messiestobjects

Everything's Up In The Air At This Time

I'm in Pennsylvania! Always nice, visiting home. Last year my Dad moved to Bangor, so that's actually where I am now, not Stroudsburg, but I went in to town yesterday to buy some underwear and socks and junk... saw my friend Christy, ate dinner with Chris who I worked with for a long time in Baghdad. It's also good seeing my family. My brother and sister are doing well, as are my Dad and Erin.
There was a time when the idea of ever coming back to live in the Stroudsburg area was the most horrible thing I could imagine, but yesterday, when I was driving around, I kept thinking how nice it would be to have an apartment and a car and money here... when I lived here before it was always hand-to-mouth, but that's changed for me now.  I think it's mostly just because there are things here, like grocery stores, book stores (with books in english...) and really good pizza... not to mention Vinny D's which makes the awesomest roast beef sub EVER!  Things that I didn't realize I missed so much back in Baghdad... I'm sure any place in the States I chose to settle at would have similar stuff! But also, I know the Pocono area pretty well, and I guess it's just comforting to be somewhere like that.
Anyway, enough of that. I also feel that way about Germany, so don't get any funny ideas! I'll be leaving for Ohio with my family tomorrow, back on Saturday, hopefully I'll make it to NJ on Sunday to see my family there, then it's back to Paris on monday, and I should arrive in Baghdad on the 1st. At which point any number of things could happen. I'll keep you posted.
Jen, If you read this, I'll be in Paris overnight on the 29th... we should have dinner. (8!)

Houston, we've got a problem

So, when it rains, it pours... We were in the zero-g flight briefing, had our flight suits on, and they had to cancel it... Some sort of mechanical issue with the plane again. Double Bummer!!! 
So kind of a wasted trip, sittin' here in my hotel room in Ft. Lauderdale. I leave for the airport tomorrow morning at 5 am to go to Pennsylvania. They let me keep the flight suit.
Anyway... that's all. Sorry, no good adventure story this time...

On Weightlessness and Freefall, metaphorically speaking

So... I don't know if anybody's noticed, but my boss has been arrested and indicted for defrauding the government. (Defrauding? Shouldn't it be frauding?) It's been in all of the papers and his picture was all over ABC news the other day. So I'm pretty much out of a job. I'm going back to Baghdad to tidy things up before our client makes us leave... and then I'll be in limbo for a while, I guess. Sigh. It's very upsetting... I knew Phil was a bit shady, but he seemed like a regular business guy type... pretty much like every other business guy in Baghdad. The papers are saying some pretty nasty things about him, much of which I suppose is true.  I do know, however, that the Iraqis who worked for him are some of the highest paid Iraqis working for a US company in Iraq. The people working under me were paid 2 or 3 times as much as Iraqis working similar jobs at other companys in the Green Zone, and because of that I thought of my boss as a good guy. I'm really disappointed that it's turned out to be this way... I guess Al-Jazeera is having a field day with all this. I'm going to miss working there. I'm really going to miss my Iraqi friends... I feel worse for them about all this than anything. They are going to be out of work quicker than I am even... Phil has really screwed alot of good people over because of this.
Anyway, I'm in Ft. Lauderdale at the moment... I'm going to do my Zero-Gravity flight a little bit later this afternoon, and tomorrow I'll go to Pennsylvania. I may have to cut it short and head back to Baghdad earlier than I had planned, however... people are quitting and the camp is going to start falling apart pretty quickly. I just need to get there and help Scott, who's filling in for me, keep it together long enough to tie up some loose ends and get paid... It is really bad timing that this has all gone down on my vacation, I should be there.
Jen, I totally missed you on the last two posts! I'm really sorry, I don't know where my mind was. Anyway, at least I got you for # (7!)
Also, I've added a Mont St. Michel gallery at my smugmug page, and added some new photos in my Paris gallery.

Cigarette Noir

One of my favorite writers once wrote, and I'm paraphrasing because I don't have the book with me and my photomemory skills suck, "You can do anything you want. Do what you have to do, BUT you must be willing to pay the price. Too much of the evil in the world is caused by people who are not willing to pay the price." 
Anyway, the reason I bring this up is that I did something very wrong tonight, but I wanted to do it, and before I did it, I convinced myself that I would pay the price... it's never easy, paying. I went on a day trip to Mont St. Michel, which has a neat little aside: Way back, when I first went to Germany and bought my first car there (around February of '98, maybe...) I bought a European road atlas, because I had all these big plans to drive all over the place. I did pretty good, actually; I went on several roadtrips. But anyway, on the cover of the Atlas was this picture of this awesome lookng place, which I knew I had to see... but the Atlas didn't say where the picture was from! I asked a number of people if they knew what the picture was, but nobody could tell me, which is actually sort of pathetic, because as it turns out it's a famous place in Europe, a Unesco World Heritage site. But I got discouraged after awhile, and just carried the Atlas around in my car for 3 years (3 different cars, actually) hoping someone would comment on it eventually... no one ever did and I put it out of my mind... so much so that it's a good possibility that a few years later I may have inadvertently heard what it actually was, and it didn't register in my tiny little brain! I say that because, when I saw a picture of it the other morning in the lobby of the hotel I'm staying at, I instantly knew that it was, in fact, in France... Northern France, in Normandy; Mont St. Michel. Ahhhh.
So that's not the very wrong thing that I did tonight, in case you were wondering. That came later. But I went to Mont St. Michel's and it was awesome! It was so cool, seeing that picture that I had in the back of my mind for so long in real life, finally! And I got some of my own pictures, I might add... I felt like I had to tip the sheep for being so obliging in one of the photos... good stuff. It was rather a sublime day.
I got back to Paris around 7:30pm... took the Metro back to the Pigalle area where I'm staying. And for those of you who know about the Pigalle, I know you're thinking that you already know what it is I did, but you're wrong.
As I was walking home, I passed Le Chat Noir, The Black Cat, which is a piano bar in Montmartre. I think it's famous... I've seen pictures of that black cat on postcards all over the place here. Anyway there were a couple of guys in there playing music; One on guitar and one on violin. I immediately thought of Django Reinhardt & Stephanie Grappelli, so I went in to see... they were doing Django Reinhardt & Stephanie Grappelli stuff. Awesome! I love jazz violin, it's so rare. So I sat down and had a beer. I was in such a good mood. A day at Mont St. Michel, a beer, and guitar & violin Jazz... I was so relaxed, I did the bad thing. I bummed a cigarette from a total French stranger and smoked it. It was sooooooooo good. Probably the best one I ever smoked.
I quit smoking at the end of February this year, and I've been really proud of myself for not smoking for 8 & 1/2 months. Your sense of smell returns, taste, clean clothes, clean teeth, and it's amazing that you didn't notice all that stuff before when you were a dirty dirty smoker.
So maybe you're wondering what, exactly, is the price I have to pay for smoking that cigarette? It's not in becoming a dirty dirty smoker again.... that would be easy, too easy, because smoking can be soooooooooo good! No, the price is that I can only allow myself that one, because I was in Paris, in a good mood, with violin & guitar jazz and a beer, and I allowed myself the pure enjoyment of it, with the price that I couldn't give in to the easy decision of having a 2nd, incredibly good, cigarette.
That's actually the reason I'm writing this.... to forget about the urge to go have another one. It's early, the jazz will go on for a few more hours, but I'm in my hotel room typing, not listening to violin jazz any more, because I'm paying the price I made myself pay.
Do whatever you want. Whatever you need to do. But accept the price, and pay it. If you can't pay, then don't buy. Hard stuff, but good.

Franks and Beans! or, Too much Bush makes everyone jaded

You know what I don't hear enough of anymore? "What do you think of George Bush?" There was this game that Europeans, Australians, and all other non-American profligate travellers used to play; Every American traveller you come accross, ask him what he thinks of George Bush. I think they even had a point system, but it changed part-way through Bush's first term. At first it was that they got more points when they got an American Traveller who did not approve of Bush. Then they began to realize that %95 percent of all Americans who had the stones to leave the country and see how the more civilized parts of the world behaved knew that Bush was no good, and they changed it to more points for an American that actually had anything remotely positive to say about him.
Now, they don't even ask anymore... It's been ages since I had that conversation. I think the last time I was asked was on my trip to Morocco, while Christy and I were in that cafe, waiting for the bus to Marrakesh... there was a Kiwi couple in there that we spoke with for a few minutes before that creepy guy asked us if we were Ahmed's marks... (for THAT whole sordid story, click here) and they only showed a passing interest.
I think that the world has their answer about what we think about George Bush. Either that, or it's even worse and they simply don't care about what any American has to say about anything any more... Seeing as how we gave up our voices when we re-elected the great dicktator, I can't say I blame them. At any rate, the world has certainly formed  their own opinion of him, and no longer needs an insider's perspective, anyway.
Anyway... just an observation.
So Paris was fun today. I went to the Catacombs under Denfert Rochereau... It's this place where they took a billion bones from an overflowing cemetary somewhere else in Paris and made the biggest Death Metal band music video set EVER.  It's about 20 meters underground, and it's just creepy as all get out. Blocks and blocks of walls of bones. I got pictures. I also went up the Eiffel Tower... something I didn't actually do the last time I was here. Yup. It's a big tall tower. After going up in the Mig-25, I found it difficult to produce the proper squeals of terrified delight that everybody else in the little tiny elevator did, but it was neat. Killed the afternoon, anyway.
I like Paris... that whole thing that everybody says about the French making an art out of living... joi de vivre and all that... I get  that. I think that's a true stereotype. The restaraunt was invented in France. Everything the French do, from building design to napkin holders to lampshades, is usually all artistic and pretty, for no particular reason. Very cool. The other stereotype about French people, especially Parisians, being snobby, is untrue. I have not, this time or last time, met a snobby Frank. I'm sure they exist, and I'm sure that the  majority of A****le Americans that come here pretty much ask for the snobby treatment, but I myself have yet to experience it. Actually, the Jews I ran across in Jerusalem were 50 times snobbier... in fact I didn't meet a friendly Jew. Being God's chosen people might have that effect... just a thought.
I guess I'm rambling.

Down & Time-Out in Paris

I'm in Paris... not really sure what to do with myself. I have a couple of days before I go back to the States. I've already been here... Plus I think the tap water in Moscow or St. Petersberg has made me a bit ill, so I was in no mood to go anywhere after arriving here. And by the time I get going tomorrow, I doubt I'll feel any different. So I guess I'll try to enjoy myself... in Paris... for a few days... poor me, huh?
Anyway, a Space Adventures representative met me at my hotel in Moscow this morning to take me to the airport, and she gave me the disc with all of the photos they had taken of my Mig flight day... not the video, unfortunately. It's not ready yet. But I've posted the new photos in the same gallery on my smugmug page and mixed them up with my own to keep them chronologically accurate, and I updated most of the captions.
So Jen, are you and Erwan in Paris? Got time to meet up for some dinner? (6!) I am going to try to fly to Florida on the 18th, so I'll be here until then.

Cold and Indecisive

So I've just spent two days in St. Petersberg... that was nice. Not as cool as Moscow, but it's a very pretty city... or so everyone keeps telling me. It was cold, rainy and windy the whole time I was there, and it all looked like a grey, scaled down version of Moscow to me. But it was relaxing... spent alot of time in restaraunts and museums just to get inside.
Anyway, now I'm back in Moscow and I fly out tomorrow morning to... well, I'm not sure yet. My ticket is a return ticket to Amman, Jordan, with a flight change in Paris... I'm thinking of just getting off in Paris. My friend Jen lives in Paris! (5!) It's a shame I've already been there... but with Amman being a new spot of terrorist activity, I don't really want to go there at the moment, although I will have to on my way back to Baghdad. I stayed at the Hyatt that got bombed the first time I was in Jordan, and this past time I was there I ate dinner there twice... they served an awesome steak, and a good steak is unheard of in Baghdad, so I was craving.
Anyway, I may fly directly to PA from Paris, or I may spend a few days in Belgium... I'll decide on the flight tomorrow morning. Although I guess Belgium isn't having the best weather this time of year, either. I've already spent a stupid amount of money on this trip, so I'm having alot of trouble figuring out what to do... grr. All I know is that I'm supposed to be in Ft. Lauderdale Florida on the evening of the 18th, so that I can do that zero-gravity flight.
Ah well, decisions decisions. Anyway, I got a link in my email today from Scott to a good news article about what has been going on in Iraq since Bush landed on the aircraft carrier... I won't call it what Bush called it, "The end of military operations in Iraq", because that's laughable. Anyway, it's a bit old, and rather long, but it makes more sense than anything else I've seen about the whole mess over there since I got there. Go Here.
Anyway, all of my pictures from Russia, including ones from Moscow I hadn't made available before, are now posted on my Smugmug page. I started really getting into Black & White shots for some reason... and I took way too many Onion Dome church shots, but some of them are nice. Check 'em out!

Flying my brains out

Today I got my Space Adventure. IT WAS WORTH EVERY PENNY AND I'D DO IT AGAIN!! Wow. WOW. I got to fly in a Mig-25, flown by a famous Russian pilot named Alexander Pavlov, to 25,000 meters, about 82,000 feet high, ( 25 kilometers, or about 15 miles high... woohoo!) to the top speed of about Mach 2.8 (2,131.4 miles per hour, 3,430.1 kilometers per hour... yeehaw!)... When I post the pictures on my Smugmug page, you'll notice that I took a picture of the Altimeter and Speedometer every so often, but at the peak of speed and hight I didn't snap one, because that was the purest moment of euphoria I've ever experienced and there was no room for thought... I was weightless for several seconds, I have no idea how long, really. The weightlessness was caused by the altitude and the arc of the Mig-25 going over it's peak, which also caused me to have a slight buzz...Looking down at the Earth and up at the Great Black. I was in Jerusalem five days ago, but this was, BY FAR, a much Holier experience.
  I also flew in a second plane as part of the package, the L-39, which is a subsonic acrobatic training plane. When I say I flew it, I mean that literally! When we got to a certain hight, the pilot handed me control of the stick... I was a bit of a wuss with it, I must say, but then he hadn't yet shown me what the plane could do... side rolls, loop rolls, straight vertical dives, vertical ascents, combinations... the best one was this one where he went straight up, then stopped the plane... we hovered, fell straight down tail-first, and then did this sort of figure 8 roll where the nose came backwards over the tail and partway through combined it with a barrel... I felt like a pretzel. It was pretty incredible, and I must say that it turned out to be %95 as cool as the Mig-25... especially when he handed over the control to me again at the end of his acrobatics. I was much braver this time... don't get me wrong, I wasn't up to doing any rolls myself, but I did a pretty steep ascent and then dive, and made some pretty sharp turns... That thing is a big toy! Aside from all of the more extreme forces involved, it was like drving a motorcycle in the sky! I never before realized how truly maneuverable jets could be... I want to buy one!
That South African TV crew was there, and they did do a quick interview with me after the flight... They say they'll send me a copy, but we'll see. I was the first to fly, because I was the only one doing a second flight that day, and while the 2nd guy was up, I was in the L-39. When I got back from that, I got to watch the one News Guy take off in the Mig... I think that If I hadn't been the first one to go, that would have scared me a little bit. It was like watching a rocket take off... which, actually, is what it basically is. LOUD and HEAVY and FAST! I didn't feel it from inside the Mig as much as I felt it from watching it take off... I keep thinking about something my friend Jeff Nimmer wrote to me when he heard I was going up in one: "Freaking Mig 25...you realize that when we were growing up...the military would have killed to get info on the Mig 25... [and they probably DID kill to get information on it...] and you're going to be riding one to sub-space...freaking sweet..."
So all in all, I can pretty much die happy any time now... I'll never top that one. (Unless someone wants to lend me $20,000,000 bucks for the International Space Station trip...? Or the $100,000,000 bucks for the moon ride that they're planning! Hey Jen, can you spare me a few Mil?) (4! Sorry I missed you on that last post... the title of it is all the excuse I can offer...)
Anyway, I am unbelievably exhausted... I'm still a tad light headed and my body feels like it's been put through a sandwich maker...  all them crazy G-Forces, dontcha know.

Cappucino Points!

Too excited to sleep last night, and resultingly feeble attempts to defend myself

AHHH!! It's 7:30 am, I'm leaving in a half an hour to go on my MIG flight! AHHH!

Also, yesterday was fun, but my prediction was self fulfilling; it couldn't possibly live up to the fun of the Communist Rally. (I was at a Communist Rally! In Moscow! In front of Karl Marx's statue! Awesome!)
But I got to tour Star City & the Kremlin, so that's still pretty cool.
Incidentally, I know I've gotten way over-excited about being in a Communist Rally... In case anyone reading this begins to think I might actually be a Communist, I feel that I should defend my self... A communist Rally! In Moscow! In front of Karl Marx's statue! AWESOME!!! ... because it was like something out of the history channel, not becase I dig on officially frowned upon forms of government.

AHHH!! It's 7:40 am, I'm leaving in twenty minutes to go on my MIG flight! AHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Better Red Than Dead, and other ironic circumstances.

Moscow. Is. Unbelievably. Cool. And. The. Women. Are. All. Amazingly. Beautiful. Every. Single. One. Of. Them. You know somebody is serious when they have to put a period at the end of each word, emphasizing the importance of each thought. That's why I did that like that. 'Cause I'm trying to emphasize that I'm serious. Not just messing around here, no sir-ee. I might just want to become Russian. Mail-Order American Husbands, anyone? Nyet? Ah well.
I had an official tour guide today, (she taught Greg Olsen, the 3rd Space Adventures client to go to the space station, how to speak Russian!) and she took me to the Kremlin's Armory and Diamond Fund, which were wicked cool. I saw a girl that looked almost exactly like my friend Jen there! (3!) We were supposed to do the Actual Kremlin and Red Square, but they were all closed off for the day because November 7th is a big important Russian Patriotic holiday; On Nov. 7th, 1917, Lenin took power from the Czars and Communism was born. On the same day in 1941, there was a secret rally and whatever happened at this rally caused The Soviet Union to enter World War II. So in 2005, there were protests, parades, and speeches in the area all day. It was awesome. I found myself in the middle of a big Red flag-waving fist-pumping rally for 3 hours this evening... people were waving the hammer and sickle all over the place and I saw alot of old U.S.S.R. flags (CCCP) ... Speaking of old, %95 percent of the protesters/ marchers/ whatever the heck they were were at least 60 years old... I think that the youth of Russia likes their cellphones and their shopping better than communism.
Apparently, this November 7th was particularly significant because it was supposed to have been cancelled this year...  Putin created a new holiday called the People's Day of Union or something like that and held it on November 4th, and made a speech in Red Square and everything, and it was meant to replace the other, older more controversial holiday of the 7th... only the people didn't seem to get into the 4th too much, and they all showed up as usual in front of Marx's statue on the 7th and did their thing, even excercising a bit of Democracy by calling shame on Putin for trying to cancel such an important Communist holiday. (Kind of the opposite of what we're doing in the States, which is our Government using Communist tactics to promote Democracy... interesting times, yes indeedy.) Got some great pictures; we're talking Time magazine stuff here. But that's probably because, since my camera was on for 2 out of the 3 hours I was there, I was bound to catch a few good ones... I deleted quite a few superfluous photos already.
Anyway, don't worry, Space Adventures has kindly re-scheduled my official Red Square, Kremlin, and St. Basil's tour for tomorrow afternoon. Which will be cool, but I don't know if it can top all the good commie stuff I got to do today.
And I fly in the Mig-25 on the 9th. EEEEEEE.

Holy Claptrap & Good Hypertrekking Points

I'm back in the U.S.S.R, boy.... You don't know how lucky you are (da na na, da na na da na na...) Sorry. Beatles. I'm in Moscow. Got here a couple of hours ago. Haven't seen much yet, except that they don't call it 'McDonald's' here, they call it 'MAKPOKKLOP' or something. I've figured out that the Cyrillic 'P' is pronounced like we pronounce 'R', but beyond that I'm totally lost. They have this whole other alphabet... one of their letters looks like a very large triangle squatting on a coffee table, and another looks like a neutered asterisk. I can see Red Square from my hotel room... for all that money I paid to Space Adventures, I bet half of it went to this hotel. Talk about overdone... well, I have internet finally, so I won't complain.
So I came out good on the EKG! Whew! No problems there. Except for that whole thing with the... well never mind. I won't bore you with my medical history. Suffice it to say, when I die, I WILL be famous in certain medical communities. At any rate, I am healthy enough to fly in a Mig-25. Yay me. Or, as my friend Jen might say; "I KNOW!!!" (2!)  
So Jordan was okay...I got all my Dental, Cardio, and Optical stuff taken care of, (5 pairs of glasses! 5!! They're so cheap in Amman!) and then I took a couple of day trips. I went to Jerash, which is an old Roman Ruin city, and Ajloud, A castle that some old Muslim king (I want to say Saladin?) built on a big hill one day, and the next day I went to Jesus' Baptismal site, took another dip and mud coat in the Dead Sea, and went to Mount Nebo, where Moses gave up the ghost.  Very nice. The next day I was supposed to go to Petra, but I had already been there before. As anyone knows who is well-versed in the rules of hypertrekking, (and if you're not, go here.) back-tracking is best avoided, as points can not be awarded twice for the same destination. So, having one day left before I had to catch my plane to Moscow, I threw all caution to the wind and headed to Jerusalem. The border between Jordan and Israel is THE MOST HORRENDOUS BORDER EXPERIENCE EVER. I had a day, but I did not arrive in Jerusalem until noon, and I was lucky. I will pass some info on here, to anyone  who finds themselves at that border in the future: pay the 100 dollars for the V.I.P. transfer service! I wouldn't have done it, except that I only had a day, and after seeing what happened to the poor slobs that decided to save a bit of money and go the normal route, I thank Jehovah on my knees every day that I did take the V.I.P. service, otherwise I'd still be waiting to have my colon searched, and thanking the border guards for the opportunity.
At any rate, without going into a full-blown book about it, I will give you my two largest impressions of Jerusalem from the 5 hours I spent there. The First: It is the most multi-cultural, multi-religious place I have ever seen, and I am in awe that it hasn't exploded yet. The Jews bang their heads on the Western Wall (I was there on Sabbath) which is the only "truly" holy site that the Jews have in Jerusalem. Right on the other side of the Western Wall, also known as the Wailing Wall, there is a Muslim Temple, which is the 3rd holiest site in the world for Muslims, which no one is allowed to enter, not even on the grounds, unless they are Muslim. This sucks for the Jews, because their Messiah won't be arriving until the Jewish temple is rebuilt there. I think that's why they bang their heads on the wall, but I could be wrong. My main thought here was, "Jews look silly enough with those funny hats, funny songs, funny dancing and really funny hairdos... banging their heads on the Wall probably isn't the best thing for them to be doing." But what's cool is that even though the Muslim Temple grounds are off-limits to infidels, I paid a guy 20 bucks to unlock the school door which abuts the temple grounds so that I could climb to the roof and sneak some photographs of the temple. I think that counts for some pretty good points.
The Christians don't really seem to have much of a presence in the city except for a few key spots... The stations of the cross of course, and a few churches. BUT... The Church of the Holy Sepulchre, which is located on the spot where, according to some long dead Greek Queen named Helena, Christ was whipped, nailed, hung, annointed, buried, and risen before Mary Magdalene, the church is a total Christian Denominational WARZONE! They have split the church into sections; The Greek Orthodox Christians have all of the good stuff, thanks to Helena, who built the Church in the first place. There is a particularly nasty fat bearded Greek priest at the door to Christ's tomb; I watched him grab a little old lady who was trying to cut in line to see the tomb and whip her around like a dead cat. There is a small section for the Coptic Christians; they have a piece of christ's original headstone, apparently, and burn lots of candles and incense. And you thought candles and incense was only for devil-people and pot-heads, shame on you. The Assyrian Christians have a small temple in the church, as well do the Ethiopian christians, perhaps more widely known as the Abyssinians. And the Franciscans... well, they seem to be the runts of the pack. They got Mary Magdalene's garden, where the angel appeared to her and told her to shut up, stop whinging, and go tell everybody that Jesus said "psyche!"... all of which brings me to the 2nd observation: Christians like to take really spiritual, holy things from their own religion, and bury them in churches. In the space of about 100 meters, I saw from Golgotha to all of the other places I just mentioned, and aside from the rocky top of Golgotha, which was displayed in a glass cover, I saw only marble, candles, and other holy claptrap. It appears that once something significant happens in the spiritual realm, the old Christians felt an urgent need to entomb it. And this is not the only place, because I also did a little mandatory border-hopping....
... And went to Bethlehem! Which is in Palestine territory. Great story. I asked a guy in the courtyard of the Church of the Holy Sepulchre if I could get to Bethlehem before it got dark... he hesitated a second, looked at his watch, and said, "Normally, no way. But today you are lucky; you've met me. I have a cousin in Palestine. He has a car. We will go to the border and sneak around the guards, hop in my cousin's car, and he will take you to the Church of the Nativity, then bring you back."  Sweet! So we went and saw the Church of the Nativity. Same thing. The actual birthspot of Christ, the manger (5 feet away) and the altar of the 3 wise men, all buried fairly deep within a church. Nothing to indicate that the description in the Bible had anything to do with the reality you were seeing. Lots of Holy claptrap. There is something deep and important in that idea, but I will leave it alone. Come to your own conclusion. Anyway... I spent the night in Jerusalem, got up early and came back to Amman... the border crossing was a little easier, but not much, really. Now I'm in Moscow, and this is no longer a blog entry, but a massmail. Sorry about that.
I'll be posting pictures from these trips at my smugmug page real soon.