Category Archives: Countries

Welcome to Israel, welcome to Sabbath

Yesterday we (Simon, Troels and me) arrived in Israel for a workshop to come in Haifa on Monday. After a some initial trouble with my hand luggage, which turned out to be 1,5 kg to heavy (the max is 8 kg at Cimber Sterling, ridiculous) and had to be checked in, I had a semi-pleasant four hours flight.

In Tel-Aviv airport we cued for an hour to get passed the border check and tried to get hold of the car we booked just yesterday, creating some confusion as we didn’t which company it would be with (was booked through some broker that hadn’t told us yet). Also we were in need for some food, which turned out quite difficult as everything was closing down at about three in the afternoon … yes, we didn’t know about Sabbath! Though I quickly remembered good old John Goodman from the best movie ever … The Big Lebowsky … nothing goes on Saturdays … and apparently you prepare for nothing goes quite in advance … anyways, also the train and busses in Jerusalem didn’t work, half for the city was locked down … quite an impression. Also the Jewish robes and hats left quite an impression … just like one knows from the movies.

Still we had a little walk, some Jerusalem Kebab (which turned out to be meatballs and sorted salad on a plate), and found some activity in the non-Jewish quarters in the old town.

Today we’ll have a proper city walk/tour and head out for Jericho and the dead sea afterwards …

Taipei International Flora Exposition and Taipei Biennial 2010

After some late night out in Taipei and a long nap I decided to simply do some random walk in the city … as it was free admission today I visited the Taipei International Flora Exposition and the Taipei Fine Arts Museum featuring the Taipei Biennial 2010. The latter one had some really nice exhibits from Asien as well as international artists and kept me busy for about three hours until the museum closed … some Taiwanese buffet and an early night will finish the day I guess.

East coast, Taroko gorge and wooden bathtubs

After typhoon Megi had washed away parts of the highway going south yesterday, we changed plans and took the train to Hualien and rented a car to drive into the Taroko gorge. Cerntainly worth the efford … quite an amazing gorge with marble all over the place, a few temples along the way and lots of waterfalls …
After coming back to Taipei I finally got into my hotel room I have booked since Friday and which has a wooden bathtub … yeah right!

Typhoon updates

As typhoon Megi passes by I just read that yesterday on the east coast and in Taipei we had as much rain in one day as we typically have in Germany in one year … more than 700 mm!
Today it looks much better and we’ll try to get to some gorges further south.