A week ago, on Thursday April 21st, my cousin and I ventured to Ramallah... on our own. The experience was a mix of exploring, shopping, cousin seeing her old friend, but eventually, frustration.
As expected, getting there was no problem. We found parking and then started on our walk to check out the shop-filled streets. I bought a dress at a Mango store within 5 minutes of being there... What can I say? I know what I like and I'm a quick shopper LOL =) It wasn't noon yet and the streets were filled with shoppers. It seems people in this country are early-risers, but I've also noticed that when it comes to some foods, some prefer to buy what they need on the day it will be cooked rather than to stock up ahead of time. Guaranteed freshness, right? While I might be used to "getting moving" later on in the day, here the hustle and bustle of life starts quite early.
As we ventured on, all we saw were shops, shops and more shops, many of which have what I consider to be funny English names. It was also interesting to be roaming the rugged, narrow streets only to hear a radio blasting Rihanna and other typical American songs... right. My wandering eyes eventually caught a big green and white label, and I soon realized I was greeted with Ramallah's very own version of Starbucks, renamed... "Stars and Bucks." Yes I did have to laugh at that one, and just had to snap a picture. As anywhere else, you see some dressed in more religious attire and others mixing it up to make it fashionable, with matching colors/purses/shoes, etc. Speaking of shoes. I think out of all the stores we saw, we mostly saw shoe stores... my goodness. No shortage of that here, and of color variety either!!
All went fine, until we decided to head home. The main checkpoint in Ramallah is the Qalandiya checkpoint which is the one that gets the worse traffic and is notorious for ridiculously long waits. It happens to be located off the main street, which we figured wouldn't be so hard to find. Big mistake. We soon realized how much Ramallah is lacking in adequate, if any, road signs, so that we drove around for at least a good 30 minutes, looking for signs leading back to Jerusalem, before realizing that we were heading towards other unknown towns. We asked for directions at least 4-5 different times from people, police and Palestinian soldiers until we finally found the road to Qalandiya. But that in itself was only part of the solution, as there was terrible traffic ahead of us. We knew another, easier checkpoint to go through to get home besides Qalandiya, but required a longer drive, so we realized we'd be sitting in that traffic for some time. The worst part? We needed a bathroom. Sure it sounds silly in retrospect, but things like this just serves to remind you that 1. always look for/use a bathroom when you can because you never know when you'd be able to find one next and 2. in some parts of the world, you can't just 'park your car on the side' and go look for accomodations, etc. The traffic is such that your car is just stuck there and there is absolutely nowhere to go but straight ahead, period.
As expected, getting there was no problem. We found parking and then started on our walk to check out the shop-filled streets. I bought a dress at a Mango store within 5 minutes of being there... What can I say? I know what I like and I'm a quick shopper LOL =) It wasn't noon yet and the streets were filled with shoppers. It seems people in this country are early-risers, but I've also noticed that when it comes to some foods, some prefer to buy what they need on the day it will be cooked rather than to stock up ahead of time. Guaranteed freshness, right? While I might be used to "getting moving" later on in the day, here the hustle and bustle of life starts quite early.
As we ventured on, all we saw were shops, shops and more shops, many of which have what I consider to be funny English names. It was also interesting to be roaming the rugged, narrow streets only to hear a radio blasting Rihanna and other typical American songs... right. My wandering eyes eventually caught a big green and white label, and I soon realized I was greeted with Ramallah's very own version of Starbucks, renamed... "Stars and Bucks." Yes I did have to laugh at that one, and just had to snap a picture. As anywhere else, you see some dressed in more religious attire and others mixing it up to make it fashionable, with matching colors/purses/shoes, etc. Speaking of shoes. I think out of all the stores we saw, we mostly saw shoe stores... my goodness. No shortage of that here, and of color variety either!!
All went fine, until we decided to head home. The main checkpoint in Ramallah is the Qalandiya checkpoint which is the one that gets the worse traffic and is notorious for ridiculously long waits. It happens to be located off the main street, which we figured wouldn't be so hard to find. Big mistake. We soon realized how much Ramallah is lacking in adequate, if any, road signs, so that we drove around for at least a good 30 minutes, looking for signs leading back to Jerusalem, before realizing that we were heading towards other unknown towns. We asked for directions at least 4-5 different times from people, police and Palestinian soldiers until we finally found the road to Qalandiya. But that in itself was only part of the solution, as there was terrible traffic ahead of us. We knew another, easier checkpoint to go through to get home besides Qalandiya, but required a longer drive, so we realized we'd be sitting in that traffic for some time. The worst part? We needed a bathroom. Sure it sounds silly in retrospect, but things like this just serves to remind you that 1. always look for/use a bathroom when you can because you never know when you'd be able to find one next and 2. in some parts of the world, you can't just 'park your car on the side' and go look for accomodations, etc. The traffic is such that your car is just stuck there and there is absolutely nowhere to go but straight ahead, period.
So, sitting in bumper to bumper traffic, cringing all the while... We took the longer route and it seemed like we'd finally be reaching home in a few short minutes until the car died... just steps away from the other checkpoint we'd driven all this way to reach. My goodness. It was like the ride home was destined to last forever... We tried to re-start the car several times, without luck. My cousin's husband quickly came to the scene to try to figure out the situation. He stayed on with the car while we drove home fast because yes, we still needed that bathroom and had been waiting an hour by now to use it (really not good for the bladder, in case that's a surprise to anyone). I will say I have never before felt such relief to reach home...
In terms of the car, it seemed it had over-heated and it went unnoticed, so that by the time we had reached the checkpoint, it had reached its limit...?? I'm not sure and this still puzzles me, when we are told this never happened to the car before. Go figure. A nice thing amidst the craziness: while we waited for my cousin's husband to arrive, a car pulled up and a Jewish man came over to try to help us out with the car situation. I already would have been surprised for that gesture back in CA, but here in Israel/Occupied Territories where tensions abound, this stood out even more in a lovely way.
Lessons of the day? Even for my cousin who has lived here her whole life, it may be wise to consider how 'adventurous' one is willing to be. Honestly, I wasn't really frustrated by the whole thing as much because I saw it as part of the experience... Part of me had indeed thought, "hey we might get lost, but we'll just figure our way out..." which we eventually did do. But the bathroom and car dying thing? Would have never seen that one coming in a million years. Next time we go it will surely be with people who know the area... and with our own cars (we had taken someone else's car). The bathroom thing has also been rather painfully noted. Perhaps these issues wouldn't have been a big deal in the States, but here? Where many streets lack names, probably don't appear on a map, with construction being done all over the place, and one hill looking exactly like the next?
Lessons of the day? Even for my cousin who has lived here her whole life, it may be wise to consider how 'adventurous' one is willing to be. Honestly, I wasn't really frustrated by the whole thing as much because I saw it as part of the experience... Part of me had indeed thought, "hey we might get lost, but we'll just figure our way out..." which we eventually did do. But the bathroom and car dying thing? Would have never seen that one coming in a million years. Next time we go it will surely be with people who know the area... and with our own cars (we had taken someone else's car). The bathroom thing has also been rather painfully noted. Perhaps these issues wouldn't have been a big deal in the States, but here? Where many streets lack names, probably don't appear on a map, with construction being done all over the place, and one hill looking exactly like the next?
Hey, you live and you learn. =)
