no you're not getting kidnapped...now get in the minbus

man...
so yesterday was like the craziest day of my life.

Started out quite normal, went to visit the sisters of charity (my nun friends),
did some painting for them and stuff.
The day before I had walked to the British Council so I figured it was a nice day and all so I'd do the same today.
I got back to my apartment, cooked some noodles when I got a call from my friend telling me something about a kidnapping,
I couldn't really understand him but i reckoned i'd go to the internet cafe and check the news.
The news said something about an attack on the E.U. compound so decided walking was maybe not such a good idea, so I called my taxi-diver friend.

No, no taxi
you go home
outside is bad
inside is beautiful

I reckoned was probably solid advice.
A couple of hours later some of my friends arrived and organised an army escort for me,
so I get in this car with four blokes i've never met before.
I am in the middle of the backseat between two huge blokes with machine guns and we tear through gaza city.
The guys to my left and right lower their windows and sit their machine guns out the window as we approach a large croud carrying banners and burning stuff,

Should I hid my face?
the guy just smiles at me

The car meanders through the protest at a ridiculous speed and I am deposited at a huge military base where I am escorted into a large room which held all the remaining foreigners in Gaza.
They gave us coffee and stuff while the army cleared a path through all the road blocks on the way to the Eretz border.

They decide to send us out by convoy, so I get in a minibus with two american kids and a lady and two army guys.
We leave in convoy, the doors are open and the two soldiers block each door with their legs.
They lock and load their guns prepare to clear the path out of Gaza.
The convoy of about 8/9 cars proceeds to hightail it to the border,
driving a solid 80/90 miles an hour the whole way through side streets, packed streets, protests, and bonfire road blocks.
This part was alot of fun.

So we get to Eretz and a couple of hours later I'm in a car with my new friend Emilio, a spanish Associated Press photographer, and we're headed to Jerusalem.
This bloke was real cool although he did make me feel very insecure about my photography skills.
We grab a beer and a burger in Jerusalem and then he drops me to the Bethlehem border where I am met on the other side by friends who bring me to their home and more importantly to a pull out bed.
Where I slept.

The craziest day of my life.

A number of positives though,
One-If you borrow a book form a library (or a British council) and the following day the same library gets burned down, you may keep the book.
Two-I get to hang out in Bethlehem which is really cool.
Three-I had my first beer in a month.
Four-And most importantly....wait for it.......
I was on CNN.
how cool is that.