Grand Palace Hotel Gaza City

... has been a welcome change from the steady diet of falafels and restaurant meals we've had. We've had the royal treatment, and know that these times will remain special for us, and that we now feel that we've connected with mishpucha (family) with whom we want to stay in touch.<br><br>Now, an explanation of the title of this blog entry. When we first arrived in Nir-Am, we were given a walking tour of the kibbutz. We encountered one of the students at the nearby university ...

... is very press conference-like, with cameras in our faces 24-7. We've been meeting very influential and interesting figure heads, such as the Ministry of Health, Minister of Lifting the Siege (I am skeptical if this is his correct title), the founder of UNIFEM, a women's support group, the senior political advisor to Hamas, former female women prisoners jailed in Israeli prisons between the 1967 war and the 1st and 2nd intifidas, and most ...

... film maker. Their focus is how the siege on Gaza is affecting the local fisherman. Salena wrote a brief blog about our experience crossing over from Egypt to Gaza that was posted on the Huffington Post which you can view here: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/salena-tr amel/egypt-gaza-border-crossin_b_208247 .html<br><br>The trip route was Cairo to Al Arish to Rafah to Gaza. Al Arish is a small town about 45 mintues from Rafah, both of which are east of the Sinai and ...

... I was getting quite excited. The reception was in a large room with a stage on one end where the bride and groom were dancing to 90's pop/techno music. Family members sat on the stage and clapped and smiled and watched them dance, while the rest of the 500-member audience watched and sat in what looked like pews. The bride was unveiled and wore a typical white wedding dress, the man a suit and tie. The place was packed, like a dance club at 1:00 a.m. I didn't ...

... so far: the people, the land, the food, the smells, the sounds...it is one of the greatest place I've ever traveled to. Granted, I haven't seen too much yet, but I already know that it will be very difficult emotionally to leave Gaza. It has already stolen my heart. Peace-salaam-shalom

... not really any major town, you find yourself heading north with flat plain on your left and a rather abrupt change to small mountains covered with brown scrub brush on your right. there on the right, as the plain juts right into the mountain, there are adobe-looking condos...thousands of them. just sitting right there in the hot sun and dust with absolutely no commerce surrounding them. i thought it was the ugliest sight i'd ever seen ...

... here really believes it, people just keep going on as usual - just with the TV turned off to avoid the news. That's one way of dealing with it. The city itself has not much to offer, a huge university and the usual student bars that go with it, that's about all. I took the chance to relax a little, chat with Amir, do some laundry and sleep a lot. Now it is time to move on, to the desert!

... Israeli citizen to leave Sinai before it was returned to Egypt. As a protest, he walked to Jerusalem. After that, he and others who had no homes settled near Eretz, an area which was almost, but of course not quite, like the place they had to leave. Well, a quick glance on the map tells us Eretz is now in the Gaza strip, so once more they had to leave everything behind and where moved to some other place by Israeli government. Now ...

... hookahs and carpets (and lots of things for "just two shekels !"), no animals.  In an interesting bit of cross-cultural commentary, Mimi kept calling the Bedouin women in their long black robes, scarves and face masks "ghosts"!  It is so funny -- people here keep complaining about "winter" having finally come to Beersheva -- it rained yesterday and was probably about 50 degrees and everyone was all bundled up.   This ...

... hilarious to all three of us. You had to be there. Anyway let me try. The tobacco in the sheesha is smoldered by small black charcoal briquets that have the shape of miniature hockey pucks. In a dimly lit room they could be mistaken for chocalte cookies. Several were on the table alongside the Sheesha pipe. In the pleasantnest of the conversation and the sweet smoky atmosphere I took one of the chocolate briquetes and bit into it. Even now as I write this I laugh ...