All Entries Tagged With: "jerusalem"

Picture of the Week XXXIII

Well, there you go, I was planning on a home-produced pic this week, with parcels from back home tucked under the tree, tree lights twinkling, and a plate of cookies and glass of milk (laced with rum) for Santa. But, the parcels haven’t yet arrived, so here’s the backup…a nicely lit Jerusalem alley with Christmas trees a plenty, and yes, even some Santas! Takes me right back to a Christmas past…

The pic was taken by Eitan Charnoff, who has some other great pics of Israel in his collection.

Happy Christmas to you and yours!

Right, I’m off to down that glass of milk (laced with rum) that Santa didn’t drink…

A Christmas Past…

A few years back, before the patter of tiny feet scuttling across my living room floor became a daily joy (and I’m not talking about reindeer here), Christmas in Israel meant heading over to Jerusalem or Bethlehem, accompanied by a never-ending flow of alcohol…us Brits eh? Not like we ever need a reason…

One particular Christmas stands out in my mind, and that was back in ‘94. In an effort to get festive, my mate Peter and I had decided to set off for Bethlehem. Well, that was what we’d told our Israeli girlfriends…the truth was we had heard of a Christmas Eve party in Jerusalem, so had decided to party Christmas Eve in style. Rather than mingle with the masses at Midnight Mass.

We caught a minibus over to Jerusalem and after getting diverted by a car ablaze in the middle of Jerusalem (nothing sinister, just an engine blowout), finally ended up at one of the tourist pubs where the “party” kicked off. The beers flowed, the party moved on to the Underground Bar, and the singing and dancing on tables began with a passion.

Something I’d never seen until I came to Israel was the standing on tables in bars and pubs. It never seemed to take much to get Israelis up and singing and perched on their bar tables, but on this Christmas night I was up there with the best of them! Christmas classics were belting out and the few tourists that were in the pub were singing our drunken hearts out, lurching from table to table and getting the Israelis in the bar to sing along with us. There’s something quite amazing about seeing a bar full of people singing along to Band Aid’s “Feed the World”…

As the night continued, I remember Peter and I strutting our stuff to some Israeli tunes as we danced with Israeli soldier girls and other dark-haired beauties. I recall promises of phone numbers and return visits to Jerusalem, but my memory cells had been obliterated by beer and we had to get back to Tel Aviv that night…and as the taxi driver put his foot down and I spotted the speedometer hitting 160km/h I decided that closing my eyes was the better option (I still don’t remember waking up after this taxi ride home, but I guess I must have stumbled home somehow!).

Anyway, this post was just an excuse to feel a little festive, and to play one of the biggest and best Christmas tunes out there and to recall a festive Christmas Eve many moons ago (as I change another nappy…)…it might be 25 years old but it still sends a chill down my spine whenever I hear it!

Picture of the Week XXVIII

This week it’s time for some food-related goodness. Israel has some great foods to try of course, and the spices that are thrown into the bowl or frying pan play a big part in making those foods turn out as tasty as they do. One of my favorite spices is paprika, which can either come in sweet or hot/spicy versions. The mountains of spices in the shot below look like paprika, though I could be wrong. It also looks like they’re being used to brighten up a Jerusalem felafel stand, though whether or not the felafels are getting livened up with sweet or spicy paprika, who knows…

The pic was taken by Haravroth, who has a small but nice little collection of pics in his photostream (he only started uploading pics to Flickr last month).

Crikey chaps, I’ve got the munchies!

Picture of the Week XXV

This week it’s back over to Jerusalem for some street action, a very nicely timed shot with a bit of everything. The t-shirt of the guy on the right reads “My Jerusalem”, while a rabbi-like Orthodox Jew passes on his left, a perfect secular vs. religious moment. In the background there are more religious Jews with kippas and a policeman taking a swig from a bottle. Great shot! Sums up the recent tension between secular and religious Jerusalemites nicely.

The shot was taken by YogiBear91, a guy from Tel Aviv with some very nice shots in his collection. Particularly loved his New York street shots, but hey, this is a blog about Israel, so check out his Tel Aviv street shots instead!

Picture of the Week XXIII

Enough of those Tel Aviv beach shots! Let’s head over to Jerusalem this week for a slice of Old City action, although not quite so much of the “old” in this shot. If I’m not mistaken, it’s from the old bazaar in the Old City, the tourist strip where you’ll get a $20 hand-made wooden flute for $1, after a bit of negotiating (walking away saying “No, no, no” usually works).

The picture was taken by Liel Bomberg, a young guy from Tel Aviv, who has some great shots in his collection, though appears to have temporarily lost some of them thanks to the wonders of Flickr pro accounts.

Picture of the Week XVII

Well, this week’s picture was going to be about only one woman, a certain Queen of Pop who came, sang, danced, flexed her biceps, and conquered. But…there are hardly any decent images out there on Flickr, and if there are, they are heavily copyrighted and restricted.

So, here we are, at the ultimate destination on any trip to Israel - the Western Wall (and yes, Madonna visited there this week). Of course, there are huge numbers of Western Wall images out there and we’ve probably seen the same images over and over again, from slightly different angles. But this image really grabbed me with its great use of zoom. Just something a bit different and interesting for you…again  shot by Gabe Monfried, who shot last week’s camel pic.

[Click to big]

Jerusalem more popular than London, Paris and Barcelona!

Without a doubt, any trip to the Holy Land has to include Jerusalem somewhere on the itinerary. We’re big fans of Jerusalem and the Old City here at igoogledisrael; there’s just such an amazing amount of history and wonder all wrapped up in one city, you really can’t visit Israel and not spend at least a day in Jerusalem. I don’t think anyone ever forgets their first time in Jerusalem, no matter how little faith you have…

So, it might not come as a complete surprise that Jerusalem made it into the Top 20, at No. 17, of preferred tourist destinations, according to the tourist magazine Travel+Leisure, in their 14th annual poll. What might come as a surprise was Jerusalem proving more popular than London, Paris and Barcelona, three giants in the tourist industry.

Of course, Jerusalem doesn’t get anything like the numbers these three destinations get, but perhaps it’s time it should. It has obviously proven popular with the Travel+Leisure readers, so maybe it’s time the Holy City was promoted that little bit more. Jerusalem mayor Nir Barkat this last week stated that he intended to raise the number of tourists that visit Jerusalem to 10 million a year within the next 10 years, an impressive target and quite probably doable. If you’re thinking about visiting Jerusalem, do it now before the rush starts!

Other surprises in the Top 20 list: most popular was Udaipur in India, otherwise known as “Venice of the East”, which knocked Bangkok off the top spot. And no place for Tel Aviv either, though Tel Aviv was named as the 7th most popular city in the Middle East and Africa.

Here’s the full Top 20 list of most popular cities.

Christmas Day in Tel Aviv

Church of the Holy Sepulchre

Happy Christmas from the Holy Land! OK, so we’re in the not so holy Tel Aviv, but still…wherever you are, have a great day!

Yesterday I took a drive over to the slightly more holy Old City in Jerusalem. It’s been awhile since I was last there but it is inspiring. The sheer power of the Western Wall is amazing, while the Church of the Holy Sepulchre, especially the interior, was stunning. Even the wife was impressed. We were tourists for the day and enjoyed every minute.

Especially nice to see the flood of tourists - tourism in Israel in the Old City was flourishing yesterday and I’m sure it has been for a few days. Apparently in Bethlehem, tourists have also been flocking amid the relatively safe atmosphere, and as Bethlehem is just down the road from Jerusalem, the capital seems to be the one to benefit most. Enjoyed this quote from a romantic sounding Italian:

“Bethlehem is like the soul of the universe, and it’s like an explosion of love here,” said Stefano Croce, 46, a fashion photographer from Rome, Italy.

Anyway, I’m off to tuck in to some imported mince pies, have a few beers, and have a long-distance call to Blighty with the folks back home. Maybe even have myself an explosion of love.

Happy Christmas to you and yours!