Dramas at Tel Aviv

Where am I up to? I think the last entry was Wed the 8th... so Thursday saw us checking out the supposed birth place of John the Baptist on a rainy, cold day which it was forecast to snow. Like many of the sites JB's birth place is speculative and marked with an Italian designed church. The passage out of Luke I think it is the "Magnificant" was written out on tiles in 59 different languages, which was pretty cool. From there we went to a park which overlooked the city of Jerusalem from the west. Then onto another site which some say is the crucifixion and burial site of Jesus called the Garden Tomb. This has a skull face in the rock, close to the walls of the modern city (but not the ancient which probably rules it out) and a tomb like you might have in you imagination. The afternoon was spent in the most harrowing way waling through the Holocaust museum in Jerusalem. It was way, way too much. We finished the day more relaxed walking from the Jaffa Gate through the old city where all the bizarres are and out through the Damascus gates. It was great, haggling and hanging out mainly in the Arab quarter. It was all pretty quiet, not many tourists as the next day was an Isalmic holy day and trouble was brewing. A few of us went out to the arty part of Jerusalem to Ben Yuhda Street for coffee in a great little cafe, used book shop named after the Poet Laruate whose name I'll remember for the next posting. If you are ever in Jerusalem... We had a funny incident with a young fellow who approached us cautiously in the street, almost like he was wanting to sell us drugs or evangelise us, nervous and not confident, as it turned out he wanted to invite us to listen to a jazz band that he was in at a locla cafe.

Friday 10th came around way too quick. The time proporation seemed exponential. Starting slow and speeding up more and more as we approached the end. Spent the last morning at the Israel Museum where the Dead Sea Scrolls amongst other things are kept. Housed in a bomb shelter it is the Israel's great ticket into Palestien as it shows they were in there in the BC era, historical evidence. Also a great model of the Old Jerusalem is almost complete for others who might travel to Israel. Drove to the airport with about 3 hours to spare, which as it turned out we needed every minute. Security at the airport was extreme. And there was the issue with my surfboard...

Well it started with a friend who was going to take it straight to Spain on El Al Air. They wanted $450 US dollars for extra baggage. I took it back, which had it's own complications with the ultra strict security that the Israel's have. Anyway Swiss Air wanted to charge me $200 US which is about as much as the boards worth. At that point I was thinking about dumping it or giving it to the young security officer who surfed. anyway after parying and a bit of talking, first asking the girl to pretend it was a snow board as they don't incur any extra baggage, she took me to her supervisor, Moses who performed a miralce with a phone call and wavered to extra baggage. However there might be more dramas to come as I'm flying home with Swiss air and might be pushing it to get it on for free again. Moses and Noah ( the girl at the desk are champions!)