Arival

I've just arrived after a rather long flight. I'm a bit sick to my stomach and don't have any sense of time (nor care to have one in all honesty) but I think that's about as bad as jet lag has me. Mind you, my body thinks it's 4:01AM right now and despite my rather bright surroundings it hasn't caught on to the fact that it's not.

Lady on the plane update. She never really died down, ranting and railing about things for the better part of the journey in a rather loud fashion. Throughout the trip she maintained just the right amount of cute old lady to keep from being told to can it. Once my headphones were in I couldn't have cared less.

The group of rather traditionally dressed Jewish people (is that really more politically correct than Jews?) that I had been rather keenly observing since arriving at my gate in Newark, began the process of their morning prayers. This consisted of wrapping pieces of leather with an attached a block of wood around their arm and head, choosing what I assumed was an easterly direction dawning some cloths that resembled capes that were a size too small and finally reading a prayer while bobbing. I'm sadly ignorant of the whole Jewish faith so this process was a rather interesting experience. Following this prayer the wooden blocks/leather straps were ceremoniously returned to a wooden box with careful care as to the wrapping of the leather strap. This detail would have missed me completely had it not been for a fellow two seats in front of me that was apparently new to this whole thing. I watched him just standing there in the middle of the isle way with his head on a swivel until he finally spotted a another more elder member carefully wrapping up this wooden block thing and attempted, read: failed, to wrap his up in this manner. He quickly stuffed his into his bag and with a look best described as a kid checking his ass to make sure he didn't just get busted with his hand in the cookie jar surveyed his immediate area and took his seat.

We landed a little ahead of schedule and the grins on the flight attendants faces were as pristine as when I had boarded the flight as I departed, a skill I'm sure took some mastering. I was greeted to Israel with a joke on themselves, there were signs discussing the “first” of a particular country or race. For example, the French had the Mona Lisa as their first woman, the US had the statue of liberty. Israel had a cactus. We were sent through beautiful halls of what looked like marble through the airport. Absolutely beautifully done. The passport inspection was interesting. I was asked where I was going, I told them Tel-Aviv and Jerusalem and I mentioned my travels into Bethlehem but not Ramallah due to what I had read. I was asked to present my booking conformations for my hostels which was a bit strange and after going through them she asked specifically for the Bethlehem one. “I don't have any plans for that leg of the trip yet.” After looking over my passport for a few seconds and one more rifling through my reservations she dismissed me but there was definitely tension over my unplanned trip into the West Bank. If anyone has advice for traveling into the west bank I'd love to hear it. I can't really ask here... the Israeli's don't seem too warm to the idea.

Customs was a joke.. I just walked through. No story there.

I caught a cab from the airport to my hostel where I've just checked in. People drive in a way here that makes me wonder how there are still drivers on the road. It's fast paced, extremely aggressive and apparently, totally normal. I was glad to see that when out of the line-up my driver was one of the few not possessing a rear end ding. I'm currently on my bed here safe and showered (ahhhhh). The hostel appears to be within walking distance to anything I could really want to see and I'm about the hit the streets for some exploring. Hopefully there will be some pictures accompanying the next post I make.