Israel part 2

I was once told that if you've never missed a flight that you have too much time on your hands. I certainly have too much time on my hands and yet... I think it's mainly because it's become so mundane. I need to stress a little more about.... well everything, but flights in specific. On the plus side the Tel Aviv airport has free wifi. woot!

I can say a lot about Israel. So to make it easier I will start by talking about Dahab.
I mentioned last time that you can walk across the border. I did not mention that you walk from shopping malls and fast food to villages built out of scrap metal and plastic bags. It's quite a dramatic change. Dahab tries to stay above all that. Dahab thinks in Euros not Egyptian pounds. It is still however very cheap. I slept there for about $4 a night. It was not too bad. for $8 a night I could have had my own room with a bathroom and whatever other fanciness I could want. Everywhere you stay the beach is across the street. People who live there live for years in a tiny room with a shared bathroom and seem to be fairly happy about it. There is certainly a great community and I feel like I would always have a great experience if I were to come back.

Two days ago I broke the "never eat anything in any bus station anywhere in Israel, ever!" rule. My stomach is still punishing me for it. Brings back fond memories of India.

There is an old Bald guy riding around the airport on one of those weird twisty boards with 2 wheels. I would bet if I added the ages of all the kids I've ever seen riding these things they might add up to his age. He's talking on his cell phone while doing it.

So Israel. Funny thing about israel, everyone speaks English but it's not written anywhere when you need it to be. For instance The road names are written in English but the bus lines are not. The train announcements are in English when you leave the airport but not when you go back to it. They don't even have the common decency of using the universal airport logo. Almost no place that serves food you want to eat has menus in English but someone working there will always speak just enough.

Israel is one of the few places in the world (maybe the only?) where you can see Hassidic Jews dancing in the streets on almost a daily basis. In fact on my way to the airport I saw a car of them stop at a red light, pumpin music, they get out of the car, dance in the street, when the light turns green they get back in the car and move on. I still don't understand why. Maybe with my newfound time here I'll have to ask one of them.

There is a bit of a battle, mainly in Jerusalem between... well in Jerusalem there is a battle between everyone, but between the non-religious and the ultra-religious jews. Obviously the two sides hate each other. The Jewey jews want people to not do anything on the Sabath. I was arriving in Jerusalem on Friday evening. The sun had not even fully set yet but as the bus was pulling in kids in the street were shouting at the bus something about not respecting the sabath. The city is fairly dead anyway come Friday nigh but the added sight of orthodox Jews zombying through the streets at sunset is a very interesting sight. They are trying to make the biblical law the law of Israel. This seems greatly unpopular with anyone I talk to. You do always see them standing around and campaigning for something. They don't talk to me as soon as they hear I don't speak Hebrew.

The Israelis hate them for other reasons though. The feeling is that the Orthodox Jews are a serious drain on the economy. They usually just study the Torah instead of something marketable. They breed like rabbits and don't go to the army like everyone else has to. “If it weren't for them though Israel will be all Arabs.” They are the two groups who have the most kids.

In general there is the feeling of dissent. When I was surprised that all my couch surfing requests came back 'yes' my hosts told me “Of course, you're not from Israel, everything not from Israel is cool.” Most I talked to would only be to happy to leave. None have any specific plans to do so.

I feel like I have to mention the army in all this. The reactions to it are wide ranging. From having it be one of the best experiences, to serving jail time to avoid it, to jumping off a building while in it. It has been described as good professional experience, a unifying experience for Israelis while at the same time acting as a segregating force against the Arabic cultures. The necessary amount of racism required to work borders or occupied territories only builds from working there. Nobody spends much time talking about what specifically makes the military so horrible for some, in Israel it's just understood.

Speaking of occupied territories. I went to Bethlehem for a day. It's occupied territory. Which means that it's Palestinian land under Israeli rule. Israelis are not allowed there however to get in all I have to do is wave my closed American passport and they don't look twice at me. In Palestine the official currency is whatever you got. The ATMs vend dollars and Euros and Sheckles and Jordanian...s? The place does not look any more religious than any other nation with a lot of Muslims. You can see the towers of Mosques all over the place but people are walking around in western clothes and things don't 'look' too.... ok well in Bethlehem in the city... how do I say this.... It looks a lot better than it did in Sinai. The guy I talked to on that side was not too hopeful. Said education is way to expensive, the prospects for peace are unlikely, hopes at least his kids will get out of there.

When I finally left Israel I did so by calling a travel agent and asking what the last minute deals are. This brought me to Bucharest, Romania. There I met 2 German guys who are on a road trip and I finish this on a couch in Serbia. More about these places later.