Palestine and Jordan

07// Nazareth to Jenin

It’s dawn, the turtles are still asleep. I’m riding through Nazareth, empty market streets, beautiful stones and alleyways, it’s so quiet…an incredible contrast with yesterday’s busy streets and the best start to my trip.

I reached the border with a prepared speech for the Israelis officers, without lying because I'm just too shit at it. And when they saw me, they smiled and asked if I had a passport. I said yes and they said go... without looking at it. Easier than expected.

I arrived in Jenin with my shorts and T-shirt and was asked to cover myself 5 seconds after entering the city… I had it all ready but did expect a less religious town than what I saw and was happy to reach an open-minded venue in the freedom Theatre in the Jenin Camp. This beautiful theatre is world-renowned and train people from the camp to be actors, producers, film-makers (…). Their shows and movies are focused on telling the story of the Palestinian life with critics to the Israeli army of course but also to their own government that they see as corrupt. Their work is so amazing and unique that they were defined to me by one of the workers as a summer Disneyland. They receive about 50 tourists a day, coming to explore the “resistance through art”. This success also enable them to travel around the world and perform in France, Germany, Italy (…)

I can't say I enjoyed the ultra-religious side of the city, but I found the people very nice. I stayed overnight in the camp, in a beautiful house, and left at dawn for a really tough ride. Next stop, Nablus.

08//Nablus, women power

My contacts in Nablus were these two incredible Italian and Palestinian women. They both started a project from scratch to give women a space and provide support groups for each other. The centre is absolutely stunning and you can see that there is an arty background to its creation. As I arrived, smelly and really disgusting from a series of unending hills and a nightmare flat tyre, they straight away put me in front of a class of 9 to 13 year old boys and asked me to entertain them for an hour. It turns out, some kids like my dictator style and I had a surprising good time doing this. To reassure my friends who know about my lack of patience, no child was hurt.

I am staying with a family and the best cook I could hope for. The mother of the house cooks delicious meals, feed me like I dream of and there is not one thing that I wouldn’t eat again. Her daughters and sons are also wonderful. I got dolled-up with one doing my hair and make-up after a relieving shower. A restaurant, hotel, beauty salon all at once.

09//Justin Bieber and Mohammed Assaf

Unsure if I expected any different. When asking 12 year old girls what their favorite music is, they hurry to say Justin Bieber or One Direction and proceed to show me their Justin Bieber bracelet, Justin Bieber necklace and then tell me they love Justin Bieber. Yuck. But I also arrived in Qalqilya, a border town, the day or Arab Idol semi-final. A Palestinian guy is in the last four. His name is Mohammed Assaf. His songs are played in the children camp I went to in Nablus, on the radio, in taxis (...) and a poster of him reminding people to vote number 3 is absolutely everywhere.
He is the hope of Palestinians and a beautiful one (even if coming from an Endemol show). Another interesting contrast when his poster sits next to martyrs posters. Good news... He actually won on my last day in the region! A new icon is born.

10//When there's a road, there's a way...?

Qalqilya has a wall. It's high. It's ugly. It's scary. Although many have painted funny, angry, pretty things on it, it doesn't make it a cool thing to see. Not in the 21st century.
I am staying out of politics though and prefer looking at the people and the sights. Along the way, I speak to so many. Some of the best encounters include two scary men driving a van. I'm struggling and sweating on a hill. They stop, reverse, open the window and hand me an energy drink before driving away. There are also the many people who stopped to say they can drive me and when I answered no, I actually was thinking (YES!!!) I don't say that everyone has been positive but the very large majority have. And there is a very useful password that unlocks people's smiles: "Salam Alekum"... Which I'm sure is spelled and pronounced differently than I do.
I had a tough ride though, twice, I followed my map into a dead end. The road was there. It was nice and short, but a barrier or a wall was there too. I eventually arrived in Bil'in, the centre of the non-violent revolution every Friday and where "Five Broken Cameras" was filmed. People are sweet and speak about normal life.
In the morning i warn my host and one of the leader in town... I'm going to ask a stupid/basic question but it's something I'm not sure I understand. "What would make you stop the non-violent fight? What do you want?"
- " I want the same as anyone and the same as the israelis who come with us every Friday. I want one state. One where there is equality, peace and where it's about people. Not the politics. Not the power. Just a country like any other where people of different colour or religion can live together."

11//Politics in Ramallah

Another tough hot ride and two proposals later, I arrive in the capital of Palestine, Ramallah. My hotel is called the City Inn and I ask people for my way. I get some saying left, then others saying it's back where I came from. As it turns out, there are two "city inns" and one in two person I asked knew the right one.
Wandering through the busy streets, tasting amazing ice creams and fruits from the market and going to meet a friend of a friend for a late tea. This tea turned into an economic discussion with an advisor to the president, an "aid" businessman and two others. We are in Birzeit, the student town, and I see people drinking alcohol for the first time since Tiberias. However much I wanted to stay out of politics, it is simply impossible in this country.

When we drive back, we pass by a religious Palestinian wedding happening in the streets of Ramallah. The men are dancing inside a circle, the women are sitting on rows of chairs watching...
Next stops: Jericho and, religion central: Jerusalem.

13//Oh Jerusalem!

The three main religions live here together inside a wall. Within a few square km, you have the Dome of the Rock, a shrine where Mohammed started his ascent to the sky: 3rd most important place to Muslims. The Western Wall where Jewish pray against it 24/7: most important place for Judaism. The church of St Sepulcre - Jesus died there... First or second most important place to Christians?.... That's quite a lot in one place.
And there are children next to the Dome of Rock following a group of tourists which include Jewish visitors and shouting "Allah Akbar" ... The "educators" smiling and letting this happen are clearly doing a good job.
The Jewish guy shouting at me to go away because I'm a woman and I didn't belong where I was standing.
The Christian guy texting while kneeling in front of a priest giving mass to 7people. That's what I saw, but that's not what I want to remember from Jerusalem. There are crazy people everywhere... And not the good kind. But there are amazing ones too....and much more of them.
So let's look at the beautiful. The people. The sights. The lights.
The people I laughed, debated, sung with. The views of the old city, of the old houses, the piazzas and kids playing football in squares. The sunsets, the sunrise and city lights. This town has a ridiculous potential for mess. But if you look for beauty, happiness and peace, keeping your eyes wide open will provide you with the experience you are looking for.

14//Bethleem + Hebron = are you f'#'ing joking?

The pretty picture stops at the same time as my bike ride. I'm talking about what I see and not what I hear and have no doubt that it's all complicated... It's been a trip with a number of ridiculous, nonsense, stupid things happening in front of my eyes that I haven't talked in details in this blog. Overall it's been amazing, beautiful, warm in many sense of the word and I didn't see the point of talking about the insignificant exceptions. But this stage is a little different.

The church of the Nativity with its 100 tourists at once, the drawings of Banksy on a ten meter high wall in the middle of a city and the ironic Banksy Gift Shop next to it. That's Bethleem in short for me.
Now, Hebron. Imagine one building. Abraham, Isaac and Jacob's tombs are here and it's important to the big 3 religions.The building is a mosque and a synagogue at once... And that could be a beautiful story. Cohabitation. Living, praying, singing together for a God that is about love. But screw that and let's put a wall and bullet proof glass in the middle... Let's have two distinct entrances with army checkpoints to come in. Let's make sure the 20 year old guy in uniform ask people what faith they are as a sanity question? ... You just need to say you are christian to be able to go to both. The army is not just outside everywhere with its machine guns, it's inside too on the synagogue side and that kid is bored out of his mind in this dark place. He welcomes the distraction of having his picture taken and to speak a little English.
There's much more to the ridiculousness of this town but there is also my Christian guide, an ex Israeli army officer and the Muslim shop owner having coffee together as friends. And that shouldn't be a surprising sight. This should just be normal life.

15//Google and underwear

In a previous post I was joking about the fact that I should have packed lighter and only taken the essentials, which included underwear. As I arrived to stay with an awesome girl with whom I communicated with gestures and loud English, she worryingly looked at me and said, "I got you this... I heard you need it... "
So I'm kind of flattered that it's not only my best friends reading this blog. I kind of still wish GoogleTranslate (and my british friends actually) understood my jokes a little more. But I'm happy I now have one cute purple underwear which definitely stands out from my sporty wheelsee boxers...

16//She's the dream

The cycle trip is over, but me, my heavy bag and my wheely baby decide I have 48 hours to realise a dream and be back in time for my flight in Tel Aviv... It's going to be tight but... Need to try!
Massada, a resistance symbol where killing yourself was preferred to becoming Roman slaves. A place where Herod, the crazy power driven butcher built "himself" baths and swimming pools in the middle of the desert and at the top of a mountain. That's my first stop: stories of mad men, intelligence and violence.
At the bottom is the Dead Sea, its salty water and its hotels. I'm floating, hurting everywhere I got cuts, and enjoying the view. It's great... But I need to get closer to the dream.
I get on the bus to Eilat and the Red Sea. I meet a French guy whose girlfriend is impatiently waiting for him and/or the two strawberry cakes he is bringing from Jerusalem. During the long drive, he organises my accommodation, next day's travel and my visa ...one of the rare times I'm using the French connection and it turns out pretty good.
I arrive, we put my bike in the back of a Jeep with more French people. I haven't spoken that much French in a while. A race to the beach, a swim, and the next thing I know, I'm climbing a hill in the desert, the Jeep is waiting at the bottom. We have wood and a lighter and now a fire at the top of a hill, under the full moon and beautiful stars. We talk about travels, Zweig and debate about perceptions that locals have on Arabs. I talk about my trip in Palestine and give a point of view that is so far from what is given in this town. I'm not here to change the world, but I hope the SEE rather than only HEAR idea may stay and that they'll give it a try . I'll drive the Jeep back like a mad woman...but a very happy one.
In the next few hours, I'll be on my way to meet a dream... A woman with a heart of stone...

17//Petra, is it real?

I walk down the path leading to the lost city and it is really a dream. A city carved in stones - by slaves of course - but one of the most amazing man-made things I've seen. It takes a bit of dreaming to imagine how thousands of people may have watch music performers sitting on the immense outdoor amphitheater, or how processions of camels and merchants have walked down the path with water ways alongside. I can't see them, but I see what they left behind after thousands of years. And what a beautiful place to leave to new generations. It made me dream, made me smile, made me think.

18//The end?

It's over. The trip of a lifetime is behind me and I'm trying to organise my thoughts on everything that happened before my eyes. When peope ask me about it, it seems that they want to only hear about the sensational, the dangerous, the bad people I've met. And i'm happy to disapoint them. It felt safe. I might have been lucky, but again...i felt safe.

A number of people would want me to take sides but the only side I will take is the side of the amazing, beautiful, sweet people I have met absolutely everywhere I've been. The beautiful landscapes, the quality (and quantity) of food I've tasted, the tough (HOT) rides.

I of course can't forget the broader political context but this gets enough light in the media.

WheelSee was the name and I saw that when it's about the people - when politics and religions are not involved; when it's not about power - this world and its people ARE beautiful, facinating and inspiring... These beautiful people have got my attention and I hope they'll get yours.

01//WheelSee...a tourist in the Middle East