Last Wednesday, Sara, Nick and I took a day trip to Ramallah and Jericho in the West Bank. It's super easy and cheap to get to cities in the West Bank--you just take a Palestinian bus at the station near the Damascus Gate. (A tip: Since nearly everything closes down in Jerusalem on Saturdays, a good thing to do is visit the West Bank if you're not out of town... my roommates just leave Jerusalem every weekend. The Palestinian buses run all day Saturday. You can leave in the morning and return by about an hour after shabbat ends to catch the light rail home. It's kind of funny to see how Jerusalem erupts into celebratory life at the end of shabbat... there are fireworks and people flood places like Mamilla.)
Ramallah
We just dropped by to see the city square, hang out at Stars and Bucks (haha), and eat lunch in order to have enough time in Jericho.
If I'm blessed enough to be able to return to Ramallah in the near future, I'd love to visit and perhaps do some work with the Ramallah Friends School. Back in March, the YDS travel seminar group had dinner with Dina Nasser, Health Advisor at The Juzoor Foundation for Health and Social Development, at the Movenpick in Ramallah. She told us various stories about struggling to get permits and how much of a pain it is to go through the checkpoints every day. After living in Ramallah for a while, she now lives and works in Jerusalem. Her husband unfortunately cannot join her since he's restricted to the West Bank. What's remarkable is that when her children were old enough to travel on their own, each of them independently decided to go through the checkpoints from Jerusalem to Ramallah every day in order to attend the Ramallah Friends School again. What dedication!
Jericho
We found a shared taxi to Jericho, thanks to a group of kind ladies who walked us to the taxi stop. In the taxi, we made friends with a Palestinian couple who gave us their numbers in case we need anything. The desert landscape was beautiful. I took video clips that I can show you if you're interested, since these photos don't capture it well at all.
Jericho is one of the oldest continuously inhabited cities in the world... evidence of settlement dating back to 9000 BCE. (!) It's also 258m below sea level. It was HOT.
Ramallah
We just dropped by to see the city square, hang out at Stars and Bucks (haha), and eat lunch in order to have enough time in Jericho.
If I'm blessed enough to be able to return to Ramallah in the near future, I'd love to visit and perhaps do some work with the Ramallah Friends School. Back in March, the YDS travel seminar group had dinner with Dina Nasser, Health Advisor at The Juzoor Foundation for Health and Social Development, at the Movenpick in Ramallah. She told us various stories about struggling to get permits and how much of a pain it is to go through the checkpoints every day. After living in Ramallah for a while, she now lives and works in Jerusalem. Her husband unfortunately cannot join her since he's restricted to the West Bank. What's remarkable is that when her children were old enough to travel on their own, each of them independently decided to go through the checkpoints from Jerusalem to Ramallah every day in order to attend the Ramallah Friends School again. What dedication!
(al-Manara Square... bustling!)
(this gentleman poured out cups of what we think is date juice out of this metal contraption that keeps it cold)
(we had mint lemonades at Stars and Bucks... you can see the hookahs/shishas lining the wall in the back--Sara and Myles ordered one, but it never came, so we left for lunch)
(lunch! chicken shwarma and Rukab's famous ice cream made with gum arabic (reminded me of the sticky/tacky ice cream we had in Istanbul)... I had a mix of coconut, coffee, pistachio, and mint chocolate chip... amazing)
Jericho
We found a shared taxi to Jericho, thanks to a group of kind ladies who walked us to the taxi stop. In the taxi, we made friends with a Palestinian couple who gave us their numbers in case we need anything. The desert landscape was beautiful. I took video clips that I can show you if you're interested, since these photos don't capture it well at all.
Jericho is one of the oldest continuously inhabited cities in the world... evidence of settlement dating back to 9000 BCE. (!) It's also 258m below sea level. It was HOT.
(the roads were kind of scary, since they twisted and turned along the edge of mountains... there were railings sometimes, but it was mostly just a cliff to our left the entire time)
We arrived in the city center and took another cab to the Mount of Temptation. We took a cable car up...
(Sara and me in the cable car)
(our view...
if you look carefully, you can catch the Greek Orthodox monastery built into the side of the mountain... as in March, it was closed when we got there)
(the stairs to the monastery were really hard to climb in the heat!)
(phew! resting feet)
(there were these incredibly still birds lining the wires alongside the mountain... when they decided to fly, they soared with sharp wings and tails... it was beautiful)
Across the street from the Mount of Temptation are the ruins of Tell es-Sultan, the oldest city in the world. Unfortunately, it was closed when we got there. It's too bad, since I didn't take photos of it back in March. But here is a view of the ruins from the street:
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