Israel

I've been thinking, this country is so strange. They listen to Greek music?! on public transport, people so loud all the time you think they are fighting; dirty, sordid streets, parrots in the palm trees, cumin scent, smell of weed. 

There is this typical Mediterranean vegetation, with lemon trees, palm trees, sycamore and cypress, etc. Then all of a sudden you can see some kind of coniferous trees resembling fir. There are limestone and some kind of reddish rock, my guess is they are sediment rocks with iron. I think all of Mediterranean is pretty much made up of sediment rocks, lime and iron. 

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A Hasidic Jew or other, popped out of nowhere to help us get around and we didn't even ask him for help. There are kind people everywhere. It makes you grateful. Incidentally, how do I know he was Hasidic? Easy. I read somewhere that these people tend to be cordial and generous, ready to render assistance to those in need of assistance. Besides, he was dressed in black pants and white shirt and even though one of his eyes wandered off to another corner, his eyes were beaming with joy. That`s how you know for sure. The joy is the sign.

Jewish cemetery

An afterthought

My friends and I were having dinner in a small joint near Cinema Hostel and there was a party of very warm-hearted, relaxed and gregarious people. One of them asked us where we were from, and upon hearing we were from Serbia and after exchanging other cordial words they finished their meal and got up to leave. One of them came up to our table continuing his conversation with my friend, the contents of which I cannot recall now. As he was turning to leave, he told me that I should smile more.

A-ha! He kind of figured me out in just one glance. He was right. I should smile more. He wasn`t giving me a compliment. Nor did I take his interest in me as one. It was something deeper than such superficiality as a compliment could ever offer to me. What I sensed or read between those ephemeral lines he offered to me was almost of a lucid-dream-like quality. Was it a dream or reality, or something in-between? 

It was a genuine human care for the other fellow human being. He spotted something about me and he said it without batting an eye if it was going to be misunderstood. I gather that some people would be feeling defensive, or rather I might be feeling like that ten years ago. Now, as I grow older I realize that this was like a friendly warning, a nudge to move me into the proper direction. It was as if he said: "You have everything. Why worry?"

Maybe I don`t have everything but I think this man got the point. I was a bit sad and feeling lonely and misunderstood by my friends at that moment. I can`t even recall what was that they did or said that made me sad. All I remember was "you should smile". I will try to do that more in the future. All you can do is try, right? Everything is going to be all right in the end. If it isn`t all right, then it is not the end. Right?

Note: all photos are mine