Author Archives: wanderingwelshie95

I am a qualified nurse who has worked in the NHS for the last five years. Pre-covid, I would travel whenever I could, whenever I had a few days off together. For the past two years, I have not travelled at all (like most if the world) but now I have quit my job in order for me to travel freely for awhile. I have always been passionate about travel from a young age and was lucky enough to have gone abroad with my family as a kid. Here I will write about my experiences and observations in various places.

Surf & sunsets

24/3/22

After breakfast and a bit of a chill at the hostel lying about, I headed to the beach for another surf lesson. Unfortunately, I hadn’t been able to confirm it, as there was a powecut so the wifi was down. I didn’t have to wait too long before Lu was available to teach me. Today was the day to learn how to paddle for myself! The day before Lu had pushed me onto each wave so I could focus on standing up!! It took while to get back into it, and for awhile we forgot about the paddling again, but eventually I got the hang of it.

After my lesson, I got an ice cream from my usual spot and sat in the A/C awhile before heading back to my beach sunbed. I chilled and read and people watched. There was a couple next to me who had met in Miami – she was Russian and he American, and after one holiday in Miami, they decided to become a couple! They’ve done long distance ever since!! He had hired a pro photographer to shoot him surfing and while it would’ve been cool to have, I didn’t think I could get up reliably enough to have someone watch me for an hour, waiting for me to stand up!

I headed back around 4ish and relaxed in the shade awhile before the hostel was going for a sunset surf. They encouraged me to go, so I did in the end!! Sunset is a busy time to surf, so it was both beautiful and hazardous, especially since so many surfers were new and didn’t know how I steer away from others. There were many collisions near me, but thankfully none of them involved me and noone was hurt! The sun was bright red as it was setting and the sky pink. It was glorious! Simon came to ‘assist’ me which nly made me worse and eventually he agreed I was better on my own! Once anyone is watching me, I’m no use at all! I caught a longgggg wave in, which some of the hostel saw, before calling it quits – its always nice to end on a high!!

We walked back to the hostel, showered and headed to Hangtime for live music. We got food first as we were all starving – I had fish and chips which was pretty good!! Then, we headed to the roof for tunes. It was the same blonde girl that had handed the guitar to me on the open mic – she played the whole night and was very good! The rest of the hostel left early, but I waited for her last song before heading home, since I was enjoying her vibe. On the way out, I noticed a note from a girl wanting to share a taxi to Ella on Saturday.

25/3/22

Another day, another surf lesson. Once again, I headed out after breakfast. I had to go via Hangtime to meet Katrin, the girl who wanted to share the taxi to Ella. We needed to look up quotes and see what we could sort out. I left. When I got to the beach, I had to wait an hour for my teacher, so I sunbathed first. When he arrived, we got started. Today I was meant to learn how to steer. The technique was simple – twist the way you want to go, however, it obviously didn’t go to plan in the water!! I managed to stand up, but the steering was very taxing! I think I managed to turn left (the easy way) twice in the whole hour! After my lesson, I chilled and got my ice cream and chatted was a Londoner who was waiting for her lesson with Lu. We talked about travel and I said I wanted to go to Algeria, as an up and coming backpacker destination. She laughed and said that she was originally from Morocco and Algeria was thought of as a dump! I was a little surprised, but since the Algeria visa is a pain to get, I won’t be going anyway! She was volunteering at Why Not party hostel and said the partying non-stop as getting a little much!! She went off to her lesson and I chilled.

I spotted Luca from the hostel on the beach and went to see what he was up to. He was going to go for lunch soon with Joe and awhile later they came to find me before they went. They were heading to (plain) Mama’s though, so I didn’t go as I couldn’t face another bland meal!! I returned to my sunbed, and also used the nearby pool in the middle of all the cafes.

Around 6pm, I got pasta from one of the cafes, as well as a shake and watched the sun set through the trees. The shake was glorious, though when my pasta arrive it came sans buffalo mozzarella and parmesan. Since this was not the first time, the food had been lacking since being in Sri Lanka, I did not give them the benefit of the doubt and instead showed them the promised cheese in the menu and asked for it. My pasta returned with cheese, and although it was not buffalo mozzarella, it was good enough!!

When I returned to the hostel, people were getting ready to go out. They were heading back to Hangtime for food and this time a DJ set. I showered and we headed out, though I went via an ATM and a bakery before going back to Hangtime to meet the others. On my way to the ATM, I bumped into Michael, a Brit I chatted with in Hikkaduwa. He had been partying every night since I had met him – wild! We chatted a little and then I headed on. When I got to Hangtime, I went to the roof. I couldn’t find my lot, but instead found Katrin and a DJ set with heavyyyy beats! We had a chat and sorted the taxi for the morning and then I continued my search for the group! Turns out my lot was chilling on the yoga floor, though no yoga was being done thankfully for me! They ate and then we headed back, not overly keen on the beats!! We (Joe, a new English Joe, Mahesh and I), played some cards – a game called Kaboo, which was pretty good before we headed to bed.

26/3/22

I was up early to pack ready to go to Ella and to get breakfast from somewhere before I got the taxi. My money was not on Mahesh returning with the hostel breakfast before I needed to leave, so my lan as to head to the Marriot’s cafe. On my way there, once I was all packed, I bumped onto Mahesh returning with breakfast. I turned round and headed back for breakfast before leaving again for coffee at the Marriot. I blogged a little before grabbing my bags and heading to the main road to meet Katrin and our taxi. Simon decided last minute that he would also join, so he also met us there and we went on our way.

Welcome to Weligama

20/3/22

I arrived by bus in Weligama, a short walk from my hostel. I navigated to the temple which was near the hostel and found Wake Up Weligama pretty easily. I was greeted by two barking dogs followed by Mahesh, the friendly owner. He asked me if I wanted to go surfing with him and a friend and I agreed. Marie, a French girl, came to the hostel, and we set off to the beach together. I was going to book a lesson, but Marie said she would teach me, so I hired a board instead. Sadly, they didn’t have a beginners board, but I didn’t know how much difference this would make so I got a smaller one! It was not very successful, someone told Marie that the locals would get annoyed if they saw her teaching me on the beach, so we went into the water quickly. I managed to get to my knees a few times, which I thought wasn’t too bad, although I realised after a lesson that you should never be on your knees at all!!

After ‘surfing’ for an hour or so, we went to ‘Mama’s’ for food. We had a mix of curries, which were nice enough, but very bland – Mahesh said that Mama had cut the chilli out of her cooking because she thought tourists didn’t like it – how sad!!!

Marie wanted to go to the town to get threads to make bracelets, so I went for the wander and we had a mooch round the supermarket before Marie got the bus and I walked back along the beach to the hostel. I chilled at the hostel awhile, before the power cut out, and then I had an hour or so conversation with Mahesh outside in the dark. He’s a great guy! Once the power returned, we watched a film – Mahesh, a Swedish guy called Joe and me.

21/3/22

Today, after a Sri Lankan breakfast in the hostel, I took myself off to get a surf lesson. My teacher taught me the basics on the sand before we moved to the water. The problem was that my teacher was a skinny bendy man and he leapt up to stand on the board by pushing off only his big toe!! I explained that this was impossible for me, so he changed his tack to teach me, and then it was a little more possible for me to stand up!! The teacher thought I was slow, but I was pretty happy as I managed to stand up in my first lesson, which I was thrilled about!! Afterwards, I was exhausted, so I ordered a fresh lemon and mint juice to my sunbed followed by banana and chocolate pancakes – it was glorious! I chilled on the beach awhile, before heading back to the hostel.

Monday meant open mic night at Hangtime, a nearby hostel, so we went and Mahesh volunteered me to sing, which was fine but there was no guitarist, so I had to play rusty guitar too! I played Little House from Dear John and Country Roads, before handing back over to someone more rehearsed!! I then bumped into Carlo the Aussie from Hikkaduwa, and he invited me to dinner with him and some mates. We went to Froggys for (a very bad) pizza – I ordered sun-dried tomato and mozzarella pizza with a pesto base, but it was just cheese bread with a few sun-dried tomatoes. Also in the squad we’re two German girls and two Brits, both travelling in pairs. One of the Brits was sooo hungover, he had paid $150 for a private hotel room with AC after deciding he couldn’t hack the dorm room he had booked in advance!! He headed home, and the rest of us returned to Hangtime before moving to a different rooftop bar. When we arrived, some fireworks were going off from the veyr steep and narrow stairs! I had a gin and we chatted before I headed home.

Rusty roads 😂😂

22/3/22

I woke up pretty knackered, so had a rest day (no surfing). I headed to the Marriot, had a coffee and a muffin in the cafe in the AC, and read my book for an hour or two. Then I headed to the beach through the hotel and ordered a margarita. I lay on a sunbed and got talking to the guy who arrived back to the sunbed next to me. I forget where he was from, but he’d been to English boarding school and was a vet. We had a nice chat before he left and I went to admire the sunset on the beach.

Afterwards, I went to use the pool in Marriot before I headed home. Back at the hostel, Mahesh and a new German guy Luca were about to go out for food. I showered quickly and we headed into the town. I ordered prawn fried rice – it was biiiiig, pretty tasty and very cheap!! We chatted awhile back in the hostel and then I went to bed to watch some of the new season of Top Boy.

23/3/22

Today I was back to the surfing!! The rest of the guys went for a 7am surf, but I did not fancy the early wake up so I headed down a little later. A guy outside the Marriot told me the day before that he’d give me a lesson for 2000 SLR (around $8), so I went in search of him. Of course, I couldn’t find him, so I went somewhere else nearby. The teacher told me pretty early on that my previous teacher had taught me wrong, which I didn’t appreciate, and he had me practice on the board on the sand in front of a group of Sri Lankan men, which I was not a fan of, and I told him as much! Once we moved to the water, things went a lot better and then I improved a fair bit I would say.

After the lesson, I showered at a nearby pool in a complex with lots of cafes and then I got an ice cream and spent the afternoon sunbathing. The teacher was chatting to me awhile and we were trying to arrange a lesson for the next day. I explained I was going out so didn’t know when I’d be up by!! 😂😂 I would WhatsApp to confirm!

On returning to the hostel, Mo and Luca (both German) were heading out for food. I got them to order for me so I could sheet and meet them at Mama’s. I ordered daal with coconut roti, which was quite nice, but not as good as normal roti!! I love the bread life too much!! Then we did a booze run before the much hyped Doctors House! We played ring of fire and chatted before heading over to Doctor’s House in Matara around 7pm.We were a male heavy squad – it was me, Simon (a British fireman) and Mahesh in one tuktuk and the two Herman’s, and a Swede Jo, who had been waiting weeks to go on a boat trip to see blue whales in the other! The vibe of Doctors House was very cool! It was a biiiiig outdoor space with lots of light, people and some tunes. We got drinks and ordered pizza! We chatted – Simon and I had a longish chat before we had a dance!

Around 10pm, things started slowing down as it was time for the next place to begin. Most of our group were heading home, so Simon and I took a short beach walk and admired the stars before getting a tuktuk home. We also saw a fair few little crabs scuttling around in the dark!!

Way to Galle!

19/3/22

Arrived in Galle train station around lunchtime. Got a rotty from a counter on the platform because there were loads of locals around it, so I figured it was good! Then I walked into Galle Fort, which is a UNESCO site for its well preserved colonial architecture – first it was Dutch, then Portuguese then British and each country made changes to the previous, with the Brits mainly adding cannons on rollers to everything as well as a lighthouse!! It was a very pretty place, and because of that, many Sri Lankans use it for a pre-wedding shoots – I saw three in the day that I was there!!

As of yet, I had nowhere to stay so I went to a cafe for a lemon and mint refresh and WiFi. Sadly the WiFi was down so I still had nowhere to go! I looked up places on maps.me and walked round a few. One place diverted me to another which was full, but I was able to use their WiFi to book somewhere. After all the faffing, I decided to treat myself to a double room with AC all to myself. I walked there and was greeted warmly and shown straight to my room. I showered and lounged in the AC awhile with my tunes before heading back out into the sun.

I wandered around the walls and read all the signs I saw (Tom would be proud!). Then I sat on one of the walls looking out across the city and sea. I walked back round to watch sunset over the Fort while glugging a smoothie and reading my book from a rooftop cafe. Then I headed back towards my hotel and got gnocchi at a place that was meant to have live music. Sadly they had had the live music the day before, but the gnocchi was pretty good so I was happy! Almost as soon as I headed back to my room, the power cut began, so I sat on my balcony and listened to the live music coming from a nearby bar and sang along a little!! It was pretty nice!! When the electric came back, I watched Top Boy in my room! A beaut evening!

20/3/22

Had a yummy hotel breakfast before heading to the bus station to catch the local bus to Weligama. I walked through a pretty square with a market going on the way and when I arrived at the bus station, the bus was just about to leave. I scrambled on and off we went!!

Beach bum in Hikkaduwa

17/3/22

Got off the train at Hikkaduwa to find that my hostel was metres away from the station – ideal! I was pretty hungry, since I’d pretty much skipped lunch as I was on the train, but two Dutch girls in the hostel invited me for burgers with them so I just chatted to another newbie (a Kiwi) until it was time to leave.

It was in Hikkaduwa that I became aware of power cuts that were taking place! Apparently, there was a while schedule for them for each region in Sri Lanka (mad ayyy?!). We got tuktuks for food and the Kiwi guy, Carlo, came too. Not long after we arrived the power cut out and they resorted to a generator. We had our burgers and I had a mango lassi and then we walked back to the hostel passed the beach, along the road.

Never eaten so many burgers and pizzas!!

18/3/22

Today, the Dutch and the Aussie were all leaving. I had the hostel breakfast of eggs and bread and then enjoyed a much needed chill day at the beach. I wandered along the road trying to pick which beach bar to go to before selecting a fancy one! I ordered a gin and settled in with my book, and admired the view.

After a few hours, I went in search of a good coffee. I found an ‘Italian’ cafe and ordered a cappuccino and pancakes. I sat in an old man style armchair in the shade and tucked in!

The owner of the place chatted to me awhile and told me about a party that night. After leaving I wondered up the street further and bumped into a guy who said he was a designer and liked my style and wanted to go for a drink. I decided there was no reason not to go, so got on the tuktuk and went a little further up the road, to another beach bar. The beach was much wider here with glorious white sands. We had a gin and chatted – Janaka said he had borrowed his sisters tuktuk and was touring all round Sri Lanka in it – he was half Sri Lankan, half Indian and he spoke Hindi, so obviously I showed off the little Hindi I know!! and then he dropped me home for me to shower before dinner.

I wanted to go to the No Name Rotty Shop, but sadly it was closed so we went to another simple rotty cafe instead. I got kottu which is a typical Sri Lankan dish of chopped fried rotty with whatever else you fancy – I had cheese, tomato and egg with mine and it was pretty tasty. The rotty itself was almost like pasta!! Afterwards, we got some arack from the booze shop (wild after my arack night in Jerusalem!), and headed to back to sit on his balcony with tunes. It was nice. Around 11pm, we headed out to check out the party that the restaurant owner suggested – I was allowed in free as a tourist but Sri Lankans had to pay 2000 SRL, around 8 USD. I did a reccy and decided everyone in there was wasted and it wasn’t quite my vibe that night so instead we turned back for home, stopping for a few games of pool (of which I won both – yaaaas!) in an English ‘pub’ before walking home.

19/3/22

Today was check-out day. I packed, ate my eggs, got shown some monkeys that live on the trees above the hostel, and then got a tuktuk to the Tsunami Museum to learn about what happened in 2004. First it explained the cause of tsunamis linked with the movement of tectonic plates, early warning signs of tsunamis and how to prepare, and then it showed graphic images of bodies, swollen and purple from the acid from the earth’s centre as well as a few determined survivors clinging on to tree tops and such like. After that came the rebuilding of society, the houses and schools and I think it took around ten years to get everything back to normal (as normal as it can be when so many people have lost loved ones). It was interesting to learn about, and I also thought it interesting that the Israelis were some of the first on the ground to help with the clean up, although I guess the aid workers/volunteers are very different people to the military?!

I stopped by a huge Buddha on the way back, which had not been affected by the tsunami miraculously, although the tsunami had reached the Buddha’s shoulders!! Then I popped into the localarket before grabbing my things and heading for the train to Galle.

On my way to the station I noticed a longgggg queue of people waiting for gas. They were returning their empty gas canisters, hoping to buy new ones, however, there is a gas shortage and many of them had already been waiting for hours!

Lounging and a lagoon

15/3/22

Eventually collected my bag, fist-pumped Lee, who was pleased to see I’d made it through and left the airport towards the local bus station. From there, I got the bus to Negumbo for 50 rupees (around 20 pence) and then got a tuktuk to my hostel. I was knackered. I took of my warm Israel clothes and put on shorts and a tee and had a nap in the A/C dorm, with the intention of getting back up in an hour or so.

A few hours later, I eventually made it out of bed and to the sister hotel’s pool for a bit. I returned back to the hostel, accidentally fell asleep again and missed sunset. When I woke up, it was already dark. I had been in a beach town for a day without even seeing the beach! I headed out for dinner overlooking the sea – I had a fish curry with Sri Lankan bread and coconut sambal, which I’m not a big fan of yet, but there’s still time! Of course, the curry was nice and the waiter was friendly – he gave me tips on what to do in Negumbo and escorted me on a night time beach stroll. After that, I headed back to bed!!

16/3/22

I woke up 12 hours later, feeling relatively well rested. I had left over flight food, a muffin, for breakfast before I got a tuktuk to the lagoon. From here I found a cheap boat ride and went around the lagoon solo, stopping for watermelon sat on stools in the shallows of the lagoon, monkey feeds and nice views. We also drove by some waterside fish markets and some tsunami-damaged boats from 2004.

After the boat tour, headed in search of the market. I bought a roti, and was pointed in the right direction from there! There were lots of veggies, fruit and dried fish, as well as the usual market tat! Saw a temple amidst the market looking pretty!

On the way back, I stopped for aanicure which was pretty nice with slots if Spa lotions and potions and included hand and arm massage, which I was happy about until the electric went at the crucial moment so the lady had to paint my nails in the dark, since she’d spent so long massaging in the light!! 😂😂

Had crab curry for dinner, which took me back to Kep, Cambodia, with Gi and many a random street dog, although it’d been so long that I really struggled to break into the crab!! If I ever had the knack, I definitely don’t now – bits of crab claw everywhere!! After dinner overlooking the beach, I went to a bar with live music for a gin and tonic before bed.

17/3/22

Had another cobbled together breakfast before packing up and heading to the poolside to chill with a book before I caught the train to Hikkaduwa.

I got a tuktuk to the train station and then waited for my train. Sadly, Sri Lankan trains are not like Indian ones – in fact it seems theya may be the opposite – it seems they ate always late! I read and finished my book, The Family Upstairs – a pretty good read – on my first train before I had to change in Columbo. The scenery was nice, which was lucky because the train was loud and rickety so listening to music was not an option!! A nice man gave me his coastal window seat for me to enjoy the view, which I was very grateful for!!

Tel Aviv ta’ras

11/3/22

We arrived in Tel Aviv bus station mid afternoon after only a couple of hours of travel. As we got off the bus, we were greeted by lots of long black skirts, a symbol of devout Judaism. I was less than thrilled to be back in amidst the religious tensions. We walked to our hostel, noticing on the way that Tel Aviv was far more multicultural than anywhere else in Israel, and despite the skirts, I could not feel religious tension. Since it was Shabbat we were lucky that Tel Aviv is less religious than Jerusalem and that there’s a relatively big Muslim population, in the beautiful old town of Jaffa.

We were reunited with Eva in the hostel, before we ventured out for a mooch. The weather was less than pleasant – very windy and cold, with intermittent rain! We headed to Old Jaffa. There were many shops, restaurants spilling out into the road (including ones with glasshouses built permanently on the pavement for extra footfall). It felt quite European! We walked through the town, passed an old clock tower, stopping at a famous pastry shop (you can always rely on me to find baked goods!!), before we headed to the beach, which was of course bitterly cold and windy, but did help the pasty cool down fast!! The waves were dancing livelyly!! Afterwards, we headed back towards Jaffa, stopping for a coffee in one of the glasshouses with a banging playlist!!

We bought breakfast things and booze before we went back to the hostel and had a little downtime. It was Friday night, so we needed to be ready!! After an hour or so nap, we preened and ‘prettied’ ourselves and then went downstairs to drink. Bizarrely, nearly all of our hostel stayers were German. This showed me that I have lost all of my previous German skills *cry*, but also meant there was scary music playing!! The Berliners were playing trance 😭😭. We chatted awhile and made friends with some Austrians, one of which, Tabea, was in our room, before we headed out. We went with the flow since nearly the whole hostel was going out. The place we went to bizarrely wanted everyone to be 24, which seems such a random age, but they let the important people through (baby Lena at 22, ayayyy)!! Luckily for me, there was a pop and classics room as well as the Berliners trance/house/etc room. There was also a biiiiig indoor garden, which was cool but was very smokey!! We left around 02.30 after a fuuuun girls night of Lena, Tabea and me.

12/3/22

We accidentally had a lie-in before we tucked into our pre-bought breakfast. We had gloriously doughy pittas, hummus and sticks of pepper and cucumber, with orange juice and sage tea that Eva had bought in Bethlehem. It was a darn good breakfast! Afterwards, we headed out in the opposite direction of Jaffa for the bright lights along some green walkway – it felt like Paris! We stopped in a cafe along the way and sat on a bench with cappuccinos and a Portuguese custard tart for me.

Then we met up with an Israeli friend of Eva’s, Noam, who was taking us on a road trip to the countryside. We drove out of Tel Aviv, halfway back to Jerusalem, before turning off first to buy beer and then to the walk. It was very green! Very pretty, with lots of wild yellow flowers everywhere. There were some sheep roaming and I realised that it was the first time in a long time that I’d seen sheep in a lushious setting as supposed to desert. It was nice.

We walked to some caves, the others scrambled through them – I did not because one, I’m claustrophobic and two, I was wearing my only warm clothes and if they were dirty, that would mean I would be very chilly until I made it to Sri Lanka!! After the small, scrambley cave, we went to others. One was pretty echoey and so Eva had the idea of all singing something. Eva put on Hallelujah and we all sang along in the pitch black. It was pretty. As we were coming out, the sheep were heading towards us!! Noam said he thought they were following singing!

We walked around a few more caves before selecting an ancient burial site for some bevs and snacks! Then we walked back to the car via a Bedouin camp. We had more snacks, great tunes, and I enjoyed an epic sunset from the rear seat!! We all had a nap before getting ready for the night.

Tabea joined us for food out – we had glorious pizza and then we went to a night (ongoing day rave) that had been recommended to Eva. We got there pretty late so it was dying down when we got there and someone suggested we try somewhere else. Given the ravey vibe of the first place, I didn’t think too much of the recommendations (nor did Tabea), so we wandered towards the place, while the others got a lift. When we arrived the security guy told us smugly that it was closed. Although we knew he was probably lying, never other were that keen, so we didn’t argue and instead headed for home, hoping to head out again to maybe find Tender bar (where two of the Austrian girls had recommended).

13/3/22

Unlucky for some! Our crew was breaking up today, which was sad, but everyone was heading off in their own directions – Lena to a workaway in Greece, Eva back to Germany to see her family before term starts again and me to Sri Lanka. Tabea was staying in Tel Aviv for a full week so she had time. All four of us went out to Carmel Market in search of breakfast. Excitingly, we found shashuka, a dish which I have at Yorks, Brum a fair bit, but hadn’t had at all in the place of its creation!! The shashuka was yummy and came with an unlimited supply of fresh pitta and tahini. Glorious. While we were eating the rain poured down and Eva took some cool photos. Then we went on a coffee hunt, before going back to the hostel.

After saying bye to Eva and then Lena, I read my book before heading out for dinner with Tabea. We tried to go to the place that was recommended by Eva to try a glorious cauliflower dish, but it was closed when we went, so we found somewhere else close by, which also did insaaaaane cauliflower. After dinner we had a quite one after some debate, which was definitely for the best since I had a whole da of travel ahead of me!

14/3/22

Had a final breakfast with Tabea at the hostel before walking to the train station to go to the airport. Then I checked in and obviously there were issues with my health documents required for entry to Sri Lanka and things that needed to be printed. Luckily for me, an Israeli guy, Lee, had also been sent to print things out for Sri Lanka and once we got chatting he helped me sort my forms – it seemed that my phone was completely blocking the health form so eventually we did the form on his phone. What a guy!! I made it through security and to the gate before the final call, which I took as a success and made it to Bahrain on time, where I had a delightful six hour stopover. Luckily for me, mum was free for a chat, so I caught up with mum (and dad briefly), and blogged.

15/3/22

Got aboard my Bahrain to Colombo flight via the Maldives and slept for precisely 30 minutes 😭😭

When we made it to Male, Maldives it was chaos. The people that were meant to be getting off remained in their seats even when they were encouraged to leave multiple times and the people who were meant to stay seated for Sri Lanka were up in the aisle, pacing back and for, moving their bags and going to the toilet. I was a little shocked that all the people causing such commotion and blatantly ignoring the crews polite instructions to ‘sit down for a moment’ were all in the over fifties category, but I’m pleased to say all of my age group were sitting quietly – a win for the under thirties!! Because of all this commotion, we left Male late.

Haifa hikes

9/3/22

After a week in Jerusalem (we extended our stays three times – oops), Lena and I finally left for Haifa. We got the ‘inter-urban’ bus to Haifa, then got another bus to right outside our hostel door – winner winner. Then we had a quick hostel coffee before heading out for a wander and a nice coffee.

Haifa is a nice city, the third biggest in Israel apparently, but is much more a locals city for living as supposed to a touristy one. This meant there were loads of nice independent cafes and bars as well as lots of seating in the streets, making it feel a little European. There was also bits of street art (thankfully not political!) dotted about as well as cute boutique shops. We wandered about and had a coffee before heading back to the hostel to have a little downtime.

We went back out for dinner with Noah, a friend of a friend of Lena’s who was teaching English out here on a Jewish programme. Noah and his friend Michael a showed us around a bit before they selected a tasty but cheapish spot for dinner and drinks. We ate at a table on a tree-lined street – I had bruschetta and Somersby cider, which was divine after so long without it – why is cider so darn British?! Then we headed to an alternative bar with either super high stools or super low stools, clouded windows, but a cool vibe! Noah and Michaela were very nice and they gave us tips for Haifa as well as booking a free cable car ride for us to do with them the following day. We left and headed home around midnight I think.

10/3/22

After a broadly lazy morning of delicious brunch reminiscent of Caffiened, Harborne, we headed to Talpiot Market as recommended by Michaela for a potter. It was bustling and vibrant and I was loving life! I even found banana chips for only 50 pence, which is wild for Israel! On the way out, I also bought baklava and Lena got strawberries.

We then headed to the underground monorail to go to the top of the hill to start a city walk with panoramic views as suggested by the hostel. Of course, as soon as we got out of the monorail, the rain started. It was wet and windy, but since the weather was meant to be bad all day, we carried on regardless! We enjoyed panoramic views with a thin blanket of fog and not a single other soul, before we went to look over Ba’hai Gardens.

After the panos, the real walk began from the city to the sea through a valley. Sadly for us, the walk was all the more difficult after the rain. Much of the trail was rock which was incredibly slippery when wet! We made slow and cautious progress down the valley, which was pretty entertaining as Lena was just as wimpy as me!!

The views were pretty and we came across a spring with a place to collect water and a place for a dip. I did say that if only I’d brought my swimsuit, I would have gone in, but in Israel’s cold and windy weather, who knows?!

When we made it to the bottom, a friendly Alsation greeted us and joined us through a cemetery to the beach road. We eventually had to close him in to the bottom of the cemetery to prevent him running in the road, which was a six lane highway! After the pooch was secure, we headed for the beach. Hilariously, it was much like Cleethorpes – windy and bitterly cold, but also very rainy! We found refuge in a cafe and I had a hot choc with my market baklava. We chilled out and warmed up before getting the bus back to the hostel. We took a nap, before deciding that trying to do the cable car trip as well would be too much – we were exhausted!!

We pootled out for dinner a bit later and had a glorious time – we had nuts and wine and I had a rich gnocchi – mm, mm, mmm! Then we had an early night which was dreamy!!

11/3/22

To make the most of our last morning in Haifa and considering we had had an early night, we decided to head back to Talpiot Market before getting the bus to Tel Aviv. We went in search of Nuna, a cafe recommendation for a great brunch. All around Talpiot was absolutely packed and had biggg London vibes! And of course, brunch at Nuna was divineee!

Voices of the Holocaust and Hebron

7/3/22

Today was another museum day! Today was the day for Yad Vashem, the holocaust museum. Orel, one of the guys that works at the hostel, was coming with us, along with Joey. We grabbed breakfast from the local bakery and then got the tram across town.

Interestingly the museum building itself was built to show life getting darker throughout WWII and then getting lighter at the end. I learnt a fair bit more about the lives of Jews pre, mid and post war and heard some recorded stories from holocaust survivors. Afterwards, we went to a memorial for the children that never grew up. Frustratingly, we waited 35 minutes to go in, because some Italian officers who arrived at the same time as us had blocked it as they wanted to do a talk outside it. This meant two school trips were not able to go at all and we (Lena, Joey and I) waited a long time while Orel had to leave. The memorial was very well done, but it only took two minutes to walk through!

Afterwards, we got the tram back and headed to the local market for burgers. Then we picked up Eva and Orel from the hostel and headed to the Austrian Hospice (now a hotel and cafe run by Austrian and German staff) for a drink and a rooftop sunset view. We bumped into the boys on our way through the old town before making it and ordering mulled drinks – mmm! 😋 The rooftop was pretty with views across the city including Temple Mount and the Church of the Sepulchre.

There was a loud bang and I was unsure of what it was, as was Joey, who used to be in the military – it sounded like an explosion. Below is, we noticed Israeli army running and then sirens began. We stayed on the roof, hoped for the best and admired the view. It later became apparent that it had been a fatal gunshot we had heard echoing through the old town, after a Palestinian refugee had stabbed two army members. Awhile later, the calls to prayer washed over us from the minarets of Jerusalem. We did five minutes silent meditation (mad for me I know) on the roof led by Eva before we headed back. One of the gates to the old town was blocked by a car and military, so we walked to another, where luckily for us, they were letting people out of the old town, but not in. We made it back to the hostel in time to see some blues dancing – anyone else not heard of this as a thing?! Sadly, we missed the class, else I may have been an expert by now! 😂😂😂

8/3/22

Today we smashed our early morning, leaving the hostel at 8am to catch the bus to Hebron. We got the bus and arrived around 10am. First, we went to the site where Abraham, his wife and his kids were buried. The site was owned and managed half by Jews and half by Muslims. As tourists, and ‘Christians’, we were able to visit both sides of the physically separated site. Afterwards, we wandered through the old town, which on first inspection was just like the old town in Jerusalem, with perhaps a few more closed shops.

We wandered down an alley towards a traditional baths, to find it closed. A guy came and told us that it was closed for International Women’s Day, a public holiday in Palestine. He also said that he worked for an NGO, but could hook us up with a local guide and lunch if we wanted. All six of us were game, so we set if with the guy, Ayman, as he introduced himself. He started telling us about the market – it was no coincidence that many of the shops were closed, nor was it covid-related. Israeli settlers, or Zionists, had moved into the old town and had made the lives of locals nion-impossible. On one side of the market (a long, narrow corridor), Palestinians lived, while the other, settlers had moved in after forcing out Palestinians. Then they had thrown rocks, needles, and rubbish down onto the markets and stall holders. The Palestinians built a mesh covering over the market to try to stop the settlers actions affecting their lives and livelihoods. Some Palestinians had to give up work as they couldn’t take it anymore. Some battled on. Ayman, our guide was a lovely guy, who believed in peaceful protest only and he said the best act of defiance was to continue living in Hebron, claiming their space. The settlers then changed to throwing liquids instead, sometimes very very unpleasant ones.

Ayman had previously been arrested for ‘terrorism’ multiple times for almost nothing – nothing on the wrong side of the law. As a Palestinian, if someone (a settler or the army) do something bad to you, you will be the one who ends up getting arrested for it. Because life ain’t fair.

We continued on our tour and stopped at various stalls to meet people that had kept the shops against the odds. We stopped by an old sesame mill before walking through an old market square that had completely shut down due to settlers inhumane behaviour. A few days before we were there, settlers shot four local people in the market. I asked Ayman if he thought the stabbings in Jerusalem were linked to this, but he did not. He said the two stabbings in Jerusalem were essentially lone rangers from the refugee camps and not associated with anything bigger.

Abandoned Palestinian homes made unliveable by settlers

There were two main sections of Hebron, one which was controlled by Palestinian ‘government’ with limited powers and the other was controlled by Israelis. Palestinians and settlers can not go to all parts of Hebron and there are various checkpoints for people, regulated by soldiers with a crazy amount of ammo.

It was interesting to see the different views of different people serving in the army. One guy was pretty chilled – he was 19 and just waiting to finish his (mandatory) army service before he could get on with his life, while another guy was very defensive when Tom asked what he thought and you could clearly see his hatred for Palestinians. He believed they had no claim to the land and was doing his bit for a bigger cause – to claim back all of the Holy Land.

We walked by a hospital clinic, which Ayman had helped set up and a youth centre before having lunch in his NGO centre. It was quite a spread! Then everyone sat round together and we had tea and shisha. We met a powerhouse of a woman who was another nurse/midwife combo who had dedicated much of her life to helping Palestinians and protesting for their human rights.

We got the bus back to Jerusalem and went straight to the bar for Ladies Night, which was much needed after a heavy day!!

Shabbat and Sabbath

5/3/22

After one day off, it was back to the culture today! We went to the Israeli Museum (since its one of the only things open on Shabbat), which was filled with many things. Before we started, we grabbed coffee and I got a delicious white choc and raspberry muffin. Then we hit the museum hard – there was an exhibition about Mexico with a skull decorated with gem stones, an exhibition on Jewish life over time and across the world – they’d even recreated a synagogue that was in India, which was very beautiful!

There was also some 20th century art including lots of big names including Picasso, Miro, Bacon, Andy Warhol and many others I’ve already forgotten!

I particularly liked some modern art showing the struggle between Israel and Palestine, which is still a huge issue and is present in daily life here. It showed a lion slowly devouring a gazelle until they became one, which was open to interpretation. There were also the Dead Sea scrolls which are meant to be original script from Jesus’ time, but I was so engrossed in my 20th century art, that I didn’t have time to see them – guess there’s always next time, right?! Joey, my roomie and a history buff said the full original wasn’t displayed anyway, just a page or two!!

Afterwards, we headed back through a beaut park (almost as good as Cannon Hill, lol) and towards the old town in search of food. Since it was Saturday and therefore Shabat, pretty much everything is closed until the stars come out and the Jews start a new day. We were pleased to stumble across a couple of very busy cafe bars along the way, although, they were pretty pricey!! As we hit the old town and dusk was also arriving, the town came alive. We stopped in the Muslim quarter for some great and pretty cheap food. I had chicken shwarmer and then we continued on to try and see a cave under a Armenian Church near the Mount of Olives. When we got the, having walked across the city, there was a cleaner sweeping the floor. There were also three Alsatians patrolling the gardens next to the church. After around 29 minutes of waiting for the cleaner and trying not to attract the attention of the guard dogs, we crept down the stairs into the church yard and snuck into the Cave. Miraculously, three fifths of us had head torches (thanks dad!), so we were well equipped for seeing in the cave! It was narrow and went back 29 metres or so with a large water flow at the end. I didn’t go too close! Afterwards, we walked back through the old town, via a gate which ses to be closed to non Muslims on Fridays because of the rush to lunchtime prayer. We had a sahlab on the way back, which Lena recommended and was a mixture of nuts, coconut, raisins in a sweet rice pudding mixture. We had a few drinks at the hostel since it was Stella’s last night and then went to bed pre midnight!!

6/3/22

Sundays are significantly less sleepy than Saturdays since Christianity is a minority religion here – in fact many towns have their weekends as Friday/Saturday instead of Saturday/Sunday. Agreed with the boys to leave at 9am for Bethlehem and were a tad late due to the excitement of having free breakfast! Ooops! Got the bus for around an hour to a surprisingly big and non-dusty Bethlehem – little town no more!! We walked around and saw all the sites – first we saw the wall dividing Israel and Palestine, which had been built over the line that had been agreed so it already claimed more of Palestine’s land as Israel than was right. The wall was incredibly tall and solid concrete, but had impressive political street art on it. There was a Banksy original on it and opposite was a hotel which was set up by Banksy and a Palestinian friend of his.

Inside the hotel, as well as a very nice bar with political art, there was also a museum with pretty neutral information about the conflict between Israel and Palestine. Sadly for me, an idiotic Brit, had started the whole thing by not asking 600,000 ‘Arabs’ who lived on the land their opinion before they were donating half of the land to Israelis. That seemed wild and entirely disrespectful to a group of people thats homes were in jeopardy.

After the Banksy Hotel, we walked through an established refugee town for Palestinians that had to leave their original homes which were now on the Israeli side of the wall. We then headed to the old town and found a great local spot for a big mezze lunch, before going to the Church of the Nativity and the Milk Grotto. The milk grotto is a place where Mary is believed to have breastfed Jesus and a small drop of milk fell in the floor. This action is believed to make women more fertile if they come to the grotto and pray. After that, we split from the boys and went for a roof top pano over Bethlehem followed by a tea stop with a guy that was very keen for us to return to his shop.

The guy was friendly but also told us about the struggles of being Palestinian – all healthcare is private and expensive, and yet the hospitals are limited with what they can do. He worried about being able to look after his wife, who was only 36, had type 2 diabetes, and was reliant on insulin injections. He said that some pharmacies mis-sold some medications too. He also told us that sometimes he wished he was Israeli – a sad but honest line, since from his perspective Israeli government looks after its people whereas Palestinian government such as it is does not have that power.

We wandered through a market and I bought some local sweet delicacy, which I’ve forgotten the name for and then we walked across the border through security and showed our passports before getting the bus back to Jerusalem from the Israeli side. Walking through from one side to the other very much felt like being on no-man’s land – there were lots of locked gates and we were buzzed throughany after having property scanned and ID and religion checked. Being ‘Christian’ has never been so useful – it essentially gives you a free pass to all Jewish and Muslim sites.

On returning to Jerusalem, we shock off the information of the day and had some drinks with very experimental jazz (too much for me) in the background. As it was Jack’s birthday, the boys had also bought cake and a kippah!

Jerusalem Jerusalem! 🎵

2/3/22

We had our last breakfast together in Jordan before our UK contingent headed to the airport and me and Lena packed and went in search of money. Then we got a taxi to the border crossing between Jordan and Israel. We had to go into a station with a departures and an arrivals desk. We paid an exit tax and then they printed us Israeli visas, which do not go in your passport since many countries do not allow you in with an Israeli stamp in your passport. Then we got on a bus that would drive us from Jordan to Israel. On the Israeli side there was more security where they even swiped your passport! Then we went to passport control and then they called you to do a PCR test. If you’re unlucky or seem suspicious, they send you to the interrogation room first – one of the guys in my room used to be in the US army and they knew he used to be in the army without him saying and he was sent for questioning. Apparently they asked him if he was still in the army, if he had Muslim friends and if he had any Muslim friends that had been to Israel. Strange right?! After questioning, he was let into Israel. We had to wait for a min us to fill up before we could leave the terminal for Jerusalem. We got talking to a guy from Jerusalem who had flown back to Jordan from Dubai with his friend from the West Bank. It was implied that his friend was not allowed to fly from Israel but this was not questioned. We walked to our hostel grabbing giant falafel and bread on the road for £7 for four falafel and bread.

The hostel was huge and the staff friendly. W did hula-hooping while we were checking in. Then we went to the local market for a mooch. It was lit!! People were milling about everywhere. There were lots of little bars with a couple of tables each and they all had good vibes. We got a coffee and people watched. There was a right mix of people, much more than I was expecting! There were some interesting combinations – there were two different groups of military girls, one of which were sitting in a cafe drinking coffee, with rifles on their lap and pink acrylic nails, and the other was chilling in the road, with balloons and a cardboard golden crown for one of their birthdays. The fact that guns seem to mix with social seems very odd to me, although all Israelis have to do a mandatory minimum of two years military service regardless of if they have interest in it or not – normally girls do two years and guys do three and a half.

We headed back to the hostel for happy hour and pool and ended up chatting with three guys from Jerusalem, Yoni, Elai and Abhi. Weirdly Elai had lived in Cardiff and also visited Birmingham (ay ayyy!). Lena and I played pool badly against each other before the boys joined us to speed up the next few games!!

3/3/22

Today was a full day. We were booked on a holy tour of the city. We walked down to Jaffa Gate and met the group for 09.30. It was a very windy day and we watched a Hisodoc guy chase his fedora (big black hat) down the street after it had blown off, only for his kippah (small cap) to also fly off in the process! What a nightmare!! We headed inside the old walled town and began our tour. We walked past a tattoo parlour, which was established in 1300 and was used by Jewish pilgrims to get a Jerusalem tattoo during their pilgrimage. It was still running now! Fairly quickly, we headed to the Church of the Holy Sepulchre, where Jesus was crucified, buried and rose. The church was run by five different Christian groups: Orthodox, Armenian, Catholic, Coptic and Syriac. They all had to agree on any restorations together, before anything could be done. A wooden ladder outside of the church symbolised this agreement. Considering I’m not religious, I was pretty overwhelmed by the church and how I felt walking around inside. It was a seriously impressive place! Pre-covid the whole church was apparently packed the whole time, but when we were there it was nearly empty!

Afterwards, we tried and failed to dodge the rain and wind and headed to the Western Wall and then the Temple Mount. The Western Wall is the last remaining wall of the first synagogue, as the Romans destroyed the original temple. Since the walls are so important, Jews do not like to turn their backs to it, so people were walking backwards away from it and one lady crashed into a plastic chair on her route back!

The site within the original walls is now a Muslim religious site as Prophet Muhammed went to heaven and got told to pray fives times a day here. There are two mosques at the Temple Mount, which only Muslims can go inside though tourists can go around the outside, but Jews and Christians alike are not allowed to bring religious material inside or pray at the site. There is a Muslim guy that makes sure everyone is respectfully dressed before they enter, a security scanner as well as Israeli army who keep it secure. It was interesting to see. The mosque was beautiful! After that, the tour ended and we went in search of a cute coffee shop.

We found a narrow cafe that went back a long way and had a friendly Muslim owner. He had only just re-opened a couple of days prior since Israel opened back up to tourists. He told us he had introduced ‘Salam aleikum’ (peace be upon you in Arabic) to his little patch of the old city and pretty much everyone who went by, made this exchange. He thought it was important to ‘drop peace’ whenever you can! I had a cardamon coffee which is traditional here as well as Jordan and it was pretty good! Afterwards, we wandered a little before heading back to the hostel to chill out before we headed back out to a cocktail bar called Rabbit Hole. It had cool vibes and great cheese and crackers!

4/3/22

After a busy day yesterday, we had chilled plans today. Lena and I headed out to UrBun for coffee and then stopped by a bakery for breakfast before we wandered around the streets, nosied about and purchased bits in a charity shop and then headed to Zara, since Lena doesn’t have one at home in America. There were a few different shops we perused, but we had limited time since it was Friday so things start shutting down in the afternoon. The streets were alive with lots of youths dancing, raising money for charity – it was a good vibe! We had falafel pita from a super busy cafe on the way back to the hostel and then we chilled a little before happy hour at 6pm.

Our roommates Joey (from US) and Tom (from down south in England) were also drinking and Tom’s home friends were also about and their dorm. This made a solid group of Brits, Americans and Europeans, which made for a messy night. We played some pool, drank wine, then tequila then some awful local spirit and then went out. Sadly, we’d been drinking for a solid four hours by this point and I’d not eaten dinner so I didn’t make it to the bar we were meant to be going to! Had my first Brits Abroad vibe in awhile – I guess since literally pre-covid! Wild!!