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mallah, 10km north of Jerusalem and currently serving as the de facto administrative capital of the State of Palestine, also the place I just spent the last couple of days exploring. Occupying one of their bright, yellow minibuses, we traveled 1 hour from our new home to arrive in the bustling city. The extensive amount of energy hit me the moment the bus doors opened, spreading
over the vast city center. A familiar greeting of dust and smoke wafted over, followed by and...... I don't know, what ever it was smelt heavenly! Oo and that too! The smells pulled me in every direction while colours twinkled from every angle. The fruits, lights, banners and umbrellas all of different shapes and sizes, not to mention the people.Walking through the sea of shoppers, I hear people telling me strange names of the different foods that had previously caught my attention.
mallah, 10km north of Jerusalem and currently serving as the de facto administrative capital of the State of Palestine, also the place I just spent the last couple of days exploring. Occupying one of their bright, yellow minibuses, we traveled 1 hour from our new home to arrive in the bustling city. The extensive amount of energy hit me the moment the bus doors opened, spreading
over the vast city center. A familiar greeting of dust and smoke wafted over, followed by and...... I don't know, what ever it was smelt heavenly! Oo and that too! The smells pulled me in every direction while colours twinkled from every angle. The fruits, lights, banners and umbrellas all of different shapes and sizes, not to mention the people.Walking through the sea of shoppers, I hear people telling me strange names of the different foods that had previously caught my attention.
Everythin
g was new and exciting. We followed the days antics by heading to a local bar, yes BAR! As Ramallah is a city, they are more receptive to western cultures and things they would class as haram (bad). Of course the bars were run by Christians but that was only possible as Ramallah holds a large portion of Romania's Christian population. It was a truly pleasant evening bonding us Brits and our local colleagues in a multi-cultural environment, alcohol, shisha and good music!
g was new and exciting. We followed the days antics by heading to a local bar, yes BAR! As Ramallah is a city, they are more receptive to western cultures and things they would class as haram (bad). Of course the bars were run by Christians but that was only possible as Ramallah holds a large portion of Romania's Christian population. It was a truly pleasant evening bonding us Brits and our local colleagues in a multi-cultural environment, alcohol, shisha and good music!
Our early morning start didn't begin till midday, however we did begin it with smiles. Heading to get our delicious falafel, we shocked the empty streets and the close store. It was so quiet like you'd expect at home if you went into town at 6 am on a Sunday. Juma'a is their holy day and it lands on a Friday so only very few people work. Muslim faith states that they should not buy or sell during the noon prayer, therefore most stores remain closed all day.
One place that energy buzzed around was the falafel joint. Apparently everyone went to this one place on a Friday, but as usual we did not regret joining them in the mad rush! It was a fantastic start to our trip in Ramallah but was only the start of our day. Our next step brought us back to reality in a conference based on the politics and policies in Romania.
Do you mean Romania??
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