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Diary This is Jan's diary. If you want to receive this diary by mail, write your mail on the contact form.
‹ Previous (06/03/2008) MONTH Next (2008-05-05)› ‹ Previous (2008-03-10 - Jordan) COUNTRY Next (2008-04-08 - Xipre)› Israel - Palestina Haifa (see on map) 06/04/2008:
The first hours in Haifa, despite meeting with interesting people of couchsurfing, I felt totally bored, without joy and worried about the autocaravan, which i could only park in pending to be able to turn it off trouble free. Exactly entering in Haifa i had located a service of Fiat where in theory they could fix the starter, but the following day in the morning I could not start off the autocaravan because a car had parked in front preventing me to leave it fall. I was waiting some hours to see whether the car left, but I finally accepted the suggestion of Sara, a girl of couchsurfing, and visited by train a place called Acre (or Akko in Hebraico). The first historical mentions of Acre go back to 1500 BC that, occupying a strategic position, is well defended by the sea and some imposing walls. Throughout its history it has suffered different sieges and assaults, some of which unsuccessful, as the one of Napoleón that lost a battle. When going through the alleys inside the walls, the Arab atmosphere that was breathed, also with some churches and mosques that at specific hours toned the sound of the muetzinos up, surprised me. I started to discover that Israel is a much more complex country of what i thought, that was not only inhabited by Jews. Sara, the Israeli girl from Haifa, explained to me that Acre had been suggested under the domination of the Arab Palestine according to the partition by the ONU in 1947, but during the Arab-Israelian war of 1948 was occupied by Israel. Then, 75% of the population left the city, although in the interior of the walls the Arabs continue being majority. When returning from Acre, Sara explained me a little more on the multiculturalism of Israel, introducing me the Druze, which have a religion split of the Islam with more than one million believers all around the world, a majority of which is living in Syria and Libya, but with about 100.000 living in Israel. One of the peculiarities of this religion is the choice, when entering the adult age, of belonging to the group of the called "ignorants" (80%) or to the group of the “believers", who are put in charge of studying the teachings and of following a life according to the faith. Traditionally, the Druze have always been very nationalistic defending the country that receives them. It is for this motif, that the Druze in Israel are implicated with the State completely, complying the 3 years of military service during which carry out numerous tasks of spy as they speak Arab as mother tongue. Anyway, despite complying with the homeland, the Druze hardly see its laws similar with the rest of Jews, and are treated with discrimination in public sites, jobs... Israel is also the centre of another religion, the faith Bahá'í, with a magnificent tomb and gardens that send in the lap of the mountain of Haifa. I also showed interest in this modern religion (its main prophet died in Acre in 1892) that counts about 6 million followers in all the world and I was surprised for the beliefs based on the unit of God, of the religions (all are different stages or revelations closer to God) and of the human kind (they do not believe in nationalism, races, social classes or any other prejudice that classifies the human beings). The Bahá'ís look for the peace in the world, advocate the elimination of the ends of wealth or poverty, defend the independent scientific research... On the other hand, they do not have church, and do not believe in the monastic life, rather with the spiritual growth through the daily life. One of the few doctrines that would not allow me to be Bahá'í is the belief in God and the life after death. The visit to Acre, the religious discoveries and the conversations maintained with Sara and other boys of couchsurfing filled me again with energy, with desires of keeping knowing world, including Israel. But the fact that i had the autocaravan fixed, with a second-hand stárter for which I paid a little more of the account, also collaborated. The following day I visited big avenues and many sites with Sara and a couple of Germans, the modern Tel Aviv capital, with high buildings. In one of these sites, the German couple explained that were anarchist and of left and that, on the contrary to the rest of ideological compatriots of Europe, were pro-Israel. When asking them if the pro isrealian feeling was owed to the anti-Nazi fight or to the extreme right in Germany, they answered me that very probably was like this. Deepening in the complexity of Israel, Sara and other Jews with whom I talked, explained me that the Jews of Israel are not usually too religious, except for those living in Jerusalem, even so, they all share the same culture, celebrating the same traditions, talking the same language (modernised at the beginning of the 20th century from the old sacred texts), eating koshar foods, and especially maintaining a strong nationalistic or Zionist feeling, which justifies the constitution of a Jewish State. Numerous times I asked to Jews which was the justification to constitute a new Jewish State in an earth occupied mostly by Arab or Palestinians. Without putting forward religious motifs, the answers remembered me that 2000 years ago the Jews occupied those lands, which throughout the centuries the prayers have always finished with the sentence: "the next year in Jerusalem" and that finally they had right to an own country after suffering so many centuries of persecution for their religion and culture in Europe and Middle East. When I gave an opinion to Sara that the arguments could be very little solid for the Palestinians, the conversation became a little tense; but when I gave an opinion more ahead than the cultural stereotypes, even though negatives, sometimes have one real backgrounds (the Jews are sometimes accused of not being easy on letting money or of controlling the world), Sara accused me very sourly of being anti-Zionist. I tried to defend myself explaining that the Catalans in Spain are also seen with a strong hand on their money and the Andalusians as dreamers and, even if in most of the individual cases it is not like this, yes that they reflect something of the reality. A Palestinian friend present in the discussion also opined that the stereotypes did not reflect any reality, even though later, when asking him whether his fathers were Muslim or Christian, he answered to me using a stereotype: - They are Muslim, but not Muslim bum-bum (terrorists)- making the gesture of explosion with the body. We all laughed. Sara also had other Palestinian friends living in some town in the north of Israel called Béna, which we visited the day before yesterday. Zaid and Alex were the two boys with who I conversed more. First they explained the history of the town, lived by Palestinians always up to the war of 48, during which, the Israeli soldiers killed 4 boys cold-blooded to oblige the rest of population to leaving towards Lebanon. Anyway, after little time, some few returned to the town from the fields of refugees and, as did not have more problems with the authorities, they stayed. But there were many Palestinians who could not return, treating the ones that returned as traitors, because in general they passed from fighting the occupation to fight for the equality of laws with those of the Jews. For example, Zaid and Alex explained me that they would be happy living in Israel if this were not a Jewish State, with Jewish flag, Jewish hymn, with Hebrew language and with Jewish laws, as the obligatory rule of Yom Kipur, a holiday in which all Israel is paralyzed so that the Jews ask forgiveness to God for their sins and - according to the boys - so that the rest of the year they can keep tearing the Palestinians remorseless. Perhaps, in any case, this situation will not last forever, because even if the Palestinians in Israel are only 20%, these have a growth much higher than the Jews and perhaps in the future they will be able to choose leaders who return the government to the Palestinians. In spite of the daily fight for their rights, Zaid and Alex were also worried about the situation of the occupied Palestine, or Palestine behind the green line drawn in 1967 by different UN resolutions. The occupied Palestine (West Bank and Gaza Strip) started to enjoy a certain autonomy, Israelí drowned economically and with the army always entering it when they considered appropriate. On the other hand, the wall that the Israelis have built to separate Israel from Palestine, does not follow faithfully the green line, leaving the wells of water out of the scope of the Palestinians or giving exit to numerous Jewish settlements in Palestinian lands. As the night was advancing, Sara kept acquiring a defensive attitude owed to the pro-Palestinian conversations finishing by becoming enemy with everybody, even with me. In spite of everything, i had gained a new friendship with Zaid and Alex, which remained sealed with the promise of visiting together West Bank in two days, today. Yesterday in the night, I met a new girl of couchsurfing and her colleague with whom I maintained an interesting conversation. When telling them that today i would visit West Bank, the boy commented to me indifferent: - I have been many times, as soldier. Afterwards they explained to me that the Israeli army is one of the most prepared and humanitarian ones of the world, in spite of the defamation of its enemies. And finally they explained me that in the schools of Israel, the Palestinians also have a subject of peace apart from showing subjects as mathematics or literature, however, basically they teach hate. And today, finally,me, Alex, Zaid and one of his Jewish friend have directed ourselves towards West Bank passing through Tel Aviv and Jerusalem. We have arrived very late, therefore we have only decided to visit Ramala, one of the most important Palestinian cities, close to Jerusalem. We have crossed the controls of entry without too many problems and been in the wall that isolates Ramala of Israel. Inside, the atmosphere was completely Arab or Palestinian, although tension was breathed and the people did not seem as hospitable as in the previous countries; however they looked suspicious at the registration plates of the car and asked us in an apprehensive way where we were from. We have parked near the centre and have started to walk, without fixed direction and to wonder where the amusement was found, but this has arrived alone by itself, very soon. In a sudden way we have seen ourselves surrounded by armed youngsters who have started to ask us about our origins, about the girl, for they had heard her talking Hebrew with Zaid. Finally they have informed us that they were of the Palestine police and that it was very dangerous for the Jewish girl to walk in Ramala, for if the population discovered it they could kidnap her or kill her in public; and that was not desirable, because the Israeli army would have a new reason to enter. They have driven us very nicely but well escorted to the main police station, and after having us amused during an hour, have recommended us to go out of Ramala the soonest possible. While we waited in the queue to cross again the wall and to enter Israel, a man has asked me again with apprehensive look: - from where are you? - from Spain. After a while: - Madrid? - No, of Barcelona. And finally he has commented me with complicity. - I like ETA a lot - The terrorist and independentist group of the Basque Country. After a week listening to opinions of Jews and Palestinians, I cannot deprive myself of describing the conflict with an example that I have kept fabricating and having kept perfecting. At the beginning of the 20th century, the Palestinians lived in a big home that was owned by the British. The home had 10 rooms, with a room occupied by a Jew and the rest occupied by Palestinians. There were Jews in other homes or countries that remembered the first that their grandfather had lived in, and due to the rough handling that the owners of the other homes gave them, some came back to the first home, buying the Palestinians two rooms. The Palestinians were not too happy with the new neighbours, but they were more worried about the abuses of the Britanic owner, who finally decided to divide up the house and gave the estate to the Palestinians and Jews. But the Palestinians did not agree and with the help of neighbours of other houses they started to attack the Jews. But the Jews counter-attacked with force and occupied 3 new rooms and emptied them substantially of Palestinians, who had to take refuge in other rooms or other houses. The expelled Palestinians conspired to recover the lost rooms but in each of the two subsequent brawls, the Palestinians lost a room, only two rooms remaining for them. And at present, as even there are Palestinians ready to fight for the freedom, the Jews have covered the doors of both rooms up with bricks, occasionally depriving them of water and electricity. The atmosphere is rarefied, and the Jews who want the peace do not want to return to the 3 rooms that they had at first. And even if most of the Palestinians accept an intermediate solution, also there are many that do not want to stop fighting until they expels the Jews of all the rooms. And thinking about this example, I wonder which could be the satisfactory solution to this complicated conflict, and sincerely, I do not find it. If somebody of you has it, the United Nations should be contacted. ---- In Béna I interviewed Alex, who was a little diffuse, even then gave an opinion that the main problem of the world was the borders. The main problem in his country is the religious and nationalistic fanaticism, which actions as the occupation of Palestine. The solution would be to understand and to try not to have manipulated opinions. Alex feels happy although he does not know the secret of happiness. Xipre Limassol (see on map) 08/04/2008:
The first hours on the boat from Haifa towards Athens, gave me sufficient motifs never to go round the world on the sea and to continue by land. The captain commented that the sea was not too curly, but looking the stern of the boat i could observe how this was raised about three meters on the horizon line for afterwards to go down under the line. I had the stomach well mixed up, and if I did not vomit was because at times, the waves seemed to calm down, for afterwards to return with force. In spite of everything I was capable of sleeping and today in the morning I have cheered up finding myself already in the border of Cyprus with a soothed sea. The boat has remained four hours parked in the port of Limassol, the main port of Cyprus, during which the captain has given us the right, to me and to another American traveller, to visit the town. In Israel I had been touched to see the Mediterranean Sea after a year travelling through Africa, and curiously in Cyprus i returned to have the same feeling of closeness to home when taking euro from an automatic machine. Curiously, i remembered the 20 euro notes as bigger... Cyprus is an island that, despite not having too much richness, has been intensely disputed throughout the history. After being conquered by different cultures, in 1570, the Turks invaded the island inviting the families of the soldiers to remain permanently to create a new Turkish ethnic group that would remove the Greeks. The confrontation between these two groups generated multiple conflicts even that the United Nations separated the cultures by a green line, although keeping them in the same country (only Turkey recognizes a divided Cyprus). Lately it seems that both communities are approaching, although none of the two cultures have a great patriotic feeling: or they feel Greek living in Cyprus or else Turks living on the island, but not Cypriots. We take a bus towards the centre and the driver immediately gave us conversation, explaining us that despite being Cypriot Greek he has been living many years in Australia, but his friends recommended him to return because he was about to kill his wife(he explained it as if it was nothing). Afterwards he explained that he did not like Cyprus, because there is a lot of corruption of low level (in the hospitals, police, when looking for work...) and it is also a very expensive country. On the other hand, he did not believe in the reconciliation between the Turkish community and the Greeks whom have suffered a lot and the people who have lost relatives will hardly be able to forgive. In the centre we have walked through a park of sculptures, the town is modern but also with a Mediterranean atmosphere. It has surprised me that in the shops, all the texts were in English, with the prices in euros and English pounds; and that the bookshop of the port had books in English and Russian (or that I have deduced, because they were printed in Moscow). Greece Athens (see on map) 10/04/2008:
The 36 hours of journey from Limassol up to the port of Pireus has been much calmer. In the port I have had to pay the rates of storage and next have gone out towards Athens, but when arriving, the company of the boat has called me informing me that I have jumped me the customs, they were very severe and that i had to turn back. I have pretended a little not to understand and i have told them that i would go on Monday, although having Spanish number I do not think that it is necessary. Before nothing, I have directed myself to the Spanish embassy in Athens, where I have requested of renewing the passport in order not to have any evidence of having entered Israel and being able to enter troublefree in Iran, but on the contrary to all the other embassies visited in the previous countries, in Greece they have not been shown at all friendly even collaborative and they have told me that they could not renew the passport for me. In any case, in Ankara it waits me the passport dispatched in Addis Ababa, with which I can have some problems to enter Iran. Later I have gone to an insurance company and they have given me another address commenting that they could not assure the car, maybe it is only possible from Spain. They are small problems, but I do not have any longer the same energy and patience that i had some months ago. Although the last week in Israel it was very interesting and energetic, I find myself again without force. Before i always confronted the problems with optimism, but it now seems that the small problems turn into a big mountain difficult to be surpassed. Lately I have surprised myself sometimes with desires of returning home, and perhaps i would return if i had not bet everything in this journey. My future is found at the end of this journey. Since some time ago I have discovered that I want to be a writer. But I need to finish this journey to be able to publish my adventures and from here to have the open doors to new works and publications. But my spirits tell me perhaps that I will not be able to comply completely with all my dream. Apart from the possible problems in Iran, possibly we will not be able to enter in China by car, for it would mean to pay about 100 $ each day for an obligatory guide, neither it seems possible to enter Burma. Therefore, if we arrive to India we will be stuck. On the other hand, it will be difficult to embark the autorcaravan towards Indochina or Australia, for now I know that the autocaravan can not enter in any container. Perhaps the solution will be to sell the autocaravan in India and to follow the journey on foot, or to return in Europe for some other route. I am disappointed, but for luck tomorrow Alexandra arrives. After almost two eternal months without being together, I feel eager to hold her in my arms again and together to dream and to get excited another time by this long journey. It is true that she normally represented the pessimistic character and I the optimistic one. But I expect somebody of the two when being together again will provide the necessary energy to continue ahead. We have been too much time separate. In theory it only had to have passed a month, but the problem with Syria has delayed it. I need you Alexandra. Come to me, my love. 21/04/2008:
It is already a week and a half that Alexandra has arrived. The first weekend we passed it out of Athens, in some coastal town, passing the hours together. Even then, at first, some conflicts appeared, for Alexandra arrived without being too much thrilled with the journey and worried by her future after it, since on the contrary to her friends of Romania, she does not have finished the studies nor has a good job or status. And her situation still would be worse when finishing the journey, or before finishing it, if I abandoned her, because she would have wasted some precious years of her life. Naturally, she was not considering that many people were dreaming of carrying out a journey as the one that we were carrying out, even about the enriching experiences that this provides. I got upset about her approach contrary to the adventure and to the risk, although i also understood her reasons that were probably induced by her worried mother. On the other hand, i also noticed that the small conflicts that were appearing from the arrival of Alexandra, were not always provoked by her. i was approaching the critical date for my relations , for none of the previously maintained ones had ever surpassed two years. I was not feeling taken care of or loved, i lost the patience to the minimum and any comment or opinion that distanced from my logic was boring. At the same time, i also had to admit that Alexandra was proving to me that in spite of everything, she wanted to continue on my side, and that she preferred risking her future and to keep travelling with me, whatever happened. So, I decided to continue ahead and to keep giving us an opportunity, although during some moments I was about to send everything to hell. These days, have served not only for evaluating our relation and the forces to continue together the journey, during these days we have also dedicated quite a lot of hours to put the journey to point, after being a year out of Europe. First and the most important thing, I carried out a new insurance for the car, valid for Greece, Turkey and Iran. Beforehand i had gone to the state company of Greek insurances and they commented me that all the cars that entered to Greece without insurance had to pay 180 € for insurance for one month. I did well missing the customs of the port, for less of this amount i would have an insurance for three months carried out from Spain. Parallel to the insurance, we also change the brakes of the car, had buyed some spare filters for the next change of oil, fixed again the iron protection of the engine and buy the protection of the fridge that the customs of Israel lost during the inspection and that as it seems they will not pay me despite telling me that they had insurance company. And between discussion and discussion, and between repair and repair, we have also had quite a lot of time to meet with quite a lot of people in Greece, all of them very interesting, although I took these new friendships as another parenthesis in the journey, then already did more than one year that the journey had passed through Greece and I had then already shown interest in its politics, culture, traditions, opinions... I admit that it is not such a positive attitude from my part, even though - I repeat - i did not deprive myself of enjoying with these friends and maintaining very interesting conversations. Many of these new friendships asked me about my economic resources that allowed me to travel. It is a question that i had not been asked too often in Africa, then there it is tended to believe that any white has the possibility to travel as long as he wants it. Gotten used to the question already, i always repeated the same answer: a third of the money I obtain it writing for media, another third pays the company that i had, and the rest the bank and I will have to return them. Here, the friends often also ask me what i will do when i return, and if i will be capable to stay in one place. I always answered them that the journey does not stop being a project that I have, a project that I expect to open me the following doors: being writer and maybe writing books that provide solutions to the problems of the world. 27/04/2008:
After being Tuesday on the beach and eating a delicious bors (a typical sour soup of plants of Romania that Alexandra cooked) we returned to Athens to meet some friends and to attend a concert of Greek traditional music, with two lutes, big double bass, a melancholic singer and an excellent clarinettist. At the end of the concert, Electra, one of the friends, suggested us: - Do you want to come to celebrate the orthodox Easter to the island of Lesbos? There were other boys invited, Natan, a Belgian that was studying to plat the flute in Athens, and Hector, a Spanish that was on holidays in Greece for two weeks. Alexandra did days that she asked me to celebrate the orthodox Easter with friends, cause she is Orthodox, and naturally we accepted. Besides, who would miss the opportunity of seeing a heap of lesbians and lesbianes? Ei, I do not refer to the women that are attracted among themselves, I refer myself the people of the island of Lesbos. Anyway, it is well true that the women who are attracted to each other, are also called lesbian, due to a former woman poet from greece born on the island of Lesbos. This woman poet was named Sappho and wrote different poems of love directed to other women, leaving the name of lesbian associated with this type of love for the posterity. The five of us have enjoyed many good days in Lesbos (the third biggest Greek island, or the eighth of the Mediterranean), walking in Mitylene, its calm and commercial capital, and knowing the island thanks to some friends of Electra that had car and also thanks to the generosity of another lesbian that stopped for us when we did hitchhiking. Lesbos is famous among the Greeks for its Uzo (alcoholic drink) and for its olive oil, proves of that are the 11 million olive trees that cover most of the island. Lesbos is also known by its numerous thermal springs, which feed different baths of Turkish type and which we also enjoyed two of the days. But the most impressive thing was to observe the traditional celebrations of the orthodox Easter. The orthodox Easter is celebrated normally to different dates of the catholic Easter (or occidental), because the orthodox Christians used traditionally the Julian calendar, whereas the Catholics used the Gregorian calendar. Apart from these differences on the dates, also there are other differences in the celebration of the death and Resurrection of Jesus, although not to stretch out explaining them, I will only describe briefly my experience of these days. In any case, they were some interesting celebrations, after all, as Wikipedia says , Greece is the first big country with more proportion of Christians, only 4 small countries have more proportion of Christians, among them the Vatican, naturally. On Thursday, the night in which Jesus dies, the churches were filled with believers to listen to the sacred writings, finally, before midnight, all the lights of the church were turned off and illuminated by tenuous candles where it can be observed a big cross transported hesitating between the tearful believers and children. The day after we observed the celebration of the embalming of Jesus and its burial in the village Agiassos. Thousands of believers met in the church and the streets to observe the epitaf, a box covered of flowers symbolising the sarcophagus of Jesus and that was transported through the streets of the village. And on Saturday it was the great the Resurrection night. Again, thousands of believers met in churches taking the best clothes and white candles adorned with flowers, or toys in the case of the children, and waited for the hour of the Resurrection, when the lights are turned off and the light of God arrives turning on the candles of all the believers , passing the flame between eachother. This is also the night of the big eat and the youngsters compete with the red eggs that were prepared on Thursday night, symbolising the blood of Jesus. Every child has a hard-boiled egg, and crush against the other ones searching for a winning egg that has not been broken, while the rest of the children enjoy themselves eating their broken egg. Meteora (see on map) 01/05/2008:
During the journey we have been lodged by numerous people, but these days it has been the other way round. When returning from Lesbos, we invited Hector, the Spanish traveller, to visit the mountains and monasteries of Meteora with us. And not only travelled and ate with us but, besides, slept a day in the autocaravan, accommodating the table and seat as bed. The second night, Hector slept outside, not because we did not want him inside, but because he preferred sleeping under the stars contemplating the impressive landscape of Meteora. But despite insisting of sleeping on the ground, he often commented us how fortunate we were of the possibility to travel with an autocaravan and that in the future, if his economic situation improved, also would try of doing it. Anyway, Hector could not complain either in a complete way, since during all last year he was travelling through south America. On the other hand, Hector has the advantage of having an extrovert, affable and altruistic character that immediately arouses the friendliness of the people and their hospitality. For sure that in a near future will also be able to carry out his dream. Good luck Hector! ‹ Previous (06/03/2008) MONTH Next (2008-05-05)› ‹ Previous (2008-03-10 - Jordan) COUNTRY Next (2008-04-08 - Xipre)› |
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