Wednesday, 10 March 2010
JERUSALEM
Hello few followers am back to bore you with more of my foreign explorations. Today I finally made it to Jerusalem and bloody hell it was an hardcore and not overly enjoyable experience. I could rant for about 4 hours about, mainly, how truly shit my Frommer's guide book is (although have no right as got it basically half price and thanks to the fragrant emily) but don't worry I wont. I will instead concentrate on the things I DID manage to see despite it's useless WRONG information. I DID see the Church of the Holy Sepulcher, I DID see the wailing/western wall. I DID see lots and lots and then more lots of bizarres, I DID see the Mount of Olives and the amazing city walls. I DID walk around in circles a lot in the blazing heat. It was very strange to come 50 minutes down the road (fabulous scenery on the way) from what feels like a totally European city to then suddenly be on holiday in the Exotic East. I know I should have been excited about following the stages of the Cross etc but I really couldn't make myself care about where Christ fell over and found myself instead, worryingly, getting all excited about treading the same streets that Holeman Hunt and (I'm assuming) people like Byron etc wandered. It was just so damn Victorian exoitca. I know this is really really bad. My great dissapointment is that, geting there after 11, I decided to g to the Temple Mount later in the day as my piece of crap guide book told me it closed between 11:30 and 1:30 and then was open again until 3. HOWEVER, when I got there at 1:30 it was in fact closed for the rest of the day. This means I missed one of the mos historically rich sites on earth due to my shit shit shit guide book. It was only printed about 8 months ago not that much could have changed surely??? OH WELL. So I missed the Dome of the Rock, Solomon's Stables and the Al Aqsa Mosque and loads of other important great things that who the hell knows when i will have the opportunity to see again, because believe me after the journey and general experience i had today i really can't face going back again this week. oh well. Luckily I did have the good fortune of doing the walk of the old ramparts which you can do as an almost complete circle round the old city (well as long as you don't mind scaling a 5 foot fence at one point) and it was really really great. Not only was it a wonderful break from the sweltering and claustrophobic atmosphere in the streets, being cool and calm and empty, but also it provided amazing views not only across Jerusalem but also onto the Mount of Olives, the surrounding countryside and also, thank god, the dome and upper parts of the Dome of the Rock which is fab and covered with gold and gorgeous gorgeous gorgeous tiles. I love tiles. From there the whole place seemed totally magical and holy and ancient which is exactly how you want it to feel. It really was amazing actually and exactly the way you would visualise it all steep steep mountains hazy in the heat with the sound of Muslim prayers being pumped out and the sense that important shit has been happening here for thousands and thousands and thousands of years. The whole day did make me feel depressed as hell about how little I know about either Religion or History though. Ho Hum. Anyway, nothing but bagels when going round as so hot but schnitzel this eve which was nice. xxx
Tuesday, 9 March 2010
Tel AvIv Day 2
Hello lovely people going to make this v quick as is v late and am going to attempt to get up at a reasonable hour tomorrow and go to Jerusalem having failed miserably again today to get up before noon. In fairness to me we were up til gone 4 last night dancing round in a gay club so hardly my fault. We also had a delicious Georgian meal including lots of yummy aubergine based snacks, breaded calamari stuffed with mushrooms and very yum meat pilaf. Installment 2 of Hebrew Hotties though is that surprisingly, and very much in opposition to London trends; gay men in Irael are seemingly not as good looking as straight ones! Who knew?!
So, today wasn't as sunny or hot as yesterday so spent the first hour or so (ie 1pm oops) n Carmel market supposedly buying people gifts but actually buying myself a nice necklace - fuck all you guys haha. Then i had the nicest lunch ever outside in a cafe with a random old woman who shared the table with me. It was an Iraqi sandwich which was on dark dark bread with fried aubergines, sliced boiled eggs, gherkins and this creamy sauce and it came with a huge chopped salad, which they are obsessed with here (a good thing in my book) and a dish of olives. Yum. They also serve their cold coffees with sugar water which in my head sounds romantic and exotic. Drinking cold coffee also makes me think am Gregory Peck in Roman Holiday which is defo a good thing. Then looked round Yaels gallery which was excellent but alas i don't have the booklet and therefore can't remember any of the artists names. There was some damn good stuff with collage though rach take note. And cool revolving glass things projecting images onto the walls. - sorry yael that's a crap description i know but am knackered. Then after that I went to the Tel Aviv Art Museum/Museum of Art which was ace and had loads of really really beautiful Fauve stuff. I had forgotten totally about the Fauves I must admit and it had totally escaped me how much I LOVE them. Also lots of cubist stuff and general fab post impressionism and oddly this pitch back room filled with all these doll house rooms done up in the interior styles of various eras of history - I enjoyed it but definitely odd.
Major dissapointment is that even though i am on my HOLIDAYS, ABROAD, I couldnt find any of the obligatory transparent bags of really greasy crinkle cut crips that i adore and are the man reason for me having holidays. Oh well. Did have yum dinner with Yael and her lovely fried Liz of Moroccan fish spicy style stew on couscous. Lastly you can smoke in bars here!!! It's illegal but everyone ignores it - fab!!!! Wish me luck getting to Jerusalem tomorrow may just try and get a cab to the bus station but dont have a number?! Miss you Meadway.
So, today wasn't as sunny or hot as yesterday so spent the first hour or so (ie 1pm oops) n Carmel market supposedly buying people gifts but actually buying myself a nice necklace - fuck all you guys haha. Then i had the nicest lunch ever outside in a cafe with a random old woman who shared the table with me. It was an Iraqi sandwich which was on dark dark bread with fried aubergines, sliced boiled eggs, gherkins and this creamy sauce and it came with a huge chopped salad, which they are obsessed with here (a good thing in my book) and a dish of olives. Yum. They also serve their cold coffees with sugar water which in my head sounds romantic and exotic. Drinking cold coffee also makes me think am Gregory Peck in Roman Holiday which is defo a good thing. Then looked round Yaels gallery which was excellent but alas i don't have the booklet and therefore can't remember any of the artists names. There was some damn good stuff with collage though rach take note. And cool revolving glass things projecting images onto the walls. - sorry yael that's a crap description i know but am knackered. Then after that I went to the Tel Aviv Art Museum/Museum of Art which was ace and had loads of really really beautiful Fauve stuff. I had forgotten totally about the Fauves I must admit and it had totally escaped me how much I LOVE them. Also lots of cubist stuff and general fab post impressionism and oddly this pitch back room filled with all these doll house rooms done up in the interior styles of various eras of history - I enjoyed it but definitely odd.
Major dissapointment is that even though i am on my HOLIDAYS, ABROAD, I couldnt find any of the obligatory transparent bags of really greasy crinkle cut crips that i adore and are the man reason for me having holidays. Oh well. Did have yum dinner with Yael and her lovely fried Liz of Moroccan fish spicy style stew on couscous. Lastly you can smoke in bars here!!! It's illegal but everyone ignores it - fab!!!! Wish me luck getting to Jerusalem tomorrow may just try and get a cab to the bus station but dont have a number?! Miss you Meadway.
Monday, 8 March 2010
Tel Aviv Day One
Dear all
I am writing this backwards and it's really sodding confusing. The reason I am writing this backwards is that I am currently sitting at the lovely Yaels computer in very sunny Tel Aviv and everything is in Hebrew! She is off doing arty important things and it took me about half an hour to work out how to type in english rather than hebrew. I am concerned about spell check, aka my best friend so if this is coming to you phonetically that will be the reason why. So here I am in lovely Tel Aviv having survived successfully a 5 hour easyjet flight to get here. My advice to all out there planning on flying here take note: take some sort of sars mask; orthodox jews aren't allowed to use deodorant ad where wool , my god what it will be like on the way home dread to think. However, this is probably made up for by the fact that they were all praying like crazy before we got on the plane AND during the flight so felt very reassured, unless god is Allah in which case was probably not very safe. Hey hoh. Anyway, as I did nothing cultural last week due to last minute holiday preparation hell and obviously laziness i i thought i would do a series of mini blogs outlining all the fab adventures i am having on my hols. So far I can inform you most definitley that they do not use measures here. was very drunk last night and rather hungover this morning so, after waking up a about mid day all i could really manage was to drag myself down to the beach, which by the way is less than 2 minutes away, and lie there eating yummy things and having the occasional paddle. the weather is baking so don't feel guilty in the least i haven't had a holiday since last september and some people never move from the beach all holiday. Also very nice beaches with fine golden sand and lots of people hitting balls back and forth with hard wooden paddles - its very popular here apparently and they do it very aggressively! UMMM the food was gooood as well. Unfortunately, or maybe fortunately, my guide book does not have a long enough food section BY FAR and i was thus forced to guess my orders, but luckily i eat pretty much everything with gusto anyway. Firstly, the pitta bread here aint like the pita bread at home, Here, rather than a chewy anorexic looking piece of tasteless paper they are thick and fresh and moist and yeasty and delicious. mmm. Totally different kettle of fish. I had them with a yummy dish called Shakshuka which was amazing; it came in a little mini frying pan with a lid and it was basically eggs baked in an incredibly rich tomato and pepper sauce, clearly fresh, which you spooned into the pitta and wolfed down f you were me. Thank god i don't seem to be suffering from my usual holiday loss of appetite completely thing as my god i intend to eat a lot while im here. apparently its also strawberry season and you can buy a punnet the size of your head for abut a pound, surprisingly though the food isn't THAT cheap, although in fairness i have been mostly sticking to the tourist heavy beach cafes, But hey who can resist sipping in the culinary delights of a nation by the sea. Tomorrow do intend to be more active though and wil try and make it t Jerusalem where hopefully i will eat even more delicious treats aubergines and falaffel def high n the agenda. Tel Aviv itself, of what I have seen so far, isn't what expected. t's more run down than I thought it would be but it has a real 'continental' be to it; lots of wide airy tree lined boulevards with out door cafes and the same poster things as they have in Paris haha. I was talking to some guy on the beach who told me Israel is like the middle east but tel aviv is like europe. Who was this man on the beach you might ask? Well that leads me nicely to what will be known as my Hebrew Hotties section because my god the men are good looking here. On average way way way better looking than english men - no offense guys you know i love ya. But FUCK ME there are some good looking men around here, it must be the army thing and also the sun thing as they are totally buff and tanned - not my usual type as such but undeniably Adonis like. If i had a digital camera there would now be lots of pictures of ripe young specimens with captions sch as PHWOAR! My god they know it though. Girls here must get A LOT of action as just being on the beach for 3 hours i made a lot of new friends. I also taught about 5 guys the meaning f the word 'letch' . I am getting quite attached to my fictional boyfriend though he s a mix of most of the guys ive ever gone out with. I suspect he will develop a lot over the coming days. Yael just got home and we are going out with her exiting art crowd to a Georgian restaurant that am very excited about so will sign off here til tomorrow or possibly the day after. Bye
I am writing this backwards and it's really sodding confusing. The reason I am writing this backwards is that I am currently sitting at the lovely Yaels computer in very sunny Tel Aviv and everything is in Hebrew! She is off doing arty important things and it took me about half an hour to work out how to type in english rather than hebrew. I am concerned about spell check, aka my best friend so if this is coming to you phonetically that will be the reason why. So here I am in lovely Tel Aviv having survived successfully a 5 hour easyjet flight to get here. My advice to all out there planning on flying here take note: take some sort of sars mask; orthodox jews aren't allowed to use deodorant ad where wool , my god what it will be like on the way home dread to think. However, this is probably made up for by the fact that they were all praying like crazy before we got on the plane AND during the flight so felt very reassured, unless god is Allah in which case was probably not very safe. Hey hoh. Anyway, as I did nothing cultural last week due to last minute holiday preparation hell and obviously laziness i i thought i would do a series of mini blogs outlining all the fab adventures i am having on my hols. So far I can inform you most definitley that they do not use measures here. was very drunk last night and rather hungover this morning so, after waking up a about mid day all i could really manage was to drag myself down to the beach, which by the way is less than 2 minutes away, and lie there eating yummy things and having the occasional paddle. the weather is baking so don't feel guilty in the least i haven't had a holiday since last september and some people never move from the beach all holiday. Also very nice beaches with fine golden sand and lots of people hitting balls back and forth with hard wooden paddles - its very popular here apparently and they do it very aggressively! UMMM the food was gooood as well. Unfortunately, or maybe fortunately, my guide book does not have a long enough food section BY FAR and i was thus forced to guess my orders, but luckily i eat pretty much everything with gusto anyway. Firstly, the pitta bread here aint like the pita bread at home, Here, rather than a chewy anorexic looking piece of tasteless paper they are thick and fresh and moist and yeasty and delicious. mmm. Totally different kettle of fish. I had them with a yummy dish called Shakshuka which was amazing; it came in a little mini frying pan with a lid and it was basically eggs baked in an incredibly rich tomato and pepper sauce, clearly fresh, which you spooned into the pitta and wolfed down f you were me. Thank god i don't seem to be suffering from my usual holiday loss of appetite completely thing as my god i intend to eat a lot while im here. apparently its also strawberry season and you can buy a punnet the size of your head for abut a pound, surprisingly though the food isn't THAT cheap, although in fairness i have been mostly sticking to the tourist heavy beach cafes, But hey who can resist sipping in the culinary delights of a nation by the sea. Tomorrow do intend to be more active though and wil try and make it t Jerusalem where hopefully i will eat even more delicious treats aubergines and falaffel def high n the agenda. Tel Aviv itself, of what I have seen so far, isn't what expected. t's more run down than I thought it would be but it has a real 'continental' be to it; lots of wide airy tree lined boulevards with out door cafes and the same poster things as they have in Paris haha. I was talking to some guy on the beach who told me Israel is like the middle east but tel aviv is like europe. Who was this man on the beach you might ask? Well that leads me nicely to what will be known as my Hebrew Hotties section because my god the men are good looking here. On average way way way better looking than english men - no offense guys you know i love ya. But FUCK ME there are some good looking men around here, it must be the army thing and also the sun thing as they are totally buff and tanned - not my usual type as such but undeniably Adonis like. If i had a digital camera there would now be lots of pictures of ripe young specimens with captions sch as PHWOAR! My god they know it though. Girls here must get A LOT of action as just being on the beach for 3 hours i made a lot of new friends. I also taught about 5 guys the meaning f the word 'letch' . I am getting quite attached to my fictional boyfriend though he s a mix of most of the guys ive ever gone out with. I suspect he will develop a lot over the coming days. Yael just got home and we are going out with her exiting art crowd to a Georgian restaurant that am very excited about so will sign off here til tomorrow or possibly the day after. Bye
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