakfast and laid on the beach for most of the morning. After finding the apartment, going for a beach swim and "lunch" (at a place called Goocha, which had awesome calamari and seafood stew), it felt like midnight. It was dark and we were all tired from no sleep on the flight. I looked at my watch and somehow it was only 5:30 pm. Since we were so tired, we all agreed that we'd take a nap til 10, then get ready for a night out on the town. Yea right. We slept til nearly 8 the next morning.
The Mediterranean at 6 am
Walking on water is possible!
The great part of going to bed so early is that we had no problem waking up. The next day was for Haifa and the Sea of Galilee (even though it's a lake, it's called a "sea" because that's how the bible refers to it). That's where Jesus was thought to have walked on water (depending on your belief or non-belief). For lunch I ended up with a huge falafel/shwarma pita monster because I didn't know how to order. I just said "yes" to everything the guy asked me, and ended up with something bigger than my head, and strangers in line laughing at me. It tasted awesome though.
As we were wandering around, lost, looking for beach access, a nice (and obviously bored) hotel employee saw us on the street, called out to us, and helped us find a "free" beach. The first thing he said was "don't come to our beach, it's not worth it". What a nice guy! After a quick swim (but somehow no walking on water), we drove to Haifa, to check out the Bahai gardens.
Falafel as big as my head
As we were wandering around, lost, looking for beach access, a nice (and obviously bored) hotel employee saw us on the street, called out to us, and helped us find a "free" beach. The first thing he said was "don't come to our beach, it's not worth it". What a nice guy! After a quick swim (but somehow no walking on water), we drove to Haifa, to check out the Bahai gardens.
Igors trying to walk on the Sea of Galilee
Bahai gardens in Haifa
Multi-tasking
Playing on our gadgets
Generally the apartments we stayed in were pretty nice. In Tel Aviv we had a 4 bedroom, 3 bath with a jacuzzi, and in Eilat a huge house with a pool. The Tel Aviv apartment came with a rule I never heard before (but understand): no cooking pork or seafood (to be kosher).
That night we wanted to play in the jacuzzi. I don't really know what I mean by "play", but I guess that's what we did. Usually you just relax and chat in a jacuzzi, but that's not what we did. The thing is that in my experience, jacuzzis have hot water in them. The water coming out of this faucet was ice cold. We didn't want to give up on the idea, since we had planned that Dominika would fan us with palm leaves in the jacuzzi, so we spent an hour boiling water in pots and the kettle to make hot water. That's not a joke. We were determined. This was somewhat gratifying to think we worked so hard for our jacuzzi (having to get up out of the half full tub every 5 minutes for more hot water) that we celebrated a bit too much with shouting, singing, and dancing both inside and outside. We were having so much fun that even the police knocked on our door because they wanted to join. But they forgot their swim suits so we didn't let them in (we have rules here). Or maybe they just wanted us to shut up, I'm not sure. Domi answered the door in her bikini, while we all hid in the kitchen and behind couches, so you'll have to ask her what they wanted. I haven't laughed that much in a long time. And it turns out there was a hot water switch that was turned off the whole time, so our problems could have been easily fixed by the flip of a switch. Oops. I guess 4 days of cold showers weren't so bad.
Filling up the jacuzzi (no other jacuzzi pictures are allowed to be shown)
Then we spent a day and a half exploring Jerusalem, driving back and forth about an hour each way. Jerusalem is one of the most interesting places I have ever been. It's 4,000 years old, one of the oldest in the world, just a bit older than Seattle, for example. But outside of the Old Town city walls, everything is only about 150 years old.
Back in 1948, there was a war with Jordan (not Michael) after which Jerusalem was split in half. The West part stayed with Israel, while the East (including Old Town), went to Jordan (not Michael), until 1967. After 1967, Israel took back East Jerusalem, and still holds it to this day. However, Jerusalem is not recognized as the capital city of Israel, because the international community still considers it part of Palestine, under Israeli military occupation. It's all very confusing to me, but I think they want it to be confusing, so you don't know who to cheer for.
The Old City city is pretty small, split into 4 distinct and religiously different Quarters; Jewish, Muslim, Christian and Armenian (yea, when I first saw it, I thought the same thing you're thinking...Armenian???). It sits in the shadow of Mount Zion and the Mountain of Olives, which holds Jewish graves going back 3,000 years.
Due to the timing of the free and cheap city tours, and the fact there were so many of us, we decided to pay for a private tour guide (just a suggestion for anyone going - definitely book at least one of the scheduled, and/or free tours, otherwise you will have no idea where to go or what you are looking at). Irina conducted a thorough telephone interview process with 3 options (negotiating price, time, activities, hair color, and listening to if the person sounded fun), before finally settling on Dvir. He was really friendly, happy, and funny, and unbiased in his stories (it would be easy to slant a tour to be pro-Jewish, for example). Domi was disappointed he didn't have red hair, but in the end we were all happy with him. And for $200 for 4 hours, it was very affordable (and worth it).
Dvir explaining the history of Jerusalem
One of the first things I asked him was if they felt safe in Jerusalem during the rocket launching fiestas a couple weeks before. He said that there are many Muslims in the city so he felt safe in Jerusalem, especially since he was standing at the Golden Dome during the rocket sirens. The Golden Dome sits on Temple Mount (which has changed between a Christian, Jewish and Muslim prayer spot over time), and is currently the third most important location in Islam. It would be the last place the Muslim Hamas would attack (or maybe third to last place).
Jewish people are not even allowed to go up to Temple Mount, partially to not cause any disturbance with the praying Muslims, but also so they don't pray in the wrong area. This is why the Western Wall, holding up Temple Mount, is the main Jewish prayer site in the World. They want to honor the original Jewish Temple (from 3,000 years ago), but since it is long destroyed, they pray at the base of the wall. We walked up to the wall to put our wish/prayer in one of the crevices, because, you know, when in Rome (but be careful that guys and girls go to separate parts of the wall). Jewish texts say that the Mount will be the site of the Third Temple, which will be rebuilt with the coming of the Jewish Messiah. This would mean that at some point the Muslim Dome would have to be destroyed to make room for the next Temple (something else that fuels the Jewish vs Muslim fire). It's incredible that the most famous holy sites for different religions can be right next door to each other.
The Western Wall with the Golden Dome in the background
On Temple Mount
One thing that they are not shy about in Israel is obvious racial profiling. At the car checkpoints on the highways, if you look non-Muslim, then you're allowed to pass, but if you look Muslim, have a Muslim name, or have a parent or grandparent with a Muslim name, then you get some hassle (like Renata did at the airport because they guards didn't like her grandfather's Muslim-sounding name). On the opposite spectrum, Muslims are allowed into the mosque area in Jerusalem just by looking Muslim (and non-Muslims are allowed only at certain times - and Jews not at all). It's a bit backwards, but the Golden Dome area is guarded by Israeli police, protecting a Muslim site, that used to be the Jewish temple (while the Jewish people are waiting for it to be destroyed so the Third temple can come). Dvir told us that the government is pretty good at being neutral towards all religions, and sometimes is even tougher on the Jewish, so not to look like they're being biased (which might cause conflict).
During the tour we visited many very historically significant spots in the city: the Virgin Mary's crypt (where exiting is not allowed), the dining room where The Last Supper was held (based on the Dan Brown book), and the church where Jesus was crucified, buried, and resurrected.
Virgin Mary's crypt
That's a little worrisome
It was a fascinating city, and somewhere that everyone should visit sometime in their lives. My dad used to tell me that when I was a kid, but I always thought "yea yea, it can't be as cool as Disneyland". But now that I've been there, I have the same advice. Go to Jerusalem.
In Jerusalem you can have the best falafel ever (includes fries!)
Pita and hummus for every meal
Coming next, Part 2: The Dead Sea, Eilat and Petra.
