Israel

My friend Josh had been in Israel for about a month before I arrived, visiting his aunt and working at a guest house. I came out to meet him and spend a week catching a few sights and travelling round a bit before we headed further east!

Israel is somewhere I had very limited knowledge of, so before I left I got some friends to fill me in on the situation. As a very crude overview, here is the deal:

Around 50 years ago the country of Israel was created to put all the Jewish people in the world. This was just after World War II, and so the Jews had been scattered all over the place and almost wiped out. The land was taken from Palestine and the two countries have been fighting over this land ever since. Jesus also lived there, although it obviously wasn't called Israel back then.

Anyway when I went to the airport, trying to get onto the plane was pretty hard. Security is ridiculously tight due to the terrorist threat and they are suspicious of EVERYONE. First off you get questioned for around 20 minutes before you make it to the check-in desk.

Why are you going to Israel? Do you know anyone there? Where are you staying? What do you mean you don't know where you're staying? What is your occupation? How did you get to the airport? Etc Etc.

You then get a sticker on your passport rating how dodgy you are. I must have looked suspicious, so got my bags screened and hand-searched, my shoes inspected and tested, my body severely patted down, guarded at the gate and then finally escorted onto the plane by a man who looked like a Russian bad guy from Die Hard.

When I landed on the other side, Josh phoned me and told me that I would get a lift from the airport if I wore a red t-shirt on my head. Sure enough, a car pulled up and an old American lady called Zela picked me up.

We drove to a 51st birthday party at someone's house, where I met her daughter Michi and Josh. We then sang lots of songs in Hebrew, ate some strange food and met a very tall Polish guy called Andrew who had studied at Queen's in Belfast, same as me and Josh!

We stayed with Zela that night, and the next morning she had a church in her apartment which was really fun. She managed to fit about 30 people in there and we got introduced to all the regulars and someone translated for us. Afterwards a few people stayed for lunch and we had a feast that lasted for many hours!

The first night and day were such a great introduction to Israel, incredible people. Zela and Michi, thank you!