tourism

Here's another Israeli tourism commercial that I copied from here. It seems to be a part of some funny semi-official 'cum' to Israel campaign, which tries to exploit certain imagery and link it to Israel, see other examples here. Arguably, the campaign is done in bad taste, but it captures and ironically presents exactly what sits in many tourist minds. And it's done with a dose of humour. I find it much funnier than, for example, the Lithuanian tourism leaflets with the most popular female names and space to write a telephone number to, or the famous erotic Riga airport ad (it was long ago, so I couldn't find it on google). And, of course, certainly funnier and in better taste than the Danish sex tourism ad.

But hello, Israel as a sex tourism site? This is already a joke. Israeli women are legendary for their post-army toughness and are known to be 'hard to get', while women of the world, who are certainly lesser consumers of sex tourism, might think twice about Israeli men after hearing "Hi, what's your name, are you Jewish?" type of introduction for the first 10 times.

Personally, I prefer Shalom and especially this commercial, which, I think, represents Israel quite well. Here they try to make it cute.

Due to relative peace between Israel and Palestine, hordes of pilgrims hurried to Bethlehem, West Bank, in search of spiritual excitement of being close to the places where, according to the Bible, Jesus was born. For the locals it is a great opportunity to sell whatever tradable there is.

Thanks to Ulpan Gordon, I could see the most well-known places in Jerusalem with a fun tour guide. We visited Yad Vashem, had lunch at a mall near the big stadium (oh well...), went to the famous spot for panoramic views, visited the Old City with particular attention to the Jewish Quarter (of the four), and finished the visit with the Western Wall.

It's a bit more than an hour since I returned from a lovely trip to Estonia, and I want to start with the freshest impressions. Those come from Tartu, the second largest city in Estonia. Tartu is known as a student city with a laid-back character. Everything is more or less within a walking distance, so Tartu people consider everything far if it can only be accessed with public transport. Tartu is biking-friendly, with many comfortable open spaces.