I had an Israeli friend who, when I told him I had five days to visit Israel on my way to Kenya, drew me a map of Israel on a napkin and told me exactly what to do each day. This is my letter back to him of my journey through Italy and then Israel.
Avi,
Well, I’m now in Africa sitting on a chair writing this on a laptop computer watching “F-Troop” on the one English language TV station in Nairobi. The other one is a Swahili station. I never got a chance to send you a postcard from Israel – I was moving too fast – so I thought I’d send this letter and tell you how things went.
First of all Italy was fantastic. I arrived in Rome the morning of the 5th. I spent three days there chasing the ghosts of the Roman Empire. I spent the first day wandering around the city. I had been there before so I focused on things I hadn’t seen before. My favorite building that day was the Pantheon. It is this huge dome designed – I believe – by Emperor Hadrian. The unique aspect of this is the large hole in the top of the dome which was designed to light the inside. It creates an eerily beautiful effect as you see a large beam of sunlight filtering through this large open cavity. It was originally designed as a temple for one of the Roman goddesses, but it has been used for a number of things, including a large fish market in the middle ages. The second day I went to an old Roman port town called (I believe) Ostia near Rome which was fairly well preserved. You can see the remains of the shops and three-story apartment buildings the middle class Romans worked and lived in. The third day I went out to Hadrian’s villa. Not much was left of the villa, but you can get a great idea of how extensive it was. Since I was on a roll, I spent a fourth day chasing Roman ghosts and went down to Naples to see the ruins of Pompeii. These were absolutely spectacular. An entire upper class city with many of its buildings almost entirely preserved. It was a tremendous way to experience exactly how a city lived 2,000 years ago.
My fifth and sixth days in Italy I spent wandering around Florence. Its an absolutely wonderful Renaissance city, but by the end of my second day there I was ready to move on. So my seventh morning in Italy I left for Verona. I wandered around Verona that afternoon and found it an absolutely enchanting city. Its very small, with beautiful Renaissance architecture and surrounded by a river and rolling hills. That night I saw the opera “Carmen” in a 2,000 year old Roman arena which seats 30,000 people. I had never been to an opera before, but I was fortunate enough to go with someone who works as an assistant director for an opera company in Britain and she was able to explain everything to me. I spent my two nights in Verona in a 15th century villa which was converted into a youth hostel. The original frescoes were still on the walls. The next day I took a day trip to Milan and just walked around. I had seen Italy’s past and I wanted to see her future. I liked it. My final day in Italy I went a town called Riva in the Italian Alps. It was on a huge lake surrounded by mountains. It was one of the most beautiful towns I’ve seen in Europe. That night I took a night train to Munich.
I awoke the next morning in Munich and took the local train to the airport for my 11:00am El Al flight. There, the fun began. El Al has its own terminal. In front was what I think is called a “hummer” – a tank-like vehicle on wheels which looks very solid – which was supplied by the German army. It was manned by at least two people, a driver and a soldier on top with a very heavy duty machine gun. Inside I was questioned by two El Al employees for 40 minutes. “Why were you going to Israel?” “Did you meet anyone who gave you anything to give to someone in Israel?” “Who packed your bag?” “Was anyone else in possession of your bag after you packed it?” “Where were you going in Israel?” “How did you plan your itinerary in Israel”? At this question I actually took out the map of Israel you drew for me on the napkin where we had lunch before I left. They definitely enjoyed that! All the time this session was going on a big German soldier with a machine gun was walking along a catwalk overlooking everyone. The irony of having the German military protecting an El Al terminal less than twenty miles from Dachau was not lost on me. It took me another twenty minutes of waiting to have my backpack completely searched. When we finally boarded the plane, the “hummer” and another security car actually shadowed us as we were taxi-ing towards the runway.
I arrived in Israel that afternoon and took the bus to Tel Aviv. The baggage station in that dilapidated bus station closed at 7:30pm so I had no place to store my backpack. I went to Jaffa and ended up storing my pack at a youth hostel there while I wandered around. The renovation there was beautiful, but a little too commercial. I hung out there most of the evening, ate from a couple of stalls, and went back to the bus station to take the 12:30am bus to Eilat. The bus was full of young, obnoxious Israelis – as you had warned. I made it into Eilat around 6:00am and took a cab to Coral Beach and a dive hostel. I got two wonderful dives in that day. The water was amazingly clear, the coral was beautiful and there were fantastic fish all around. It was a great way to relax after the past two nights. Went out that night to a great fish restaurant nearby with a bunch of divers I met. It was run by a crazy ex-alcoholic who cooked up a storm.
I took a bus directly to Mesada the next day. I got there in the early afternoon and the hostel was closed so I just hung around, ate in the air-conditioned cafeteria and read. I ended up going to bed early that night because a bunch of us woke up at 4:00am to climb Mesada. After stumbling around in the dark (our flashlights were marginally effective) we actually found the right path and started up the trail around 5:30. A bunch of tour buses arrived from Jerusalem around that time and I ended up passing 40 or 50 people on my way up. I made the climb in around 30 minutes and was exhausted when I hit the top. The view was breathtaking. Light was streaming in from Jordan and the Dead Sea towards the east and about 20 minutes after I was on top the sun actually popped up. I could see the squares of the old Roman camps below me. The fortress itself was amazing – both in the way the Romans created it and in the resoluteness of the Jews who defended it.
It was Saturday and I was concerned as to how I would get to Jerusalem via En Geidi on the Sabbath. There were only two buses going north that day and the lady at the hostel was not sure when their times were. My problem was solved when I met two people who were part of a group of people from hostels in Jerusalem who had come down that morning as part of a tour. They were going to tour a bunch of places and end up in Jerusalem that afternoon and they had room in their van! By 7:45am I was heading north. We stopped at the Dead Sea near En Geidi. I floated in the sea a bit, put some mud all over my body and floated some more. It was absolutely impossible to sink! We then went to Nahal David and saw the oasis and sat under the waterfalls. Another great experience. On the way to Jerusalem we also saw the cliffs where the Dead Sea Scrolls were found, went through Jericho, saw the Monastery of Temptation, where Jesus supposedly spent part of his 40 days warding off the devil, and saw St. George’s Monastery in the small canyon.
I arrived in Jerusalem around 3:30 and was dropped off in front of an Arab owned hostel in the old city just inside the Jaffa Gate. It was something of a dump, but the location was perfect and it was cheap. I spent that evening walking around a part of the new city, but most of the shops were closed for the Sabbath. The next day I wandered all over the old city. I saw the Temple on the Rock, the Wailing Wall, got lost a few times in the labyrinths that pass for the Arab Quarter, saw the place where Jesus’s tomb was, went out to Mount Zion, walked around the beautifully restored Jewish Quarter, and walked on the top of the wall surrounding the old city from the Damascus Gate to the Jaffa Gate. It is an amazing, diverse, chaotic city. I didn’t feel much spirituality there, but I did get a sense of the crazy energy which permeates the place.
My last morning and afternoon in Israel I went to the Israel Museum in the new city. It was one of the best and most diverse museums I’ve ever seen. Everything from modern art, to Impressionist paintings to old Jewish, Roman and Egyptian archeology, to rebuilt European synagogues, to the Dead Sea Scrolls, to a sculpture garden. I spent about 4 hours there. Remembering my experience in Munich, I got to the airport real early. I ended up spending an hour and a half being questioned and searched by El Al before my flight. An Australian couple I was hanging out with went through the same experience. It seems they went after anyone with a backpack. At least there wasn’t a big German bruiser with a machine gun hovering overhead.
I want to thank you for your advice. I definitely wouldn’t have been able to see so much without your help. It was an amazing country. My only regret is that I didn’t meet more Israelis. Most of the people in the hostels I was in were fellow tourists. Most of what I saw of the Israelis was somewhat negative. Many seemed aloof and arrogant.
Africa so far is pretty mellow. I’ve mainly been working, eating and drinking. I have yet to leave Nairobi. I’ve inherited something of a financial mess (as I knew I would) and it will take a while to get some time to do things. I’ll send another letter in a few months and let you know how this strange land is treating me.