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            Welcome to Been there. Your tips on the places you know - that you love,
            live in or have just visited - are what make this guide.
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                <title>Qalandia checkpoint</title>
                
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                <description><![CDATA[No self-respecting Guardian reader should visit Israel and the Palestinian territories without experiencing the brutalist modern architecture of the massive checkpoint at Qalandia between Ramallah and Jerusalem.<br><br>You can visit Ramallah from Jerusalem - catch the no. 18 bus from the bus station close to the garden tomb by the Damascus Gate - and be whisked past it. You're not a security risk leaving Israel.<br><br>Catch the bus back and it's a different matter. Keep your ticket 6.50 NIS (about £1.20) as you'll be leaving your bus at Qalandia and getting onto another one on the other side.<br><br>Queue with your fellow passengers and admire their patience as they wait to go through the turnstiles.<br><br>Feel for the people trapped in the turnstiles between 'groups'. A woman carrying a toddler was stuck for 20 minutes despite calls to the guard to let her out while I was there.<br><br>Wait for the Stasi-like guard to check your passport only to discover it's a bored Israeli teenager dismissively shrugging you through.<br><br>Admire the chutzpah of the Israeli 'welcome' notice - 'have a pleasant stay in our country!'<br><br>Be thankful that you're a tourist and you don't have to do this every day to earn a living.]]></description>
                
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