The Nation Demands Social Justice

At the Carmel market in Tel Aviv you can buy 5 fresh bagels for 10 shekels. But at Rabin square that evening the same 10 shekels would only buy you two stale bagels. This is because at the protest only one vendor was selling bagels, hence they had a monopoly. The bagel seller is not the only one taking advantage of a lack of competition.

In June, Israelis began a boycott of cottage cheese because the three producers of the staple were charging unreasonable prices. The boycott worked, but protests against the high prices of retail goods, unaffordable rent costs, government corruption and lack of social justice continue.

While protests are common in Israel, these have been different. The movement is far more peaceful than usual with an alliance between religious and secular, Jew and Arab. The majority of demonstrators are the employed middle-class who cannot afford to live in Tel Aviv even with a decent wage. The protests are related to others seen around Europe and some have even suggested inspired by the Arab Spring.

The photo below was taken during the day and shows the posters advertising the rally. It starts with the "slogan" of the movement being Ha-Am Doresh Tzedek Chevrati - The Nation Demands Social Justice.

There were supposedly 20,000 people the night we were there, which is impressive but well short of the 400,000 strong crowd at the peak in September.

This Israeli flag hangs at the end of Rothschild Boulevard, which during the summer housed tens of thousands in tents.

Two Days in Tel Aviv-Yaffo

Nachlat Binyamin Craft Markets

Shuk HaCarmel (ie Carmel Market)

Some children in Rabin Square found a dead pigeon interesting. I found them interesting. Do you find me interesting?

Eyal (Yasmin's brother) took us around Tel Aviv for the day

A graffito in Yaffo

The view of Tel Aviv from Yaffo

An Ethiopian wedding

We saw something very Israeli, a road accident. The risk of being killed in a road accident in Israel is nearly four times higher than the risk of being killed from terrorism. As far as we know, this motorcyclist survived (or at least that's what he is tweeting in this photo).

 Fun and games in the middle of Rothschild St.

Haifa, Israel

On our first day in Israel we made a quick trip to Haifa and specifically the Bahai gardens.

Most of the gardens were closed though

I once lost a fridge here. But that's another story altogether

Road Trip - Paphos to Larnaca

On our final day we drove along the south coast of Cyprus with our first stop at the ancient city of Kurion. 

Did I mention that Annouska (Josh's sister) was with us in Cyprus and also for a bit of Israel

We also went to Aphrodite's Rock, the birthplace of the Goddess of Love. The legend says that if you swim around it you will have eternal beauty. This is the three of us celebrating our new attractiveness

Finally, we went to another psuedo-country, the Sovereign Base Areas of Akrotiri and Dhekelia, which are under the jurisdiction of the United Kingdom. Since photos weren't allowed, this picture of the beach at Dhekelia is the only evidence that we went.

Overall, we had a pretty good time in Cyprus. But we wouldn't recommend going out of your way to visit.

Paphos, Cyprus

Next up was Paphos which began with a traditional game of Timberrr. (Not to be confused with the more popular and trademarked game of Jenga) 

By the way, Yaz lost

Other than a beach for British tourists, Paphos also has a Tomb of the Kings which has no buried kings...

And an archaeological park.

Troodos, Cyprus

After a couple of hot days in the capital we drove to the Troodos Mountains for some hiking. Please see below for details of said hiking.

Nicosia, Cyprus

On the way to Israel, we stopped for a couple of days in Cyprus. The first city we visited was Nicosia/ Lefkosia. It's not the most attractive city but it's an interesting place to see, as it is divided between Northern Cyprus, a country only recognised by Turkey, and Greek-Cypriot Cyprus. 

The centre of the city is surrounded by walls in a very unusual design (see below) built by the Venetians in 1567. While they may look cool on a map, I wouldn't advise building your own fort like this cause they were overrun by the Turks in 1570.

So as we said, the most interesting bit of the city is a restricted UN no-mans land. It is even illegal to take photos, so here are some drawings that I did on MS Paint.

Of course, since we are trying to go to every country in Europe we had to have lunch in the Turkish side just in case one day it becomes a real country. This is the Selimiye Mosque bearing the flags of Turkey and Northern Cyprus.

Some clay figurines and statues at the Cyprus Archaeological Museum

On Sunday all of the Filipino and Indian carers go to the park. Here is a volleyball game in which NO ONE IS WATCHING THE BALL!!!!

Goodbye Zante

Although we were planning to leave Zakynthos on the Tuesday, we ended up staying until Friday the 21st Oct due to a series of Greek strikes. It seems the Greeks like working almost as little as us.

Most of the week was spent going to the port and asking when the strike would be over, but we did do a few interesting things.

This is Tsilivi taken from the Balcony Hotel.

After much searching Andre (Yasmin's dad) finally found the Jewish cemetery of Zakynthos.

Story from wikipedia

The 275 Jews of the island of Zakynthos survived the Holocaust. When the island's mayor, Carrer, was presented with the German order to hand over a list of Jews, Bishop Chrysostomos returned to the Germans with a list of two names; his and the mayor's. The island's population hid every member of the Jewish community. When the island was almost levelled by the great earthquake of 1953, the first relief came from the state of Israel, with a message that read "The Jews of Zakynthos have never forgotten their Mayor or their beloved Bishop and what they did for us."

The main town on Zakynthos called Zakynthos Town

This is Marathonisi, the turtle island in Laganas Bay. It both looks like a turtle and is where the caretta caretta turtles lay their eggs each year. Yaz saw a dead one but has no photographic evidence.

Once we realised we were stuck we made the most of it. We hired a buggy and quad bike with Annouska and Jake (Josh's cousin) to tour the island.

Zakynthos has over two million olive trees, how many can you spot in this picture?

We went to Alikanas, Xigia beach, Keri and the Shipwreck lookout...