Category Archives for Israel
Well, That Was Just Plain Stupid
If the Middle East prepares you for one thing, it’s travel craziness. Y’know. Lebanon won’t let you in with an Israeli stamp, or even an exit stamp from the wrong Egyptian or Jordanian border. Israel, in its turn, can get a bit arsey about letting you in if you’ve been to Lebanon (or Sudan). Syria [...]
How To Entertain A Ruined-Out Child #1
After Egypt, Jordan and Lebanon, it would be fair to say that my spawn is a little ruined-out. The Middle East does that to you, you see. In the same way that after a few months in South-East Asia, you’re pretty much over wats, and approaching max tolerance for jungle and fascinating tribal peoples, or [...]
Old Friends and Dog Collars
It’s a strange and wonderful thing meeting up with a friend you haven’t seen for a while. Ten years, in this case. There’s that mild anxiety. Will we have things to talk about? Will the conversation flow? The more neurotic worries… Will we even recognise each other? (Umm, yes, obviously.) And, of course, the age [...]
We Find a Place to Stay in Tel Aviv
Coming to the end of our little Israel-Palestine road trip — Dead Sea, CHECK, Masada, CHECK, Ein Gedi, CHECK, Jericho, CHECK, Bethlehem, CHECK, Herodion, CHECK, Galilee, CHECK, Golan, CHECK — I rather belatedly begin to think about where we’re going to stay in Tel Aviv. My old friend Miki – such an old friend, in [...]
A Very Small Atheist Does the Holy Land
“You know, I think the least workable argument for the existence of God is the ontological argument,” spouts my spawn from the back seat. (He has abandoned all the kids’ books on various religions I bought him in favour of The God Delusion, which he borrowed from his grandparents, and has now read several times.) [...]
The Dead Sea – Not Just a BSD
“Why do we need to go to the Dead Sea, anyway?” quoth my spawn. “We swam in a salt lake in Siwa, and we were buoyant there, so what’s the difference with the Dead Sea?” “Well,” I say, feebly. “It’s the Dead Sea! We’re in the area! We should go.” “I suppose,” he says, grudgingly. [...]
Gelato in Jerusalem
“Ooh,” Zac says. “Now I need to make a decision. Waffle or gelato. Waffle or gelato?” “No, you don’t,” I say. “This place does both!” We’ve been randoming around downtown Jerusalem, a place, at least in the wealthy Jewish West, that’s not short on gelato parlours (apart from anything else, it allows the kosher restaurants [...]
Welcome to Israel!
Baggy of eye and saggy of face, I drag myself out of bed, still feeling the impact of farewell drinks the night before, and gear myself to begin the godawful process that is getting my spawn out of bed, and packing. Our possessions seem to have multiplied, like replicating amoebas, into every nook and cranny [...]
