A Jew, a Chatolic and an Atheist walks into a muslim bar …or

…The divided city.
He asked me about my first impression of Jerusalem and the first impression is its beautiful, the second it’s so divided and so unfair in so many ways. I’ve asked myself the question about if woman should be protected by law for covering up and I said to myself, but so many want this … because that’s what they say when they got to be heard in interviews.

My taught now are different. Last night we walked at Mea Shea rim the orthodox Jewish street. A sign at beginning at the street tells woman to please cover themselves. They have (if you guys remember Bruno running around chased by the fashion police) some people that actually tells woman that doesn’t dress according to the code, to go away from their street. It’s not a law but it’s in the Jewish context, woman shall dress their gender, especially when married. In Europe we blame Muslims for the burke, here so far I have had more strict rules with the Jews. It feels weird for me, the man in my company only have to wear a little Jewish kippa at their head, I have to cover .

Sun, kittens and holyness in Jerusalem

Rooftop view

Morning company outside hostel

The holy wall

King Davids Tomb

And you can never leave the crypt ….

More to v\come att flickr when we have better internet connection

First impression when ….

I arrive is that the nights in the middle east are really dark. Its as if you were in a fartale and its beautiful. Then its even more beautiful, almost like paradise to watch the sun rise over the hills. Its breathtaking, wonderfull and as our new beudinian friend Nishel says: Oncce you go here you will always want to go back…
Well thats the good part, that and that everyone is so kind, so friendly, so helpful.

Then on the other side you always have the shadow of the conflict banging on your door.

At the holy wall, you have major security, military with guns, ans scanners to protect people. Nishel tells us that this is insane, he has lived her for 32 year, his whole life and he never understood it. Also …he says… that He does understand one thing about the conflict.
He says thats its not about religion, takes a deep breath and continues … ” its all about the money …thats what they care about here. You know there is a lot of emty ground in this area at westbank that they could use to built on … but they don’t they just spoil it so nobody can live there.”

I ask him : “Are you afraid to live here?”
He says” Not all the time, you know when you live like this you keep forgetting untill the next bomb comes….so you know the wall … its actually made us feel safer.”

Its a lot of impressions this first day, a lot of things to think about. Is it possible to create pease here or is it to infected? What would it take?

My phonenumber

This is the israelianphone in Jerusalem from Sweden you have to call 00972549920490 if you want something.

Kill Murphy …. or thank God for American dollars

Usually I do not thank God, simply because I do not believe in one. But today if there is one, it has to be Karim, and if he is not a God he is a fucking angel.

So …why do I want to kill Murphy you wonder? Well, because he came up with the bloody laws: If things can fuck up they do…
First failure: I did not bring my Xperia …
Second failure: I did not bring my Internet connection.
Third failure: I booked my first part of the trip with an unknown airline…
fourth failure: I did not realize things in Russia are not as smooth as here.
First at the airport when I was stuck in the gate I realize that both planes are running late … then I call the Hotel telling them that the scheduled time is late …They say ok, no problem ….but then …. After realizing there is no food whatsoever (if coffe or booze doesn´t count) in the gate lounge, I get a call from the hotel which cant find the booking number (I have one but since I booked it trough a third part site …they don´t have one… very well bring on another room I say … but … they are full.) So in a gate lounge without any fucking internet (and D in another gate lounge of course without Iphone or internet connection)I have to wait until I reach Ukraine…
There after major security check the only place they have Internet in is the business lounge … But thats for invited people only, people invited by some sort of business deal…

But thanks to Mr. Andrew Jackson I got in … I got the freaking internet connection and a new hotel and the owner Karim is picking us up…

Thank you Mr. President we love ya, hope you guys at home are safe and sound!

Not afraid enough

Now when It´s getting closer to my take off for Jerusalem, I have noticed a slight increase of worries in my surroundings.
From people saying: “Are you not worried to go?” til ” I hope you get home alive!”
-Seriously people, am I not afraid enough?
Of course I am awared of the fact that things do happends in Israel. Of course I understand that it would, probably, be safer to stand home, but … I am not really afraid to travel there … should I be?

I am just saying that people that lives there, and people that traveled there comes back and tells me that: You will love it, and of course when I mention how people over here worries they say: “Yeah you should listen to the locals thy will give you recommendations if something happends, but its a city just like any other city and not. Its …. it´s … oh you just have to experience it!”

So who am I supposed to listen to.
I know things could happend.
I know the risk is increased when I travel somewhere close to conflicts.
But …
I also know that life is not certain wherever you might be.

Who says that I live tomorrow, or even four minutes from now. You could be hit by a bus, you could be stabbed to death on the u-bahn. Anything could happened to you, so tell me when am I supposed to stop and hide from doing things I want to do or visit places important for my education?

The fear of death follows from the fear of life. A man who lives fully is prepared to die at any time.
Mark Twain

… and you will learn how to deal with pain

I bet you like this M, becourse thoose few words were actually written in the letter from the fighting school I will visit during my upcoming trip. Written as a little welcoming notification at the end of the very friendly letter that told me how to get to the school, how to prepare.

Well, he couldn´t scare me, of course. I mean I had my painful experiences learning how to take some heavy punches myself from some mean instructors (wonder who that could be? ).
And weird as I am I actually I felt very exited by thoose few welcoming words.

If theres no pain, there is no game, right?!