Open Writing

I am sitting in my living room eating breakfast, watching the TV. More bombings in Israel. The TV journalist is in Jerusalem. The weather is grey. He is wearing a thick coat and carrying an umbrella.

Most people on holiday from work in January escaped to the sun or back to central heating in the UK. Not me. Although I knew it would be cold, Israel was so small I could surely just dart round Jerusalem really quick before I got too cold or was hit by a bomb.

I had intended to stay only a week but two weeks later there was still more to see.

It was not only my addiction to travelling which inspired my longer than expected stay, but also the fast realisation that Israel was bigger than Jerusalem alone and that it was also safe and less grey and war-stricken than its media-portrayal. An exuberant American drummer, working in Galilee, who sat next to me on the first bus I took from Eilat, put me straight. He made the country sound like the top holiday spot in the Middle East.

How much should you plan before you go?

Not much! Actually I had only a few pages about Israel ripped out of the 1994 ‘Middle East Lonely Planet book’. It was more fun that way. At least I had the maps. OK, so many of the hostels were now obsolete and one had been turned into a very strict Jesuit prayer house, but word of mouth is a more communicative and direct way of finding out information, and situations change from month to month so any guidebook will soon become outdated.

How to find cheap accommodation

As well as The Lonely Planet Guide and word of mouth, there is also a useful website www.hostelz.com which lists cheap hostels. Be warned though that the hostels in that website always sound much better than they really are and I have no idea where they get their photos from as they never resemble the rooms you get. Also, they may promise luxuries like free meals, swimming pool, free pick-up, but they rarely exist. I helped one of the hostels featured on the website update their entry on the site. They explained that many hostel owners don’t really know the meaning of the boxes they are ticking but what they do know is that the more boxes they tick the merrier, as boxes represent facilities and the more facilities on offer, the more appealing their hostel will be for a tourist.

My decisions on where to stay were based on the Lonely Planet guide first. If the hostel appeared both there and on the website it meant it was good and if it appeared in the website it meant it still existed. I know mine were the cheapest in every city and town I visited and they were all safe and friendly. Another way of getting information is by asking other tourists staying in your hostel as they will have the most up-to-date information and will give you the most honest details.

I know that many people prefer to stay in hotels but I think hostels are a better idea. As they are cheaper than hotels this means you have more money to spend on travel experiences. Also, food is expensive and not so great in Israel, but in hostels there is generally a kitchen and fridge for guests to use so you can make your own food.

Furthermore, if I were to stay in a nice hotel room I would probably feel too comfortable and spend too long in the hotel, at the cost of not spending enough time exploring the new environment outside.

I totally recommend staying in dorms if you are travelling alone. These are divided into male-only rooms and female-only, so if you’re a woman you will not be woken by a snoring male (I met only one snoring female throughout my two weeks).

Food

Unfortunately the food is sold at European prices and is not so great. If you are backpacking, however, most hostels have kitchens and it is the norm to prepare your own food.

The Israeli Stamp

Yes, unfortunately, once you have had your passport stamped with an Israeli stamp, you will not be able to enter the majority of countries in the Middle East. However, I heard other people say they had had a stamp printed on a separate piece of paper, outside their passport. Personally my passport was about to expire anyway, so I just bought a new one.

Climate

Well, from what I could see it is colder than Egypt but not nearly as bad as the UK. The coastal areas are much warmer than inland; warmer than Cairo too and Eilat is as hot as it is on the Egyptian Sinai coast. In general the winter is cold and rainy and the summer is hot and dry.

My travel journal

Jerusalem

Other appealing features were the gas stove which kept us warm and dried our clothes if it had rained (every day), the free tea and coffee and free internet-usage. It was Arab-owned and the chef was from Cairo. Most of the people staying there were long-term residents, researching PhDs. They were very friendly and helpful and a Turkish PhD student, with whom I got on particularly well, invited me to go and see the first ever combined Arab-Jewish stand-up comedy act with her which was almost more memorable than any sights I saw.

As for the sights in Jerusalem, my personal favourite was the Jewish quarter inside the old city; especially the Wailing Wall. The many strictly religious Jewish males with top hats, tails and coiled side-burns, make an attractive photo. However, don’t let them catch you trying to photograph them or they will not be happy. The most impressive view was at the top of the steps overlooking the wall. From here you can capture the shimmering golden dome, the wall, and the Jews in top hats (in secret) all in one photo. The Dome of the Rock is also very impressive in itself and is an attractive landmark for miles. You can only go inside to visit it during certain hours however, and it is quite difficult to work out where the entrance is. On my first attempt I was ushered into a room, along with a group of Jewish tourists, and was given a headset. I realised I had made a mistake when the guide began a long talk in Hebrew and demanded to see our tickets (what ticket?). The most obvious-looking entrance had led me into the underground tunnels of the old city! To get inside The Dome of the Rock you have to walk through a raised bridge-like structure which resembles something in a building site.

Of course there are also Arabic, Armenian and Christian quarters inside the Old City, and it is very pleasant to stroll through the attractive narrow streets arched with old stone-even in the rain! The Arabic Quarter is much the same as in Old Cairo, and here you can find the cheapest prices. There is some beautifully patterned Armenian pottery to see in the windows of the shops in the Armenian Quarter, but just like the Jews in top hats, it is ‘haram’ for tourists to take photos of them, unless you pay for the privilege!

Outside the Old City, I enjoyed the modern shopping quarter in the new part of town. After living in Egypt for nearly two years it was refreshing to see a variety of western clothing styles for sale in sizes which fitted!

The large Ben Yehuda Market is a great place to shop for food. As well as fresh fruit and veg there is also a vast choice of dried fruits and nuts; many of which I hadn’t seen since I was last in England. It was great to be reunited with Brazil nuts, dried papaya, dried pineapple and de-shelled sunflower and pumpkin seeds.

There is more to Israel than just Jerusalem.

Many people go to Israel just to see Jerusalem. Beautiful though this Holy City is, I was not satisfied that I had seen enough. Of course, I had seen many buildings, famous historical sites and the settings of many biblical stories, but I wanted a glimpse of normal, everyday life in Israel. For me, in any country I travel to, this is generally more informative and stimulating than sightseeing, as you get an idea about the contemporary situation of the real people.

Tel Aviv

Next stop, after Jerusalem, was Tel Aviv. I travelled there in a ‘sherut’. This is Israel’s version of a microbus. Whereas the microbus in Egypt is cheaper than the big national coaches, in Israel it is the other way round. The ‘sherut’ is a clean, modern large taxi with loads of leg space. It costs slightly more than the bigger bus but it’s quicker and more direct.

I stayed in the Old Port area of Tel Aviv. This is known as Jaffa. My hostel, Old Jaffa Hostel, had been recommended to me by a man in Jerusalem and was a converted old building. This was more than just a hostel and yet surprisingly cheaper than the rundown budget places in the city centre. Most of the people staying there were long-term residents; students or young people on gap years who were also working there. The ginormous, well-equipped kitchen was a cook’s paradise. I rushed to the market for lentils, Indian spices and rice and simmered them into a delicious one-pot dinner. It was great to eat my home-cooking again.

When you’re backpacking it can actually be just, if not more, sociable to eat in your hostel, than to eat outside. You have no excuse to speak to the other customers if you go to a restaurant but if you’re in a hostel dining area you know everyone else is away from familiar surroundings and ready to speak to strangers. I chatted for a while to an Australian educational auditor who was staying in the hostel while attending a funeral. As he had to continue his work while away he busily started typing again after talking to me. He went to bed at 7pm and got up at 1 am (Australian hours) to resume his business.

I then got chatting to a bizarre old lady in her 70’s wearing rather garish gold clothes, luminous lipstick and a wig (I saw her take it off later as she was in my dorm.) She ate a rather peculiar meal from a supermarket carrier bag then went to bed at 9 pm. By the next morning we were not on speaking terms. She resented my gentle turning of the door handle when I entered the room to go to bed, while I could not tolerate her constant snoring; one of the downsides of staying in a dorm! I discovered later that she was an ex-model.

Haifa

For me, the highlight of the trip was my next stop; the gardens in Haifa. It had taken me a long time to decide whether or not to bother with Haifa as it had received mixed reviews from fellow backpackers. Actually most said it wasn’t anything special and that they were amazed that people bothered to go just for ‘some little gardens.’

These gardens, however, are not just any gardens. They stretch from the base of a very high mountain, right to the summit. It took me 90 minutes to climb all the way up. The fresh flowers and lawns cascade elegantly down the steep mountainside in 19 prim terraces. Such greenery is another thing which I have felt a bit deprived of since living in Egypt so I breathed it in heartily. Not only are the gardens beautiful in themselves but they are actually the central place of worship of the Baha’i religion. In the centre shines the golden domed Shrine of the Bab, the forerunner of Baha’ism. Two 20 year-old Filipinos; a brother and sister, staying in my hostel were actually there on pilgrimage. They explained a bit about the religion to me.

Baha’ism

Firstly, they came to be members of the faith through birth; their parents both belonging to the religion. It is one of the latest religions in history. The hope of the religion is to unite the whole human race. Ba’hais believe that you should have love and respect for all human beings. The teaching also accepts all religions and advocates equality of all human beings as well as removal of prejudice and rejection. Although I would never become a Ba’hai, I liked and respected the religion’s humanistic outlook. I also admired the fact that the centrepiece is such a fine set of flowered terraces. It must be nice to worship God in such beautiful surroundings.

I took the train to Haifa. If you do this, be warned that there are many stations there. A fellow passenger instructed me to get off at the first stop; the beach. However, unable to read Hebrew, little did I realise I was bound for the central stop (several stations later). I was quite mortified when I got out of the train and asked directions to the city centre, only to be told it would be a 90 minute hike up a cliff (I know Lonely Planet maps are not generally to scale but I really didn’t see how what looked to be a 5 min walk to the centre of town from the station could have magnified into a 90 min slog up a steep rock face). However, it was a blessing in disguise. Being so late forced to stay overnight allowed me to have the chance to experience the free guided tour the next day.

To see the gardens you have to book a guided tour at least one day in advance. You can ask your hotel to call the garden office between 9am and 5pm every day. The tour is free but be warned that they book up very quickly. On the day I arrived all tours for the next two days were completely full. I was fortunate that some other tourists in my hostel had booked one extra place for a friend who didn’t go.

The Jewish Sabbath

Straight after the tour I rushed back to the hostel and hurriedly packed my bags for Tiberias, Galilee. I was in such a rush because the girls on the tour warned me that, as today was Friday, everything would close after midday and transport would stop running after 3 pm. It would not reopen until Saturday night; to respect the Holy Sabbath day.

This was worse than I could have imagined. Everything really did shut - completely! All the clothes shops, market stalls, restaurants, cafes and even many convenience shops were closed. Although I arrived in Galilee in the middle of the afternoon it felt like it was bed time because there was a hush of darkened shops. It must be like having a National holiday every weekend!

Galilee-Tiberias

The hostel in which I had planned to stay had been converted into a Jesuit prayer house and the very religious men inside chanted all day long starting from the small hours of the morning. As all the other budget hostels in the 1994 guide had closed down, the only option left seemed to be the rather shabby-looking ‘Jojo’s hostel’, situated next to the prayer house. The meaty, heavily tattooed owner looked a bit undesirable.

However, appearances can often be deceptive. The first surprise was seeing a familiar-looking coat on the bed next to mine in the dorm; Naoko’s coat! She was a Japanese girl I had met in Jerusalem. Apart from an older woman in another room we were the only two staying there and Naoko was a great companion. In addition, Jojo turned out to be the sweetest hostel owner I have ever met. As there were no shops open he made us lentil soup every day and told us his sad life story. He had formerly been an obese long-distance lorry driver, weighing 130 kilos. His doctor had ordered him to go on a diet; hence the lentil soup which did not seem to go with such a meaty-looking man. He also told us he had never been married and had lived a sad and people-less existence. We played him Naoko’s romantic love song CD every night we were there to cheer him up.

Due to lack of transportation, Naoko and I were forced to stay three nights - Jojo was happy to have the company. We spent the first half of the Holy Friday washing our clothes and went for a walk by (rather than ‘on’) the Sea of Galilee. As there was no café open to sit in we bought juice from the only small shop in operation and sat and enjoyed the sea view from the lobby of one of the five-star hotels.

Usually I stand out as a foreigner in Egypt with my long blondish hair and western features, but in Israel I blended into the surroundings as many Israeli girls look like I do. I had really been enjoying the luxury of going around unnoticed until I walked with Naoko. For once, someone else was the centre of attention and people assumed I was her Israeli guide. It made me realise that although I hate being followed and called to non-stop in Egypt, maybe there is some part of me which feels a little flattered by it.

Indeed we, or rather, Naoko, attracted the attention of many men, who volunteered their services as free guides. I would never have gone with one of them had I been alone but Naoko seemed quite charmed by one rather smooth-talking man and he drove us in his jet black sports car, to the river Jordan to see the place where Jesus was baptised. He wanted to be our guide for the rest of the day and even offered to take us to have dinner in his villa; one hour’s drive out of the city. However, I had a very uneasy feeling about him and refused to join in. Naoko followed me in the end but he was not at all happy. I wonder if, with all the recent problems in the Middle East, he was feeling a bit at a loss of things to do without any tourists to lead.

Z'vat

When the transport was back in operation Naoko and I took a day trip together on local buses. We went to the holy cities of Z’vat and Akko. Z’vat is a quaint little village in the mountains, with lots of narrow winding streets, famous for its scenery, artists’ quarter, homemade cheese and candles. We bought a candle each as we felt it was the thing to do and tried to find the cheese factory. I felt a bit like Jerry in a Tom and Jerry cartoon as we sniffed down every street, following the ‘Z’vat cheese’ arrows carefully, only to end up right back where we had started. At lunchtime, we found a different smell to follow and ended up at a shop where we found a Yemenite with a long beard preparing what looked like cheeseless pizza; pancakes topped with herbs. He explained it was Yemenite bread. Being a coeliac I couldn’t partake but Naoko said it was delicious, even if it did have no Z’vat cheese on top. At least I had the chance to sample Yemenite tea, which tasted full of mountain freshness. The rather handsome cook totally mans his own stall. Originally a refugee in Yemen, he returned to Israel, his ‘true country’, as soon he was able to. Like me he had travelled in India so we had many stories to exchange. Z’vat was mainly inhabited by Jews. In 1948 the small Jewish community here defeated the Arabs in what became known as the ‘Miracle of Z’vat’. In fact I saw few Muslims in the whole region of Galilee.

On my first night in Galilee, before my first bowl full of Joho’s lentil soup, I had gone for a stroll by the sea, looking for some form of entertainment. On the way I stopped off at one of the many 5 star hotels to use the toilet. The toilet was situated on the floor below the reception area, just outside the dining room. “Dinner won’t be served until 6, madam” said the uniformed butler standing outside the dining room. This gave me a crafty idea. I was ushered politely into a banquet-sized dining hall festooned with buffet-style food. After a huge plateful of delicacies from the starter table (including smoked salmon), I debated whether or not to move on to the chicken main course. However, guilt overcame me as well as the embarrassment of sitting alone at a dining table in a scruffy jacket and tracksuit bottoms. I decided that if they discovered I was an impostor after the starter and tried to charge me it would not be so bad as if I had also eaten chicken. I also walked into the Sheraton Hotel with no questions asked and used the pool and sauna one afternoon. I hypothesised that maybe because there was a downturn in trade within the tourism industry, Israel feels it has to be as hospitable as possible to tourists?

After Z’vat we got on another bus bound for Akko. In contrast with Z’vat, Akko’s old city is like a mini Khan el Khalili, with its small Arab market and Crusader remains. It was a hotbed of Arab hostility towards Jewish immigration in the 1930’s but today is held up as an example of relative harmony between Jews and Arabs. Tourists I had met along the way raved about the place, but if you have been living in Cairo for long enough it is nothing special. Moreover, it was grey and rainy on the day we went.

My final stop was Eilat, across the border from Egypt’s Taba. I had planned to stay here just one night to break up the journey as I didn’t think I’d find anything worth doing. However I had really underestimated the place and it was difficult to leave before I’d even had the chance to see ’Zara’!

Eilat, situated in the Sinai region, features the same reddish cliffs and mountains that we can see on the Egyptian side and a similarly warm climate. It was great to be able to walk around without a jacket for the first time in 3 months. It really put me in a holiday spirit - just as I was about to leave!

Being a port and having its own airport, it is also a fantastic place to shop. I found a Japanese supermarket selling very cheap Japanese ingredients in a little shop at the back; the prices were even cheaper than in Chinese markets in the UK. There were several expansive shopping centres, featuring Zara, Mango, and The Body Shop, among others. There were also many market stalls dotted along the curve of the bay, selling cheap clothes, handbags, and handmade jewellery. I felt a bit annoyed with myself as I had deliberately spent longer in Jerusalem on my way back in order to go clothes shopping and had found very little worth buying, but had bought it anyway. Although there is a ‘Zara’ in Jerusalem it’s quite a way out of the town centre. The good thing about Eilat is that everything is clustered together in the centre of the city, right next to the attractive beach. If you do go to Israel, it’s definitely worth spending more than one night in Eilat. The hostel I stayed in here was called Corinne’s hostel. I told the owner, a Canadian woman, presumably Corinne, that I would like to leave my bag with her for 30 mins while I went to check out a few other places on the same street (I didn’t take my bag with me as I had a bad back by this point). She insisted her place was the best and told me she’d be charging me 5 shekels for looking after my bag if I chose another place. As the other options were either non-existent (remember-my guidebook was printed in 1994!) or more expensive and the owners just as officious, I chose her place.

At least there was a kitchen for me to cook in and some other friendly backpackers to chat to in the evening, including a busker on the London Underground (who revealed the truth about the large salaries earned by buskers!) and Corinne, finally warming to me, told me that I had the perfect English accent. Apparently I sound like Gwyneth Paltrow; unfortunately she didn’t tell me that I looked like her too!