From April 24 to June 11, 1998 I travelled through Europe and Israel
Here's a little of what I did in Israel
(hopefully I didn't get anyone's name wrong)
The plane ride to Israel went pretty well. The British Airways flight had a fancier coach class than I'd seen before. Each of the seats had an LCD television screen situated on the seat in front of it, which we could use to watch the one video channel (first class had more channels I understand). The only problem with this is that when you're not short and the person in front of you leans their chair back all the way, the screen is at an angle such that the picture is not viewable… I had to slump down in my seat when they played "The Boxer".
Landing in Israel I got some money, and found a taxi to take me to the hotel. I was initially planning on taking a bus, it would have been half the price but it would have taken a lot longer (I would have had to switch busses), and I was too tired for that. Arriving at the hotel, I told the reception who I was, and they presented me with two keys for the room. I went up to the room and saw luggage already unpacked… men's shoes and women's shoes on the floor. I went back to the reception where I assured them they had given me the wrong keys, and once they determined the correct room I was supposed to be in, I got another two keys (I never figured out why they gave me two), and I entered the room where I was greeted by my roommate, Dan Unrau, who set up the trip. He'd been wondering what had happened to me. I had assumed that the travel agent who organized the whole thing would have told them when I was arriving, but this was not the case - they thought I had been in Israel already, and were wondering when I was going to get in-touch with them.
It was soon time for dinner, and I met the group that I would be spending my time with in Israel. I also got my first taste of what was in store for my stomach along the trip. It was quite a large buffet, and after travelling around Europe, eating less because I wanted to save the money, I pigged out. This behaviour at the beginning of the Israeli portion of the journey could perhaps explain why I regained all the weight I lost in Europe.
At dinner, I also met Ruth, our Israeli tour guide who I quickly learned to hate. You can read my rant about why I hated her, but as it's rather long, I won't force it on you.
I wish we didn't have a tour guide, Dan could have done a great job on his own, but by law we're required to have a Jewish guide. Ok, it doesn't have to be a Jewish guide, but the government doesn't allow Arabs to become guides (they claim for security reasons), so there isn't much choice.
After sleeping in a nice, airconditioned room (much better than most of the hostels I stayed at), and eating too much of the breakfast buffet, I boarded the bus with the rest of the group and we drove through Tel Aviv to Caesarea.
Caesarea was the first of many archaeological sites we visited. It's an ancient seaport and besides that, I don't remember much about it. On a tour when you're sitting on a bus for hours between 30 minute stops at the sights, not much actually sticks in your brain. I did find it amusing looking beyond the ruins of the Roman hippodrome and amphitheatre, three huge smokestacks invaded the skyline, so I took a picture.
Meggido was our next stop, ruins of a fortress city built by King Solomon. Situated in a strategic position, it was attacked many times in many wars. From it's name is derived the word Armageddon.
In the afternoon, our pace slowed down as we drove into a Druze village on Mt. Carmel and stopped to wander around a shopping area.
After a stay in Nahariya for the night, we proceeded to the ruins of the crusader city of Acco. It's walls rise out of the Mediterranean sea in a spectacular sight, which I didn't take any really good pictures of.
Our next stop was in Zippori which has some amazing mosaics. The ruins of a Roman residence from the 3rd century has a particularly impressive mosaic depicting scenes from the life of Dionysus.
Later in the day our driver, Sabri, took us to his home for tea with his family. I suppose if there were 40 of us, this wouldn't have happened, but since our group was only 10 people, we could fit in their living room. One of his brothers is an actor mostly working on the stage in France.
For night we went to the Ha Goshrim Kibbutz which had a pool, so I went swimming. One thing that was rather odd while I was swimming, is that I heard two boys who sounded terrifyingly like Shin-chan and Bo from the Japanese animated show "Crayon Shin Chan".
The next day we were supposed to dress appropriately for certain religious sites, but I forgot to bring along to bring a pair of pants along. I missed racing through a site with Ruth babbling at us - it was as this point that I realized that I didn't really appreciate her, and started avoiding her on purpose.
After some relaxing time staying near the bus and enjoying the view, we were whisked off take a boat trip across the Sea of Galilee. Ruth said she didn't like boats so she didn't come along (bliss), but instead took the bus to meet us on the other side.
In 1986 some people found the remains of a boat from the first century in the Sea of Galilee. "The Jesus Boat" was supposedly based on these remains, but somehow I think they just bought boats that had some similarities, and got marketing (they even give out certificates that you've been on the stupid thing).
On the other side we saw the remains of the ancient boat, and saw a movie about it's discovery in the museum where it will eventually be housed (once they've finished preserving it).
One of the places we stopped before returning for another night in the kibbutz was the ruins of Korazim. More archaeological ruins for me to run around in, and this time there was even some small dead animal on one of the paths.
A stop at the River of Jordan proved to be quite an experience. We were taken to a very commercial spot on the river, made to suck the dollars from the bus loads of tourists brought there everyday. A baptismal center had been created to let pilgrims spend their money on purchasing the accouterments at the store.
Some of the crap they were selling was rather humorous. For $2 US (all prices were in US$), you could purchase a "plastic Jesus bottle" - rather poorly made, and probably costing them pennies per box full. Another thing I saw which made me wonder, was a package with small vials of water from the Jordan, olive oil, dirt from Israel and olive wood along with a certificate from some Bishop that they were from Israel and had been blessed or something. It seemed like all the tourist shops had these.. I can just imagine a moving conveyor belt, overloaded with these packages, priests blessing them during their 8 hour shifts at the factory.
Bet-She'an proved to be the most impressive archaeological site we visited. It's a huge site which is still being excavated and in the hour running around the site (and avoiding Ruth), I took some nice pictures.
We next drove into the West Bank to visit Jericho along with the ruins of it's ancient wall.
From Jericho, we took the Wadi Kelt road into Jerusalem.
The next day I wasn't feeling very well in the morning so I skipped out the morning with Ruth running through Jerusalem, but in the afternoon we went to Bethlehem. The Church of the Nativity was quite interesting, but I found it quite tacky in the grotto "where Jesus was born".
People wanted to go shopping, but instead of letting people wander around, Ruth told us that she'd take us to a good place - ie. somewhere she got a cut from whatever our group bought.
The following day brought us to "The Garden Tomb". Some people say that this was the tomb where Jesus stayed for a while (as opposed to the Church of the Holy Sepulchre in Jerusalem), but our guide for this site, Rev. John Cull, said we should just think of it as a visual reference.
The afternoon had us wandering around a bit of Jerusalem, before visiting the Holocaust Museum. One thing that surprised me a bit about the Holocaust museum is that it didn't give me any idea of the scale of the concentration camps that I got from visiting KZ-Gedenkstätte in Dachau.
The final stop from the day was to a model of Jerusalem from the 2nd Temple Period.
The Biblical Resources garden the following day was an interesting place to visit. It was created to give a visual impression of what it was like during the time of Jesus, and we had quite a nice lunch there.
A free day followed, since Ruth told us that we shouldn't go to the Arab section of town, since we'd be pickpocketed and ripped off if we bought anything.. I headed for the Damascus gate. The Arab section was quite busy and a few people asked me if they wanted a guide (arabs aren't allowed to legally become guides, but they're quite eager to do it anyway). I wandered all over Jerusalem, getting lost many times, but not worrying about it. I had quite an enjoyable time wandering around aimlessly, apart from a rather persistent man I picked up in the Jewish section who wanted to be my guide and wouldn't take no for an answer. After a while he left, swearing and cursing me for not giving him money.
From Jerusalem we went to Qumran and the Dead Sea. If you didn't know, the Dead Sea resides below sea level, and with people taking water from it's sources for irrigation, the Dead Sea gets lower every year. The evaporation of water, however, leaves a high concentration of minerals in the water, which means that you can't help but float. It also means that if you get any in your mouth, you'll get sick (I accidentally got a drop on my lips and could taste how terrible it was). After paddling around for a while and taking showers (a necessity to get the slimy feeling of the Dead Sea off you), we went to Masada.
Set high upon a hill, we took a cable car to see the ruins of Masada. Many ruins presented themselves, but after Bet-She'an and so many other ruins, I was no longer impressed. The temperature at the site was also quite high. Perhaps the most impressive thing I saw there was a pair of incredibly tight shorts on a gorgeous woman - wish I'd taken a picture.
As we were leaving Masada and on our way to the hotel in Arad, the bus broke down. We were all sad to loose Sabri, but we got on a different bus, and were on our way to the hotel.
The next day took us through the Negev desert to Eilat - a resort town in the southern tip of Israel. After the running around, this was our vacation from our vacation and while most of the rest of the group took an optional trip to Petra (something like $400 extra for that trip), I lay around the pool. After getting quite burned, it was time for the trip to end, and the group drove to Tel Aviv for the flight out.
They decided that to save the hassle, they'd check in their luggage early instead of when their flight left at something like 2am. As I waited in the bus for them to finish their early check in, they were all grilled about who this guy was that travelled with them on the trip, but wasn't going home with them. They all insisted that they could talk to me themselves, but the security never did.
After staying another night in Israel, this time at a hostel, it was my turn to leave the country. I arrived early at the airport.. very early. I had nothing else to do in the morning, so I had to wait around in the airport for a few hours before I could actually check in. When it was my turn to go through security, I think I got a similar treatment to my travelling companions. One of the problems I had was that my mind was all confused about what was what, so when they asked me about Masada to be sure that I'd been there, I didn't remember what place that name was associated with. Eventually after digging through my bag and seeing LOTS of tourist pamphlets, and seeing nothing suspicious at the x-ray, they let me through.
Back to London again, where I stayed at O'Calligan's again. The next morning I packed up my stuff, but since I had quite a few hours before I had to leave, I left my stuff at the hostel and went walking.
There's a series of books I really like, the Chung Kuo series, written by David Wingrove. Since his books are released in North America almost 2 years after they're released in England, I decided to go searching for the final book of the series. After looking in a few stores I found a hard cover copy, and after thinking about it for a bit, bought a second one for my friend who introduced me to the series - I knew he'd buy it off me when I got home. On my way back to the hostel, I walked past Buckingham palace, seeing the throngs of tourists awaiting the changing of the guard. Moving on, I collected my belongings and made my way to Gatwick to catch my flight.
After checking in, I found myself with a few pounds left, and wondering how I should spend them. Amazingly enough, I managed to spend exactly the amount I had (not even 1p left!). A bottle of Scotch and a small McDonald's fries took the last of it. I felt somewhat bad about the fries, as I had told myself that I wasn't going to buy anything from an American franchise while I was on my trip, but at the airport, I felt like my vacation was over anyway.
The flight was long, but it gave me a chance to read my new book - I finished it before the plane landed.
As an afterward, it turned out someone else had bought my friend a copy of the final Chung Kuo book, so now I've got two.. anyone want to buy one?
Colin Stobbe
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