Bethlehem to Tel Aviv

I'm back in Tel Aviv for a night. Jerusalem was a blast. Back on Sunday night I hung around at home playing Dance Dance Revolution and had cornchips and beer for dinner. Yesterday I went out early to see Bethlehem. It's really very close to Jerusalem, but getting there involved first a long-ish walk to the Old Town, then a 20-minute ride on an "Arab bus" from the "Arab Bus Station" to the checkpoint on the border between Israel and Palestine. I showed my passport and was waved through quickly. On the other side of the huge wall there's a flock of yellow taxis and I went with the first driver to approach me. His name was "Wally". He showed me a brochure of all the holy sites around Bethlehem and I told him that I only wanted to see the basic three: The Church of the Nativity, the Milk Grotto, and the Shephards' Field. We agreed on a price - 150 shekels: pretty steep but I was told to expect this and I could see he wasn't going to go much lower. So we drove off to the Shephards' Field. It was alright. Then we drove the Milk Grotto. It was pretty cool. Along the way Wally pointed out a big Jewish settlement on the Palestinian side of the border - an illegal landgrab that's heavily fortified and protected by Israeli military forces... These settlements cause so much grief and the majority of Israelis seem to be totally against them, but there's that lunatic fringe who believe in their God-given right to occupy the land... Ugh... The Church of the Nativity - built on the site of the manger where Jesus was born - is by far the biggest attraction in Bethlehem. It's apparently the oldest church in the world, now a sprawl of linked buildings from different periods of time. It's an interesting place, and obviously a very significant site for the busloads of awestruck Christian tourists who were there. I bought some olive-wood rosary beads for Grandma from Wally's cousin, who had a workshop nearby. Back at the checkpoint again and I take my wallet out to pay for the ride. "Okay, so, 150 shekels..." I say. Then Wally gets ugly. "Um, what? What is this 150 shekels? It is 150 shekels for you to see three places. I also drive you back to the checkpoint. It is 100 shekels from church to checkpoint." And I realise too late that I should have spelled this out to begin with. He's milking me ruthlessly. I said I wouldn't pay more than 150. He said he could take me to the police if I wanted. After some squabbling I say I'll give him 200 and nothing more. So I pull out some shekels and he's all like "Oh, and now you will pay me with Jewish money! You are my friend and you offend me like this with Jewish money! In Palestine Jewish money is no good!" (this is bullshit of course: it's the only money they have) I start to get out of the car but he's making such a scene that I expect to be arrested or something. I say goodbye and he just warns me "Oh, this is not good for you! Not good for you!" I was feeling rattled as I walked up the ramp to the checkpoint. It's a shame that my 90 minutes in Palestine was spent with a hostile taxi driver visiting the standard tourist attractions. I would have liked to get a better feel for the place. From the car window it looked poor, but not very different to Arab East Jerusalem over the border in Israel. The wall itself is an emotive sight, covered in graffiti, far taller and scarier than what I saw of the Berlin Wall. The process of going back through the checkpoint was a little more intensive, involved baggage inspection and some heavy duty turnstiles. Back in Jerusalem I went to the Bible Lands Museum, which has an impressive collection of archaeological finds from the area, from all of the various historical periods... It was strangely quiet. I think most tourists choose the Israel Museum nextdoor instead to see the Dead Sea Scrolls. Back home it was hummus and crackers for dinner. I said goodbye to my temporary housemates and left Jerusalem this morning. It has been raining all day so I'm doing some much-needed laundry and I'm going to see a little more of the city before heading back to Germany tomorrow.