The Bad Boy and the Magic Mezuzah

I finally made some time to write about the happenings of last night.
The story from my point of view starts in the afternoon. I entered the room and found a new guy sleeping on one of the top bunk beds.
No luggage visible, dirty feet, red face.
I let him sleep and also took a nap. The temperature was around 29 centigrade with very high humidity the weather report spoke of "felt 31 centigrades" ...
After getting up and enjoying a cup of coffee on our balcony, i realized as i walked back into the room, that the stranger also woke up and greeted him with a calm "Hi" and a smile. oh, no reaction. He just stared at me. I went to the lavatory and as i was just out of the door, i hear him jumping out of his bed and making some expression, that i could not understand but sounded like swearing or cursing. "At me ??" I thought, but did not pay any further attention, as in a hostel there are permanently people moving in or out, some very tired because of traveling or other reasons, my policy is to just let them be until a moment arrives to maybe have some conversation.
A while later i met James, the friendly guy from Australia in the lobby that also stays in our room and asked him if he already met our new roommate, which he denied. He wanted to get up early to reach the Jordanian border before noon.
I went to bed after a nice walk at around 23:00, James already was asleep.
I woke up at 2:50 by this new guy standing in the room talkig rubbish, obviously to himself. As i set myself up and looked at him silently, somehow expecting him to say an apology or at least a "hello" of some sort, he just made a confused to aggressive impression. I felt a strong wave of negative energy, which i partly blamed on the full moon and my high protein intake the day before.
Wordless i got up and went down to the reception to make sure, this guy is not some kind of stranger that smuggled himself into the hostel and they are in posession of his identity details - for all cases.
Avi, the receptionist of duty was very undestanding and went upstairs to tell him to be quiet.
I waited some minutes, in the lobby where only one Japanese guy was sitting with his laptop unable to light the cigarette i had brought with me.
As i returned to the room, Avi was on his way downstairs saying all is cool, the stranger whose name was Simon will be quiet now.
Good. But i was on max alert as being disturbed in my sleep is something that really pisses me off, as some of you may know.
So i went to the balcony to finally smoke a Camel in order to relax and sleep afterwards.
Simon came out as well asking for a lite. I asked where he came from, He said "Belgium" so i said, "Dont you greet people in Belgium", "Sure we do" he replied.
While we had a small conversation, him apologizing me explaining, that all is cool as long as there is some kind of communication and respect, he extinguished his one third smoked cigarette just to ask for it to be lit again.
Patiently i lit it, but already got a little tense and made sure he understands, that there is no messing around with me, although i tried to be friendly.
We decided to go to sleep, and as i was lying down, trying to relax, he jumped up again, cursing and starting to "look for something" with his hands among my stuff.
I jumped out of bed again. By that time James also was up and Simon left the room, saying "Ok, i leave ...".
On the balcony, smoking, James said he had locked the door the only possible way : from inside .
Not being sure if this would solve our problem for the rest of the night, we decided to go downstairs and consult Avi about this misbehaviour.
Avi said that Simon apparently left and he will not let him in again.
At this moment, something dropped just in front of the hostels main entrance.
We thought, now Simon is pissed and throws things against the glass door.
As i looked closer i saw that nobody threw anything.

It was the MEZUZAH, that had jumped off the door post.

Avi went out and fixed it again, murmuring "I will not let him in again." .
James and I went upstairs and after some time fell a sleep knowing that Avi would by no means let the guy in again, specially not after the mezuzah "speaking".
I woke up by hearing James saying "That guy, he took my camera ..." !
We found the empty bread box used to stash James' 2000 USD Camera later in an empty neigbouring room.
Simon who had left his sandals behind returned in the early afternoon with a bandaged arm, that was supposedly broken in a fight near Mugraby Hostel on Allenby as James found out while searching for traces of Simon and/or the Camera.
He claimed his passport was stolen, picked up his sandals and was made to leave immediately by the managment.
We tried to follow him, but being both unexperienced with close observation lost him quite fast.
I am pretty sure that he has something like a base in the close neighbourhood, maybe an abandoned building.
After having lost his track, we decided to examine one of the possible houses, that looked like they were easy to enter, although most doors and windows had been closed with bricks.
We went up an outdoor stairway, found a hallway cluttered with empty water bottles. I decided to go up front to take a glance at the room that appeared to be at the end.
As i made it to there, not without making some noises, i saw a scared lady sitting in a somewhat furnished room, aged maybe 45-50.
I quickly apologized and we left the ground as quick as possible.
Now James is a real cool, friendly and positive guy and decided not to be worried about the Camera and the lost Data, but to be happy nobody was injured except this weirdo himself and he already thinks of buying a better camera once back to Australia ...
Despite the negative energy i immediately felt emerging from Simon, we cannot be sure that he HAS taken the camera as there are other people around and James did NOT lock it up as suggested, which sureley WAS a mistake.
So remember when traveling and when residing in a fixed place, that it is YOUR responsibility to protect your belongings and your friends and family, as there are negative energies around all over and Murphy's Law is valid even in this beautiful country of Israel...

Holidays and travelers stories ...

Today was the first day of Sukkoth, the annual celebration of the 40 years the children of Israel spent in the desert in temporary huts after escaping slavery in egypt.
Many people spend their time outdoors or in nicely decorated ritual huts with a loose roof, built specially for this purpose. Most restaurants and supermarkets are open though.
I myself plan to go to the Negev at least for a night while this week long celebration. Let us see if i can make up my mind, life in Tel Aviv is so relaxed and cool ...



Today i had a longer chat with James, a guy from Australia. We met three weeks ago here at momoshostel.com in Tel Aviv and he actually told me about the Hebron Hostel in Jerusalem, that i spent a week in.
He has been traveling for almost a year now with a special Around the World Ticket, that would cost him 1800 USD per continent, providing 5 Flights in each continent - any distance.
He spent most of his time in South America though and i had to ask why, what was so fascinating about that part of the world, to spend 8 months out of 12 there ...
He showed me a couple of breathtaking Panorama Pictures he took while hiking in the nature there and i was quite impressed by the sheer beauty i saw. Beyond description, i immediately understood why this part of the world can take some time if you enjoy nature !
Ok, he is 23, so walking with donkeys for a couple of days, to finally climb 10 hours up a mountain, take a picture and climb down 6 more hours and all that several thousand meters above sea level is still more easily manageable ...
He also told me stories about the Carneval in Rio, and Macchu Picchu and that he would not have had time for the Amazonas or its delta ...
But, the maybe most exotic part of our conversation may still be the story of the San Pedro Prison in La Paz.
I will not go into details here, a book has been written about this institution and i heard a first hand report from someone who was there a few months ago and said it is common use even for tourists to bribe the guards and sort of visit the prison and its inmates ...
Here is the link to the site of the book : http://www.marchingpowder.com/
Get an impression yourself ...
Apart from that, i enjoy the kosher food here and the gym equipment and the beauties and the beach ....