st. sophia’s ukrainian orthodox church, kyiv, ukraine
i had a 24 hour layover in kyiv on my way to budapest. after finding my way into downtown by about midnight, i searched for my hostel in some dark alleys for about an hour before finally finding it. its only identification was a tiny piece of paper with 12 point font that said “hostel” scotch taped above the door of the building! huh, eh! anyways, i ascended the seven floors of the communist era apartment building and woke up the woman who runs the place. turns out she sleeps in the bunk bed directly beneath me! before i left she gave me a huge box of about 100 gourmet ukrainian chocolates. i didn’t know that chocolate was a ukrainian specialty. i still don’t think it is. but those chocolates satiated me for the rest of the trip. the only drawback of the hostel was that when i picked up my bag at the end of the day it was clear that someone else had gone through it while i was gone. i don’t think i would have expected anything less.
but overall i had an amazing day! kyiv is a wonderful city, especially in the autumn. i went to independence square, home of the infamous orange revolution of 2004. also, st. sophia’s ukrainian orthodox church, whose clocktower one can climb for fantabulous views. i also made sure to stop at the arsenal’na subway station, the deepest subway station in the world! got to love superlatives, right?! and the kiev subway is pleasantly priced, at 20 cents a ride. did you know: every soviet city with a population of over one million people got a subway system? i ate at an amazing self serve ukrainian restaurant for a few dollars, and otherwise just wandered. ukraine has a fascinating and rather unfortunate history. but recently they seem to be doing pretty well for themselves, at least in kyiv. the newest news is that the chernobyl nuclear disaster site recently opened up to visitors, so i guess that’s one of the main reasons tourists are going there these days.
independence square, kyivview from st. sophia’s church, kyivarsenal’na subway station – the deepest in the world! kyivkviykyivkyivkyiv
a few weeks ago i headed up to jerusalem and got to have lunch with the director of the middle east studies program, the study abroad program i did in egypt during college! that semester really changed the way i think about the world, and this particular professor had a lot to do with that, so it was wonderful see him again. also, my friend lynn from gordon college cross country running days is now the intern at the program. it was nice to catch up with her as well and talk about some of the politics/faith issues that only former mespers would think to discuss. because they live right on the seam, we decided to go to bethlehem for a few hours. after passing through the gnarly checkpoint and looking at “the wall” from the other side, we went to the church of the nativity, which marks the spot where it is believed that Jesus was born. there was a three hour long line of tourists, but because lynn speaks arabic we went in the back way and didn’t have to wait at all! we then went to “the shepherds field,” where another church marks the spot.
underneath the church of the nativity, believed to be the site of christ’s birth, bethlehem
church of the nativity complex, bethlehem
bethlehem
on the way home, coming through jerusalem, i ran into some preparations for yom kippur, which was the next day. some jews prepare for this very holy day by killing a chicken after holding it above their head and saying a prayer, called kapparot. they were doing this by the thousands in downtown jerusalem. across the street was a raucous animal rights protest (specifically for the chickens). israel is a diverse place!
yom kippur, or the day of atonement, is the most sacred day in judaism. many here fast all day, and nothing is on the radio or television. no cars are allowed on the roads, so my classmates and i took the opportunity to saunter around all evening in the middle of the normally bustling boulevards and intersections of beer sheva. we were even able to spend some time in a large municipal fountain that only gets turned off once a year. good times!
one day during rosh hashana my classmates diana, becky, cherec and i went on a circa-israel roadtrip! we started by watching the sun rise from beer sheva’s favorite hilltop war of indepedence monument. then we drove up along the edge of the dead sea, and decided to make a random stop in the palestinian city of jericho. we bought some falafels and fruit, and chanced upon the mount of temptation, believed to be the location where Jesus was tempted by the devil. jericho is also famous as the city that the ancient israelites marched around… and around… and around… and then the walls fell down. today it goes by the tagline: “oldest city in the world. 10 000 years.” we also found a seemingly ownerless camel, who was gracious enough to patiently pose for many pictures with us! thanks camel! camels are my favorite animal, definitely!
near the dead sea
then we continued north, right along the israeli-jordanian border and the jordan river (although these days its more like a trickle). at one point i was driving and decided to take a one way in the wrong direction. all of a sudden: flashing lights and siren: oh no. the cop asked where we were from. “america.” to that he said: “never mind then, enjoy the rest of your morning!” nice, eh! this gave me something of a feeling of invincibility, which translated into what i was quickly informed was an excessively aggressive driving style. sorry ladies! eventually we arrived at the sea of galilee, or kinneret in the vernacular. it is actually a lake, not a sea. famous for us christians! interestingly, it is also the lowest freshwater lake in the world. we went swimming amongst throngs of israelis. yofi tofi (hebrew for very nice)!
we then headed further north into the golan heights, which is territory that israel conquered from syria during the six day war of 1967. it is called the heights because it is at a much higher elevation that any of the surrounding area. we were going to go hiking, but the national park was just about to close. so we kept heading north, all the way to mount bental, where there are expansive views of syria (on the other side of a united nations-patrolled buffer zone). we could also see mount hermon, home of the levant’s only outdoor ski hills! there are also old army bunkers to explore on top of mount bental. the golan is full of fields of landmines, marked by “do not enter” signs. there are also old abandoned tanks along the sides of the road, one of which we played in for a while.
mount bental, golan heights
we continued north, through verdant vineyards and apple orchards, to two druze towns called mas’ada and majdal shams. the druze are a fascinating pseudo-islamic mystical sect/ethnicity, most of whom live in syria and lebanon, with some in israel. the israeli druze are actually famously unique for their valiant and committed service in the israeli defense forces, choosing to support the state of israel (in sharp contrast to the more typical arab perspective). the towns are amazing – they are built up the sides of mountains – you’d never guess you were in israel! we found the border fence with syria where the townsfolk apparently use megaphones to communicate news with their estranged family members on the other side of the buffer zone (because they can’t travel back and forth).
majdal shams, golan heights
we then descended into the galilee valley, passing through pristine alpine towns and past nimrod’s castle, which is precipitously perched on the top of a mountain. deciding that the day wouldn’t be complete without a glimpse of at least one more country, we headed north to the border with lebanon at metula! this border is also sealed shut – israel and lebanon were at war as recently as 2006. but the road goes right up to the border; road signs still intact and everything! and wow, metula is a glitzy little town. probably the most affluent town i’ve ever seen in israel. coincidentally, it is also the home of the “canada centre,” a rec-plex that contains israel’s largest skating rink and is the home of the israeli national ice hockey team. yeah!
then we headed home, through tiberias, haifa and tel aviv. the rest of the galilee will have to wait for another time- we are medical students, not tourists, after all 🙂
sea of galilee, israelsea of galilee, israelgolan heights
the jewish half of abraham’s tomb, hebron, palestine
i took a day trip from beer sheva to hebron. hebron is the largest city in the west bank, was an important site in ancient history, and is currently right on the fault line that is the israeli-palestinian conflict. that is to say, tensions are always high, and there is perennial violence. it is about 2 hours north of beer sheva by bus. and when i say bus, i mean bullet-proof settler bus, that stops at every gated israeli settlement along the way, even the ones with 3 buildings (the 3rd being the bus stop) on the tops of mountains. hebron is where the tomb of abraham (yeah, that abraham!) is, making it a venerated holy site for both jews and muslims. the tomb is underground, topped by a huge edifice that contains both a synagogue and a mosque. separated of course. both were nice! hebron was actually also the capital of israel a few millenia ago during the tenure of king david, but for the last thousand years it has been almost entirely populated by arabs. in 1929 a group of 60-some jews were very unfortunately murdered by a mob of arabs. thus, small numbers of hard-core zionists (arguably the most extreme and religiously ideological on the spectrum) targeted hebron as a site for settlement after the west bank (or judea and samaria, as they like to say) was occupied (or liberated, as they like to say) by israel in 1967. also, because some of them view the area as the true heart of israel (and thus of central importance in the cosmic narrative) because of its importance during the time of david.
in 1994 an american-israeli settler (and a physician, no less :/) massacred dozens of muslims and injured over one hundred more in the mosque side of abraham’s tomb. to prevent retaliation against the 500 or so jewish settlers in the old city, the israeli military partitioned the city into 2 zones, h1 and h2. initially 30 000 palestinians lived in h2 (the jewish section), although they soon were forced out by harassment from the settlers and the military, countless checkpoints, and restrictions like curfews. so now what you obstensibly have is about a quarter of the land area of the city of 300 000 – 400 000 (including what used to be the main road through the city) that is a deserted urban wasteland of empty shops and crumbling homes, encircled by huge cement walls and barbed wire, populated only by a couple small enclaves with a total of 500 settlers, 2000 israeli soldiers to protect them, and probably 10 times that many israeli flags flying absolutely everywhere.
(not that the other side doesn’t have irrational biases either, but)… there are all kinds of “historical” placards in h2 (in english), describing the variety of ways that the arabs have insulted judaism in the city throughout history. one talks about how they disrespected a jewish cemetery by allowing a farm to built beside it. literally across the street, there is an overgrown arab cemetery with an israeli army bunker built in the middle of it, and huge spools of extra barbed wire stacked on top of the graves. not that graves are what’s really important in this situation, but its symbolic of the hypocrisy. seriously, the aura of the place was so depraved that i started feeling nauseous. the arabs can’t come near the settlers, and the settlers can’t leave h2 by decree of the israeli government. probably in everyone’s best interest. so i walked around there for a while, and then headed through the checkpoints into the main arab part of the town. i was vividly reminded of my days in egypt, what with all the higabs, twisty streets of the old city, getting a guy who sold me a 25 cent coffee to reteach me the numbers in arabic, enjoying some pleasantly priced (less than $1) falafel and custard stuff with honey, and trying to avoid being conned by all these people eager to show you their house that was recently destroyed by israeli water cannons. but you can only see it if you “donate” a chunk of cash – they probably make so much money like this. so palestinians can be hypocritical too, can’t we all. but the abuse is real – it got so bad that the israeli government and the palestinian authority jointly decided that there needed to be a special force of international observers, called the “temporary international presence in the city of hebron,” or tiph. these (mostly scandinavian) guys and gals can be seen wandering around in their special uniforms, taking complaints from palestinian shop owners about abuses and sampling dried fruit in the old city.
after a number of hours i went back to h2 to catch my bus. i got there early, and eventually was approached and started talking with one of the settlers, as he was finishing playing some kind of mesmerizing game on his iphone. just like me. he was a 27 year old guy from boston, named israel (original, eh?). another tourist bro walked past, engrossed in lonely planet’s “israel and the palestinian territories” guidebook. that was a catalyst for an intense conversation with israel. he noted the title of the book and started laughing. i asked him what he thought of that, and he said that the rest of the world doesn’t understand that god gave the land – all of the land – to the jews. when i asked what about the arabs, he said that that he actually doesn’t mind if they stay. “we shouldn’t give them civil rights in society, but that doesn’t mean they can’t have human rights here.” hmmm. he invited me into his house for coffee, and his mother was setting up for the big evening rosh hashanah meal (its jewish new years eve), so we helped her set the table. super nice family (to me).
this niceness contributes to but one of the many reasons these tensions have become so intractable – american tourists (unfortunately [in my opinion] many of them fundamentalist christian dispensationalists who are [again, in my opinion] far too obsessed with eschatology) come in on custom settlement tours led by american, english-speaking guys like israel (he’s a tour guide – there’s really not much else of an economy when you’re living in an isolated ideological settlement and can’t even interact with the locals). their luxury coaches are waved through the checkpoints, and they only drive on the israeli roads that the typical palestinian isn’t allowed to use. they become extremely well versed in one side of the story, but they never even set foot outside the separation barriers to hear the other side. and many don’t even know that there are actually christian palestinians on the other side of the barbed wire (not that someone’s religion should influence your ability to empathize with them). and then they go home to their churches, and as “experts” on the “holy land” due to their “two week tour” implore people to “stand with israel at all costs” because she is in a “cosmic battle” of “eternal significance” with “hostile enemies.” and they wonder what on earth would compel palestinian youth to periodically throw rocks. ahhhh no, i’m starting to rant. sorry. but if you consider yourself a proponent of this perspective, i would challenge you to go to hebron and, after visiting both sides of the barrier, ask yourself which side seems the most hostile right now.
to be fair, and to wrap up: hebron is an extreme case. not all settlers are driven purely by ideology. heck, some of the people living in the settlements of east jerusalem aren’t even necessarily pro-settlement: they’re just living there because the government subsidizes the housing. and a significant proportion of israelis are anti-settlement, many even fiercely so. so don’t get me wrong – i am not anti-israel. but this occupation is unequivocally terrible and must end.
settler propaganda in the h2 section, hebronsettler propaganda in the h2 section, hebronsettler propaganda in the h2 section, hebronabandoned palestinian shops in the h2 section, occupied hebronsynagogue on the jewish side of the tomb of the patriarchs, hebronsynagogue on the jewish side of the tomb of the patriarchs, hebronmosque on the palestinian side of the tomb of the patriarchs, hebronisraeli defense force security through which palestinians must pass to reach the palestinian half of the tomb of the patriarchs, hebronbarricades, hebronhebrona settlement ediface in the middle of hebronhebron, circa 2011nets to protect those in the old city of hebron from the refuse thrown down on them from the settlers abovehebron
it has been a week full of excitement! last weekend was our physician’s oath ceremony, during which my class recited a paraphrased version of the hippocratic oath, meant to get us thinking seriously about the journey we are embarking on. indeed, it was a poignant time! we all dressed executively in white and groomed ourselves well beforehand. for my friends cherec, julia, diana and me this involved getting a fish pedicure in beer sheva’s old city! special fish eat the dead skin off your feet! i cannot recommend this experience highly enough! so exhilarating!
back to the oath – ben-gurion university was actually the first medical school in the world (decades ago) to start doing the physician’s oath at the beginning of medical school. it had traditionally happened at graduation, but it was felt that doing it at the beginning would be totally way better. during the 90’s the trend spread, and today every medical student in america says a physician’s oath at the beginning of medical school. after the ceremony there was a delectable catered dinner, skits/movies created by each class, and music and dancing compliments of some musically talented physicians-to-be and the co-director of the program on guitar!
medical school for international health white coat ceremonymedical school for international health white coat ceremony
last weekend was also the 100th anniversary of the keilah/church that i go to here. there were over one hundred visitors there from all over the world in honor of the occasion. particularly encouraging to me was that they had a palestinian pastor from bethlehem come and lead some worship songs. i really believe that one of the main goals of the church here (and everywhere, but especially here) should be to encourage peace and reconciliation among populations that often don’t get along so well, as this is one way that we can tangibly show that the love of Christ transcends divisions of ethnicity, culture, politics, and indeed even theology. unfortunately it doesn’t really happen enough in this region, so that was a really encouraging time.
keilah / church, beer sheva
now, we’re on a four day weekend for rosh hashanah, the jewish new year! the first night some of my classmates made an amazing meal and we watched a movie outside in the couches that populate their yard. some of us were thinking about going to petra in jordan for the weekend, but that ended up not happening. so yesterday morning i got up at 5 am for a little day trip to hebron….
there was one epic day in there where we didn’t have class. i rented a car (it was soooo cathartic to drive that thing, i miss driving so much), enlisted some good friends, and we embarked at 4:30 am to watch the sunrise from the top of masada. it is a huge mountain with a plateau on top that has become a symbol of jewish pride and spirit of independence. it was where, not long after the time of Christ, the zealots made their last stand and ultimately opted to take their own lives before submitting to the romans, who had been spending years building a ramp out of rock to the top of the mountain. some remarkable history. also, before that, king herod built a summer palace there that is perched on the edge of a precipice with tremendous views of the dead sea. after exploring and taking a number of photos involving planking and, a preferred alternative, owling, we descended the mountain and drove further north along the edge of the dead sea, the lowest point on earth! we soon found ourselves in the west bank (retrospectively in violation of the rental car agreement, but whatever), and found a place to go swimming/floating! half the mass of dead sea water is salt! most everyone there was arab, so i got to practice the five arabic words i remember. also, there is therapeutic mud that one can rub all over oneself! in fact, all those annoying israeli salespeople at the kiosks in the malls in north america are selling beauty products derived from the contents of the dead sea. apparently all the bromine in the air is supposed to relax you by deadening nervous synapses; indeed it was relaxing!
after that, we decided to head to jerusalem! we stepped into the church of the holy sepulchre and went into the tomb where Christ is traditionally believed to have been buried. the complexities of belief and the politics of religion and their ramifications just relating to that church alone are mindblowing. you can read about it. we also went to the western wall and had dinner at the armenian tavern in the armenian quarter of the old city, called such despite the fact that there aren’t really armenians to speak of left in jerusalem any more. on the drive home, at about midnight, we decided “why don’t we go swimming in the mediterranean sea today too!” so we made a detour to ashkelon and did just that! when we got home it had pretty much been 24 hours since we left. a great day with wonderful people!
church of the holy sepulchre, believed by many to be the exact site of Christ’s crucifixion, jerusalemthe western wall, jerusalemnotes to G-d, the western wall, jerusalemmasada, israelmasadamasadaview from masadamasadadead seaarmenian quarter, jerusalem
since then more studying. one of our classmates was hit by a car and broke her leg :(. various birthday parties. oh and last night there was an event called wine sheva, where wineries from all over israel came to offer samples and there was jazz music and cheese and fruit on skewers. it was really nice. never would have imagined such a glamorous event happening in this town! beer sheva is generally pretty worn down, and all about the dust and stray cats. but i still like it.
i’ve been here in beer sheva for a month already! i like it here. beer sheva is an ethnically diverse university town of about 200,000 in the middle of the desert. i’m so stoked to finally be starting medical school, and in the middle east no less! my 35 classmates at the medical school for international health are wonderful. they all have such passion and varied life experience: a good percentage of them already have advanced degrees. i am really honored to be a part of this remarkable group of future physicians. and importantly, we all get along really well! for the last month we’ve been immersed in an intensive, four-hours-a-day hebrew course called an ulpan. though i’m a lot closer to the bottom of the class than the middle when it comes to language learning skills, i feel like i’ve learned a lot and am finding that hebrew can be fun. my classmate natalie has been kind enough to tutor me, which has helped a lot. thanks natalie!
for the rest of the day we’ve been taking an emergency medicine class, where we learn the pre-hospital course of treatment for emergency situations such as trauma, choking, cardiac arrest, israeli snake bites and the like. we also practiced the art of i.v. line insertion on each other! there was a lot of blood. we just had the final exam for the course which involved a lot of practical scenarios – fun fun! tomorrow begins the “real” medical school courses – the first semester lineup includes biochemistry, molecular and cellular biology, microbiology, biostatistics, immunology, histology, genetics, “global health and medicine” and more hebrew. i’ll be studying a lot.
prepped for transport
during this orientation month we’ve had a lot of fun. various shabbat dinners/potlucks and great times on the weekends. one day the whole class went to jerusalem! we filed through such epic sites as the garden of gethsemane, the tomb of david, the western wall, the via dolorosa, and the church of the holy sepulchre. though i spent two weeks in jerusalem a few years ago, i can never get enough! really lucky to be living near such a historically (and otherwise) significant locale.
garden of gethsemane, jerusalem. this tree has reportedly been alive since the time of Christjerusalemjerusalem’s old city
the class also took an evening trip further south from here into the desert to sde boker, where david ben-gurion (the namesake of our university and first prime minister of israel) had his kibbutz and is buried. we hiked in the full moonlight through a wadi (a dried up waterway carved into the rocks), ending with a campfire! also took the train to tel aviv with some friends from my class… a couple times already! amazing beach; frolicking in the waves; a mall with an h&m: could life get any better?! maybe if it were cheaper. but what are ya gonna do.
negev campfire
there have been huge protests in israel over the last month, precipitated by an increasing cost of living. there is a live-in tent city in the median of rothschild blvd (one of tel aviv’s most affluent streets) that goes for miles. beer sheva also saw the largest protest in its history, right outside soroka hospital where we have our classes.
protestslargest protest in beer sheva’s history, precipitated by cost of living concerns
i’m doing my best to keep my mouth shut when it comes to politics here. sometimes its really tough. but its probably a good thing. after all, i’m here to become a physician, not a political talk show host.
currently fighting the urge to turn this post into a politically charged rant. there’s always a lot of juicy cause for that in this part of the world.
i’ve procured some nice things recently! like a bike, which makes life so much easier! and an iphone! some super cool classmates and i got a family plan together! now i wonder how i ever survived without a smartphone before! and a quality hair cut! this metrosexual guy who washed my hair both before and after! we also found the cheapest source of food in town: the buffet-style hospital cafeteria! so glad that place exists! and a buzzing shuk (outdoor market) with best-priced fresh produce. and i found and moved into the apartment i’ll be living in for the year! my classmate flatmate’s name is seungjin. sometimes he cooks amazing korean cuisine! we live in a choice location on the 16th floor. with a great view of the hospital. anyone and everyone is welcome to come visit!
israeli cell phone family plan members!
there is a nice little church here! except its not called that: its a keila, or congregation, or literally a herd of sheep. there are some really nice people. everything is translated into russian, english and spanish, audible through little headsets that most of the people there need to wear. it looks like i’ll be helping with setting up the audio equipment. afterward we’ve made a habit of patronizing the gleeda (ice cream) place! its about the only place open on shabbat.
there have been some missiles from gaza landing in be’er sheva over the last few weeks. it started with an attack on a tourist bus in southern israel near eilat. in fact, the casualties of that attack were evacuated by helicopter to our very own hospital, and we watched them being rushed into the emergency room from our classroom. the retaliations and counter retaliations spiraled into what became the most intense back and forth between israel and gaza in the last few years. when rockets are coming into town a loud warning siren goes off, giving us 60 seconds to find a bomb shelter, descend to a lower floor, or at minimum hide on the eastern side of just about anything. one day there were almost 100 missiles. israel has very recently unveiled an innovative laser guided interception system called the iron dome that is supposed to shoot em down before they get here, but despite that at least one person was killed in beer sheva and a lot of the rockets still land close enough to hear. our hebrew class moved to a bomb shelter, and my room is actually a shelter too, so sometimes the sirens give me an excuse to stay in bed a little longer. i’ve actually never once felt scared in any way here. though i hate violence with every fiber of my being, i get something of a rush out of finding myself in the midst of it. it helps remind you that life is meaningful. and though it often brings out the worst in people, it can also bring out their best.
i’ve found time for some nice long runs in the surrounding desert. my favorite is running to a war monument on the top of a hill on the outskirts of town, where there is an amazing view. there are a lot of war monuments in this town. hopefully i’ll find time to run in the midst of biochemistry and all that jazz. let me rephrase that. the more i run, the better i’ll do in biochemistry. you gotta do what you gotta do.
a war monument, beer sheva
today i had lunch in an astro-turf yard with a third year from my school who made amazing coffee and serenaded us with his oud and psalms in arabic. it was nice!
oud tunes
i think that pretty much catches you up! not such a bad first month of medical school, eh!?
my class, medical school for international health, class of 2015
what a funtastically fascinating country! i had a layover here on the way from the balkans to isreal when starting medical school. the island of cyprus is dominated by the e.u. member state of the same name, but the northern third is a de facto independent state called the turkish republic of northern cyprus (turkey is the only country in the world that recognizes its independence). because cyprus and greece are pretty tight, the “turkish occupation” of the north throws a monkey wrench into the already strained relationship between greece and turkey (indeed, greece’s animosity is one big reason that turkey can’t seem to get into the european union). we learned all about this stuff when i was on the middle east studies program. anyways, as i was looking at the map as we were landing in larnaca, i realized that it wasn’t even too far to north cyprus. i thought “wouldn’t it be cool to go there if i could!” so i found some free internet and discovered that indeed, starting in 2008 it had become possible to cross the u.n. patrolled buffer zone in the divided capital of cyprus, nicosia!
found myself a shuttle to nicosia (also known as lefkosia), and a couple of hours after landing i was in north cyprus! and wow, talk about a city divided. from south to north you go from christian to muslim; white people to brown; greek language to turkish; crowds of tourists to abandoned streets; mcdonalds and starbucks to falafel places. i didn’t really know what i was looking for, if anything, but i chanced upon this most amazing mosque. they had taken a huge ancient stone cathedral (it had very distinctive western style arches and stained glass windows), and converted it into a mosque by removing all the christian references and building two huge stone minarets on either side. usually mosques are built oriented toward mecca, but of course this one didn’t have that orientation initially, so the mihrab (the depression in the wall at the front of the mosque) was carved into a huge chunk of rock that they had to orient diagonally inside the building. clearly i’m pretty nerdy about this stuff, but it was one of the most interesting things i’ve seen in a long time. and by the way, if you’re thinking “what gives those muslims the right,” christians have been known to convert mosques into churches as well. so that was my favorite sighting of the day. caught a bus back to larnaca, where there was a beautiful swimming beach and church with the grave of lazarus of biblical fame (who moved to cyprus after he was raised from the dead by Christ), and a 6 am flight to israel, to start medical school!
what a funtastically fascinating country! after starting my balkan journey in athens, i finished it with three days there as well! i went to the archeological sights (like the parthenon at the acropolis!), it was really nice. national archeological museum, olympic stadium, greek salads, can’t go wrong!
what a funtastically fascinating country! there are countless ancient churches, the largest sephardic synagogue in europe, and the nicest shopping mall that i saw in the balkans (because yes, that does matter)! bulgaria is now part of the european union, believe it or not, and they are pouring the money in for things like new freeways. i say “or not” because the smell of corruption still seemed pretty thick in the air (to my relatively uninformed nose, although i would never say something like that unless i actually saw it happening) and there are still way too many elderly people who have to scrounge through the dumpsters looking for food. (by the way, if you’re ever trying to get me to give you coins, you’re going to have a lot more luck if you’re digging through dumpsters than if you’re sitting on the sidewalk with your hand out). saw some cool stuff in sofia, got caught in a refreshing rainstorm, shared a room in the “4th best hostel in the world” with some emaciated (and when i say emaciated i mean it was medically scary) party animals from the u.k….
