Final Transit » Israel

Photo Friday 03.07: Acre Fish market

Priyank — Fri, 06 Apr 2012 14:00:00 +0000

‘Photo Friday‘ is a weekly series showcasing pictures from around the world.

↑ Fish seller in the Turkish souk inside Acre’s walled city

Acre or Akko as it is locally known, is a UNESCO world heritage city that played a significant role in shaping histories of several cultures: Israelites, Greeks, Romans, Crusaders, Arabs and the Bahá’í. The historic old city has a big Turkish market (souk) with many interesting stores including the ones selling made in China tourist knick-knacks.

For more, read my backpacking stories from Israel and checkout the photo gallery.

© RSS feed from Final Transit - Priyank's notes from the road.. If you are viewing this content on a website instead of your RSS feed reader, then the website you are on is guilty of stealing my content without permission. Please visit my blog (Final Transit) and let me know so that I can take action against this spam website. Thanks!

Photo Friday 02.16: Kabbalah aashram

Priyank — Fri, 16 Dec 2011 05:05:48 +0000

Jewish hermitage

‘Photo Friday’ is a weekly series showcasing pictures from around the world.

You can smell mysticism in the air as you navigate the narrow lanes of Safed, a little town in northern Israel and one of the four holy cities of Judaism. I came here on a day trip from Tiberias, another holy city, looking for architecture that was unique to the various Jewish tribes that made this town their home. I stopped outside a building, what appeared to be an aashram (spiritual hermitage), taking pictures, when a man emerged from the house (it was an information centre), inviting me to have a cup of tea. He talked about Kabbalah, a set of esoteric teachings meant to explain the relationship between an eternal and mysterious creator and the mortal and finite universe, and explained to me what his life as a Kabbalist was all about.

The interesting part was that this person had spent three years in India, studying Hinduism (perhaps that explained the aashram-like appearance of his house), where while sleeping one night, he heard a divine revelation that ordered him back to Israel… or something of that sort.

Photo Friday 02.10: Tel Aviv waterfront

Priyank — Fri, 16 Sep 2011 17:05:22 +0000

Tel Aviv skyline during day and at night

‘Photo Friday’ is a weekly series showcasing pictures from around the world.

Tel Aviv is the party capital of Israel. I spent my last two days in the old city of Jaffa, at the southern end of central Tel Aviv. The beach on the Mediterranean sea is fantastic and a great place to unwind. Don’t worry about the occasional military planes, I stopped noticing them after a couple of days. Just take some pictures, checkout the random groups playing music and stroll on the waterfront.

[SinglePic not found]

Photo Friday 02.05: Capernaum, Israel

Priyank — Sat, 09 Jul 2011 04:47:18 +0000

The town where Jesus once lived

‘Photo Friday’ is a weekly series showcasing pictures from around the world.

↑ Ruins of an old Synagogue

To checkout various places around the Sea of Galilee, I rented a bike and went on a self-designed bike tour. By cycling around the lake Galilee, one can easily visit the numerous places of historical and religious significance that are scattered around this lake. Capernaum is one such site.

↑ Imagery in the newly built church

Capernaum has several references in the new testament:

The town was reportedly the home of the apostles Peter, Andrew, James and John, and Jesus himself. Jesus taught in the synagogue in Capernaum on Sabbath. There are several stories describing how Jesus miraculously healed people in this town. Wikipedia always has details.

Photo Friday 01.20: Masada fort

Priyank — Fri, 24 Dec 2010 05:03:05 +0000

Masada, Israel

Masada fortress, the desert and dead sea at a distance

Masada is a site of ancient palaces and fortifications on top of an isolated rock plateau overlooking the Dead Sea. After the First Jewish-Roman War (73 CE) a siege of the fortress by troops of the Roman Empire led to the mass suicide of Jewish rebels, who preferred death to surrender. Today this place is remembered as a site of Jewish resilience and soldiers in draft who have completed their basic training take an oath here saying ‘Masada shall not fall again.’

Masada and the Judean desert

Photo Friday 01.15: Church of Nativity

Priyank — Fri, 19 Nov 2010 05:31:04 +0000

Bethlehem, West Bank, Israel

The Church of Nativity is among the oldest churches that are still operational. It is located in Bethlehem which falls in West Bank, and the journey from Israel proper to West Bank, across the Israel-West Bank barrier, across barricaded military post, on a bus run by the Arab authorities and through West Bank was quite thrilling.

The manger, believed to be the birth place of Jesus Christ

At the heart of the Church is a cave that had a small entrance and was packed with pilgrims. Everyone jostled for space to touch and pray at the manger and the altar that, illuminated by oil lamps and surrounded by what I thought were pagan symbolisms, looked beautiful.

Manger Square, outside the Church of Nativity

When I go to Israel next, I would definitely spend more time in the West Bank.

Photo Friday 01.10: Western Wall

Priyank — Fri, 15 Oct 2010 05:05:56 +0000

The Kotel, also known as the Western wall or Wailing wall, is one of the most sacred sites places for the Jews

On a quiet 2007 December Friday evening, I landed in Tel Aviv and went straight to Jerusalem to witness Shabbat celebrations at the western wall. It was quite a wonderful experience.

People praying during sunset

It is believed that this wall is the last remnant of the Second Temple and has been the site for prayers and worship for centuries.

Western wall during the day

Located behind the wall is Dome of the Rock, which I thought was the most interesting site in Israel.

Photo Friday 01.07: Terraces of the Bahá’í Faith

Priyank — Fri, 07 May 2010 22:20:44 +0000

‘Photo Friday‘: Pictures from faraway lands.

Holiest place of the Baha’i religion

Terraces of the Bahá’í Faith or the Hanging gardens of Haifa are garden terraces around the Shrine of the Báb on Mount Carmel within Haifa, Israel.

The Baha’i faith was founded in Persia and Haifa hosts the world centre of the faith. ~~The Baha’i faith is the latest religion churned out from the holy land~~ (thanks Valerie). This grandiose structure, touted as the eighth wonder of the world, is a must visit place in Haifa, on the Mediterranean coast.

Photo Friday 01.02: Dome of the Rock

Priyank — Fri, 02 Apr 2010 05:01:38 +0000

‘Photo Friday‘: Pictures from faraway lands.

Dome of the Rock

Old City of Jerusalem with Dome of the Rock distinctly standing out

Dome of the Rock

With the distinction of being the oldest existing Islamic building in the world, the Dome of the Rock is an important landmark of Jerusalem. On this site once stood the grand Second Temple of the Jews that was destroyed by the Romans. The Muslims built this dome which was converted into a Church by the Crusaders and back to a mosque by the Mamluks and Ottomans. A building with such a fascinating past and claimed to be significant by the three Abrahamic religions is closed to non-Muslims today.

‘Photo Friday‘: Pictures from faraway lands.

Exiting Israel, only for now

Priyank — Tue, 07 Oct 2008 05:27:48 +0000

This blog post is part of my Israel travelog series. Click here for Index page
Previous post: Jaffa – my last stop in Israel

My plane too off the runway and as I watched the land of Israel from my window growing smaller and smaller, I inadvertently found saying to myself:
“येतो मी…” (yeto mee) – An informal ‘good bye’ in Marathi which roughly translates to ‘I shall return.’ *

Sounds melodramatic to me too but if my 20+ blog posts on different travel experiences in Israel were any indicators of how thoroughly I enjoyed that country, the actual feeling was many times more.

Israel is heavily Americanised (obviously) but their style of working is wayy more Eastern. I claim this after having worked with an Israeli company for five months and ofcourse you are welcome with insights. They have about the lowest city crime rates but extremely sensitive borders. The people appear to be rude but infact are simply straightforward. With Jewish immigrants from all over the world, one can never tell what an Israeli looks like. A traveler in Israel is often confused about what the country really is. The more time I spent, the more confused and curious I got

Exiting Israel is tedious. All ~~non Jewish~~ non Israelis are subject to questioning at the time of departure. I was interviewed for forty minutes straight. Repetitive questions are asked and someone had advised me to lie and not disclose details of my backpacking – esp going to West Bank. Thankfully I replied honestly because it is simply impossible to lie and lie again for that long! It is natural to have so much security given how much problems the country is subject to. Once the interrogation was done, they assigned a guy who bypassed all standard airport barriers and took me straight to the immigration. That was cool. The Ben Gurion airport in Tel Aviv is wi-fi enabled and okay comfortable.

An average Israeli is extremely aware about India. But then don’t forget – there are more Israelis in India than in Israel itself. hahaha, I’m kidding ofcourse. There are very few travelers who travel to Israel on an Indian passport and time and again the security guards simply let me pass without checking, ‘Oh you are from India?’. They added a comment like ‘I am going to India next year’ or ‘Goa is very beautiful’ or ‘Namaste’ etc.

So much still to do in Israel:
- Golan heights: See Syria from the forested mountain top
- Negev Desert: Camp in the beautiful sand and natural formations
- Eilat: It’s more of a romantic place so I won’t go alone
- West Bank: Explore more cities
- Gaza: Whenever possible…

All this shall be done soon *

At Mount of Olives, with Dome of the Rock in the background, Old city of Jerusalem.

° Here is the link to all travelogs on Israel.
° Here is the link to the Photo Gallery.

I hope you have enjoyed reading as much as I have enjoyed writing this travel series. Your comments/critique is solicited and greatly appreciated. I am sure there will be bits and pieces that I will keep writing about.

cheers,
Priyank.

* I will be going back to Israel in the Fall of 2009 for a whole semester at Tel-Aviv University!

This blog post is part of my Israel travelog series. Click here for Index page
Previous post: Jaffa – my last stop in Israel