A day in Nablus

On tuesday, I decided to make a daytrip from Ramallah to Nablus. In general, I am not a big fan of daytrips, because my favourite time of the day is the early evening, and that is mostly the time at which you start returning to your homebase. Still it seemed a reasonable thing to do this time, because I knew there wouldn't be too much to see in Nablus, and I have an amazing place to stay here in Ramallah. (I stay with Lucia from Austria, who has been working here in the Palestinian Trade Center for about 10 months now.)

Spontaneously one would say that if you're doing a daytrip, you should leave early in the morning at least, so you have the whole day to explore the city. Sadly, it doesn't work like that in hot countries like Palestine. Basically, you can't enjoy your time outside between 11am and 3pm, and 4 hours are a long time to drink tea somewhere inside.

Luckily, it only takes about one hour to get from Ramallah to Nablus, so I simply arrived there at 3pm.
On the way I saw parts of the Israeli "Defence Wall" again (just like from Jerusalem to Ramallah), but wasn't really able to capture it. Let me tell you that they use the exact same stones that were used for the Berlin Wall - with barbed wire on top.

somewhere around Jerusalem

the future "East Side Gallery"?

Checkpoint - crossing between the zones A, B, and C (read more here)

as I heard, mostly private cars are searched through - our bus wasn't even stopped

Cruising through hilly and curvy Palestine, I once again wondered why my Israeli friends had left their country and flew to Nepal and India for hiking in the first place, when they have all this beauty in front of their houses. (That doesn't apply on the Westbank of course, but if you remember the pictures I took in the Negev, you will know what I mean.)

When I had arrived in Nablus and walked around in the city center for some time, I soon realized that Nablus was pretty much the same like Ramallah: A lot of clothing and shoe stores, snacks being sold on the streets, women doing some shopping, and men sitting together in shady places, watching the scene.
Definately an atmosphere I feel comfortable with, but I had hoped for some nice mosques to see and couldn't find a single (nice) one, so, slightly frustrated, I sat down in the shadow myself, thinking of how to spend the rest of the day and watching the people walking by.

I guess that's my favourite thing to do: Watch people.
And there is one thing I witnessed during the last days, which I will tell everyone who wants to tell me that "in Arabic countries, all women look the same" - that's simply not true! I can honestly report you that I have seen women here in the Westbank, dressed so chic and sophisticated that you can't even imagine.

There is two ways to put it.
You can say: All women wear headscarves and clothes that cover every part of their body. Which is true.
But I say: How they wear it is what matters! They don't have the same boring ponytail every day, but they choose from an - as it seems - endless variety of shawls. I've seen women matching their scarves with their dresses (of course), with their purses, even with their shoes! You find small details of the shawl in the seam of the dress, small bows are added on the back of a dress, and so on..

(These may not be the best examples, but as you can imagine, I didn't want to point my camera into people's faces.)


Anyway, I could not sit around there alone forever, so in the end I walked up to a group of younger men sitting together. The excitement was obviously big, but everyone kept being friendly and tried his best to ask some questions in English. I ended up eating Knafeh with two cousins Ali and Ala in a shop nearby.

Knafeh - melted white cheese with lots and lots of sugar around it

Ala & Ali

After some communication problems I understood that they wanted to show me a place from where I could see the whole Nablus from above - something I had thought about myself, as the city is located in a valley between two very steep hills, but hadn't known where to go of course.

So we took a taxi for 12 shekels that brought us up to the hill in the south, from where we had this amazing view:

Ali went a little crazy with the camera..

<3

At one point of the still chitty-chatty conversation we had, one of them asked me if I remembered Hitler.  "We like Hitler", they both said, "because he was against the Jews". 
I tried to explain them that they were in their current shitty, rightless situation pretty much thanks to Hitler, but obviously, their historic and linguistic knowledge was far too low to understand a word of what I was trying to say. At least they know now, that Hitler was Austrian, not German. I have the slight fear, though, that they confuse Austria with Australia.

Anyway!

As you can imagine, I would have looooved to see the sunset from that place, but that would've meant another hour of waiting and also coming back home in absolute darkness. So we began our descent and walked until a taxi picked us up.

And that was the end of my short but nice trip to Nablus!

Feeling the Jerusalem vibe

I know this is annoying but I always have to repeat it: There is so much I want to tell you and simply don't have the time, energy and patience for.

I feel like I've been here in Jerusalem for ages, because there is so many impressions everywhere I look in the three hours I spend outside daily (for the rest I'm drinking tea in the lobby and hope that the pain goes away, which finally is almost the case today). Some experiences you can't show in videos or pictures, and some things you can't even express in writing, but you can only absorbe it like a sponge and become a different person with every minute and every step you take.

sunrise over the Temple Mount, Dome of the Rocks to the left

To write down all the thoughts I have, all the crazy stories I heard from even crazier people (in a bad way), would probably already take me the 3 weeks I have left in this beautiful, marvellous country. (As you can see above, I got up to see a SUNRISE - something I have never done before in my life.) Jerusalem indeed has a mesmerizing effect on everyone who comes here, and I feel like I could spend two more weeks just wandering around the Old City. This is what I have done for the last 3 days, but the Old City is just the tiny center of it all, and by far not the only thing you can and should see of Jerusalem.

the "look" - I already got compliments on my way of binding the headscarf, haha

I will see how far I get with all the sightseeing, but definately won't do too much. The Tonsillitis obviously was a sign (of the LOOOORD, as my crazy American missionaries would add) for me to go slower than planned and maybe skip some things also. Indeed I realized that I planned to see some cities or places that are written in big letters in my guidebook, but don't actually interest me too much - so why go there? Anyway, thanks to Lonely Planet I woke up early today, to get to the Temple Mount as one of the first when it opens at 7:30, and what do I have to hear? It's closed on saturdays. Sooooo~


I will now give you some impressions, but don't feel like they represent anything. I made some videos that show the atmosphere way better, but you will have to wait for those :)

I'm thinking of buying this one

an interesting combination I must say

I want this, but it's in baby size

the alleys can get very crowded, especially in the Arab quarter

..and those are people waiting to crawl into something where Jesus is supposed to be buried

Suq El Qatanin, at the end you can see the Muslim entrance to the Temple Mount

the same street, 7am

..good for me, as I was allowed to walk up the stairs and get this picture

hilly Jerusalem

sunset over the Mount of Olives and the Temple Mount

taken from the rooftop of the great hostel I stay in: the New Petra Hostel

around 10pm

and you can never get enough of this view

As you may have seen on facebook, you could hear music, singing and praying all over the city all through the night. I think that the main source was the green-glowing minarett to the left. For me it was the most beautiful sounds, but I sleep in a room with two elderly divas (a story I again don't have the time for), so the windows stayed closed. I still could hear it a little bit though.

Because of the sickness I did not sleep much, so I noticed that the sounds stopped just when the first sunray appeared on the sky. Luckily I was awake just at that time, had the power to get up, and dragged myself to the rooftop.

And now I finally can understand why people get up so ridiculously early to see what, as I used to say, they can see in the evening on the other side of the sky.

the lifeline of the Arabic quarter slowly getting quiet on friday evening

you can't imagine this when you see it during the daytime

Israeli soldiers chilling at 7am  kindly allowed to take me this picture

I know that I will probably leave Jerusalem tomorrow, but I don't know when and to which direction - probably to somewhere the Westbank. I will now take another nap and then try my luck with the mount of Olives.

Kisses to everyone who reads this!

Think of a title on your own

This is most probably an exaggeration, but I feel like I have never been so sick before in my life. Other than predicted by the doctor I visited in Germany two days before I left, my "simple cold" didn't just disappear after a few days of taking antibiotics, but gets worse and worse with every "Schluck" that I do.

With that being said, and considering that I am right now on 50% of my normal capacity (I don't even feel my back about all the pain in my throat), I can tell you one thing for sure: I am still completely overwhelmed by everything that happens around me. 

I have a lot of thoughts in my mind that I would like to tell you, but I feel like I should go to sleep early if I have the chance, which is the case right now. I'm in this unbelieveably cool hostel in Mitspe Ramon, which is in the middle of the desert area of Israel, and the receptionists are watching a movie. I would loveto join them, but maybe sleep is sometimes the only cure when five different kinds of pills and two liters of ginger tea don't help anymore.

This post sounds awful, and my body feels awful too, but believe me when I say that once again, I know that this is the right thing to do. I've only been here for a little bit more than 72 hours now, have seen and experienced so much, and actually still can't believe I'm here.

one of the millions of graffitis in Tel Aviv

there will be a lot of flag-pictures to see when I come back

Jaffa, view over the Tel Aviv Beach

Jaffa, where I finally got to here my beloved calling again

Carmel Market of TLV

informative information board

Maktesh Ramon, just after sunset

the "sitting camel" just next to my hostel

Leila tov, haverimi!