Olympic Run!

Yesterday I did not get chance to go online due to having connection issues. Yesterday was pretty dull just did a couple 0f easy runs then came back down. Nice to get the ski legs back though!

Today I went off with 2 of the group members and they are really good at skiing. Before lunch (1pm ish local time) I had skiied over 15k!This is pretty good going as I was on the first ski lift of the day from Sauze d'Oulx! Due to snow conditions (pretty rubbish) in Sauze we went over to Sestriere. This was a bit of trek, it involved numerous red runs and up to the highest point in Sauze which is around 2700m. From here we got the bubble across to Sestriere. Here we skied alot! This included a few Red and Black (hardest runs) to get to the most important run in the area....the Men's Downhill for the 2006 Winter Olympics! I managed to do the run in a record time of, weight for it, drum roll please.....50minutes!!! One day I will beat Bode Miller!!!! The visibilty was rubbish, could only see a feet or so in front but this is a positive though as it meant more snow!!! Once we eventually (I slowed us down!) completed the downhill run we made our way back to the bubble to have lunch at 2700 ish meters!!! This is good but they can not boil water at this altitude so we had a plate of meat! It was yummy though! We spent an hour there watching a really weird sport where men were kicking a ball over a volleyball net! It was a weird sport as they did a few kicks, ball fell to the ground and they stopped! After about an hour it started to snow and we made our way back to Sauze which was hard work as I was pretty tired, but there was no other way back apart from skiing. So it was a good day and I thoroughly enjoyed myself!
My calf muscles are still aching so will be back to easy runs tomorrow to sort them out!
Night all

Back to Sauze d'Olux for the third time!

Today I arrived back at Sauze d'Olux for third trip here with my parents, Richard and some people from my Mum's school. We were at Gatwick for 3:30 ready for the 6:20 flight. This meant no sleeping ALL day saturday. The only sleep I have had was in the taxi to the airport, on the plane (around breakfast), coach transfer and naps at the hotel.
Once we arrived at the resort it was very green at the bottom but we have been reassured by the reps that the skiing is good higher up (i remember saying that last year!). We got all skis etc hired and then sat in the sun to enjoy the apres ski! The sun is hot but there is a cold breeze coming in so hopefully it will push the snow to us :D
First day of skiing tomorrow, so more then

Last day in the middle east!

Tonight marks the last day of my time in the middle east. To make travelling easier tomorrow me and Stephen have come back to Jerusalem. It was fairly easy to get to Jerusalem from Nablus. We took various services and taxis and then crossed the border by foot. That was a new experience for me but it was pain free :D Once the other side of the checkpoint we got on a bus to Damascus Gate.

Damascus gate at about 1pm

After photographing the gate we walked to the hostel as the tram was not free anymore :(. It was a lovely walk very hot though! I did have to stop a few times as I was carrying everything in my hiking bag which was not easy in the heat!
After checking into the hostel we went for a walk around the Old City. Due to it being the Sabbath after sundown today we did the Western Wall/Wailing Wall first. I walked to the women's side of the wall and wrote out a prayer and stuck it in the wall.

Women's side of the wall

We walked through the different quarters, the Jewish Quarter, the Armenian Quarter, the Christian Quarter and the Muslim Quarter. We walked around the Church of the Holy Sepulchre.

The tower of the Church of the Holy Sepulchre

I got to see the stone where Jesus' body was annointed before burial, where Jesus was crucified and where he was buried. As we walked around, we got to see the different chapels of the different denominations, including Catholic, Ethiopian Orthodox and Greek.

I also saw Helen's Cistern, a large well next to the church. I had to duck and crawl through arches and corridors to get there.

A blurry picture of Helen's Cistern

Afterwards, we carried on walking through the Old City, and left it through Damascus Gate just as dusk was falling and the call to prayer started.

Jerusalem at night

We then went to dinner and came back to update my blog. A very exciting week was had!

Palestine Day 4!

Last night I had an invite to Stephen's Boss' house for dinner. All the internationals at the University who work in the LRC (language resource centre). It was really lovely food, all traditional and there was plenty of it. There was so much food left over that all the internationals took home goody bags. The walk back to Stephen's apartment was fun with a stomach full of food whilst walking up and down hills!

Today, Stephen got called into work so I decided that I will spend the morning exploring the old city and doing my Mother's shopping for her! The things I do for her. I managed to find the old town by walking there (all downhill!). I found the shop I was looking for, although I walked past it 3 times but that happens when you can't read Arabic. I asked another shop keeper he didn't understand the English but Stephen wrote it out for me in Arabic before I left. Turns out the shop was diagonally opposite the shop I was at asking! I had a tour then did my shopping. I carried on looking around the old city and took photos.

One of the streets in the Old City

A ruin building in the Old City

Once I finished in the Old City I walked around the Modern part of Nablus, including the Mall for a drink. It was weird being in a Shopping Mall that didn't have any Christmas decorations up, but there again this is an Islamic State so they wont be celebrating Christmas here.

After I finished looking around Nablus, I walked back to the Old campus of the university and stopped briefly outside the cemetery. Afterwards I found Stephen at the New Campus of the University after I managed to work out the Services on my own....yay go me!!! I spent some time in the LRC and then one of the students who kidnapped me Tuesday, took me on another tour of the campus this time to the medical school and then to the mosque. I got to go into the Mosque and they didn't require me to cover my head. I got shown the prayer books and then the student convinced the female worker there to give me a copy of the quran, so somehow I have now have a copy of the quran which I have to get back through the airport in Israel!!!

As this is my last night in Palestine, I can say I have thoroughly enjoyed myself and will come back here again. The country is lovely and the people are really friendly. There are still places to see and visit which I haven't done yet so I will be back some day!

Palestine Day 3!

After Stephen woke up yesterday we went to get something to eat. We went to a restaurant which overlooked Nablus. I had kebab in tray which was meat in a sauce which I put into pitta bread along with salady things. It was really nice and was something else I tried that is Palestinian!

Today we went to Mount Gerizim to visit the Samaritan village there. This is only one of two in the world, the other is in Tel Aviv. Before we got to the village, we took a service to the checkpoint at which the point the driver had to stop and turn around. Me and Stephen at this point got out. The reason why the driver couldn't go any further was because Israel see the Samaritans as Jews so the village is an area C so Palestinians are not allowed to go through the checkpoint. Has we got to the checkpoint the Soldier asked to see our passports and then asked where we were after which he said "have a nice day". So the soldiers area friendly too!! At the village we followed the signs to the Museum to find it was close. A local woman gave us directions to what we would call "tourist information". We each bought a guide book for 10NIS and then got directions to the summit of Mount Gerizim. We followed what we thought we were the right signs and a local man stopped us and told us we were heading to the Army base and it was the next left. Has we were reaching the summit the same guy headed up the same path to take us around. The site has a lock on it and he is incharge of the key and gives tours. We had a tour which we then found out was 25NIS each...good marketing trick. It seems expensive but when £1= 5.5NIS it was around £5 so not too bad.

The site has a church which was built 1000years ago and a mosque 900 years ago and houses around them. However they are now ruins.

View of the ruins, Mosque in the top corner and the church is the circular feature in the centre

Outside the church and mosque area is a circular area (which we didn't go to) which is used by the Samaritans for prayers when they all gather for a pilgrimage. After the tour we walked back down through the village and went back through the checkpoint with no problems. As there were no services around we decided to walk down until we took the wrong path which was a dead end (near the city of Nablus) so when we next saw a service we took one!

View of Nablus on the walk down

Once back we headed to the New campus where we had falafel which I now have a liking too! Once Stephen had finish some work we went to the English lesson I was invited too. It was good fun and the girls that invited me were very happy to see me. We played "Consequences" which tested my spellings as I had to get them right as what I wrote someone in the class would have to read. We then played "Werewolf" and "Charades". All the games were to encourage the students to speak English.

Whilst Stephen was working I sent some electronic postcards and then we got the service back to the old campus. Whilst Stephen was teaching an admin lesson I decided to head on back to his flat, stopped off for some chocolate on route and then finished my postcards and update this.

Currently Stephen is having a snooze whilst his clothes are being washed. The washing machine is rather strange. It is attached to a tap which leaks so a bucket has to be put underneath to catch the drips. The pipe which lets the water out has to be put into the bath as it has no where else to go. When the tap is switched on if the pressure is too great then the pipe can come off the bath and cause a flood in the bathroom. Also he has to make sure the drum is closed properly so his clothes don't fall out!

I will stop rambling now! More tomorrow

Palestine Day 2!

Yesterday I left my blog with waiting for Stephen to finish teaching. Well once I finished this blog I decided to read up more on the area but fell asleep. I woke up with Stephen text me to ask if I can meet him at the lift has I had the key so I can freely walk around the area. When Stephen got back, we went down to the old city of Nablus (Al-Qasaba). We were looking for a cafe which did good Kenafah! We didn't find it but we found another one and I have to say that I like Kenafah. Nablus is well known in Palestine for Kenafah so if you ever come here you should try it!!! The old city was great to walk around. Really narrow streets in a maze with shops either side with carts being pushed as well.

The Clock tower in the old city

Today we got up at 8am so nice lie in compared to yesterday, so we could do some of the sights before Stephen had work! First stop was Jacobs Well. We looked around the outside of the church and looked inside the church. It is a Greek Orthodox church and there were many Pilgrims inside having a service. This meant we could not get to the tower where the well is.

Inside the church

After visiting the church we went up to Joseph's Tomb. We had to walk through Balata, the largest UN refugee camp on the west bank. Walking through here was eerie and but I got to see how the refugees lived. They were helpful when we asked for directions to the Tomb and welcomed us. At the Tomb we were asked by the Police what religion we were and where we were from. They then opened the Tomb for us to see. We followed around to make sure we didn't cause any trouble (we were the only ones in there), didn't take photos. The officer who was following us around made sure we saw the whole thing as we walked past one part and he pointed us in the right direction. After the Tomb we went to Tell Balata Archaeological Park. We had to walk through more of the refugee camp and got more directions but we eventually got there. We walked around, it was amazing being so close to the archaeological features and lots we could still identify has buildings etc.

The East Gate in Tell Balata

Afterwards we had a drink in the city and then went back to get Stephens teachings and went over to the new campus. We went to a presentation on Indigenous people and how other societies treat them with the main focus on "White" Australians and the Aborigines. Afterwards 2 of Stephens students came to talk to him and then started to talk to me. As Stephen had a class they kidnapped me, showed me around the University (New campus).We compared their university to the one I went too and they told me all about life in Palestine. It was a really interesting afternoon and I learnt a lot. I did also learn that one skipped her class with Stephen, but he forgive her as she turns up the rest of the time and she was speaking English to me which is better than learning out of a boring text book (apparently).

Any way Stephen has woken up and we are now discussing where we are going to eat. More tomorrow!

Arrival

Yesterday I left England for my first trip outside of Europe eeek! I left on a plane from Luton airport and landed at Ben Gurion airport Tel Aviv. Stephen met me at the airport only arriving an hour late due to missing connections, in all it was quicker for me to fly from London to Tel Aviv than for Stephen to travel more or less 30 miles. With going through security and collecting my baggage I was waiting about 30mins. Security wasn't as bad as I thought I was asked a few questions and was let into the country yiphee!! Next was the fun bit...

Had to get a bus to a junction somewhere near the airport, then get on a coach (public bus) to the coach station of Jerusalem. At the coach station, I had to take my bag off, empty my pockets and then walk through a scanner, then put my bag through an xray machine! After using the tram (new and the ticket machines are still not working so free tram!) Stephen and I arrived at the Abraham Hostel. We went off to find food as there was a party (to celebrate 1 year of the hostel being open) we ended up at McDonalds due to it being the cheapest place there was and open! One thing I learnt of my one night in Jerusalem is that compared to Palestine its really expensive.

To the present day...after waking up at 7am we went to Dome of the Rock. I got a photograph of the outside but as I am not Muslim I was not able to go in. Afterwards was breakfast and then head across the border so Stephen could go to work. This journey was fine on the (free) tram and then got on a Sherut (a shared taxi) to Ramallah. This bit was fine and we went straight through the checkpoint. Whilst travelling in this Sherut Stephen was pointing out the Israeli settlements which are illegal and then we arrived in Ramallah. This meant a change to a service taxi (pronounced ser-vees) which is the same as a Sherut just in Palestine! This was more hair raising. Horns were being used all the time (which is common around here so Stephen has told me and I am beginning to notice) and they seem to drive fast around corners and when overtaking. Eventually I fell asleep which was probably a good thing as woke up not far from Nablus. Once in Nablus we picked up another service which took to the outside of the University where Stephen is teaching and then we walked up the steps (lots of them which made me realised how unfit I am). Now you are caught up, just waiting for Stephen to finish teaching and then off to get food! Pictures to follow