Nablus... Finally

A couple of weeks ago I had the chance to finally go to Nablus for non-work related reasons. When I lived in Nablus upon first arriving to Palestine, I was restricted to the west side of the city and was not able to explore the city on my own. Since then I have been back several times; however I have only been for meetings at the university sometimes followed by a quick stop for kanafeh. The weather was perfect so myself, O and V headed out towards Nablus. Up until about a month ago the Huwarra checkpoint was extremely difficult to enter in a Palestinian plated car; however recently Israel opened up the checkpoint so that those entering the Nablus area are allowed access trouble-free. Getting out is a whole different story.

Once inside, we visited Joseph's Tomb, which has been the location of a number of conflicts between the Nablusians and nearby Jewish settlers, drank delicious cocktails (not of the alcoholic sort), meandered around the Old City, met a butcher who has been doing business for decades, treated to a drink while buying roasted nuts, given entrance to a men-only hamam (Turkish bath), saw some of the most beautiful barber shops known to man, visited ancient spiceries, given a history lesson by an old man who owned an antique shop, ate kanafeh at the most well-known place in Nablus, saw kanafeh making stunts that could possibly kill someone, saw the sunset while driving on an abandoned road, smoked nargileh on top of the world, and waited at a checkpoint (on the way out) for what seemed like an eternity.