Finally leaving Jerusalem
Posted by Temujin on May 18, 2008
Well, it’s been a struggle… but finally I’ve managed to muster up the energy to escape the Holy Land.
Wednesday night (14 May) was supposed to be a night off partying… but I ended up smoking hash and staying up late anyway. The next day I trecked into the old city again to try and see the “dome of the rock”, but I got there too late. Instead, I wandered around the “city of david” (the old Caananite part of town) and near the “mount of olives”, where there were some old graves of prophets. That night Marc, Osher & I went over to Ira’s house for dinner and a bit more partying.
Friday (16 May) was one of the few days when I got up before midday. I was even considering escaping Israel, but instead I went walking around the souq and reading… and then heading out to chinese dinner and another night of partying.
After the sun goes down on Friday, Jerusalem changes. It becomes a ghost town as all the religious people hide inside and avoid work (or driving, using a mobile phone, switching on TV etc). The chinese restaurant was one of the few open for business (good food & I got to practice some chinese). Saturday day is much the same, with the normally-busy streets almost empty except for a few random kids playing and the heathens. It’s really quite nice.
On Saturday night Marc, Ryan, Josh, Ira and I went out for pizza and then met up with Osher and the couchsurfing crew for a CS party. My original CS friends (Karen & Noam) were there, so I had a chance to say some goodbyes. Then we went on to Sira (again), drank some beers (again), smoked some hash (again) and stayed up until 7am. It was a good final night out.
And that brings me to today. Sunday the 18th of May. My first full day sober in a long time… and in this rare moment of objective reality I’ve decided to escape. Not sure exactly where yet. Either Haifa (Israel), and then Amman (Jordan), or Eilat (Israel) and then Petra (Jordan).
May 20, 2008 at 11:55 pm
Hey you smelly hippy, if you head to Haifa watch those missiles from Lebanon. What’s your grass roots feel on the arab / jew relationship and don’t give me the sugar-coated ‘why can’t we just get along’ version? I have near daily contact with an Israeli company and I’m intrigued at the nature of the relationship between the cultures - and it ain’t postive, even from very rational and reasonable people. I’ll be over there in late July if you’re still around, but by previous entries I’ll take that it that you’ll be move on.