Time to start writing again / The Road to Cairo

Once again i must start a post by apologizing to the handful of people following this blog for the absurdly long time between posts. Once I returned to Palestine from Egypt I spent a few days trying to catch up on some rest and the last week or so rather ill. That said, I need to get my trip to Cairo recorded on here before it disappears into the deep corners of my mind. I suppose there is no better place to start then at the beginning.

Renewing a visa for Israel by crossing a land border is a pretty unpleasant experience, if not for the fear of the coming interrogation, then for the looming dread that you could always just get turned away at the border. If this happens, to have just become separated from the majority of your possessions  which are at the apartment and without the savings to exactly hop on a plane back home. No matter how excited I am to journey in the Middle East on these little breaks every three months, this gloom presses on my spirit and traps me in anxiety for the duration of each trip across the border.

Flying to Cairo, in regards to being affordable, was simply not an option. A ticket from Ben-Gurion in Tel Aviv to Cairo is between 350-400 dollars, while a round trip bus tickets in retrospect cost a little under 100 dollars. In the end, I had to choose between my time/comfort and ease of travel. I chose the bus routes, but I would never, ever recommend this to an inexperienced traveler. I left Ramallah in the mid afternoon, to catch the evening bus out of Jerusalem. I had to lug my baggage up to the mass transit bus system and then stack it on my lap before heading for the Qalandia checkpoint between the West Bank and Israel. This takes about an hour or so depending on traffic both in the cities and at the border. Once I arrive in Jerusalem, the final bus stop is near the Damascus Gate in East Jerusalem to the Old City. From here, I could have taken a taxi to the central bus station, but this would have cost me a good chunk of change (due to how prohibitively expensive Israel is on a Palestinian Salary), so instead I walk, with my bags, to the central bus station which is about 2 miles away. I arrive, sweaty and stinky I'm sure and next have to pass through metal detectors and a bag inspection to buy my ticket and wait for my bus.

This bus trip I've made before (when I had previously gone to the Sinai for a visa renewal) and besides that it was dark out, so there really is not much to tell about this leg of the journey. I arrived in the border city of Eilat at around 11PM and had decided to try a different hostel then the one I had previously stayed in. I had made reservation at a place named the Shelter Hostel, which was tucked away on a suburban street but looked to be in pretty good condition. That said, I really should have gone with the place from my first trip to Eilat. They had no internet (what kind of hostel doesn't have internet!?) and they locked the gates at 12AM, which is bizarre because I am used to hostels and hotels being open for late checkout and checkin. I was too exhausted to care though and once I got my room and blankets, i happily headed off to sleep. The next morning, I needed to go to the Egyptian Consulate to arrange for my visa. Visa's to the Sinai can be granted at the border, but if you wanted to head to the interior you had to drop your passport off in the morning and collect it again in the afternoon, after completing the application process. I got a little lost in Eilat (I hate roundabouts) but eventually made my way to the Consulate, where I think my Arabic impressed them slightly and made the process easier. They told me to come back at two, so I headed back to the hostel to kill some time and do a little more research on Cairo.

Back at the hostel, I came to a sharp awakening, apparently this was some kind of super christian hostel, complete with a daily bible study held in the only central location where I was hoping to do some reading. I politely declined to join the bible study the first time, the second time they asked I was much more blunt. I found it pretty intrusive and offensive to push religion on a paying costumer and was happy when the time rolled around to get my passport from the consulate. Passport and luggage in hand, I headed to the Eilat bus station to catch the next trip to the border.

Of course the woman at the Israeli border is a sour, rude person asking questions repeatedly and with a snide tone of voice. I made a mental note that I will not stand to be treated this way when I come back through the border and begin to make plans to avoid such treatment and dehumanizing behavior. After the Israeli border the Egypt border has always felt so pleasant. They are much friendlier and helpful, and treat foreigners as guests and not possible terror suspects. A couple hundred meters down the road I load up on the bus to Cairo, which takes around 8 or 9 hours. I try to sleep some on the bus, but there are checkpoints every 30 minutes or so which require you to wake up and show your passport to the soldier who boards the bus. It's well past sunset by now and I can see nothing out the window  but black fields and mountains, with the glow of the moon being the only way to differentiate forms in the darkness. There is another American on the bus, to be more specific he is actually another Washingtonian. He had formerly studied Arabic in Egypt and was now back in the region to try and get across the border into Libya to do some journalist work there. He was seemed like a nice guy, about the same age as me, and we talked sporadically between sleep and boredom.

The final checkpoint on the way to Cairo required us to gather our bags and get off the bus for them to be inspected. It is sometime around 10 or 11 at night by now and I have been travelling for over a day and a half from my home in Ramallah. The soldiers I must add, were very pleasant and respectful even when going through our things. One young soldier asked if I had a camera with me when he found out that I had come from Israel and asked me to show him my pictures (this is not uncommon here). I obliged by pulling out my camera and turning it on- only to reveal that I had completely deleted all pictures! There were also no pictures on my laptop, (which I had wiped clean of pretty much anything of importance). He asked me why I had no pictures to which I replied "because I knew people would want to see them" he smirked and told me to get back on the bus and enjoy my visit. I loaded back up and closed my eyes for the final hour into Cairo.

cairo

cairo

Cairo

Well I just tried to to this few minutes ago, but the page crashed so here we go again. I'm going to pout pictures up now and fill in the stories later so that I may enjoy this wonderful vacation. Here's the first set: The Giza Plateau!

43 39' 19"N, 75 27' 42"W

Walking the Old City Walls

 This is just outside the Qalandia, the main checkpoint between the West Bank and Jerusalem (Al-Quds in Arabic). Most spots on the wall are just random script graffiti but this section has some really beautiful murals on it.

 It is impossible to understand the scale of the wall and no picture I take could ever would truly illuminate it to those who have not experienced it first hand. It is like a stationary Dementor from Harry Potter, you just feel it's ominous presence sucking the happiness out of the area adjacent to it. The barrier seems to go on forever in this picture, which was also right at the checkpoint. The saddest part is that it really doesn't serve that much of a security purpose (there are still places where you can sneak through and no suicide bombings have occurred in 7 years I believe) and it just scars the land and pains the eye.

 This is the Jaffa Gate entrance to the Old City, on the Israeli side of Jerusalem. The reason I busted out the camera for this picture though is because if you look at the mass of people headed in to the gate, they are all Israeli soldiers in full uniform (many were also armed). I'm trying to think of a fair comparison for the folks back in Washington, but its not as simply as an analogy to "imagine squads of armed soldiers in Seattle/ Spokane/ etc" It would also be more similar to armed soldiers patrolling something like Chinatown in Seattle- A densely packed business and residential area with defined borders. The militant culture that is so deeply entwined with what most consider the holiest place on Earth is a bizarre mixture.

 Anyways on to a more enjoyable topic: a visual tour of the Old City (and outlying area) from the ramparts that surround it. The city of Jerusalem for the overwhelming majority of history, was contained within the high stone walls of the Old City. Until as late as the 1860's there were no people living outside of the walls, though as you can see in the pictures it has since developed through massive growth on the surrounding hills. For a measly 16 shekels (four dollars), you can climb up to the ramparts and tour the walls of the city for about half their total length. These walls were built in the 1500's by the Ottoman Empire's Suleiman and lie directly over the ruins of some of the originals foundations and many rebuilds that occurred in the thousands of years the city has been here. This is a picture from when you first arrive at the top of the spiral staircase to begin the tour, adjacent to the Jaffa Gate from the previous picture. On the right of the rampart is the Sultan's pool (an ampitheatre area) and to the left lies the Old City.

 This is a the Tower of David, though most certainly not the biblical one. This was built to strengthen a weak point in the wall and has been rebuilt over and over again pretty much each time the city has changed hands. Apparently there is a great archeological museum below/ within it along with an excavation site, but since I never carry a map because looking like a tourist is for suckers, I don't actually know how to get to it. In other words, I should probably show some humility and bring a map to the city next time.

 I really like this picture for a few reasons.  First of all, it really gives you an idea of the scale of the Old City's walls in some areas. I'd say in this shot, it has to be pushing 14 or 15 meters in height. This picture also contains some ruins from the older walls (though I could not tell you which ones) directly at the base of the current ramparts as well as the ruins towards the bottom right of the picture. I also was really happy I got this picture when there was a pack of small children below playing soccer. Not that I'm artistic at all, and most certainly not to sound pretentiously artsy, but I really enjoyed the contrast of the timelessness of the inanimate walls with the youthful exuberance of little kids. Damn, still sounds really pretentious.

 Here is another picture that shows some ruins of the older walls to the city. Build on top of the rocky bluff, there are two distinguishable sets of cut stone. Since I'm a terrible archeologist though, I could not tell you whether there where from the same wall construction or even the same period.

After you take a 90-degree right turn on the rampart (moving along a new side of the city now) this is one of the main features for the better part of this area outside the city. I took 10 pictures of this monastery, trying to get the perfect angle that incorporated all the features I liked about it and this was one of the better ones. A little research has told me that this is Mount Zion, and the building in the picture is the Abbey of the Dormition of the Virgin Mary, built s in 1900 but it lies on top of the Haga Sion, a much older church from the Byzantine empire. The cemetery is also beautiful, and I know that at least the section closest to me is the Armenian cemetery.

 This is just another picture of the Dormition, but from a little closer along the wall. The structure is massive and I think next time I get to Jerusalem I might just have to try and find the entrance.

 I just really enjoyed the wood lattice work that was being used for this refurbishing next to the Dormition. If you ignore the occasion piece of rebar sticking out of the top, I think you get a good idea for historical construction techniques. I was happy not to see massive modern construction equipment.

 This is the only stone I saw on my whole walk (a few miles I think) that was covered in moss. I just liked the contrast between white mortar and sandstone and an overtly green one. The little plant at the top is a nice touch as well.

And here we are near the end of the rampart walk, the Haram Al-Sharif, or as most of us call it, the Dome of the Rock. I'm also very close to the Western (Wailing) Wall, but I already have enough pictures of that. The inherent problem for me trying to get close to the mosque is that my holidays fall on Muslim holidays, and on Muslim holidays the entire complex is closed to non-Muslims. When I go to Al-Quds on weekends, I have similar problems: Friday prayers in Islam mean that the Mosque is closed to be, while Saturday is Jewish Shabbat, so pretty much everything else in Israel is closed. I had a day off on Tuesday in commemoration of the birth of the Prophet Muhammad (Peace Be Upon Him) which is when I took all these pictures, but this is about as close as I could get to the Mosque and still get a good picture. Still turned out pretty good though, and I couldn't complain about the weather for the middle of February.

That's all for today! Sorry they are few and far between, but I hope some of you out there are still enjoying the blog