Shalom, Israel.

controversial. divided. diverse. incredible. - These are the first words that come to my mind when I think of Israel. Utter gratefulness and happiness feels my heart that I and Tomi visited this land of wonder, even if for a short of time.

Israel - like so many other countries - has much to offer. However, its uniqueness lies in the fact, that I have never observed such level of diversity in any other country. Significantly different cultures, religions, and  hence, people live next to one another day by day. It should be seen by everybody.

Our visit was quite chilled, still, when I wrote my journal I felt that I simply had not enough space to commit our experiences to writing. I have long dreamt about visiting Israel (and so did my boyfriend) and despite the shortness of our visit, I think we made the most out of it. But Israel is definitely a country where you have to spend longer a time, or, pay several visits to see the different faces of the country.

Jerusaelem from above.

Big slices of history are crammed into this small territory. I highly advise using CouchSurfing while travelling, since it enables you to glimpse into the lives of locals and get an idea about local issues in the most unique way. There is no pretence about people when they are at home. That's why the site is a great initiative. We stayed with 3 different people, all of whom welcomed us with indescribable kindness.

control at the airport.

Better to start with this. The passport control is the first and last memory you'll have upon entering and leaving Israel. I had my ideas; I thought it would be more dreadful. But it wasn't that bad.

They may ask you some surprising questions - e.g. How often do you and your boyfriend meet at Budapest? What is your father's name? Where do you actually live ? (this was asked from me after the girl saw the great number of Russian and Belarusian visas in my passport), but, in case you are a casual tourist, you have nothing to worry about. The control is a bit circumstantial, yet somewhat understandable given the situation in the country. 

hosts & local affairs.

We stayed one night at Avigail's place in Tel-Aviv. I regret the fact she had such a long day and we arrived late in the night, because basically we spent together only a couple of minutes and after that she went to sleep. However, she was really kind and her mini zoo was really welcoming as well (consisting of 2 dogs, a cat and multiple kittens).

Then we enjoyed the hospitality of Ira in Jerusalem for 2 nights. This 65-year-old man, besides his flat, shared his impressions and experiences with us. He has been living in Israel for circa 35 years. You can imagine - with the history of the region in mind - that life was not easy for him at times. We listened to him as he told how they feared for their children's lives with his wife, and how they didn't let them travel on the school bus sometimes. He also shared a number of memories from the period of the intifadas. Thanks to him we also saw a bomb shelter from the inside.

However, the most enthralling thing was (at least for me) when we learnt from him that he works in a school where Israeli and Palestine children study together. They started from scratch. Ira's kids were among the first ones in the school. They aspire to bring these two conflict-torn nations together. And they manage really well. Kids, their parents, and the teachers get along and make friends. Ira told us that two boys admitted being gay recently.What braveness that demands! Hopefully with time this little community will grow into a huge crowd - that would bring great changes to Israel... and peace in the long run.

The next two nights we spent with Louis. Thanks to him Tomi & I were given the opportunity to be present at a real Sabbath dinner with Kiddush (blessing over the wine) and a lovely circle of people. I cannot cease to be baffled by the kindness of random people I encounter on CouchSurfing. I really enjoyed the time we spent together with Louis and his friends. We were taken the no. 1. hummus place in town (FYI: Hummus Ben Sira), drank Israeli and Palestinian beers, and were given good advice where to go and what to see.

protests.

During our stay there was an Ethiopian protest in Jerusalem which the police ended. Poor Ethiopian Jews endure quite bad living circumstances, hence the protests. However, protests take place quite frequently any way. We saw smaller, peaceful one as well on Jaffa St.

They can turn out quite badly, but I do admire that there are people who are not afraid to stand up for themselves.

"the demographic devil."

We went on an interesting city walk thanks to Ira. It was organized by a local PhD student under the title 'The Demographic Devil and the Urban Space'. It gave us an insight into how Jerusalem is divided among the different religious denominations and what role the major roads play in separating these neighbourhoods from each other.

kid in Mea She'arim

It came as a surprise that ultra-Orthodox Jews take up already 30% of the population of Jerusalem (the term covers all types of ultra-Orthodox people). It is a one of a kind experience to visit their neighbourhood, Mea She'arim. The streets change without you noticing. Just get lost & breath in the atmosphere.

Mea She'arim - instructions

Facts:

• the number of ultra-Orthodox people grow (due to the fact that the average number of children is 4-5)
• "average Jew" leave the town in increasing numbers in search for peaceful life. however even  different Jewish groups have their disagreements with each other.
• the Arab neighbourhood is also expanding its boundaries.

history & culture on every corner.

I don't want to rave about the different sites. You can decide yourself what you want to see. There is just one advice: take your time! There is so much to see! 

Old City

The whole city is breathtaking, but wandering around the streets of the Old City will also leave so speechless. The Old City has several quarters: there is an Armenian, a Jewish, a Christian and an Arab one. They are all different. 

Armenian quarter.

In the Church of Holy Sepulchre we were baffled by the sight of older ladies overjoyed with religious devotion, as they bless their belongings on the stone on which the body of Jesus is said to had been placed after it was taken down from the cross. Basically what happens is that they pour everything from their (plastic) bags on the stone. 

Temple Mount & the Western Wall

Once in the Old Town, try to make your way up to the top of buildings! There is a staircase somewhere in the Jewish quarter that leads to roof, where you can enjoy the view. It is worth to do a bit of healthy trespassing to glimpse into the courtyards of houses. You'll also get a better view of the Temple Mount.

snapshot in the bazaar.

Just like in Turkey, Morocco and other countries, the bazaars and markets in Israel are great places for "hunting". The bazaar in the Old City of Jerusalem is nice (jammed with tourists though). When is comes to markets, Mahane Yehuda Market is the one you have to visit in Jerusalem. It's quite funky to observe the pre-Sabbath crowd.

Mahane Yehuda Market

"when hatred is bred in the bone".

 I got reminded of the book of Anat Berko (details) upon visiting a little Palestinian suburb when we descended from the Mount of Olives. Some children threw a couple of tiny stones in our way as we walked passed them. The pebbles did not hit us, and doubt the kids had the intention to hurt us; it was just a game for them. Still it shows very the problem derives from... the kids do what they see at home. And after all, one understand a bit why certain Palestinians behave so hostile considering how the Israel state treats them. Unfortunately everyday people suffer the consequences of inappropriate measures (e.g. the settlements, suicide bombings, attacks).

Awful to see!

Sabbath.

Do plan your visit with Sabbath in mind! The traffic stops, cars disappear from the streets. It is quite interesting to walk on the emptying streets of the Old City as people get home to celebrate. As if time stopped in the bustling city of Jerusalem.

salt.

One cannot leave out the Dead Sea upon visiting Israel. To sum it up: it is a must see and it is worth a dipping! Plus it is quite an experience: to be in the middle of nowhere, realise that on the other side of the lake you see Jordan, see all the unusual stone formations around you, breath in the salty air, etc. Let alone to see the salt crystallizing on your skin after tottering out of the water. :) If you think that you managed to wash off all salt... just take another shower. ;)

food.

Be prepared that you will never be able to sit in a hummus bar back at you home town. The hummus and the falafel you're served in Israel is just heavenly. 

Another word to remember when thinking about souvenirs is za'atar, a local mixture of spices.

And do try pita, Knafeh, shawarma (meaty treat), Shakshouka (eggs in tomato sauce), sabich (hummus with eggplant optionally served in pita). The list could on for long...

heavenly treat.

Tel-Aviv.

The city is young, vivid and full of life. It has a laid-back atmosphere and made me realise I have yet to learn how to lead a relaxed life in Budapest. In Tel-Aviv I felt real peace. We can learn a lot from them: even in the midst of conflict they can smile and live a life. I had a same impression when I followed a group on Facebook during the period of the air strikes, where locals uploaded selfies from the shelters. It makes you re-evaluate your life.

view of Tel-Aviv from Jaffa.

One additional info: look out for the street art in TA! It is superb. Gives a platform for art and the freedom of expression.

conclusion.

go there. see it for yourself. be open. respect local traditions & people. mingle. have fun. eat hummus.

mesmerizing Israel - my pictures

Belarus.

A truly unique country that I grew to like a lot after having spent 4 months there. I wish to return. I wrote a blog during my stay there, in which I did my utmost to introduce this rather unknown country.

Following the link you can get some ideas :) I cannot list enough reasons why one should go there. Just go and see! Here you read a little for a small taste:

http://ronistan-minsk.blogspot.hu/

Svalbard in a nutshell

Or not. It is hard to start a story like this. Well, I guess I should start at the very beginning.

It had long been a dream of mine to go to Svalbard, Norway. You may know it as Spitsbergen, or you may not know it at all. It is an island far up North. It is indeed the northernmost place where you can fly by traditional passenger air plane. It is on the 78° latitude and is best known for its fierce weather, its militant mammals, the polar bears, the midnight sun and the winter darkness.
It may have been February (2013), when one of my best friends called me on the phone that there were cheap tickets to Svalbard! I got really excited. After some discussion, I agreed to join the “expedition”. :)
It was constantly exacting my mind in the following months. ‘Are we really going to go there? What’s going to happen?’ –such thoughts I had. We did the necessary preparations when the time came, e.g. we wrote a letter to the sysselman (the Governor of Svalbard), asking for permission for our hike. It is an obligatory thing that everybody has to do if he/she wants to go on his/her own on the island. We went to shoot with a rifle as well, thanks to a forester friend of ours, who had a similar rifle to the one we were going to have to rent in Longyerbyen.
After months of waiting and waiting, the day has come. Finally it was me, a girl, who is obsessed with the North and 5 guys who set on this journey on 3th August. Even our trip to Longyerbyen wasn’t ordinary: Budapest (HU) - Berlin (D) - Szczecin (PL) - Oslo Torp (NOR) - Oslo Gardermoen (NOR) - Longyerbyen (NOR).

Day 1 – 6th August
We arrived in the early hours, went to the camping (right next to the airport) and had a few hours of sleep. We weren’t able to capture all the beauty around us yet. It was so absurd! Later on during the day we walked to Longyerbyen (3 kms) which is the largest settlement on the island. We got our rifle and did some shopping in the northernmost supermarket.

Longyerbyen

After having finished everything, we departed. We said goodbye to civilization for a few days. Two Canadian girls were really nice and took me and the backpacks till the end of the road. It was still the first day and I remember I couldn’t help looking around all the time for polar bears. But they were nowhere to be seen. We walked some 10-12 kilometres that day.

Just getting familiar with the soil, etc. We had our first stream crossing as well. There were still quite a few to come. We had a nice camping site that night. We kept guarding throughout the night, but there weren’t many animals, except for reindeers.

Day 2 – 7th August

In the beginning the weather was nice: we climbed a smaller rocky hill, arrived in a nice, wide valley, where the view was amazing with the sun. As we walked on in the afternoon, it started to rain heavily and became foggy. In the end we became very tired and decided to put up our tents pretty much in the middle of the swamp. It was an emergency campsite. We needed a sleep desperately.

Day 3 – 8th August
On the second day we wanted to find a hut to sleep there, but due to the fog it was impossible to see further than a few metres. Thus we tried to find it the following day. There were several ones near to each other and we found a nice, modern Norwegian one open. It came in handy, because we were soaked to the skin. At least our boots were wet. That was the worst. We managed to heat up the hut so well that we decided to stay there a few hours. We slept, ate, hanged our clothes and boots to dry and had a “shower” in the cold stream nearby.
Afterwards we departed. It was nearly evening if I remember well, when we started. We mixed up the days a bit, but it didn’t matter in the midnight sun. It is quite a unique thing to experience that it’s constantly bright outside. We walked again for quite a few hours, then the fog came again and we ended up sleeping in a research cabin (again, some 4 hours). I was dead tired when we arrived, plus had a terrible back pain. The boys were tired as well as hell.

Day 4 – 9th August
I don’t know whether it was the best to do this kind of “few-hours-of-sleeping-then-going-on” journey, but we did it anyway. It worked for a few days. We gathered just enough power to get to the next destination. It was basically the 3rd day that we didn’t sleep much but walked a lot. We had to do a couple of stream crossing again, which we didn’t always enjoy. The plot was always this: boots off, pants up, if the water level is too high, then pants off as well, then cross the stream as fast as possible. The trekking poles came in handy! I came to love my poles. I have never hiked with poles before, but I’ll definitely use them from now on.

Again we had an amazing landscape in front of us. We had a rest in a messy, Russian hut and then continued towards another one, where we planned to have a long rest (that is, a regular one). The ground was very rocky, and it started to rain as well, but we were taken ahead by the image in our mind that finally we would have a good night’s sleep in a big hut.  Plus, we were surrounded by nice glaciers. Again, amazing view! Although, I must say, it is unnecessary to say this: the island was beautiful all the time. We had really hard times, we were as exhausted as never before, but the beauty was always there. We have seen the real face of the island! In the end we arrived to the hut, which was empty fortunately (we saw some figures in the distance ahead of us and hoped that they wouldn’t sleep there. They didn’t. :) ) and was very comfortable. We had a nice dinner and enjoyed that we could finally rest. Then we were surprised by the sun. It came up, leaving the usual clouds behind. It was windy, clear and sunny. We were just baffled. Despite the cold we couldn’t stay inside: some really nice photos had been taken that night. Plus, we dried our tents.

Day 5 – 10th August
We started the day’s hike in rain. It wasn’t too inviting, but we wanted to go. The weather was merciful again, because after a few hours the sky became clear and sunny. We walked in the valley towards the fjords, getting nearer and nearer by every kilometre to Barentsburg. In the afternoon we
arrived nearly to the Arctic Ocean. It was stunning; we just were annoyed by the swamp. In the end we just did not care any more and just started running through it. There is just this one disadvantage if you go to Svalbard in summertime: unless you have really good/new hiking boots/really long gaiters, you’ll most likely end up wearing litter bags after a few days, as we did. 

The weather was really appealing, thus we agreed to camp: we had a really nice view from our tents. In addition, while making our supper, we were surprised by a cute couple of arctic foxes. They are adorable, tiny creatures. They did not have any fear. I don’t think that they’d seen many humans before us. It was a very unique experience. It was fun to see that the guys got so affectionate by the sight of the foxes. I had a nice laugh (the soft side of men- always good to see). We slept well after this encounter.

Tent with a view.

Day 6 – 11th August
After having eaten fried ham (yumm!) for breakfast we left our beautiful campsite to reach Barentsburg at last. It was nice to walk along the coast. After a few smaller hills the first factory buildings of the settlement came into view. Well, I wouldn’t say that the town is as appealing as Longyerbyen, but it is still impressive. Very authentic. It was delightful to sit in the warm hotel for a while, and finally, after days of heavy loading we had a pint of beer that was locally brewed. We became quite cheerful which showed that we had been a bit tired, mentally as well as physically. We did go to do some sightseeing though. Which makes the town extraordinary is that it is full of abandoned buildings, which I would rather call ruins than anything else. Lots of buildings are under construction, so it is visible that they aim to modernize the city, but it is a shame that they leave a lot of building just to rot basically. However, it is worth going into them, because there are lots of great things inside. Some places may give you the creeps, but still, it is a unique experience. We slept in one of these abandoned houses. The atmosphere of the place was quite catchy; we ended up playing a weird sound on the piano (it was great!) and took lots of photos of/in the building. Finally I could devote some time to taking some rather artistic photos.

Taken in the ruined building, our temporary home.

Day 7 – 12th August
We left Barentsburg behind. We were lucky with the weather again, since it did not rain that day. It came in handy, because that was our longest day. All in all, we walked some 25 kms. It wouldn’t be that much on normal terrain, but on this swampy one: yes! 

We knew that in theory we could have reached Longyerbyen in 2 days’ time, but we wanted to spend that one additional day still in the wilderness, thus we planned accordingly: One long day and 2 shorter ones. We had seen many reindeers, lots of sunshine and experienced windy situations. It was quite nice. At some point we met a Norwegian group, and one of the men told us to go on the coast instead of the mountains, because if there is low tide, we would be able to shorten our way. Never listen to persons with whom while you’re speaking, you have the slightest feeling of insecurity! The consequences of this encounter will turn out later on in the “memoir”. After swamp, swamp and more swamp we came near to the biggest river crossing. None of the houses were open on our side of the river, so we crossed, twice (!!!), because of the high tide (It was already around 1AM) and in this way we made it to the inviting, coastal Russian hut around 2AM.
There were some Czech hikers inside, already sleeping, and they were pissed when we came in, but finally they settled when it turned out that what we did in 1 days’ time, they did in 2. Hah!

Day 8 – 13th August
We were awakened by the voices of the Czech hikers. We had a bigger rest in that house, enjoying the very last time that we could be in a hut. Again we had one of those icy, stream showers. They are always refreshing. We departed in the afternoon, because we just wanted to reach some abandoned mine buildings that were some 4-5 kms away. As long as we could, we followed the remains of the mining rails. Due to the movement of the island (due to this, all the houses are built on stilts) the rails were curved and twisted. It looked rather funny. 

There used to be a long tunnel over the rails and remains of it can still be found. It is great to walk through them (they are made of wood). We saw a huge cloud following us and it didn’t take long until it started to snow. We had to climb then a really steep slope; then descend on the other side. Meanwhile the snow fell constantly. We arrived just in time to the mine buildings. It became really cold there, it was the first time that I really was freezing. We had supper and then went to sleep so that we could get up early the following day, our last day, to depart as soon as possible.

Day 9 – 14th August
It’d been hell of a day. After having walked for a while on the coast, we came to a point, where we should have changed to sandals. We decided to turn back, and did some traversing on a steep slope, which was really scary (for me). But fortunately it ended well, nobody got hurt (despite one “little” fall, but as I said, nobody got hurt). We returned to the coast again, where we walked quite a bit (some 4 kms). We changed to sandals and started walking in the Arctic Ocean. It wasn’t so cold, since the Gulf Stream ends at Svalbard, so it was warmer than the glacier streams. However, after around 0,5-1 km it turned out that the water started to deepen. We couldn’t go on, so we had to turn back. Everybody was really pissed, since we lost time and it was just annoying that we did something stupid. It was then that we saw some whales next to us. It was just not the right moment (at least for me). We saw just the back of them, but still: in retrospect I can say that it is awesome that we got to see some. Though we lost time, we didn’t have to go all the way back; at least we had one less mountain to climb. At this point, the combination of tiredness and anger resulted in the unusual phenomenon that we imagined to see a tsunami. So we started to hurry, but then realised that it’s total absurdity. We had to climb first a rock glacier that was really hard and tiring. After that we came to climb the mountain, that was really rocky again and it was covered with snow, so I just followed the footsteps of Misi (one of the guys) in front of me, and stayed focus. I have a fear of height, so I didn’t dare to look down, just at the very end. Steep it was! It was a huge relief to get up there. 

View from the top.

We had some cheerful moments, then 2 guys basically ran off so that to deliver the rifle and the fire alarm in time to the shop. The rest of us walked on in our regular, fast way. We started to become really exhausted, everybody had pain, just at different places (back, ankle, knee, etc.). We devoured bars of chocolate in just seconds: the energy came in handy. It was raining at this point and it was just damn discouraging. I just couldn’t stop, because I feared that I just couldn’t go on. I started even mumbling and singing to myself in a soft voice to pace to the singing. 2 guys fell really behind because of their legs, but me and Ubul (another one of the guys) started to run basically. The tiredness was a great motivation. Finally we sort of caught up with our 2 other friends in front of us. We were really fast and nobody gave them a ride. After a ride given by nice locals, and after a lot of suffering to find the guy from whom we rented the rifle, we went to a local pizzeria (having consumed the most expansive pizza I guess) and celebrated.  Then we went to the airport.

Day 10 – 15th August
Our plane left around 4AM. We kept the disabled toilet occupied for a while: everybody had a warm wash. We had a feeling of delirium. It was warm, clean and just strange to be at the airport. The airport crew wasn’t really nice to us though: they basically behaved as we had been homeless people. At the check-in the lady started to explain to me what boarding pass means. It was a lovely moment. Well, we didn’t care much about their behaviour. We had our flight back to Oslo, where we spent a lovely, sunny day. It was the strangest things of all when we put up our tents at Torp and it became DARK!

Day 11-13 – 16th-17th-18th August
The rest of the days were spent in Berlin. We ate many kebabs, visited the city festival, did some sightseeing, went to some scouts’ events and then returned to Budapest by bus.

Epilogue
It has been hell of an adventure, with great people and an incredibly beautiful and magical island. I feel very lucky. We walked all in all some 130 kms, if I’m not mistaken.
I would do it again (though I needed a recovery)! We did a great job with the preparations: our food (that was all brought from home) was enough and we chose really wisely (easy to carry, fulfilling meals). Any lessons learnt? I have to buy a pair of rain pants. Plus: we’ll have to return to Svalbard when we’ll be retired (with lots of money) and go on a cruise to see polar bears! But really, I am the most grateful for the people I’ve been with there.

Don't let you curiosity dry up! Never!

Click here for to see the pictures I took.

Pilot

I have been thinking for a while and realized that I should start a blog about travelling in general. Since I have a endless desire for exploring and getting to know the globe, why shouldn't I share some ideas, experiences or advice? Some may find it intriguing, useful.. or just a good read in a boring afternoon. I shall write about foreign countries, but it may happen that I will post something about my home land.

The blog may help or amuse others, but it most certainly can help me on gloomy days, when I'm confined to my room/work/studies. Let me be selfish to this extent.

For a start let me share a video I like a lot and which gives a hint how colourful the world is that we live in. And the music is genuine. Shall it be your daily soul-feeding!

Don't let you curiosity to dry up! Never.