Posts Tagged ‘travel’

Some people would never plant fruit trees in their yard because they hate the mess.  For a couple weeks a year I totally get their point.

Today is the first day of school in this part of the world.  The news is raging about a predicted up-swing in Swine Flu cases, hospitalizations and deaths because everyone is sending their kids to school, while reminding everyone to send their kids to school.  Ah…?

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It was nice to see Justine again. On Tuesday she flew over from Manchester to Chicago, then hopped in a rental car and drove straight up to Wausau for the Open Boat Nationals that begin tomorrow. On the way she stopped in at the house for a quick chat.  My hope is that we’ll get a chance for another quick chat when I get over to the UK in September.  It’s a very weird thing how we make friends at such distances, stay in touch by email, blog and twitter and then only stand in the same room once or twice a year.  Speaking of distant friends, I’m twisting one distant friends arm to come and paddle a bit of the west coast of Scotland with me. Lord knows he’s done it enough.. Someone’s got to keep the silly mid-westerner safe in those tides!

Many miles away there’s a shadow on a door
Of a cottage by the shore
Of a dark Scottish lake
– the police

A new day, a new bowl of Haggis! Well, something like that anyway.  Thanks to everyone for their emails and encouragements. It’s hard sometimes to translate emotions to print but I’m certainly not down or out. Speaking with Kelly last evening I’m sure he’s more disappointed than I am, at least in the fact that I can still get my stuff together continue my Nessie hunt. The only real change comes in that I have to pick up on some logistics and at this point, maybe even those original plans will still go through. Plus there are lots of good folks around that I’m sure I can pester someone to give me a ride to the water’s edge.

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I close my eyes, only for a moment, and the moment’s gone
All my dreams, pass before my eyes, a curiosity
– kansas

It’s that time again.  The time where I can’t let another day go by without making one decision or another about my upcoming paddling adventure. This time of course,  it’s Scotland.  Some of it is easy enough.  Buy this, buy that, read this, read that.. take notes!  What is different is that with a little experience I’m trying to travel as lightly as I possibly can.  Traveling light is harder than you may think given my past BCU training.  You come to believe that anything less than everything is irresponsible. I still remember the days when I carried practically 2 weeks worth of gear just to teach a class because that’s what a “hard core” coach did. Or at least I thought so.  Read the rest of this entry »

I remember long ago -
when the sun was shining
Yes and the stars were bright
All through the night
And the sound of your laughter
As I held you tight
So long ago
- genesis

A phrase I’ve heard a couple times recently has been sticking in my mind. It goes something like this. “Circumnavigations are not important, they just provide a logical place to stop”. There is certainly no reason to not to go around something and there’s no reason not to make a note in the records of your life if you were “first”. But I’m beginning to realize that I could be content if I never go around something again. I will, certainly. . (see “provides a logical place to stop”). But I don’t want to miss the point of kayaking either. The kayak for me is there to take me places I may otherwise not be able to reach. When I get there, I should damn well enjoy it! Read the rest of this entry »

There’s something happening here
What it is ain’t exactly clear
There’s a man with a gun over there
Telling me I got to beware
I think it’s time we stop, children, what’s that sound
Everybody look what’s going down
- buffalo springfield

“It’s fine. Very safe.”, she said. Of course I think we were on different subjects. She told me anyone could feel comfortable walking down the streets in most parts of Israel. Yeah, I agree. I saw this. But the concept of safety and peace take on a whole other meaning when you are having the conversation in Israel. The trick is finding the borderline between truth and paranoia.

When I first began to tell people here at home that I was planning to go to a sea kayaking symposium in Israel, I was enviably asked at safety.  People here in the states mostly see only one Israel, the one on CNN. During the election we were swamped by the “Israeli Situation”. Having a large and powerful Jewish population, our president must of course have a stance. I mean, that one guy was a Muslim right!!? In addition the coming election also had some ethereal relationship to Iran. There were reports that Israel was contemplating air strikes on Iran’s nuclear facilities on or near the elections, even to the point of seeking approval from our current president.  You certainly can understand why some would question taking this trip simply to paddle. Still, people are often filled with reasons not to do something.

I was sitting in Charles de Gaulle airport in Paris waiting for my flight to Tel Aviv. A man in traditional Jewish dress walked up to me and asked, “Are you Jewish?”. “No”, I said. Without pause he walked away leaving me feeling as if I just said I was a leper. In truth he was gathering men together for a prayer for the flight. For this traditional Jewish sect a certain number of men are needed to give power to their prayer. Soon there was a group of some dozen men standing just a few feet from our gate bowing and praying. I watched this quietly for a time, then went to grab another coffee.

Our plane circled in on the orange lights of Tel Aviv. Looking out of the window I could see the city lights spreading far into the distance and disappearing into a black horizon. Out of the corner of my eye I saw a bright flash of white light that startled me out of my thoughts. I watched more attentively. Flash! I caught it that time. It was lighting. A storm was moving in from the sea. I continued to watch the storm light up the darkness until the chime tone signaled that we should all replace our seat belts and the plane began to make it’s quick descent. Touching the ground, the jet engines let out a roar as they pushed back against the momentum of the heavy passenger jet. Many people on the plane erupted with a loud cheer. I could’nt help but notice this.  It’s not often people cheer when you land.

Ben Gurion Airport in Isreal is not an overt military encampment. You don’t get the impression you are walking into a war zone as I had been told. In fact this is probably one of the most impressive airports I’ve been in so far. The beautiful concourse is spread out in a circle around a fairly large pool of water. Every few minutes artificial rain fails from the 2 story ceiling filling the room with a sense of a calm summer day. Security exists only for the observant, and even then it sort of sneaks up on you like ghosts who appear only in the mirrors as you walk by. Eventually you become aware of the immense security. There are plain clothed agents everywhere, with only a small radio at their sides to give them away. You do not see military figures draped in automatic weapons, yet you sense that simply with the click of a button one of these plain clothed individuals could call in a ninja like shot out of nowhere. Later when I had a chance to talk about this with someone they mused that in the States we use showy display to ward off danger. We bare our teeth and dare the enemy to make a move. In Israel they make no show of force, they simply take you out and move on.

In asking later about safety in Isreal it’s understandable that the discussion took the form of law and order. There is a distinction. There is crime, and there is war and terrorism. Two different subjects. Lawlessness in not apparent, however like anywhere you don’t leave your camera gear in a car. Yet the average person cannot take simple steps to protect themselves from bombs and missiles. This is be left to the military. The average person has to find their own little blind spot when it comes to such things. One would go crazy if they spent too much time focused on the terrorism. So questions about safety are often viewed through the lens of civil law, and not through the wider angle lens of the “Palestinian  Issue”. There are simply places you can go, places you can’t and the rest is left up to God and the powers that be. Some things in life are beyond your control.

Coming from the outside your first glimpse of the what the Palestinian dilemma means in real terms is a bit surprising. Palestinian and Israeli are often separated simply by a single highway and miles of fence. Sitting at a gas station along the highway, I could look west into a unremarkable cityscape and the other into a Palestinian settlement filled with flat white buildings centered around a Mosque. Each culture lives side by side, shoulder to shoulder. Still one could not simply take an exit to drive in the Arab neighborhoods. In fact those highway exits do not exist. One cannot get into or out of these areas without a pass and by moving through limited military check points. The separation is absolute. Yet, it’s also much more complicated than that. In places Arab and Israeli neighborhoods are intertwined in ways that one can’t imagine how they could stay apart. Neighborhoods sit upon neighborhoods in an apparent jumble, however somehow the separation is maintained. Again the casual observer would not notice at all but for the occasional high walls, barbed wire and armed checkpoints. The signs are there, but not always so obvious.

To further complicate things one cannot easily identify who is who or what is what. Isreal has many Arab and Muslim populations. Simply being Arab or Muslim as those sane among us know,  does not imply an enemy. Race and religion are not precursors to violence among most. There are of course Arab areas that are gems of Israel and should be on anyone’s Itinerary. In fact we spent and evening in a Druze village on Mt. Carmel and while it was certainly a different cultural atmosphere, you felt very welcome. Israel has spent decades learning a lesson we in the states are just really starting to take to heart. Muslims are not the enemy, intolerance and violence are, and while they may have hijacked some loose identity, they are not representative of most people. You cannot look at someone on the street and say, “He is the enemy.” Simple prejudice does not work. Even in an area where conflict is sometimes palpable one cannot make such simple judgments.

Certainly all the news we get here sparks a sense of fear. There were times when I felt a bit of apprehension, especially the first couple days. Times when I heard gun shots in the distance or low rumbling compressions from somewhere over the horizon. In the end the shots were from a nearby firing range. I saw smoke rising from Arab villages on two occasions, both times in a big black “whoosh” that quickly disappated. Probably just garbage but you could’nt help but note the imagery.

As you can see from this post I can choose the images that produce a certain impression,  certainly real, even if not wholly accurate.  That’s the problem with the way Israel is presented to us.  I remember a moment driving through Jerusalem. We were slightly off track in the Arab part of the city.  My mind wandered into how easily one could be dragged from a blocked in car and disappeared down some dark street.  These dark images force fed by the media can permeate your consciousness.  I shook off the image by starting a conversation and getting on with playing tourist. The reality is of course that thousands of tourists and thousands of people are just moving through their daily lives and if you’d never seen a TV you’d probably not realize there was a shadow of strife lingering out there in the rocky deserts beyond the holy land. For my part, I’d return again in a heartbeat. The reality is I felt safer traveling the highways of Israel than I have driving down some murky streets right here at home.

Go ahead and start the video clip and listen along while you look at the following images. This is what I heard in my head as I stared out the window flying home. . . Read the rest of this entry »