Israel: A Quick Photo Update

In pictures (and a few words), here are a few of things I've been up to lately in Israel, in no particular order:

Visiting the Western (Wailing Wall)

Climbing lots and lots of stairs to get to my room in the Convent I'm staying at... 

this place is huge and has many, many places to get lost in!

Exploring Temple Mount (and finding the proper way into Temple Mount... Oy Vey!)

Finding the "Chuck Norris Approved" places to drink fresh pomegranate juice. 

 Eating a very American Thanksgiving feast of Schwarma and Falafel... *snrk*

Waking up to this view of the Dead Sea from our hostel at the base of Masada.

Viewing the Garden Tomb. 

Visiting the Dead Sea.

Beginning to Comprehend Jerusalem

So far I've taken hundreds of photos with my proper camera, but only two with my iPhone, and iPhone photos are sooooo much easier to upload at this point, so I'm afraid they're all I'll be posting until I get home.

I do believe we are staying in a place with the most picturesque balconies in all of Jerusalem. Given that this is my first trip to Jerusalem, I could be wrong. But in any case, this place is fairly fantastic.

Today was a day filled with loads of walking, getting denied entrance to the Dome of the Rock from several entrances, "Muslims only! Come back at 12:30," (We opted to return another day and press on to other sites) The Pool of Bethesda, The Western Wall (Wailing Wall), The Jewish Quarter and walking much of the perimeter of the Muslim quarter trying to find the Rampart Walk. (You can walk all around the Old City atop the city wall ramparts... pretty cool, if you can find an entrance!)

The city is amazingly friendly, calm and feels much more safe than other cities I've visited in the Middle East. It is not what I expected. And it is so much more. There are people from all walks of life and faith here. Thousands of years' of history is here. And everyone claims a piece of this city for their own. The claims are written on the very walls of the buildings and the street signs. The Armenian Quarter. The Jewish Quarter. The Russian Orthodox church. Consecrated by the Dan family of Texas...

Last night, after arriving at the hostel as I lay down for a much-needed night's rest (after two days of traveling) I could hear Bo-Boom, Pop-pop-pop-pop from a distance. It sounded like fireworks, but it was something much worse. Israel firing on Gaza and Gaza returning fire. It is surreal to be so close to such devastating things, and yet the attitude all around me is nonchalant, perhaps dismissive. After all, what can the people do but go on living?

Tomorrow: More attempts at visiting the Dome of the Rock, followed by a bus ride to Bethlehem. A man in the bazaar today tried to sell my travel companions on a tour to the Mount of Olives and Bethlehem. "200 Shekels each! Very Good Price!" (About $50 each)
 "Is it safe?" Asked one of the girls. (Bethlehem is in the Palestinian bounds.)
"Yes, yes, very safe." Replied the man. (Of course.) "Someone will try and tell you it is not safe. I say that he should take off a shoe and put it in his mouth."

 The girls took his card and promised to call if interested. Back at our Convent/Hostel the lady at the front desk promptly told us that the easiest way to Bethlehem was a 20-minute ride on the number 21 bus from Damascus gate (behind our hostel) for 7 Shekels (About $1.75) and that it was indeed very safe and unproblematic to go there as several guests had just returned today without incident.

200 Shekels or 7? Take your pick. But the disclaimer for the Middle East should be: Buyer Beware. Here you DON'T always get what you pay for.

But you're certain to have an adventure no matter what.

That's the Middle East.

The view from our magnificent balcony at Ecce Homo Convent. Dome of the Rock in the distance.

Flying into an Impending War Zone

 The headlines yesterday read: 

War looms over Gaza as death toll rises

 and

Gaza missiles fired at Tel Aviv

 So you may be surprised that as of right now, I'm still going. I'm getting on a plane this morning bound for NYC and then, to Tel Aviv. If you know me, you may not be surprised.

Have you ever flown into a war zone?

Have you visited Israel or the Middle East?

 I'd be lying, and stupid, if I said the situation didn't intimidate me, make me nervous, scare the bleeding hell outta me... But at the same time, having visited the Middle East in the past, that feeling is mostly par for the course.

Missles and terrorist attacks, car bombs and looming death threats may not be a part of every day American life, but it is normal in the Middle East. The residents of Israel live on knife's edge daily. And sometimes there is peace. And sometimes there isn't.

 So again, I say Inshallah, as God wills it. Take a deep breath. And away we go.

Packing: My Process

I'm certain you all have your own plan (or not) for packing. My packing process is almost a religious experience. It's varied, by length/type of trip, of course. For short, weekend trips, I toss a change of clothes and my always-packed sundries bag into a duffel and go.

For longer, international trips, the experience is much more detailed, and usually takes a good 6-8 hours.

I know, that may seem like overkill, but let me explain my neurotic ways:

Step One: After work, the night before the flight
-Strip and remake bed.
-Tear apart bedroom finding appropriate clothing, camera, laptop, chargers, passport, travel wallet.
-Establish a "pile" in the living room.
-Start a load of wash for anything that needs laundering.
-Reassemble bedroom.
-Switch laundry to dryer.

Step Two: Late night, while watching a movie in my living room
-Laundry is done and clean clothing added to "The Pile"
-Whittle down "The Pile" - omit any packing redundancies
-Ziplock baggie everything into submission. Gallon ziplock bags hold my extension cord, adapters, etc. Quart ziplock bags for medications, shampoos, etc.
-This trip I'll be trying out Eagle Creek's Packing Cubes (Eagle Creek is not my sponsor, I purchased their cubes on my own dime.) for the first time for my clothing. I'll let you know if they're worthwhile.
-Pack everything into suitcase (For this trip I'll be using my new Osprey Sojourn rolling backpack, again, no Osprey is not my sponsor, etc...) except toiletries, which I'll need to shower and prep with before leaving.
-Vacuum the living room/clean the bathroom and bedroom (I like my house to be clean when I come home... it makes coming home much less stressful!)

Step Three: Late Late Night Prior to Flight
-Pretend to try and sleep.
-Fail miserably.
-Be ridiculously tired when my alarm goes off alarmingly early.

Step Four: Morning of flight
-Pry my unslept body from my barely-used, fresh-sheeted bed and get dressed.
-Pack sundries into bag
-Pack electronics into carry-on
-Double check I've got my passport, trip details and cards.
-Get to the flight!

Step Five:
RELAX, sleep, watch a movie, read a book... enjoy the ride.

How do you prep for an international trip?

One Week, Inshallah

A very popular term in the Middle East is "Inshallah." It means "God Willing" and is nearly always accompanied by a nonchalant shrug of the shoulders or shake of the head. It's part of a cultural norm, an attitude of accepting that much of life is out of one's control.

When I went riding across the desert in Saqqara, Egypt between the pyramids on an amazing Arabian horse, my camera's lens cap fell off. Sand and desert grit don't mix with technology  so, dismayed, I asked my guide to help me look for the lens cap.

"I will find it!" My guide declared resolutely, instilling confidence in him and giving me hope! Then he clarified, with a shrug, "I will find it, Inshallah." I knew then that we would never find the lens cap. That night I rigged up a temporary protective covering out of a ziplock bag and a hair elastic. Luckily, I also had on my lens what photographers call "cheap insurance" - a polarizing filter. The system worked quite well until I got home.

I seem to have an affinity for scheduling travel on the tail of natural disasters. Two years ago, that trip to the middle East saw me fly to London on the very first flight to leave the US and fly across the Atlantic in nearly two weeks, due to the Icelandic Volcano eruption.

Now, Sandy, that minxy little hurricane battering the East Coast has not only wreaked destruction across the Eastern seaboard and caused unprecedented devastation in the Big Apple, but the storm is threatening to come around for another round of damage! Flights are being canceled again through NYC and Philly.

I'm scheduled to fly through JFK in one week to get to Tel Aviv. So now, it seems, I'm in a similar situation to the one I was in two years ago while waiting out that darned volcano... waiting, praying, hoping for the best. And calling my travel insurance office to see if my trip is covered due to storm cancelation.

If need be, I'll head over to Fiji. Or maybe Australia. But Israel is the goal.

One week, Inshallah.

The Departure Lounge: Banking Abroad

 

BANKING ABROAD

"The time has come, the Walrus said, to speak of many things, of sailing ships and sealing wax..." and stuff like banking.

See what I did there? Crafty, that bit of poetry! I know. I'm a total nerd. Moving on...

In preparation for my upcoming move, I've done quite a bit of research into the best way to bank abroad. If you're not careful, you'll end up spending hundreds, possibly thousands, of dollars in banking and credit card fees while abroad.

I'm headed to Israel in less than a month and thought now would be the perfect time to jump into an international-friendly checking account. My upcoming trip will give me the opportunity to test it out and make sure it's what I want while living overseas.

Here's what I've come up with as the best solution for me:

I'll be using a combination of money management methods, credit cards, my savings and checking accounts (US), Debit Cards and most likely I'll open an Italian bank account, eventually.

First: 
Credit Cards.

I purchase everything using credit cards. Everything. Then I pay them off monthly. This gives me points and miles for flights. Currently I favor using the Chase Sapphire card. But I also have a British Airways card. Both of those cards have zero foreign transaction fees. (To be perfectly honest, I'll probably get rid of my BA card as soon as I've used up all of my miles as the amount of miles needed to purchase flights are crazy high and don't include fees, which are higher than for any other airline out there because British Airways are based in the UK. And the UK has INSANE amounts of fees for flights. I get more for my mileage and money by using my Chase Sapphire card, which has a great, and very flexible, rewards program.) Both of the cards I just mentioned are "chipped," which is a feature that is required in credit cards in many European locations. If you use a non-chipped US credit card, odds are you'll run into this problem if you travel. It's annoying.

Second: 
Cash, Bank Accounts & Debit cards
I'm going to need cash while traveling. Most places in the US accept cards of some sort these days, but the further you get from big cities anywhere, the more you need cold, hard cash. Abroad, cash is still more readily relied upon than cards are.

Cash poses an interesting problem. If you exchange at the exchange booths, you're going to go broke, quickly. Those places charge exorbitant rates to change your money. Ridiculous. Also, you don't want to carry too much cash around with you, that's a recipe for disaster, or mugging, or both. The solution? A bank account with no international transaction fees and zero ATM fees.

After a bit of research, I decided to open a High-Yield Checking Account with Schwab. Many travelers these days LOVE this account (Windtraveler, Wandering Earl, etc.) The account is linked to a brokerage account that requires a minimum $1,000 starting balance. But after the brokerage account is opened, you can transfer that $1k into your checking account and use it all up to your heart's content. There is no minimum balance after the initial deposit in either the brokerage or checking accounts.
It seems like a little bit of juggling, but it's well worth it. Here's why:

-While traveling in a foreign country, the easiest, cheapest way to get cash is via ATM card.
-No international transaction fees (Often banks will charge a 4% "transaction fee" on whatever amount you withdraw overseas)
-No ATM fees, worldwide. (Any ATM fees you incur will all be credited back to your account. From anywhere. From any bank.)
-Link other accounts (other banks) to your Schwab account and transfer money, fee free. I don't plan on keeping a large sum of money in this "travel" checking account. I'll transfer money into from my primary banking accounts as needed. That way, if anyone ever gets ahold of my ATM card, I won't have much to lose.

Are you traveling abroad? How do you handle your money?

"Do yourself a favor and prepare ahead of time," says our resident Expat Expert, Mary of My Life in Scotland has some great tips about banking abroad. To read more about what she suggests, check out her blog!

Questions? Moving abroad yourself? Leave a comment and let me know what I can do to help! :)

Musings on Athens

For some reason I still haven't written about visiting Athens... I know, I'm just as confused as you about it. I guess I wrote briefly about visiting the Parthenon, but other than that, nihil. Weird.

So here it is: Athens. A city I have such mixed feelings about that I neglected to write about them.

On the one hand, it's ATHENS! Birthplace of democracy. Home of the Acropolis, the Parthenon. Hallowed, revered, ATHENS.

On the other hand... Athens. Meh.
I spent one night there and honestly, it felt like a week. It felt like a very long week. It was too long! This is one city I would have been content to have visited via Cruise Ship... you know, sail into port in the morning, see the biggest sites for several hours, then sail away at sunset. Yah. That's it. Athens is, in my book, a cruise port. A check off my list. Done. I may fly through again in the future, on my way to the outer-lying Greek Isles (which.are.amazing!!!), but I don't intend to spend more time in the city proper.

For crying out loud, I spent most of my night in Athens in a Starbucks on their free wifi. The city is wholly unimpressive, aside from the Acropolis. Dirty, badly organised, poorly maintained... Of course, Greece IS going through some very rough times, economically, but I don't think that has very much bearing on the current state of it's Capitol city.

Perhaps this all stems from expectations of the place being too high. The aforementioned hallowed-ness, rever-ity, et al. Perhaps the problem is that for all of the ancient glory this place once had, it is now utterly inglorious. Most of the city feels like a slum.

And that's the heart of it: This city feels it's defeat. It feels the conquering and assumption of the Roman politics and gods that overthrew its' ancient power. It feels as though the place simply exists now because it is too large, and was once too important, to fade into nothingness now. And in existing in that manner, it has faded into a shade of nothingness.

But enough of my musings. If you go to Athens, spend a night, perhaps two. See the Acropolis. Hike through it's vast compound during the day and tour its' museum. See it at night, from your hotel's roof. Tour the other ruins scattered about the city and eat at one of the zillions of "Greek" restaurants all around the city center.

Then go to the islands. And fall in love with Greece.