A street in Jaffa. These five photos are all of Jaffa in Tel Aviv, the historically Arab neighborhood. The old wooden doors on the left remind me of Damascus, where UNESCO has successfully persuaded stall holders to preserve the old feel of the city and restore all these beautiful doors. The setting sun made everything in Jaffa look this rosy pink color.
And yes, I made it into Israel despite the large Syrian visa in my passport. You can read the details of my experience with Israeli immigration over here on Trip Advisor. Sadly, I won't be going to Lebanon now anytime soon unless I get a second passport.
I only made it to Jaffa around 5 pm because I, uh, slept until 1 pm, surfed the net for a while, went to the gym, surfed the net some more, finally showered, and then finally left my hotel room. But hey, to my credit, I only got to the hotel at around 1 a.m. this morning (Saturday), Tel Aviv time. I got to the airport in Chicago at 5:45 pm Chicago time on Thursday. Door-to-door, that's roughly 25 hours of traveling. But by my math, that's roughly 36 hours of "up time" minus four hours of sleep on the plane.)
Is that Mary? Is she smoking? I'm not sure.
If I were good at taking care of plants, I would want to live here.
The bike rider came into my picture serendipitously. I wasn't fast enough to up my lens speed, but it was a bit too dark, I think, to have captured him.
An alleyway in Jaffa.
5 comments
great pictures!
“And yes, I made it into Israel despite the large Syrian visa in my passport.”
What I’ve heard is that it’s not the Israeli immigration people who take issue with stamps from certain countries, but rather, it’s a few other countries in the middle east that have a problem with letting you in if your passport has an Israeli stamp in it.
Yeah, I definitely know that if I went to Lebanon or Syria with my new Israeli stamp, they would not let me in. But everything I'd read online about getting into Israel with either Lebanon or Syrian stamps led me to believe they would definitely give me a hard time and take me into a separate room for intense questioning about why I'd been to Syria. That being said, all the stories I read seemed to be from young men so maybe being a woman helped.
Ahh, true enought – I could see your being subjected to a lot more questioning at immigration bc of the Syria stamp, but still, I’d be surprised if the country didn’t let you in in the end, even if they had interrogated you.
On a not-super-related note, not only was the queue at Canadian immigration yesterday 90 minutes long, but also the immigration official was *highly* suspicious that I was actually here to attend a wedding. He even wanted to know (a) what I bought as a wedding gift; and (b) how much it was worth. (I was thinking “not $10,000 if that’s where you’re headed with this, buddy.” At least at the Israeli border, I “got” why they were so sensitive. Canada? Not so much.
Bottom line – immigration is a hassle everywhere in the world, methinks.
Glad you got in without much hassle but keep the documents, I travel to Israel often and the problem starts when you exit the country (seemingly illogical but true). Also, don’t bother showing up way in advance at Ben Gurion, they will just put you into the non-urgent queue when you get there.
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