Adventure

The day began bad - a fatal stabbing of a Jewish guy in the Ramot quarter north of Jerusalem. The criminal is suspected to be an arab. http://www.jpost.com/DiplomacyAndPolitics/Article.aspx?id=242741

Had quite an adventure this afternoon. Went to visit a couple of friends living outside Jerusalem. They came to pick me up and drove about half an hour before reaching their beautiful home way out in a neighbourhood in the Judean desert. Absolutely charming house, good taste. When it was time to go home, they dropped me off at the bus stop just outside the neighbourhood. I've not taken a bus since the first Intifada 18 years ago ... so I was nervous. There was a soldier waiting at the bus-stop so I asked which bus goes to jerusalem. He told me to follow him as he was going the same way. After a half hour wait in the freezing cold of the desert, the sun had set, the 292 bus came. He told me to get on with him. Imagine my shock when I entered and found out it was an ultra-orthodox Jewish bus. Men sit in the front, women at the back. After wandering through Beit Tsafafa, Malha, Gilo I thought I was pretty lost. The soldier got off somewhere in the Jerusalem neighbourhood and told me to get off at the final bus station. But other orthodox men - very friendly - told me to get off earlier and change buses no.72. They spoke yiddish and hebrew and poor me had to struggle with my german and few hebrew to communicate. Got off at the bus stop as they suggested and found out I was in the ultra-orthodox neighbourhood of Mea Shearim ... but I couldn't recognise which part was it. In the freezing cold and dark, I decided to flag down the first taxi. The taxi driver asked for 30 shekels in hebrew and started chatting up in hebrew. Once again I had to struggle with my little hebrew until he turned on the arab radio. Then I found out he was arabic and we started chatting in arabic. Then I felt better.

Well it was quite an afternoon. Saw alot of Judea that I never saw, local life, getting lost in the ultra-orthodox quarter and finally coming home tired but happy.