NOTE FROM THE SENDER: "Part II... Wilko visited our little community briefly in May. He e-mailed this description of his visit to Israel & Jordan (in Italian) to his brother who kindly translated it. Wilko is a German citizen, who has been a resident since his childhood in Italy."
On a nice sunny day, my friend Enrico and I left Milano Malpensa airport in Italy to start our trip to Israel. Well aware of the fact that the Pope would visit the country during the same period as us, we had a very prudent plan: as long as he is in Jerusalem, we will hide in the desert! At least that way we get to avoid all the pilgrims that usually accompany him!
Our arrival in Tel Aviv was scheduled for 3.40 a.m. and we were a bit worried. Will there be anything open so early in the morning? Will we find transportation to take us downtown? All useless worries as it happened. In the middle of the night there are more people in Tel Aviv than in Brussels in the late afternoon - security agents (of course, we will get used to them), open shops, working banks and buses!!!
As soon as we come out of the airport and we reach the bus stop, we are confronted for the first time with Israeli reality: if somebody is not a soldier, either he already has, or he will, be one (the only exception are the penguins, pardon, religious orthodoxes!). It is Sunday, the first day of the week, everybody is returning to his duty and the buses are literally overflowing with soldiers (female also, and they look good with those uniforms :-) ), all with their standard machine gun with them. A bit alarming, but one learns quickly to simply ask one's neighbour: "Excuse me, I would like to sit down there, would you mind shifting your gun?" or to avoid banging into automatic weapons while walking.
In any case they all seem to be very calm. Uniform rules seem to be more relaxed compared with European countries, and the soldiers themselves seem to have fun "playing" with the weapons.
Our destination is a university campus in the middle of the Negev (Sede Boqer) where my brother is staying for research - an incredible place from the natural point of view. The main social activities seem to be devastating Frisbee games and potluck parties. We reach the campus the same morning and so our first activity in Israel is to fall into a deep sleep in the beds provided by my brother! Only later we realise where we are - in the middle of a real, hard, desert, where the other nearest civilised places are a kibbutz and a military camp (both of which don't exactly convey the idea of wild fun). The nearest town is a distance of 40 minutes away by bus, and buses don't bring you everywhere exactly when you want. The need for our own vehicle becomes overwhelming so on Monday we rush to Beer Sheva (the famous nearest town, which also doesn't seem to offer any wild fun or activities) to rent a car. Our small, lovely, flexible Daihatsu Charade! A car that doesn't seem to be able to go anywhere, but which follows you everywhere. Finally equipped with this powerful vehicle, we start to visit the Nabatean cities. These Nabatean cities are the creations of a population of madmen who had two great loves in life - the desert and stairs. The cities are incredible, situated in remote areas (one of them, Shivta, is in the middle of an army training area). One must imagine them between 500BC and 500AD, equipped with all possible comforts for those times: water cisterns, common oil presses, common wineries etc.
It has to be said that the Negev desert near Sde Boqer is actually quite civilised and doesn't convey that idea of desolation that I had imagined. We saw the most incredible part of this desert the day after we saw the Nabatean cities - the Makhtesh Ramon, the greatest natural crater in the world, formed through the complicated process involving the collapse of a giant rock dome. In the Makhtesh there doesn't seem to be any spot which is similar to any other or any colour which is not represented by some sand. We walked for 5 hours between the sands and the rocks of this incredible natural arena, in the silence that only unbounded spaces can give you, guided by the extremely efficient Israeli trails (probably studied also for a possible military use). It is an experience which is not easily explained with words and which is also not truly represented by pictures (independently from Kodak's claims in their ads). What will always be missing are the true colours, the chance to touch the sand, the hours spent searching for fossils with alternating luck, the wind, the dust ....Go there if you can! After this hike, the desert turns out to be even more different from what we were expecting. It starts pouring rain (100mm/year) all during my stay!
That night, on the way back from a nice Bulgarian restaurant in Beer Sheva, the desert decides to give us another surprise in the form of fog! It's really good that the roads in the Negev have all the superior safety devices including reflective strips along the central and the lateral lines (for military reasons?).
Since the weather is still bad the next day, we decide to change our plans and instead of going to Masada, we drive almost to Eilat, to visit Timna Park and to find the sun. A relaxing day after all. It is more fun to drive going south in the daylight and we find nice weather. Timna Park is one of those parks which one can visit by driving around with a minimal physical effort. The only bad things were the fake Bedouin camp at the bottom of the park (Disneyland Negev) and the fact that I left my camera in Sde Boker!
That night we came back to Sde Boker, on time for the Frisbee match and a potluck dinner where I discover that the infamous Germans who eat ketchup on pasta (an Italian myth) really exist. Finally on Thursday the weather seems to be fine (apart from a terrible wind) so we head towards Masada. Masada is an incredible fortress on top of a mountain and is absolutely impossible to capture. Only the Romans succeeded in doing so by building an enormous ramp, only to find all the Jewish defenders inside were dead. It contains an incredible Herodian palace (Herod was probably one of the greatest megalomaniacs of all times, building a three-level terraced palace on a void is a really delirious idea). In the early afternoon we descend towards the Dead Sea, but the weather seems not to allow us to swim. I have become far too Italian not to be worried by the idea of swimming in such cold water. We change our minds when we see a crowd of elderly Dutch people transfer themselves directly from the bus to the water: "If they can, why not us?" And we jump into the water. It's a really strange experience, you can't go down, no matter what you do. The funniest thing is trying to stand up in the water!
The day after that we leave, heading for Eilat and then Jordan. Our easy life is going to finish soon and we have to return the car in Eilat, a really difficult moment for us. After this detail, we explore Eilat, an absolutely horrible place! Apart from the fact that it's the only city I know where the airport is located in the middle of downtown, there are only big hotels and shopping malls! Not a recommended place. On the other hand, we have a different goal - snorkelling on a coral reef!
To do this, we almost reach the border with Egypt and a small hut called Snuba, where we rent our mask, snorkel and fins. Some hours of great observations and fun follow. Spectacular! At 4 PM we try and apply Enrico's brilliant idea: "Since Eilat is so horrible, instead of spending the night here and spending a lot of time tomorrow to reach Petra (our next destination), why don't we cross the border now, spending the night in Aqaba?" The border isn't actually very crowded and we just have to pay some money to enter Jordan. Since the two countries have a "friendly" relationship (as I was told), the security measures consist only of guard towers with machine guns everywhere and a 500m strip of mined no-man's land.
In any case it's quite easy to cross the border but you might be left without money in the process! As soon as we enter Jordan we are immediately familiarised with Arab customs since multiple taxi drivers approach us offering to drive us everywhere. Finally we choose the minimal option and take a taxi to Aqaba for 5 JD (7.5 USD). The taxi driver also tries to find a hotel for us (belonging to some friend or cousin of course), but we think it is a bit too expensive (7 JD each) for a developing country! So we start exploring the city, finally arriving at the central bus station. Here again we are offered to be brought everywhere but finally we find an incredible deal: 7 JD to Petra through Ma'an for both. So we actually managed, after a two hour bus and taxi trip, to reach Petra the same evening. Really tired, we faint in the first economical hostel the taxi driver offers us (4 JD/night each).
Petra, with a 20 JD (30USD) entrance ticket is really a once in a lifetime event, meaning that everybody should see it once, but I don't think that I will visit it again. It is wonderful, incredible, but ...We also tried to see everything in one very intense day, an 8 hour hike up and down those Nabatean stairs! That night we were in a coma again! Luckily our Australian roommate had the good idea of organising a trip with a Bedouin guide to the Wadi Rum valley, asking us to join her! Thank you Sharyn!
So the morning after we leave Petra for Wadi Rum with a local bus. On the way there, we add a couple of Belgians to our group (real Belgians!). The Wadi Rum is another fascinating desert which has charmed my heart. It's a red desert, surrounded by black mountains, which leaves you breathless thanks to its beauty. We absolutely must go back and spend more than one night there. Atallah is our guide. He first meets us in a classical Bedouin costume, but as soon as we are alone he changes his clothes, tells us about his life piloting cobra helicopters in the US, shows us his personal pictures and starts making us addicted to Bedouin tea! On that day alone, I probably drank 15 of them! The most impressive part of our stay in the Wadi Rum was the night spent in a tent in the desert. What an experience! Nice things continue to end, so the morning after I, Enrico and the two Belgians return to Aqaba, while our Australian friend decides to stay! Aqaba is almost worse than Eilat because it is also a touristy place but poor and dirty! So this Monday is the first day in our travels that we won't be doing anything marvellous. A simple, devastating day of travel on public transport.
After a stop that night in Sde Boqer and a short visit to Ein Avdat the next morning, we leave for Jerusalem! This is our first impact with civilisation after almost ten days of desert and nature - traffic, sirens, police cars - we almost go crazy! After one hour we reach the hostel which we had chosen from the guide because it seemed to be the most fun! It was a good choice. The Tabasco Hostel is an absolute hippie place. There's a very inexpensive restaurant-bar-disco on the lower floor with happy hour twice a day and a punch party (fixed, low prices, all you can drink) on Friday night! Our decision is quick. We are already tired of travelling. This will be our base for a while!
Jerusalem is incredible because of the great number of different cultures that meet here and the fast change from an absolutely messy Arab quarter to a Jewish quarter which is so neat that it seems to be fake. Actually, in a sense it is, since it was reconstructed between 1967 and 1982, after the Jordanians, following an ancient tradition introduced by the Romans in 70AD, flattened it in 1948. The rule seems to be that he who invades, destroys! Due to this rule, the main monuments of the town might be better, everything is almost new (the dome of the 'Dome of the Rock' is in aluminium, paid for by the Gulf States). The Church of the Holy Sepulchre is the ugliest church one could imagine, a sort of collage of ugly churches. But the general atmosphere of the city is incredible. Crowds of people around the western wall, who party, dance and sing. The singing of the muezzin takes place every day.
In any case it is only the Old City, apart from our hostel, which completely shuts down after dark while most of the new parts of Jerusalem could be located anywhere in the world. People go out and have fun on Shabbat not caring at all about religious rules and nothing, apart all those signs written in strange characters, suggests that one is actually in the holy city of all monotheistic religions. The main exception is Mea Sharim, the ultraorthodox quarter, a poor and shabby quarter, coming from another time in history, which seems like a shtetl in Eastern Europe. It is a radical change with respect to the life in the new city.
In Jerusalem we also discovered the pleasure of smoking narghile, probably the most interesting legal thing I have smoked up to now! Also the cafe where we smoked is the best and most noteworthy - a traditional place, full of old men devoted to smoking and drinking Turkish coffee!
On Saturday we make a trip outside. Our guide (which after this we will call "the Bible" due to the precision and the reliability of its information) suggests, in order to know the Palestinian Territories better, to visit Nablus. So we go! In Nablus, of course, we can't find any of the monuments described by the guide and its bad map of the place is not enough for orienteering so WE are the attraction for them. We are probably the first tourists they have seen for years. We are greeted, looked at, analysed, pointed at and followed by entire first grade school classes practising their English. Then we are invited by a great Palestinian worker to drink cold tea with him. He tells us his entire life in his "English" and at the end tells us that we are all Adam's descendants! It was one of the greatest and interesting human experiences of this trip!
On Sunday morning, we leave Jerusalem and our beloved Tabasco Hostel. Our goal is Akko, still following the suggestions of "the Bible". The town is nice but one does not need much time to visit it all. So instead of looking for something new to visit, in the afternoon we decide to relax! TV, narghile, siesta, fish dinner, narghile ....A good ending for a vacation during which we have travelled up and down through all of Israel!
Our return flight is scheduled for 5.30 AM (!!!) on Tuesday morning. So on Monday we reach Tel Aviv using one of the few Israeli railways (we had to try it!). What could I say about Tel Aviv? Well, having our backpacks with us all day long, we couldn't test the famous nightlife of Tel Aviv. Apart from this, Tel Aviv seems to be an enormous American suburb extending from the hills to the sea, without clearly different spots which might be defined as a centre or periphery. Ugly! We spent only a very short time there, so maybe something nice could have been found, maybe next time! We finish our stay in town eating our last shwarma which has been, together with falafel and hummus, the main food during our stay in Israel, good and inexpensive.
We arrived at Ben Gurion airport at 21.30, leaving 8 hours to wait for our flight! Really boring, but luckily at midnight the security officers save us from boredom offering us the opportunity to do the security check early. They don't seem have much else to do, so they are happy to have some customers! At this point my crazy German passport, with all other information telling them that I should actually be Italian, drives them crazy! So I become suspect # 1.
We also fly back to Italy through Brussels and we claim to be students having a vacation. "Don't you have courses to follow during this part of the year?" We might be TERRORISTS? They let us wait, taking our documents with them and then they interview us (separately of course). Where have you been? Whom did you meet? Why have you been here? Why are you German??? Why do you fly through Brussels? They also repeated the questions often, to check if we give always the same answers!
You know those police interviews in American TV serials. That's nothing compared to this! Then they check our luggage carefully. They empty the bags completely, check everything with a metal detector, get very worried about the power supply adapter of my cell phone, shoot seven photos of their feet using my camera to check if it works! Then they search us! All this provides for a happy and entertaining hour!!!! So at 1.30 we have to wait for another hour before check in. Then they search our luggage and us again and get worried once again about my cell phone power supply and my camera. So another hour passes. Three hours just to check in!
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