Coming Home

I was a little concerned about getting back home on this trip. Nothing was really going for me. I had two connecting flights, with three hours in between each, giving me a total transit time of 22 ½ hours, not counting the three hours early that I needed to leave from Ben Gurion Airport in Tel Aviv. Speaking of which, I also had to get out of Ben Gurion Airport, which is well known as the most secure airport in the world. In addition, I was getting on a plane in Israel immediately after getting out of Egypt and Jordan. Finally, I had all of this a month or so after the underwear bomber in Detroit, so I had all of the added security on top of everything else. I wasn’t looking forward to the trek.

I got to Ben Gurion Airport about fifteen minutes later than I had hoped, but it still appeared to be in plenty of time. At Ben Gurion, I got pretty much what I expected, which was a vigorous full-body cavity search. Well, okay, it wasn’t that bad, but they did take a special interest in me. Based on all of the questions that I was asked, I think it was because I was all alone and had a recent Egyptian visa in my passport. After my baggage was x-rayed, it was checked pretty thoroughly. The people doing it were polite and not overly-intrusive, but they weren’t playing either. Afterwards, I was led to a special room where I went through a metal detector and had my bag scanned. This wasn’t unlike what you normally go through when you are in an airport, but for some reason mine was done in a room by myself. Afterwards, one of the inspectors walked with me to check in for my flight and then escorted me through regular security (which I got to skip) and into the Duty Free section, so my inspections were over, at least for the time being.

Then I get to Warsaw. I didn’t expect much in Warsaw. I was just switching planes in Warsaw. Nevertheless, they had lots of equipment and were determined to use it. I walked off the plane and directly into a security checkpoint to get to my gate. The assumption I suppose is that I may have picked up something on the plane despite the fact that everybody on the plane had also been checked. As soon as I got through that checkpoint (which wasn’t quick – more on that later), I went to gate A31, where I was checked again, just in case I picked up a weapon on the way from the entry of Terminal A. It’s Poland. I don’t know, maybe it could happen. Surprisingly, I now have been on the plane for nearly seven hours and haven’t been x-rayed yet, but we still have about four hours to go. Then there’s security at JFK. Ugh.

Before I get to that, I will digress. I hate Frederic Chopin Airport in Warsaw, Poland with a passion right now. Perhaps part of it is the excessive checking to go from one secure area in the airport to go to another secure area in the airport. Maybe it’s the lack of usuable WiFi in the airport. Maybe it’s the fact that there is no ATM from which to get Polish currency and the only kiosk that I had access to wouldn’t take a credit card. Maybe it was the difficulty I had getting through the many lines because you evidently couldn’t get a group of Poles in a straight line if you marched them through a 12-inch wide alley. Maybe it’s a vestige of the communist days, but they attacked every entry point as if if was leading to the last boat to Heaven and there were only two seats left. Anyway, screw the Chopin Airport and LOT Polish Airlines too while I’m at it.

Okay, that leads you up to where I am sitting and what I am doing right now. In about four hours, I will be landing at JFK for another security check or two and another three hour wait before getting on yet another plane. I’ll go ahead and update this entry after that happens.

Update: Surprise of all surprises, after all the pains of getting through security in Tel Aviv and Warsaw, New York basically just waved at me and let me through. Nobody even batted an eye that I had just come out of Egypt. (Not that it’s a big deal, but it certainly was in Israel.) My flight left New York about 30 minutes late because of maintenance, but I made it home and the trip comes to an end.

I fly to Paris on February 24 for nine weeks in (primarily) southern Europe. The travel blog will return around that time.

Israel - Finishing Up

Okay, what did I promise you last time, I forget. I think it was Bethlehem, the Sea (Lake) of Galilee and the Jordan River. Let’s go with that.

Even though it was early-February by the time I got to Bethlehem, it still was Christmas time. Right outside of the Church of the Nativity was a tree still decorated for Christmas, with other Christmas decorations still hanging here and there. Of course, we weren’t in Bethlehem for the Christmas decorations, we were there for the Church of the Nativity. (Fortunately, we weren’t there for the coffee. I don’t think I’ve ever seen intellectual property infringement anywhere close to the Stars & Bucks Cafe shop with the green roof and logo. I guess it must be difficult to get/enforce injunctions in the Palestinian-controlled part of the West Bank.)

Of the various old churches that I visited during my time in the holy land, I think it was the Church of the Nativity that I liked the most. Like other churches in Israel, it was unassuming from the outside. Also, like other biblical sites in the area, the location was selected centuries after the fact and the accuracy of the selection is debatable, at best. Still, once you enter the church, you realize that it has an aura that the other churches didn’t, at least for me. The two most famous places in the church are downstairs through a narrow corridor. There, you will find a silver star in the floor designating the spot in which Jesus was born and across and to the side, a little shrine in a carved out section of the church designating where the manger was located. Even for somebody of limited faith, I was honored to walk through these celebrated halls.

We also visited the Sea (Lake) of Galilee. Call it what you want people, but it’s a lake, not a sea. Anyway, there wasn’t anything spectacular about it but I could see how somebody might walk across it with all of the pollution. (Just kidding. I did see an old tire by the shore, but compared with the Nile in certain parts, the Sea (Lake) of Galilee is pristine.) We stopped by an old town in which one or more of the apostles lived. I’m not completely up to date with all of my apostles, but there was a house there in which an apostle with two names (was Paul Simon an apostle?) lived and it is claimed that Jesus lived there as well, at least for a while. The house has a few remains left that are surrounded by the remains of an old Byzantine church, all of which are surrounded by a twentieth century church. I’m sure someday, it’ll be surrounded by something else. One can only hope.

Okay, now we get to the baptismal site at the Jordan River. Which one you ask? Good question. From signs that I’ve seen, there is a spot on the Jordan side of the Jordan River that claims to be the spot where John the Baptist baptized Jesus. We didn’t go to that one. There’s also a spot on the Israel side of the Jordan River where we were told was the “traditional” (there’s that word again) spot of John the Baptist’s baptism of Jesus. That spot, however, is under control of the Israeli army and access is denied except for certain days to certain people or something like that. Anyway, we didn’t go there. We went, instead, to an “alternate” site designated as a Jordan River baptismal site. Thanks, but big f’in’ whoop. I could go to the Tar River and call it an “alternate” site for lots of things. That shouldn’t make it a pilgrimage site. But we went, so there you are.

That’s pretty much it for the highlights of Israel (along with my other posts on the topic). I have to say that of the three countries I visited on this trip, I liked Israel the least, though to be fair, I only spent five days there, as opposed to the ten days I spent in Egypt, and Jordan is probably the most beautiful country that I’ve ever seen.

While I’m on the plane from Warsaw to New York, I’ll start writing an article on the trip home and I will hope to finish it soon after I arrive at RDU. Then the blog will go back on hiatus until I return to Paris in late-February.

Israel - Jerusalem's Lot

On our second day in Israel, we spent most of the day walking around the old city of Jerusalem. This was my favorite part of the Israeli leg of the trip.

We began the day by going to the Mount of Olives to get a birds-eye view of the city of Jerusalem and the Jewish cemetery. From there, we saw where we were headed for the rest of the day. Our first stop after the Mount of Olives was to go the Garden of something-or-other. (Again, and I can’t stress this enough, I am not a biblical scholar.) Traditionally (it’s almost always “traditionally”), this garden was the site in which Judas fingered Jesus for the Romans. The highlight of the garden is the six olive trees that are supposed to have been around since the time of Jesus. They, in fact, appear to be young olive trees growing out of old olive tree bark, and it’s hard to believe that the old olive tree bark is 2,000 years old, but who am I to argue?

From there we went into the old city to follow the steps of Jesus from condemnation to crucifixion to resurrection. Again, this path is “traditional” and it is (from my understanding) unlikely that he used this actual path, but the path is interesting nonetheless. Along the way are several stations commemorating various moments in Jesus’ walk with his cross to his crucifixion (he fell here, saw Mary there, things like that). At the end, of course, is the Church of the Holy Sepulchre. This Church traditionally contains the site of both the crucifixion and tomb of Jesus. It is a church that was built on the site of other churches that came before it and commemorated the same spots. The church, from the outside, wasn’t as spectacular as I was expecting, but then I’m not really sure what I was expecting. Inside the church, we followed the last stations on the path of Jesus.

After leaving the Church of the Holy Sepulchre, we went to visit the Western Wall. After a full day of some of the most holy places in Christendom, it seemed out of place to go to one of the holiest places in Judaism (since we had plenty of time to do so over the next few days), but I guess in a way it makes sense to visit Jerusalem in this manner since it holds such an important place in many religions and cultures and is difficult to separate along strict categorical lines (though many have tried). Of all of the places we visited in Israel, I found the Western (Wailing) Wall to be the most solemn and the most moving. I don’t know the whole story behind it as I’ve never researched it independently and our guide was much more knowledgeable with respect to Christian history than he was with Jewish history. Perhaps additional knowledge about the history would have made it even more moving; though, perhaps not since I find that in Israel, the history of certain sites sometimes detract from the meaning of the site in the context of faith. (For instance, if a person bursts into tears upon approaching a particular site, it really matters little whether or not any particular event actually took place there. At that point, it’s about faith, not about history.)

That was the end of our first full-day in Israel. That was also the high point of our trip to Israel. We visited other cities and other sites, and some were very impressive, but everything else sort of paled in comparison to Jerusalem. How could it not, though, seeing as Jerusalem is, by far, the most historic city on the planet.

I think I have one more Israel post in me after this one. Coming up in the next episode: Bethlehem, Sea (Lake) of Galilee and the Jordan River.

Out of Jordan; In to Israel

We left our hotel in Amman at 7:00 a.m. to head to the King Hussein Bridge to cross the Jordan River into Israel. We didn’t have anything else planned the entire day – that should tell you how long we expected it to take us to cross from Jordan to Israel. We got to the border at around 8:00 and got out of our bus as our Jordanian guide helped get everything taken care of with respect to our passports and the exit from Jordan. Something got stamped, but it wasn’t my passport and we were free to head over to the Israeli checkpoint.

At the Israeli checkpoint, we didn’t have a guide. Fortunately, the entire process was fairly self-explanatory. After giving away our baggage for inspection, we worked our way over to the passport control desk. Each of us requested a Form 17 to avoid having our passports stamped by Israel. (For the uninitiated, most Arab nations will not let you enter if you have an Israel stamp in your passport. For me, it probably doesn’t matter, but just in case I decide to head over to Morocco when I’m in southern Europe, I thought I’d get the Form 17.) The process wasn’t too difficult and by 10:00 a.m., we were out of the checkpoint and in Israel.

Since we got into Israel early, the entire itinerary was destroyed. The tour company had no idea how to deal with extra time and things got switched around every which way. It was decided that the first trip from the checkpoint should be Masada.

If you don’t know the story of Masada, don’t look for it here. I’m not an ancient scholar and from what I understand, the story is fairly disputed. According to Josephus, though, at the top of Masada, almost a thousand Zealots chose to commit suicide than surrender to the Romans. The site itself is fairly impressive, and what we were shown follows the traditional story, so who am I to judge – though as you’ll find in the upcoming posts, I’ve grown accustomed to places in Israel being “traditional” as opposed to “actual” and, well, any story dating back 2,000 years has to be taken with a grain of salt. But I digress.

After Masada, we went back to the Dead Sea, basically to appease one person in the group. Since we had all gone to the Dead Sea the day before in Jordan, most of us didn’t have much interest in seeing it again the very next day. The spot where we stopped was pretty dingy compared to the spot we visited on the Jordan side, but it’s probably not fair to compare things to Jordan, which was great from start to finish.

After the Dead Sea, we went to the West Bank to visit Jericho. (We went back and forth between pre-1967 Israel and the West Bank fairly often during the trip. I’ll attempt to abstain from participating in a political discussion within these pages, but I found that seeing areas that up to now I had only heard about to be very educational.) I’m not sure exactly why we went to Jericho. There was a tree there. Again, I’m not a biblical or ancient history scholar and the significance of the tree never was really explained.

After the tree, we went to an area to view Temptation Mountain, not to be confused with Temptation Island, which would have been a little more interesting. According to tradition (I’m really fighting myself here not to use the word “legend”), this is the mountain in which the Devil tempted Jesus. Again, this is a “traditional” site with a monastery half-way up. Like the majority of biblical sites we visited, it was decided that this was the site in which the events of the Bible took place and celebrated as such. (For the sake of simplicity, when I talk about Israel and I say that an event took place, let’s just assume it actually took place. This is a travel blog, not a theological or historical blog.) We didn’t actually go to the mountain, we just looked at it from afar. I’m still not sure why we had to go to Jericho to do that.

That was pretty much it for the first day. After Jericho, we went to our hotel, which is an old French pilgrim’s hotel and appears to still be run by the Catholic Church. (There were photos of a visit by the current Pope in the lobby of the hotel.) It was comfortable. There was no television, but unlike the most of the hotels in Egypt, there was beer. There may be more on that topic later.