Stuck in Russia, ehm, Eilat
After being told by more than one Israeli that Eilat – the most southern city of Israel – was really worth checking out, we figured we might as well go there and cross into Jordan from there. We got on the Bus from Ein Gedi, and found ourselves in the city center of Eilat 4 hours later. (Bus connections with Egged, the national bus company, by the way, almost rival Swiss ones: Comfy seats, working aircon, and they pretty much leave on the minute…and they’re cheap: CHF 12 for a 4-hour ride is quite the bargain). We were initially only...
read moreRelaxing in En Gedi
Swimming in the Dead Sea: check. And it was really fun. An experience that is worth to be on one’s bucket list. We were told to enter slowly into the water and sit down as soon as the water became knee-deep. We followed the instructions and suddenly floated on the water. There was no chance to dive – or maybe we just would not try because of the absurdly high amount of salt in the water. En Gedi is a rather small nature reserve on the shores of the Dead Sea. We stayed in the local youth hostel between the Dead Sea and the nature...
read moreJerusalem – A lesson in tolerance
The old town of Jerusalem looks like a “hidden object” game from the top of the Church of the Redeemer. The entry ticket to get up there costs 15 NIS per person (CHF 3.75) and is quite a good investment. Especially for me, for I finally get an overview from a distance of this densely populated area with its narrow, crooked streets. It’s easy to loose orientation, it all seems a bit confusing. Speaking of confusion: I am standing on top of a christian church, listening to the muezzin (islamistic call for prayer) that shout...
read moreTel Aviv – a place to live?
We felt quite relieved to leave Athens after our not very pleasent experience with the local pickpockets. After the most in-depth search of our luggage we’ve ever experienced by the security guys of the Israeli airline El Al (we were quite relieved they didn’t take out the white gloves) and a short flight, we landed at Ben Gurion International Airport, just to find out that the guys delivering the luggage were on strike. I’m sure we know every inch of that arrival hall, we walked the entire length so many times… We...
read moreParos, Greece
Paros may not be the first island to pop up on any do-not-miss-list in Greece, but it turned out to be a quite beautiful place nevertheless. Almost 3 times as big as Santorini, it still seems small enough to get around easily with the ever-present scooter. While it’s got quite some hills, there are no huge cliffs like in Santorini, but an abundance of beautiful beaches instead. Santorini still seemed in full tourist high season, where as Paros was beginning to slow down already. We learned that our hotel would only be open for another 3...
read moreSantorini, Greece
The sun is shining bright over the barren landscape of Santorini. Thira once was the name of the island until the Venetians brought in Santa Irini and renamed it – the island with white buildings and blue church domes, all in the colors of the Greece flag. It is September and the season is still in full swing. Santorini offers lots of attractions. We rented a quad to explore the island. A vehicle like that can be found on almost every street corner and it is actually quite fun to drive around with. Towards the west, the buildings get...
read moreOvernight train with the Raildude(s)
Not wanting to miss out on the overnight-train experience in the Balkan, we decided to take the one from Belgrade to Thessaloniki, taking just over 15 hours and passing through Macedonia. Being the correct Swiss citizens we aspire to be, we reserved to “couchettes” in a six-couchette compartment. Upon walking in, we found every last inch of storage space occupied with random cardboard boxes of the elderly (assumingly) Macedonian couple who was already in there. We decided to deal with that issue later on, and set our focus on the...
read moreBelgrade, Serbia
This city showed us that it is not only the first impression that counts.We arrived at the train station that resembled a old unused rail track. We started walking towards our booked Airbnb with all our luggage – our backpacks, that is. After 40 minutes march past bombed houses (assumption of the author) as well as architecturally quite awesome buildings, green parks and busy streets, we arrived at Knez Ruzveltova number 13. The street is named after Franklin D. Roosevelt. Our Airbnb turned out to be a real bijou. The hosts had...
read moreZagreb, Croatia
Zagreb, Croatia – somewhat of a black hole for the both of us. We literally had no clue about the city, and therefore didn’t expect much. We were pleasantly surprised, though, so much that we decided to stay another night. The city itself is very appealing. Relatively clean, friendly people, and perfect for strolling about. There are literally dozens of museums, and one we like in particular: The museum of broken relationships. It’s exactly what the name says: It features stories of broken relationships of people all over...
read moreAll by ourselves
Trieste, Italy, 15:00 on Thursday, September 4, 2014: The time has come. Our starting companionship left us to resume life as we know it back in Switzerland. Goodbye, Simon and Daniela (and Manuel, who already left at 4:00 in the morning). It’s on. We’re off by ourselves. World, here we...
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