Israel from 5th-12th July. I didn't manage to see any sights in the north (galilee, Nazareth, golan heights...) because I ran out of time - I spent too long in Egypt. I stayed in Jerusalem for the week in a hostel where I met about 5 other travellers I already knew from dahab. I slept on the roof most nights which was fun to begin with but the novelty soon wears off and the early sunrise and drunkards falling on you gets annoying.

On the 7th I did a day tour to Massada mountain, dead sea, Qumran caves (where the dead sea scrolls were found) and Jericho (the lowest settlement on earth).

On the 8th I did a tour round bethlehem. Saw where Jesus was born (nativity church), where the shepards lived and also the 'milk grotto' where Jesus was first breastfed and apparently a drop of milk fell on the black rock floor which immediately turned the whole cave White. We also saw the church of the holy sepulchre (where Jesus died in Jerusalem).

9th was Shabat (Jewish holiday every Saturday). I wanted to travel to the north but there is no transport because Jerusalem is so holy. This is the day I bought my 'super jew' tshirt, when jews aren't allowed to buy or sell anything. We watched the Jews praying/partying, singing and dancing in front of the wailing wall on the evening of the 8th (Shabat starts at sundown on the Friday).

10th we went to the dome of the rock and the holocaust museum. Dome of the rock is where the foundation stone of an ancient temple (which the wailing wall is a remnant of) is kept but you're only allowed to see it if you're Jewish. Also the Arabs decided to build a mosque in this area which is basically like a Jewish Mecca. And the christians believe this is where Jesus will soon return. They believe he will walk through an archway and down a hill but the Arabs blocked up the archway and buried corpses in his path to try and stop him (Jews cant walk on a grave - it's a sin).

11th my last day we went to Hebron and Bethlehem and witnessed how repressed the Arabs are in the west bank especially in Hebron. In an area called H2 in hebron many thousands of arabs used to live happily. Now just a few thousand are left because life there is so poor. There are 400 jewish settlers in H2 and 2000 israeli military personnel to protect the jews from the arabs. The military claim any Arab building they need to use as barracks or watch towers and the residents have to find a new home. All emergency services and hospitals and military/police in H2 are to serve the Jews only, if an Arab wants to go to hospital they have to walk to the security checkpoint and into H1. The Jews have welded the doors shut on almost all the shops the Arabs once ran, and they feel it is necessary to divide the road in 2 - one half for Jews, the other for the dirty Arabs, the Jews obviously get the bigger half, in fact it's about twice the size. All the Arabs houses look like cages because of the protection they need on the windows from the Jews throwing stones and rubbish. The jewish houses look brand new and expensive with floodlight snd speakers on the outside, they use the speakers to play loud offensive music to the arabs. There are areas where only Jews can walk (the Jews can walk anywhere) and if an Arab walks there they would be shot, so instead of walking 200m down the road the Arabs have to walk about 2km through hilly graveyards to get to the same destination. Sometimes the children can't make it into school (which has 'gas the arabs' graffitied on the gates) because it is too dangerous when the Jews are throwing rocks at them. There is a mosque here which the Jews have stolen half of and turned into a synagog and there is a security checkpoint (run by Israelis) at the entrance to both sides.

We also went to bethlehem again and saw banksys graffiti and the wall which is covered in graffiti including some more of banksys.

Went to Ben gurion airport in tel aviv to catch my 5am flight to Barcelona. The security people weren't so happy to see my emergency passport, a Quran, evidence of me learning Arabic and the fact that I spent 3 months in Egypt alone staying with locals I met when I got there. They searched through everything I had and questioned me for nearly an hour. Then a big beardy man took me into a scary White room with curtains. He made me remove my shoes and belt and undo the top button of my flies. Then the had a good search around first with a metal detector, then with his hands then with a piece of paper on a stick (looking for traces of explosives). Eventually everyone was satisfied and I got escorted to the gate where I was first to board and they forgot to charge me the 90 shekels they are supposed to charge everyone who leaves.

I am now in Madrid on 21st July and have just killed a gigantic bedbug, just when I thought I had got rid of them.