Family visit, friends, and moving to Amsterdam

My sister and her family.

Wow, it was a while ago since my last entry. So much have happened. The biggest thing first: we are moving to Amsterdam! Femke got a new very interesting job at AWEPA, and will be starting there the 2nd of June. So we are packing up here in Jerusalem. In fact, our last day here will be next Saturday, the 17th of May. Femke will fly directly to Amsterdam while I will go to Slovenia for two weeks of work first, and then fly to Amsterdam from there.
It is going to be so exciting to live in Amsterdam! At first, we will stay at Femke’s parents place and with friends, while looking for an apartment.

What else? My sister (Camilla), her husband Bobbo and their two kids, Veronica and Martin, are visiting us here in Jerusalem. It feels great to have them here and to be able to show them our life here, before we are moving. Lots of walking in the old city of Jerusalem, nice food and excursions to Bethlehem and the Dead Sea. Right now, they are in Eilat for some snorkeling and relaxing, but tonight they will come back here, to continue to the airport and then fly home to Sweden.

Otherwise, we have been very social lately, trying to see all our friends here before leaving. The day before yesterday we met Anna, Cham & Paz, Brian and a few others for drinks and food at the Legacy Hotel. The night before that, I had a drink with Ric. And yesterday, we drove to Ramallah to go out together with Yara. We ended up at Sangria’s and then Stones and had a thoroughly enjoyable evening.

The other night, Mary, a Dutch friend of Femke’s family, came by to visit us during a holiday in Jerusalem. It’s always nice when friends from around the world comes to say hello.

This weekend, we are planning to go to the Med and the beach, and then next week, we have a little farewell party and then we´re off!

Femke's parents visiting

Yesterday, Femke’s parents went home to the Netherlands again. It was nice having them here. Unfortunately, I couldn’t join them to Jordan, I was to busy producing the next issue of Hypoxia, the paragliding magazine I am editing. But they had a great time, visiting Aqaba, Wadi Rum and Petra.
Otherwise, we just relaxed together, had some nice walks and went out eating at Pasha’s (for Jerusalem’s best mezes) and Mona´s (for a divine veal fillet).
Saturday, we drove to Hebron. That was there first proper West Bank encounter. Visiting the mosque and the sterile zone around the crazy Israeli settlers is always depressing, but unfortunately this is how things are here. We had lunch in Hebron, then a cup of coffee in Bethlehem on the way home.

In the evening, I got really sick – probably I ate something bad in Hebron. So I spent the day yesterday in bed. But today I am feeling a lot better!

Jerusalem, Nablus, violence and strawberries

Finally, I am back in Jerusalem, and have been so for a few days. I had a great time in Brazil (check out the photos here) and was lucky enough to be upgraded to business class on the flight from Rio to Madrid (the food was rather bland, but the seat very comfortable and the wine excellent).
Unfortunately, I ran into problems in Madrid. , I was booked on an Iberia-flight from Madrid to Tel Aviv and since I was in transit, I came to the gate well in time (the time recommended on the boarding card).

At the gate I found out that the flight was operated by El Al (the horrible Israeli Airline). There was a long line for an extra security check. I quickly had at least 30 persons waiting behind me in the line as well.

Unfortunately, the security check was made in such an inefficient way, that when I was ready with it, the gate was closed and I missed my flight. I was rebooked on a much later flight, via Barcelona, and arrived 12 hours late. This was my third night of traveling in a row and I was very tired. I also missed a day of work due to this delay. Never ever fly with El Al if you can avoid it!

Back here, my first assignment was to go to Nablus and take photos of a hospital in dire need of renovation. Hopefully, ANERA can refurbish three wards, which would make a big difference for patients and staff at the hospital.
On the way there, I passed blossoming almond orchards and street vendors with mounds of fresh strawberries. Actually, the last few days have been really hot, with temperatures up to 20-23”C in the shade. Yesterday, we had our first glass of wine on the terrace this year. Lovely!

It is hot here in many other, sadder ways. Things are really going the wrong way, with more and more violence, not only in Gaza but also here on the West Bank. Well over a hundred Palestinians have been killed by the Israeli Defence Forces, a large part of them civilians. And yesterday, there was a terror attack at a nationalist Yeshiva (which is a kind of ultra-orthodox Jewish religious school), where a Palestinian killed at least eight persons.
Now, there are even more checkpoints on the road, and the soldiers manning them are even more harsh. A colleague saw a pregnant woman being turned away from a checkpoint this morning after waiting for hours. The soldiers denied her to pass because she sat down to rest next to the queue. These kind of things happens everyday here. Sad indeed.

But now to some good news; Finally, MSN got their act together and published their Swedish travel portal, where I am the resident blogger. I have been contracted to write the blog since mid December, and have done so, but now, the blog is up there for everybody to read. Please have a look, and do not hesitate to mail your travel-oriented questions to me.

Snow in Jerusalem

This morning, I woke up to find Jerusalem dressed in white. Nig heavy flakes of snow filled the air, and a thick layer of wet, melting slush covered everything. We (Femke, Micke - our Swedish guest, and me) dressed up for the weather and ventured to the Old City. In this corner of the world, snow is something people treat with respect. Hence, the city was emptier than a Swedish town at three on Christmas Eve. The only people out were soldiers and photographers. We had a great time, enjoying the freak weather and the empty streets.

Sunday, we drove to Tel Aviv together with Micke, José and Åsa. I always found it an ugly city, and this visit didn’t change my mind. But José took us to a great Italian restaurant, Ernesto (90, Ben Yehuda Street), where I had the best pasta since my trip to Bologna last year. Delicious!
Afterwards, we walked the beach, enjoying the spring-like weather and even seeing some people go for a swim.

Monday, Micke bought me dinner on Pasha’s restaurant in East Jerusalem. They have the best meze’s (small Arabic dishes) in town. Afterwards, we had a beer at Barood in West Jerusalem and enjoyed the jazz band playing.

This might all sound like we are doing nothing but enjoying ourselves, but that is far from true. In fact, both Femke and me have been extremely busy lately. I am writing about my paragliding trip to India, and editing the next issue of the paragliding magazine (deadline on Monday). And Femke had her hands full with quarterly reports. But when you have lot’s to do it’s nice to go out for a drink or some nice food together with friends.

The Old City caught in a snow storm.

A minaret in the snow storm.

Femke and me on a rooftop in the Old City.

Femke and Micke in our alley this morning.

An ultra-ortodox jew praying at the Western wall,
despite the snow storm.

Bush, school and tomatoes

I have been busy this week, so not been able to update earlier. Sorry for that.
Here, everything is affected by the US President George Bush’s visit. Streets are closed off all over Jerusalem, and also in Ramallah. For many people, it is close to impossible to go to their work, including several of our own colleagues at ANERA. Luckily, we can walk to the office and many other places, so we are OK.

Yesterday, I was down in the Jordan Valley, in a little village called Al Auj’a, where ANERA is building a new school. I took some photos, and enjoyed the much warmer climate that the Jordan Valley is blessed with (summertime is of course not that pleasant there). Here in Jerusalem, it was 6°C this morning. Brrr. And raining. To make things worse, our warm water heater broke down two days ago, the same day as we ran out of gas for our general heater (unfortunately, we have no central heating, it is not so common here). But the electrician came by yesterday morning, as did the gas guy, so now everything is working again.

Monday, I was up in the Tulkarem area in the northern part of the West Bank to take photos of the first harvest of cherry tomatoes in green houses that were sponsored by ANERA. The project trains farmers to produce higher quality vegetables for export, and also helps with green houses. It is always nice to visit successful projects and see the joy of people involved. Often, there are not so many reasons for happiness for them otherwise. When leaving Tulkarem, I passed a several kilometer long line of cars and truck that were stuck at a closed checkpoint. Even if the checkpoint would open immediately (it did not look very probably) it would take them many hours to pass. I, on the other hand, being a foreigner working for an American NGO, could overtake them all and just pass the checkpoint. This is how things work here, sadly.

Building a new school in Al Auj'a

Harvesting the first cherry tomatoes

New bosses and successful glögg party

Sara, Michelle, Aida, Liz and Wakako chatting away

Ruby and Femke dancing to the Turkish "kiss" song

Surprisingly, it was nice to come back to Jerusalem from India. We have a beautiful home, and home is always home, wherever it is. This week has also been exciting work wise – ANERA finally has a new Middle East Representative (read: big boss in the field) and he arrived to the region this week. With him came the new Communications Director, who is base in Washington and is my boss. She has been working for ANERA for a few months, but this was the first chance for me to meet her.
They started off in Lebanon, then came to Jordan for a regional meeting (that Femke attended when I was still in India). This Friday, they arrived to Jerusalem. So far so good – I have a good hope that we can work well together. Liz, the media boss, came over to our place Friday afternoon for some work. She stayed for dinner and we had a nice time.

Yesterday, we had our Swedish glögg party. The first guests arrived at eight, and soon we had a full house with close to 30 persons (and more than ten nationalities) mingling, chatting and sipping glögg. It is such a pleasant thing to have your house full of friends and colleagues. In the end, some of us danced to the wee hours, and when Femke and I dealt with the worst mess and gone to bed, it was 02.30. Sorry Jenny (our neighbor), for playing loud music late! Luckily, she was also at the party, although she did not stay until the end.

Back in Jerusalem

Puh. That was a long journey. I started from Kamsheet yesterday at eleven in the evening. First a private transfer to the airport in Mumbai – a three-hour hell-ride with several near collisions and a portion of driving against the traffic on the wrong side of the road in Mumbai. Scary stuff.

Then waiting for hours at Mumbai airport, boarding the plane for an almost six hour long flight, more hours of waiting in Istanbul and finally the last flight back to the Middle East. After more waiting at Tel Aviv airport, I caught a transfer to Jerusalem. And now I am home! It is a much harder life being a travel journalist than most people would ever imagine.

Tomorrow morning there will be lots of photos from India here.

Eid milad said!

Yesterday was a slow day, but still a nice day. In the end, we drove to the Israeli Arab village of Abu Gosh to have lunch at the Elvis Diner there. They make incredible milk shakes and good hamburgers, and the interior design is cool – an American 50’s diner full of Elvis memorabilia.

This morning, Anders left for Sweden. It was great to have him here, we both appreciated him coming to see us, and I hope he enjoyed himself too.



In the afternoon, Femke and me went Christmas shopping in the old city. The Arab boy scouts had a Christmas market with all the things you need to make your home Chistmassy. We also found the funny record with the Lebanese classical star Fairuz singing traditional Christmas songs. Think Tannenbaum and jingle bells in Arabic.
Eid milad Said! (Merry Chistmas in Arabic).

Jericho and Jerusalem, then partying

We have had some really poor weather here lately, with lots of rain and cold winds. So I drove down to Jericho with anders to warm up a bit. Surprisingly, it was a bit chilly there too. But we had lunch at the top of the cable car, then visited the Hisham's palace ruins.

On the way back to Jerusalem, I stopped to take some photos of bedouins herding their goats over the barren mountains. Beautiful.




Then we popped by the view point on the Mount of Olives and took more photos.


In the evening, we found ourselves doing some serious yet improvised partying, with me mixing caipirinhas and margueritas, and popping the nice sparkling wine we brought home from South Africa. We finished the evening with live music at the Russian jazz bar.