Jerusalem
I went to Jerusalem today with a tour group - and it was pretty anti-climatic. We first did a lot of driving around the new city showing us the different areas and a lot of panoramas of the city, saw the garden of gesethme, the room of the last supper, etc.. Then we went to lunch at a place that I would rate about a 4/10. The guide seemed very concerned about cleanliness - which I take for granted. The food was just bad. Not bad in the sense of bad for you - but just tasteless, ill prepared, swill. The fish was overdone - and the rice underdone. After lunch we went into the old city of Jerusalem. We could not take any pictures of the Jewish quarter because it was Shabbott. We saw the "holy" places - overall it was pretty anti-climatic.
We had a small and interesting mix of people. 7 Americans, one French guy, and one Italian guy. The guide and driver were both Jewish. The one American guy was really into all the religious history and knew a ton about everything. The guide seemed pretty anti-Arab and blamed them for "destroying" holy places of the Jews. Then the American guy who knew all the history stuff asked why the Arab quarter seemed much dirtier than the rest of the city (let's not note that we did not spend time exploring the whole city and therefore have no real idea what is the rich Arab part, which is the poor, and which are the rich Christan parts and which are the poor....) and he replied "they are a different culture." It kind of took me a back that there was such open racism and hatred from the Jews towards the Arabs - when they themselves have experienced so much anti-Semitism. The argument about who's religion is the best - and such pissing contests is still going on here; the people still do not accept that people with other religions exist in the world. There will not be peace here until acceptance of differences comes.
There was this super bitchy American woman who just kept complaining about everything. Her room in Tel Aviv was expensive and yet the hotel let someone with a baby stay next to her - and OMG the baby cries!!! For shame on the hotel! Her job was so cheap that they refused to fly her first class and made her sit in Business. I'm tired I don't want to walk anymore... blah blah blah - horrible American.
It was a good way to see a lot of things in a day - but definitely not what I would chose for myself in terms of travel. I much prefer doing stuff on my own time frame; that way I have the time to do what I want, and do not have to do things I'm not interested in, I can keep to my own timetable, and do not feel obligated to stay "on schedule." It was nice to have explanations in English, but I would rather struggle with the language and not have to follow someone else'sarbitrary timetable filled with things I'm not that interested in.
After today I'm starting to better understand why there has been so much fighting and why it is so difficult to solve the problems. It really has less to do with the physical location - and much much much more to do with the class of religion and cultures.
We had a small and interesting mix of people. 7 Americans, one French guy, and one Italian guy. The guide and driver were both Jewish. The one American guy was really into all the religious history and knew a ton about everything. The guide seemed pretty anti-Arab and blamed them for "destroying" holy places of the Jews. Then the American guy who knew all the history stuff asked why the Arab quarter seemed much dirtier than the rest of the city (let's not note that we did not spend time exploring the whole city and therefore have no real idea what is the rich Arab part, which is the poor, and which are the rich Christan parts and which are the poor....) and he replied "they are a different culture." It kind of took me a back that there was such open racism and hatred from the Jews towards the Arabs - when they themselves have experienced so much anti-Semitism. The argument about who's religion is the best - and such pissing contests is still going on here; the people still do not accept that people with other religions exist in the world. There will not be peace here until acceptance of differences comes.
There was this super bitchy American woman who just kept complaining about everything. Her room in Tel Aviv was expensive and yet the hotel let someone with a baby stay next to her - and OMG the baby cries!!! For shame on the hotel! Her job was so cheap that they refused to fly her first class and made her sit in Business. I'm tired I don't want to walk anymore... blah blah blah - horrible American.
It was a good way to see a lot of things in a day - but definitely not what I would chose for myself in terms of travel. I much prefer doing stuff on my own time frame; that way I have the time to do what I want, and do not have to do things I'm not interested in, I can keep to my own timetable, and do not feel obligated to stay "on schedule." It was nice to have explanations in English, but I would rather struggle with the language and not have to follow someone else'sarbitrary timetable filled with things I'm not that interested in.
After today I'm starting to better understand why there has been so much fighting and why it is so difficult to solve the problems. It really has less to do with the physical location - and much much much more to do with the class of religion and cultures.
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