SOMEWHERE NEW

I’ve now been in the West Bank for a day and a half, so I guess it’s time to start my blog. I’ll start by talking about how I got here.

I set off on Wednesday. I was a wee bit nervous about the journey, partly because I don’t really like travelling and certainly don’t like airports, but also because of some of the stories I had heard about people having difficulty getting into Israel, with a lot of hassle being dished out by airport security. As it happens, barring a slight delay at Luton, the trip went without a hitch. I sailed through the passport control at Tel Aviv in no time. I was so tired by the time I got there that I could barely string a coherent sentence together, but I think the man behind the desk reached the conclusion that I was an idiot as opposed to a genuine terrorist threat.

I started thinking that maybe the stories I’d heard had been exaggerated, or maybe this was a sign that things in the Middle East were getting better, but two volunteers who arrived today (well, that would be yesterday now) told me that they’d had a much harder time getting into Israel. One told me he had been interrogated for near enough four hours before they let him in. I guess I was just lucky. Also, I’m told people get a lot more hassle on their way out. Ach well. I’ll worry about that when the time comes.

I was met at the airport by George, a family friend and Church of Scotland minister who’s been working in Jerusalem for the past year and a half. I was due to spend the night at a guest house linked to his church and he had kindly agreed to pick me up at the airport and give me a lift there.

The drive from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem was my first chance to see Israel. I was disappointed that, at that time of night, it could have passed for any of a number of countries I’d been to before: the US, Romania, El Salvador. A motorway anywhere in the world is just another motorway, and lights are just lights. There was certainly nothing new and exciting to see. (We even stopped off for a McDonalds on the way, but thankfully it was shut. I would have been disappointed in myself if I’d spent my first shekels in there.) Later on, though, I was having a smoke out on the veranda on the second floor of the guest house, waiting for my pizza to arrive. I was looking out towards the walls of the old city of Jerusalem, all lit up in the night time, and it hit me that this was somewhere new. And, in a way, somewhere exciting. This was not my end destination, though.