Archives

Va Va Voy a Mexico!

Date:       2 Comments  

I’m currently travelling at 578mph 10,000m above Greenland through -66C air. Not too shabby for a first blog post eh?

Aparently the flight will be 90 minutes shorter than expected*, thanks presumably to favourable winds. We’ve just eaten, my vegan meal was pretty awesome aside from the milk based creamer they gave me. I had mushroom couscous, nice bread, salad and a rice pudding0esque dessert. At 587mph, that’s my kind of fast food!

I’m sat next to a tennis player and a French lady – with whom I can communicate only enough to pass a pen back and forward as we both struggle to translate the Mexican Border Control forms. Hurrah for my Kindle! Though where’s Saz when you have an actual need for some French?

10 minutes later, the crew find the English forms. Typical eh?

 

* as it turned out, it was only 10 minutes shorter.

Categories:

Wutsburg – The Tale of the Stray Orange

Date:        Leave a comment on Wutsburg – The Tale of the Stray Orange  
That wretched Nicole! She gave me an Orange! I was harmlessly looking for the time and place for my ride share tomorrow and I find an orange among all the other bits and pieces she gave me!
Anyway, Wednesday morning the plan was to go into town and look around but I slept sound through a full 50% of the daylight hours so we wandered down at about 12:30. The town is so wonderful! Fairytale houses, foot wide passage ways and the mighty river Main criss crossed by cobbled streets and sloping lanes. First up we visited the castle! Which is now a mesuem about life back in the day. [[Lohr]] is the home to [[Snow White]] as well as having it’s own highway robber!
After picking Jamil up from the Kinderrgarden we wandered down to the river and back, past some wonderful buildings and had Chinese to eat, visited an old Church with memorial stones from the 1200’s and then headed to Nicoles mum’s house where she has the [[Internet]]. It’s in an annexed village south of the river, greener and with river side playgrounds. After some time on CouchSufing.org and RideShare.co.uk I decided that a bus to [[Gothenburg]] and a couch there for a day or to would be good. It took me another 2 days to get around to it, by which time the only bus was Monday evening. Good for my time in [[Germany]], but a bit more restricting in [[Sweden]]!
Tags:

Lohr am Main – What do you get if you put and English Jew in a kitchen with a German Palestinian?

Date:        Leave a comment on Lohr am Main – What do you get if you put and English Jew in a kitchen with a German Palestinian?  
Phew! I am exhausted. Physically, mentally, emotionally and nearly spiritually. Not the bad kind of exhausted, burt the fullfilled and ready to rest kind. Also the awful handwriting kind, I’d better make an effort or I’ll never be able to read this in future.
I spent a good proportion of my train ride today trying to find words to describe Nicole. She’s an the perfect balance between mature enough to appreciate life and young enough to enjoy it. Awesomely open minded and both interesting and interested, and the most generous person I’ve ever met! She met me at Lohr am Main Station last night at about 8pm, with her friend Martina. The train from [[Frankfurt]] was €20, cheap enough compared to the ICE (German Fast Trains) from [[Bussels]] which I decided was too much. ICE is nice enough, very space-shipy but essentially a [[pendalino]]. The local train from my connection was nicer only because it was empty – from sitting on the floor to having half a carrige to fart as I please….
Nicole has a son but no babysitter. Which suited me because I love kids and was probably too tired for clubbing. So we cooked and cooked and cooked, and then made some side dishes.
I made [[roast potatoes]] which would have made Avi proud, vegetables, gravy and as close to [[Israeli salad]] as I could with a cabbage and a tomato. Nicole made pumpkin soup, burnt some paprika, turkish coffee, Palastinian rice (without the chicken) and Martina made [[Falafel]]s and fruit salad. We could have fed the town, but we managed without them. Shortly after eating, and Nicol’s son Jamil throwing some rice around (he was too excited to have visitors to sleep), we chatted and pumped up an air bed – Nicole who had only just moved in and hadn’t quite sorted out all the furniture – and soon it was to a sound sleep all. Except Jamil, and therefore Nicole… ok so I slept like a baby.
Tags:

Frankfurt to Lohr Am Main

Date:        Leave a comment on Frankfurt to Lohr Am Main  
That train conductor so thought I was German! Not, unfortunately, because of my language skills. On the contrary, because I only Um’d, Ah’d and Grunted my way through bits of paper and wrong tickets.
It’s nearly 8 and dark outside the train – which is far warmer than it needs to be!
I’ve spend the day wandering around [[Frankfurt]], the [[River Main]] is fabulous, about as wide and fast as the Thames but not nearly as build up and enclosed. From the high bridges you can see all the church towers and sky scrapers, plus glimpses of buildings crying out for a closer look. So I headed for one particularly enticing steeple, which turned out to be The Dom – One of the more famous sights, and with good reason.
It’s incredible, beyond words and magnificantly big! Stepping through the large but humble door you are faces with a beachy pink column, embosses in such straight vertical lines you cant help but let your eyes follow them up, and up, and up until you are craning your neck to see the ceiling high above.
The building itself is faily simple iin design and decoration. The outside is adorned with a few large, almsot hyroglyphic shapes and reliefs of people. The inside is only pinky white lines on peachy or red brick surfaces. It’s clean but not stale, and plain yet awe inspiring.
The statues and ornaments are another thing. Dramatic scenes of Jesus and the apostles vividly carved into fully formed 3d figures. Intricate golden details on wooden picture frames. The small (and entirely in German) museum houses the most incredible objects, the purpose of which I can only guess are mostly for holding candles, but these are no ordinary candle holders. Fine gold shapes surrounded crystal lenses atop gem encrusted bases. All hundreds of years old.
I only saw a few pictures on postcards, but it looks as if much of the surrounding area was destroyed and the church damaged in the war. If that was the case, a remarkable rebuild had taken place!
Tags:

Frankfurt – The Germans are Coming! And I can’t wait to meet them!

Date:        Leave a comment on Frankfurt – The Germans are Coming! And I can’t wait to meet them!  
Oh if you could see the sight I can see! I’m glad in many ways to not have a camera which would make a feeble attempt at capturing it. I am sat outside a cafe (With a coffee and a book) overlooking what I think is [[Frankfurt]]‘s central square.
In front of me in a relatively simple yet ornate off-white and pale red church. To my right is an ugly yet some how attractive concrete museum with pillars of ivy attempting to hide the blackening grey. Behincd the church the wonders unfold! A 6 story timber framed pointy building of deep browns and rich reds crossing over bright whites, perforated by dark windows twinkling with lights from inside. All topped off by steep slate grey roofs towering above the sloping cobbled square below.
Draps of people and snakes of tour groups slide past, high heels struggling on the aged stones heading to the designer shops who poke their noses into the square from the north.
I arrived in this most wonderous of cities at 2am this morning. My first impressions? Let’s start with second as I spent the first 30 minutes wandering around the red light district looking for the hostel mentioned in my book. Big, quiet and cheap enough (considering it included breakfast) the hostel that is.. I’m not sure ‘Dolly Dreams’ provided breakfast and clean sheets.
I picked up a prepaid German SIM and have exchanged a few texts with Nicole, my couch in [[Lohr Am Main]], and spoken to David. The plan up until a few minutes ago was to probably not see Rothenburg but to speed to Berlin and meet David on Friday.
However… I just met a guy from [[Wützburg]] (Alex) who took his Indonesian friend (Albert) there and they have rekindled my desire!
This coffee is so good, and only 2€ I have ordered another!
I saw a sign last night saying “All You Can Eat Sushi”. Wow! I’m going there! Can I find it today? Nay! So Breakfast #2, (after Tomato, Cucumber and very nice rolls with Jam at the hostel) was Humous and bread on a bench by the [[River Main]]. Next to a bridge with a boat hanging underneath it… No idea…!
I have a little stir fry left and I’ll be cooking at Nicoles tonight, but I may have to buy some soon! (I never did find that sushi bar). Anyway, my fingers are cold and Frankfurt is calling!
Tags:

Belgium – Not Your Average Monday Morning

Date:        Leave a comment on Belgium – Not Your Average Monday Morning  
Woooo! It doesn’t get much better than this! From stressing in an Internet Cafe to chilling in a pub with a Finn (Yogart), a Spaniard (Carlos) and a Bulgarian (Sofia). I got a lift with an Italian (Who’s name I mis-remembered and wrote down somewhere) from Waterloo: having squeezed in through a gap in the fence, climbed the grass pyramid and stopped for some humous as I gazed into the blackness which was a historic view just hours ago (Before the sun set…), and then had to jump a fence to get out.
So the Italian dropped me right at the station and, joy of joys, I caught the first train to Brussels. A little nervous because although I had a ticket from Waterloo to Brussels I was getting on the train a stop early, and the train didn’t even stop at Waterloo. Which is a totally unnecessary balagan since I had a train pass for all of Belgium. Unfortunately I left that in the luggage locker.
The lift back and good fortune with the trains left me with enough time to wander a little. I enquired about how the [[Boris Bikes]] work (about the same as ours but with a week pass also) and to find an awesome pub and meet the above mentioned awesomes. It was, curiously enough, a smoking pub. It does seem that England is the only country which has managed to introduce a smoking ban and stick with it 🙂
Day 1. Not so bad eh? The writing will probably go down hill from here. I await now my ride for [[ Frankfurt]] where I hope to find a hostel for the night… or morning. Some Internet probably too, to send this to you my lovelies.
Tags:
Category:

Final few days in Israel!

Date:        Leave a comment on Final few days in Israel!  

Phwar!

In exactly three days I’ll be on an airplane coming home! And I can’t wait 😀

I’m in [[Haifa]] at the moment, staying with Tom (Maia’s Cousin). I’m hoping to go to [[Tel-Aviv]] tonight but it’ll probably be in the morning because I have nowhere solid to stay (and I’m waiting for a reply from my new favourite site www.couchsurfing.com).

I ended up back on kibbutz the other day! Despite my ‘really really this is actually the last time I’m leaving’ goodbye last week! I was meeting Mike and Orly to goto the Carmelite Monastery (as recommended by Eli as one of the places I need to goto if I get a chance). The view is insane, I’m not even going to try and describe it!

The plan was to meet at the kibbutz, but we managed to miss each other (no idea how) so we met at the monastery instead (by luck of course, since none of us have a phone). Afterwards I couldn’t get a lift to [[Yokneam]] to get a bus back to Haifa, and after a couple of hours trying I gave up and went to see Inbar (Toms sister who lives on the [[kibbutz]]) to give Tom a call and let him know I was going to be even later.

Inbar called Tom, and Tom came to visit and brought me back to Haifa – where I promptly fell asleep. It’d been a sleep deprived few days!

After half a days sleep I set off to Haifa – keeping an open mind despite my vision of Haifa as a city of one landmark – the Bahi Gardens. The very pretty but totally useless tourist office only confirmed that there’s nothing to do. I wandered around a little, found a small art gallery and a tourist synagogue (eh eh) and saw a lot of back alleys whilst trying to find the bus back to Tom’s place. The tourist office turned out to be worth something, she told me where the bus stop was – and was right!

woop woop!

Tags:
Categories:

A Boat Upon the Rainbow River

Date:       1 Comment  

I started in [[Rosh Pina]],
had some fantastic things for dinner,
went there for a week or two,
ended up staying a few.

peddled my way back down south,
stopped a lot, to water my mouth,
arrived in [[Nahalal]] within the day,
couldn’t meet Irit, so thought I’d stay.

Sunday the 7th came along,
what the hell rhymes with along,
cycled the hill to [[kibbutz]],
stuck again, flangrant atutz.

Saw everybody, had a great time,
the food was good, the weather was fine,
went to the pub, saw a band,
cleaned up a virus, gave them a hand.

stayed there a week,
never got around, to sorting my teak, (bag in Hebrew!)
emailed some farms, worked up a hype,
got no replies, so made a Skype.

Spoke to Marc, down in the centre,
agreed to go there, he’d be my mentor,
we’d build some ovens, and lay some concrete,
I’d stay 10 days, perhaps a week.

Now here I sit, in his living room,
on his laptop, sleeping soon,
went on a trip, then rested [[Shabbat]],
have yet to work, emptied his fridge but. (using some Hebrew grammar there ;))

I think another week I’ll stay,
then travel to Evron in a day,
spend some time with the family,
organize my stuff and my diary.

my last week will be in [[Tel Aviv]],
catching the culture like a sieve,
might make some stops, see some friends,
say bye to all, tie up some ends.

a few more weeks and I’ll be home,
visiting the tower, seeing the dome,
can’t wait to be there, it’s been a lifetime,
thank god for the [[Internet]], my mothers lifeline 😉

Tags:

Rosh Pina and Returning Home!

Date:        Leave a comment on Rosh Pina and Returning Home!  

hey,

I can’t remember what I said last time, but I’m here on a farm in [[Rosh Pina]] – making bread, keeping the garden tidy and being the IT/Electrician guy!

Had the chance to do some paid work cutting weeds last week which was much appreciated by my wallet!

I just got off the phone to the wonderful Dani (Maia’s uncle) who’s managed to have my plane ticket moved so that I won’t be missing Mehaks wedding at the end of June! So I’ll be back on the 25th June (Thursday, late night) instead of the 30th!

I’ve been coming up with a bit of a plan, no grand take over the world ideas – simpler things like where I’ll be in 5 days time!

I’m going to stay in Rosh Pina until Friday – [[Shavuot]] – which means I get to go to school on Tuesday and serve cream cheese (home made from goats milk!) and pita to a whole load of rowdy school children. It’s the year 6 from one school meeting the year 6 from the school in the next town, and they all hate each other – apparently riots and fights break out every year!

That fun aside, we have about a hundred quiche to make and a whole pile of cheese cakes! Wednesday night is a no sleeper! (Well, for them… it’s optional for me!)

Then on Friday, morning or evening – depends how I feel at the time – I’m going to head back towards [[Nahahal]] (where I was before here). Spend another night there, and see if I can meet up with Irit (my teacher from the ulpan) the next day. From there I’ll be heading back to [[Ein Hashofet]] to say bye to a friend (Talya) who’s leaving.

A couple of days there, and I’ll either be heading up north to another [[permaculture]] WWOOF place near-ish to Haifa, or south to [[Tel-Aviv]] to try to meet Illy who may or may not still be volunteering there!

Sami

p.s To the more geeky of you, checkout the new totally awesome badly labelled new search feature on www.youque.net wuuhaaay API yeah!

Tags:
Categories:

Mushav Nahalal

Date:        Leave a comment on Mushav Nahalal  

I’m on a [[Moshav]] now ([[Nahalal]]), just arrived today. We’re building an educational eco-farm – much like a small CAT centre. That’s about all I know, got here this afternoon and was lugging sand around for a few hours. Seems nice. Thought I’d write. Short sentences. Here for one week, then hopefully going elsewhere. Don’t know where yet. Like this writing style? Let me know.

Love. Hugs. Kisses. Write soon. Sami.

[nggallery id=5]

Tags:
Categories: