g's walkabout

¡ole!

hard to believe that i have been in spain for nine days as it has absolutely flown by. i am staying with patricia and eduardo at their beautiful apartment in the chueca district (kind of like the castro but a little bit less gay) of madrid.

edu celebrated his 28th bday last week and had a big fiesta on the terrace that ended in a full on jam session at about 5am with his buddy (in the pic) belting out spanish favorites and me doing my best to cover the western tunes. they call u2 ´´oo dos´´. i have a few thoughts about how good it is to travel w a guitar, but i´ll save them for now.

after about 5 days in madrid wade and i rented a ´´smart car´´ (tiny funny looking 2 seater) and drove 600km to barcelona to meet up with my friend tiphaine who is from france but lives in warsaw and her friend angela who lives in barcelona. managed to see a lot of the city and had hilarious and fun times for 3 days with very little sleep. despite angela and tiphaine´s doubts we were able to fit 4 of us and all of our luggage in the smart car for 30km and avoid 2 police run-ins. we explained to them clearly that we are professionals. hahahaha. barcelona is an incredible city.

madrid is truly amongst the favorite cities i have ever visited. amazing people, architecture, food and general joie de vivre (sp?). i spent this afternoon at the reina sofia museum of contemporary art. muy interesante y sophisticado. my spanish is improving exponentially and tomorrow we are putting up bilingual post-its all over the apartment to improve it (and their english) further. obviously makes a huge difference to be staying w such lovely madrillenos and i look forward to hosting them in sf sometime soon.

the tentative plan is to fly to morocco in a couple of days then take a boat from tangiers back to spain, hit the southern coast and end up back in madrid.

i once again feel blessed to have this opportunity to travel and to have been able to meet so many great people along the way. there are not many wanabe national geographic shots of buildings, landmarks or landscapes here. mostly just fun shots of folks that i have had the pleasure of hanging with. (to give credit where credit is due some of them were taken by tiphaine as well) 

besos,

g

israel

 
 

i've had a great week hanging out at the beach, catching up with the family, hanging w my dad's dogs, going out till all hours and eating great food.

my cousin amir is studying architecture and works for jaegermister. he drives a 15 foot orange van that says "party team" on it (see pic). his job is basically to haul around banners, booze, umbrellas and jaegermister dancers to parties and events all over israel that jaeger is sponsoring and take pictures of these events to send back to germany. he, my cousin orli, her boyfriend roie and i have had a blast playing off the "party team" concept. "all for one, one for all" type chants, military/trucker type communication on fake cbs to one another. you get it, right? anyway, a lot of gut laughter and antics with great cousins that i don't get to see nearly enough.

as can be expected, it's really hot and humid here so going to the beach in between party team missions is key. hanging with pops is great as always. we watch the local news and the history channel while eating pumpkin seeds most evenings.  he is an absolute encyclopedia on a vast number of subjects and i am constantly peppering him w questions.

i leave for madrid tonight and will be in spain (and maybe morocco) for the next 3 weeks. my number one partner in crime, wade crowfoot, will be meeting me there and i will be staying with eduardo and pati (banditos from bali) in the center of town. muy excited.

paz y amor,

g

shalom

first off, and most importantly, my family and i are all safe and sound. for that i am truly grateful.  i am also very very glad that there is a (theoretical) cease-fire.  my timing is impeccable, isn't it?  ahhahaha.

i could write for days about my thoughts and my relationship with the state of israel.  needless to say, it means a lot for me to be here right now.

here's a sort of free association brain dump of my last few days here: 

a family friend from nahariya was staying at my father's home when i arrived as katusha rockets fell within 20 m of her home on 2 occasions.  the bedroom that i sleep in doubles as a bomb shelter.  my dad cooked an amazing dinner on the grill.  my dad and i had a great day-trip to jerusalem which included falafel, a walk around the old city and a fairly lengthy discussion with a pakistani news correspondent covering the cease fire from the incredible view-point of mount scopus.  on the way to jerusalem my father pointed out the area where his father was killed by a landmine.  a grandfather i was never able to meet.  the news is always on.  i attended a 35th birthday party chock full of upwardly mobile tel avivians discussing such things as italian home fixtures.  we left early because my cousin's husband has spent many many hours in  the last week managing ammunition logistics in the north.  i spoke w my aunt on the phone who said that a katusha dropped about 200 m from her home in haifa.  this is the same home i spent many summers in growing up. i  spent the whole day today in tel aviv w my cousin efrat, people watching at cafes, hanging out at the beach and shopping for furniture for her new home.  my libyan cab driver gave me a hebrew prayer for the road and told me to only eat kosher meat and to use my full name "gabriel" as it is a name from the torah as he tried to set me up with every 20 something hot israeli woman we drove by.  i bought a dope new pair of adidas at their flagship store on shenkin street.   i have  been emailing with an old camp friend here who has 2 young children and a husband who's reserve unit has been called up north. hope to see her this week.

i want nothing more for israel than for it be able to live peacefully amongst it's neighbors and for there to be an end to the bloodshed, mistrust and hatred from all sides.  i believe strongly that the state of israel has a right to exist as i believe strongly that a separate and autonomous state of palestine has a right to exist.  my heart goes out to all of those on all sides that have lost friends and family amidst this crisis.   

i have no idea how peace is going to be achieved in the near future, but i still hold on to the hope that it is possible.  it's been damn close a few times and peace is ultimately the only answer.

in closing, it is truly wonderful to be here with my family.  despite israel's politics that i don't always agree with, it's obnoxious drivers and loud cell phone conversationalists, i love this country and am unapologetically proud to be here.  have some pictures that i'll post in the next few days. 

paz y amor,

g

lalibela photos

   

bahir dar photos

 

lalibela

Lalibela is a majestic town in the hills of northern ethiopia that boasts churches from as early as the 4th century.  90% of it’s residents are orthodox christian.  The views, the churches and the many worshippers are breathtaking.  As this is more of a tourist destination than bahir dar, the locals are a bit more aggressive in setting up tours to churches and selling their wares.  Still, not that many tourists.

I spent the the morning of the first day visitng the “cave church” which is built in a cave only a few minutes from the center of town.  My companions were a pilot and a flight attendant from world-air doing a consulting gig for ethiopian airways. We were lucky enough to get to the church around prayer time.  The local worhsippers chanted their amharek prayers passionately and some of the melodies didn’t sound unlike some of the melodies of hebrew prayers I grew up with.  That said, seeing 100+ ethiopians dressed in their traditional white robes worshipping in a cave in northern ethiopia was a far cry from the big chapel at beth israel.

When I got back to the seven olives guest house there was a dutch couple that I was on the plane with from addis and they had just recounted the story to some brits about the american that deplaned in bahir dar (me) 30 seconds before I walked in.   Very funny.  We booked a trip to the kristos church (also in a cave) which is about 45km away.  An hour later we were in a 1971 orange land rover  headed through the ethiopian countryside.  Lush green hills, waterfalls, raging streams and many farmers.   Our driver was cool enough to let me drive for a bit and ride on the roof.  Don’t ask, don’t get.  Ahhaha.  The highlight of this particular church was an out of ground “tomb” of mummified priests and pilgrims.  Very “tales of the crypt”.

The last day was spent touring the main churches of lalibala which are enormous structures built into the mountain.  These churches are rife with symbols that king lalibela brought from his trip to jerusalem in the 4th century.  His intent was basically to create a “mini jeruslaem” so to speak, so that this worshippers wouldn’t have to schlep to the real deal.  Pretty considerate of him, but god knows the amount of blood sweat and tears that went into the construction of these things. 

Creepy yet cool highlight:  there are  hermits that live in these little portholes above the church that haven’t seen the light of day for up to 20 years.  The priests feed them every couple of days and are sworn to secrecy as to their whereabouts. 

Fell blessed that I got 7 days in Northern Ethiopia. I know it's a bit boring to read all of this without the pics, but broadband is $20 an hour and my pictures are pretty big.  I will post them when I get to Israel.  Leaving  in about 6 hours....

And now a word from our sponsor:

Thank you again for  the  many emails expressing concern about my going to Israel.  I too, have been watching the news and know what is going on there.  I will be fine.  I will hold back on my political perspective for now as well.  Of course, still hoping that a cease-fire comes soon and that all of the nations at war will one day live in peace. 

Addis Ababaly Yours,

G

bahir dar

the only tickets that were available back from lalibela were on the 11th which put me there for 6 days.  while i am sure that the churches carved into the mountains are amazing, i didn't want to get "churched out" (syn. "templed out"  see: angkor wat) so the plan was to figure out a way to get to bahir dar and back which is about a 10 hr. drive each way once i arrived to lalibela as that is where my flight to addis leaves from.  make sense?  at this point, i try to make as few plans as possible.

so, when the plane stopped in bahir dar and considered not flying into lalibela because of heavy rain (i have not been affected by floods) i simply asked the pilot if i could get off.  his simple reponse in a thick ethiopian accent:  "why not?"  hahaha.  love travel in africa.  so they grabbed me my backpack from under the plane, laughing as they waved from the cockpit window and here i am in bahir dar.  i am staying at the papyrus hotel which is about 50m from the central market. 

bahir dar hass about 300,000 people and is about 85% orthodox christian (as opposed to ethiopia's 50% overall) located on lake tana, which the blue nile feeds into.  it is really beautiful. i spent a good part of yesterday visiting the island monasteries and checking out the blue nile with my tour guide, matthew.  i turned him on to a tribe called quest  on the ipod and we ended up heading out to the local discos last night where they played everything from local artists in amharek to p-diddy.   all eyes were on the white boy.  i held my own on the dance floor- didn't try to break any records just maintain.  i think i did ok.  hahahaha.

i can't say enough about the people here.  amazing hosts and hostesses.  kind, warm and very very funny.  the women are absolutely stunning.  i haven't felt the least bit threatened.  while i expected it to be scorching hot it is actually quite cool and rainy as it is winter here.  they have their own calendar (8 years earlier, it is 1998 here), their own clock (8 hrs later)  and celebrate their new year in september.   the food is great although i still haven't developed a taste for the bread.  ethiopians have a very very strong sense of pride in thier culture and their country as they should.  while there is still a lot of struggle here,  there is without a doubt a general feeling of progress in the air.  all of the locals i have spoken with agree.  both gabriel and solomon are very common names here.  they get a real kick out of it.  sometimes i tell them i have ethiopian parents.  they rarely believe me.  very hard to post photos on dial-up, but i have taken a bunch and will post them when i get back to addis.

i am of course also glued to cnn, hoping that there is a cease-fire soon. 

paz y amor,

g 

addis ababa

 
 
   

i arrived to addis ababa safe and sound at about 7:00 am yesterday. on the plane, i sat near two men wearing sunglasses that were headed to zambia and were handcuffed to one another. i was fixated but tried not to stare. not looking for any beef with lusaka gangsters.

one of the only two places i could make a reservation online was the hilton. the delta between the haves and the have-nots are clearer in africa than on any other continent i have visited and the hotels here are a direct reflection of that. also, having never been here i figured it wasn't a bad thing to have a "soft landing" while i found my bearings.

so, after spending a couple of hours in the natural hot spring fed pool, watching cnn, using broadband internet and having breakfast, i hit the mercato and the national museum. my driver was a nice orthodox christian man named ephraim, the car, a 1976 fiat that reeked of oil, had a cracked windshield and mauve velour seat covers.

the mercato (central market) is the largest in africa and is an absolute assault on all the senses. mind blowing. we ended up in some back alleys that had almost ankle deep mud and smells that i had never before experienced. ephraim informed me that this was actually his first (and last) time visiting this section of the market. hahahaha.

the national museum is home of the skeleton of lucy, the famous australiopithecus afarensis named after lucy (of the sky with diamonds). the last ancestor common to humans and chimpanzees living from 3.9 to 3 million years ago. both the skeleton and the facility where it was held were fascinating. it felt like a damp furnished midwestern basement with pine paneling. the glass case that held her remains had no sort of alarm or security device. the sign on the door was misspelled and printed on an inkjet printer.

i will hold back on my macro-thoughts on ethiopia until later. i have been fascinated with this country, it's history and it's people for some time and am thrilled to have the opportunity to be here. i plan on heading about 600 miles north to lalibela tomorrow where i'm pretty sure there won't be broadband access.

my camera ran out of juice about 10 minutes into the mercato, but i managed to take a few shots. there will be many more to come.

all love,

g

bagoos

 
 

as promised...  (for those of you that are new, just click on the photo to see the album)

Farewell to Bali. Addis Ababa or Bust!

I know it’s been a while since my last post.  I have, like may others before me, been pulled into the dream that is Bali.  In the process, my surfing, my tan and my Spanish have all improved immensely.  Eating sushi and surfing everyday also does wonders for shedding a few pounds.  I am recharged.

As I mentioned before, I stayed the rest of my time living with Leticia (whom I met in Bangkok) and her mother, Paloma.  They both reside here part time, with their home base in Madrid. I can only hope to be as gracious of a host to others as they have been to me.  They are truly amazing people and at the risk of being redundant, it has been like having a casa away from casa.  Last week a crew of Leticia’s “banditos” (as I have affectionately dubbed them) arrived from Madrid to travel around Bali for a month and we also became fast friends.  Ignacio (Nacho), Eduardo (Edu) and Patricia (Pati) are salt of the earth Madridians with huge hearts and good souls.  Edu and I share the same twisted sense of humor and spent many hours laughing and exchanging juvenile vocabulary. Pati is Edu’s girlfriend who may be one of the sweetest people I have ever met and has a women’s clothing store in Madrid that was recently written up in Vogue.  Nacho is truly a saint amongst men and is wise beyond his years.  A better than really good chance I will meet up with them (and Citizen Crowfoot) in Madrid on the way home. 

So, my impressions on Balinese culture…  As many of you know Bali, unlike the rest of Indonesia is over 85% Hindu (as opposed to over 90% Muslim).  Their smiles and sense of humor are heart warming.  They are a very religous (and superstitious) people.  At any time of day you can look down and see offerings to the gods in front of every home and business (flowers, food, incense). Around noon the local dogs tend to devour these offerings.  When you look up in any direction you see kites flying high in the sky to ward off evil spirits. 

One day traffic came to a dead stop for what looked and sounded like a parade.  The procession was full of smiles, colorful dress, and music.  I would have had no idea that it was a funeral if Leticia hadn’t told me.  There were no tears, no perceived feelings of grief as they truly believed that the deceased had simply moved on to his next life (see pic). 

They don’t trust the police so they elect leaders of their neighborhoods to deal with interventions that the extortionists (see: police) are supposed to be dealing with.  These leaders (bajyans?) often have more power than the police and are respected as their trusted leaders.  The Indonesian word for “good” is “bagoos” (pronounced BAGOOS!).  Try saying it.  It feels good.

Once again, most of the locals are poor  and their economy has recently suffered since the bombing last year and potential tourist’s general fear of tsunamis.  Their frustration is bluntly expressed on locally sold t-shirts that say “Fuck Terrorist” and “Fuck Tsunami”.  Can’t say I disagree.

So those are the Cliff’s Notes.  I am now back at Suk11 in Bangkok in transit to Ethiopia.  This place also feels like home.  Two French girls are playing a fierce game of Boggle to my left and two fifty-something American academics are discussing life abroad behind me.  The thickness of the air is being cut by a fan on full blast  and Jimi Hendrix is sweetly wailing “Red House” in the background.  I just had an amazing bowl of green curry chicken and will be heading to bed shortly.  The %$&^$# photos are not uploading right now, but I promise to have them up soon. 

Bagoosly Yours,

G