First Impressions of ISRAEL But Feels Like PALESTINE S06 EP.57 | MIDDLE EAST MOTORCYCLE

First Impressions of ISRAEL  But Feels Like PALESTINE  S06 EP.57 | MIDDLE EAST MOTORCYCLE

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These cities are so green. Welcome to Nazareth. It has all the vibes of an Arab city. We are making our way through these narrow streets.

How did you get it inside? It's not Israeli. Because when most of the Palestinians were expelled from these areas in 1948... I have got shekels by using my credit card here.

German from Pakistan... There's a place in this church... A grotto... Like a cave... Assalam Alekum and Welcome Back to the Channel from Palestine and Israel.

Right now I'm in the first town that comes after border crossing. But I didn't go inside the town. There's a place next to the town that has shopping malls.

Well not really malls... but more like outlets. There are many restaurants here. Along with many shops.

So I stopped here and had a meal. It's now time to move on. Today we are going to visit Nazareth. The largest Arab population of the country is in this city.

Here you'll find Arab Muslims as well as Christians. It's a holy city for Christians. So I'll try and explore the holy sites here.

We'll also visit the old souq. Anything interesting and important... we'll explore it together. Our ride will take a little more than 1 hour. The distance is about 45 km. But because of the traffic, it will take longer than it should.

Anyways... let's get going. We are gonna have this experience together. Bismillah... In the name of Allah... *Prayer for the journey* May Allah make this ride and trip a safe and memorable one. I pray the same for all my viewers. I was looking for an ATM here...

But couldn't find one. Secondly, most of the information here is in Hebrew. That I can't read. So we'll keep looking for an ATM. Need to draw money in case we do find an ATM.

However, my German credit card is working here. The city here is called Beit She'an. There are some Roman ruins in Beit She'an as well.

But I don't plan on visiting them. I think I have already shown you enough Roman ruins. But we will explore numerous other places. This road goes to Tel Aviv and Jaffa.

We have actually taken the wrong road. We should have taken the one before this one. When I had the internet, I downloaded the maps. The internet from my Jordan SIM was working here near the border area. Not anymore. So we need to buy a SIM card from here.

Let's see if we can find an open shop. I have already booked a hotel though. Hotels are really expensive here.

Hotels as well as restaurants... In fact everything. I think this is going to be the most expensive country of my tour. There's a school over there. A driving school. It's quite windy out here.

I hope you can clearly hear my voice. The sign boards here have three languages ​​on it. Hebrew... English... And Arabic. Well... we are about to witness our first traffic jam here.

Apparently it's quite a big one. There is an estimated delay of about 20 minutes. Will try to get through it. These cars will definitely be here for another 20 minutes. There's an off road patch over there.

Some people are going there. We have gradually made it through the traffic jam. Just a little more to go. Apparently they have blocked the way due to some construction.

The guy in this truck was kind enough to let us through. This area is really green. I actually feel as if I'm traveling through Germany. That's how green it is over here. Jordan was also quite green. But it is much greener here.

I'm talking about the area we are traveling through at the moment. It might not be true for the whole country. The cities here are quite green.

I mean just look around... It's trees all around. I saw quite a few motorcyclists here. At least a dozen of them. And I've been here for less than an hour. Most of them were riding adventure motorcycles. The locals might be using motorcycles to avoid traffic jams.

Must be a lot easier on motorcycles. Look there's a train. Looks like this region has railways as well.

Well, the train was just standing there so I can't say if I've seen it operational. I'm trying to watch and learn from these motorcyclists. How to get through this traffic. So that we could adjust ourselves to this traffic as soon as possible.

I'm just trying to follow these motorcyclists. Looks like there's been an accident here. I've no idea what he was saying. I think he was telling me not to go to the other lane. But I wasn't even trying to go there. I was just trying to stop at one side.

Whenever I see a policeman here, I tend to be extra careful. Welcome to Nazareth. The first destination of this tour.

Let's see if we can find our hotel easily. Or it's gonna make us work for it. If the Google coordinates shared by them are correct, then it's gonna be okay.

Another couple of minutes to go. People here have nice cars. Rangeeli (my motorcycle) showed a little protest as we were complimenting others' cars.

She showed her displeasure and turned the engine off. I'm getting the vibes of an Arab city. Lets see...

If our abode for the night is within city center or not... Looks like the city is closed at the moment. It's Thursday. Has to be a working day.

This is the city bazaar. A lot of shops are closed at the moment. Could be the afternoon break. A midday break in the hot weather is not unusual. The shops shouldn't be closed on a weekday afternoon.

But more than half the shops are closed. Anyways... we'll find out why. I'll ask my hotel guy. We are making our way through these narrow streets.

The hotel can be here.... Lets just park aside and ask someone. So... after a little effort we have finally located our hotel. There it is.

Right towards the end. Assalam Alekum I have a reservation here. It's Mariam Guest House, right? Hi How did you get it inside? It's not Israeli. It's a German registration plate. I came from Germany.

Are you coming from Syria right now? No. From Jordan. So you came via Turkey? Turkey. Iran. Iraq. Kuwait. Saudi Arabia. Jordan. Syria. Really?? Yes.

You take photos with that? Yeah. Sometimes I record while I'm riding. For road accidents? No. No. Just to make videos. OK. Okay.

This is the room where I'm gonna spend this night. I've paid almost 61 dollars for this. There's also an attached washroom. Actually I had booked some other room.

But they told me that the person staying there requested for extension. That's why I got this room on the 3rd floor. I swear it was not easy getting all my luggage up here. However, the best thing is that we have a great view of the city from here. A Muslim family owns this place. They have some extra rooms in their house that they rent out.

So it's sort of a guest house. I have confirmed it from them... As we discussed previously that most of the people here are Arab Muslims. When most of the Palestinians were expelled from this region in 1948, only 20% of them remained here.

Their population in the whole country was around 220 thousand. So they were given the Israeli nationality. Today their population is over 2 million. The people here have Israeli passports now. That's for most of the people in this region. Most of the people in the West Bank have Jordanian or Palestinian passports.

More about that later. Let's go out and take a round of the city. Most of the places may already be closed.

But still we'll try to capture as much as we can. I've reached a plaza that is 10 minutes walk from my room. There is a very important place in this plaza. It's called Bir Mariam. Bir is Arabic for well. So this is Mary's well. She used to get water from this well.

The source of this water is the Greek orthodox church in the background. There's no water here anymore. It's more like a memorial now.

There are quite a few cafes, bars and restaurants in this area. It's quite a lively area. Old town is merely a 10 minute walk from here. So lets walk towards the old town now. I have used my credit card to get shekels here. You can see 200 shekels in my hand.

2 notes ... 100 shekels each .... I expected to get more notes. But they have only given me 2 notes of 100 shekels. 1 dollar gives you about 4 shekels or so. Let me just confirm it. 1 dollar gives you 3.5 shekels.

For now, I think 200 shekels are enough. My credit card works here and I don't have to pay any extra fee. I use Barclay's card.

That's for all those who ask me which credit card I use. German from Pakistan... I've just come back from the church.

It is closed for tourists at this time of the day. One can only go there for praying in this hour. So, prayer was in progress. I was allowed to go in so I captured a little. Couldn't record much. They'll open it again in the morning.

The souq here is also closed. So I came to a place to eat because I was really hungry. He's calling me because my food is ready.

You are welcome to Nazareth. Thank you. And this one's special. Which veggies do you want? Everything? Everything. There you go my friend. Thank you very much.

I paid 10 dollars for this burger. Things are really expensive here. Such high prices will balance out the effect of previous countries in this tour.

Let's eat the burger now. After that we'll roam around a bit and then rest. Tomorrow we'll explore all the churches and important places here in full detail. This is the first time that I'm visiting a poor Arab Israeli city.

The Arab cities that I've visited here previously... They come under the Palestinian Authorities. For instance Hebron and Bethlehem.

Haven't visited them in this tour yet. You'll agree to the observations that I made here. We are gonna explore those cities as well. People here have a rather high quality of life.

You can see expensive cars on the roads. The houses are great. The city itself is quite expensive.

When you buy something, you realize that 10 dollars is nothing. It's sort of a bare minimum that you pay here for anything. When we'll visit those other Arab cities, you'll see a stark difference.

You'll see a huge difference in the quality of life between these cities. Lets now go to the city and show you the church and the souq. I'll keep on sharing more info with you as we go. This is the Church of Annunciation. One of the holiest churches of Christianity.

As I mentioned earlier... Jesus Christ (pbuh) grew up in this city. I've just visited the church. There's a place in this church. A grotto... or a cave. It is believed to be the house of Mary.

And this is the place... Where the archangel Gabriel brought her the message of God... That she's gonna be the mother of a great prophet. That cave was very well preserved... And a church was built around it. A large number of people visit this church to pray.

Besides, there's a very unique and impressive church on the second floor. The dome that you can see behind me belongs to that church. I think this is the most beautiful church I have ever visited. It's a very unique place that stands out. I haven't seen any other church that resembles this one in style of construction. The artwork and mosaic work inside are really marvelous.

Very impressive indeed. Then the pictures on the windows and the colors used in making them.... The light entering the church through these windows look really awesome.

The current building of the church is not a very old one. It was constructed in 1960. However, before that there was originally a Byzantine times church.

Then the crusaders built a new church on the ruins of the previous one. And then those foundations always remained in use. Even during the times of Muslims, churches were made on the ancient ruins. Although not very old.. but this current building is amazing for sure. This is the souq of Nazareth; not a very big one though.

Not very crowded at the moment. May be it's still early in the day and shops are still being opened. As the day progresses, more and more people will be seen here. Then it will look like other souqs of Middle East. Many of us wonder why these people accepted Israeli nationality.

The reason is simple... They don't have any other option. Either you leave the country and go settle somewhere else. Otherwise you have to take this nationality if you want to live here. There isn't any other option.

Otherwise ... life cannot function here.. and there won't be any future. Many of us have our own assumptions about this situation, sitting in our homes. But it's not that easy.

Anyways... if you liked this vlog, don't forget to hit the Like, Subscribe and Share. Remember me in your prayers. We'll show you another amazing place in the next vlog.

Lets finish this vlog at this point. Allah Hafiz

2022-10-25 16:56

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