Hotel Galim Tel Aviv

... Andorra: fat 50% Chance of a Thunderstorm are expected there in the afternoon...

Probably it's the time to start keeping the fingers crossed :)

... pressed against my finger through her tummy. The baby liked playing footsy with me. I talk to her tummy and told her not to press so hard because it makes mommy uncomfortable.
We head to the main bus station in Tel Aviv and walk around for a bit. I look at all the soldiers on their way home. I like seeing soldiers, I like looking at their tags and berets and arms to see what rank they are. I ended my service as a Sergeant. I was a sergeant for ...

... als "illegal" eingestuft wurde und damit internationales Recht verletzt. Eine UN-Resolution scheiterte aber am Veto der USA und Enthaltungen diverser anderer Mitglieder des Sicherheitsrates, darunter Grossbritannien und Deutschland.

Den Rest unserer Tour verbrachten wir an Teilen der Mauer in Bethlehem, die an vielen Stellen aeusserst kreativ mit Graffiti dekoriert ist, der Geburtskirche, die laut Katholiken, Griechisch-Orthodoxen und Armenisch ...

... on familiar ground. Dykes on Bikes are usually the first group in pride parades (they usually help clear the parade route by biking up and down signaling the start of the parade). Here, the police cleared the road, sort of. People walked back out into the street almost immediately.

It turns out that Pride is both a parade and a march. In this country where it is important to show yourself and be counted, people both watch and march. Which is what we did. We watched for a while ...

... nodding ferociously): Yes! Me (shrugs shoulders): OK! So we take out our cameras and hand them to our Gazan group leader, and head to the stage, all 1000 eyes locked on us. When we stepped on stage (I believe the song "Pump it Up" or something similar was playing at the time), I assumed we'd snap a quick photo and be done. No. We were expected to dance! So we did. After photos with the bride were taken, I stepped away, too embarrassed and uncomfortable to take ...

... beautiful this country is. There are bountiful crops and lushness (is that a word?) everywhere. In a country the size of Delaware, it's like a little condensed California, with beaches, deserts, crops, and natural beauty. I had no idea.

We finally headed toward Tiberias on the Sea of Galilee, where we would spend the next couple of nights. I love this place already!

Yet to see the Dead Sea, and with a few extra days to fill before having to return to Egypt. I had decided to go to Tel Aviv. The prospect of seeing another country was too much to resist, and considering how close I actually was, it wasn't going to be a huge diversion. I caught the early morning bus from Wadi Musa down to Aqaba and hopped back over the border into Eilat. I booked the five hour bus to Tel Aviv and had about an hour to ...

... a number of reasons. I'd watched his interview more than once when writing my Hans Kimmel assignment a few years ago but only had time to watch half an hour of it this time. The video's from 1995, and after his interview the whole family came in to be recorded, including my brother Mitchell, and a 9-year-old Dane.


Tel Aviv

I caught a sherut (shared taxi) to Tel Aviv, to spend the night with my Dad's cousin Annick, the sister of Michel who I ...

... to work, write, drive and a number of other things. I walked around Jerusalem today and was surprised at how empty it was, everything in the new city was closed except for McDonalds. I was going to leave for Tel Aviv first thing in the morning but because of the Shabbat the buses were not running but luckily the check out time for my hotel was also extended until sunset. I spent some of the day ...

... it to the Indian embassy. They stamp it (in this case it took over two weeks) and bring it back to the travel agency. Maybe the embassy could handle the workload if half of their citizenry weren't gainfully employed answering American customer service phone calls. I need to get that visa, get to Cairo and see those pyramid dealies, then fly to Mumbai on Monday. Oh yeah, and somehow figure out how to vote in the election.