After a night of horrible sleep (our room was freezing! Turns out, the window was open) and a quick run, Julia and I took our bus to Tzfat. I was too awake to sleep and too worried about carsickness to read, so I mostly just looked out the windows at the beautiful country. I saw cows grazing by the road!
Once we arrived in Tzfat, our next task was to get to the hotel. The people on our bus were as nice and helpful as possible in getting us to the hotel. This concerned Julia, but she’s from Brooklyn, where there aren’t nice people.
It ranged from slightly to very rainy all day, but this didn’t stop us from walking around looking at the famous art. (I guess in better weather we would have seen more, but still.) The art was beautiful. Much of it has Kabalistic symbols. There’s also a little shop where you can get a snack of cheese made in Tzfat, a second hand store (I got a nice skirt, a scarf, and an ugly sweater vest to add to Mia’s collection of ugly sweaters), and a really cool candle store where they not only have the expected Shabbat and Havdallah (ceremony for transitioning from Shabbat to the rest of the week) candles, but wicked (I mean, a piece of string is in it, not Elphaba-related) wax sculptures of books, characters, flowers, and Biblical scenes. We were back in our room by 6, giving plenty of time for movies and relaxation, but I want to visit again in better weather and see more.
HLOTDTF
M- eating chick peas out of a can
K- nice people helping us on the bus
Jan 12
We woke up early to pack up, check out, and go to the Alma Cave. This last part didn’t really happen. The woman at the front desk told us (contradicting my tour guide book) that you can’t get there from Tzfat, and even if we did, this would be horrible weather, especially with bad drivers. We considered doing something else for the day, but decided to just get back to Jerusalem early.
Back in Jlem, we had great weather. I walked to the shuk and stocked up on food for the next few days, went for a run, and relaxed for the rest of the day.
HLOTDTF
M- watching “A Clockwork Orange”
K- being in my favorite park
*break*
Jan 13-14
While we wanted to do a short hike in the Jerusalem hills this morning, it was raining pretty badly. Before leaving for whatever we were going to do for Shabbat, the only time either of us left our room was to go across the street to the grocery store. A very lazy day. Doing nothing, there could be no HLOTDTF, so I’m just going to continue the story with Shabbat.
In the pouring rain, walking in a couple deep puddles, I walked to the hotel where Mia and her parents stayed for break. So as to not ruin any shoes, I wore my Shorashim, which may or may not be sandals, leaving my feet very exposed to the elements. But it’s ok; my feet were only temporary numb. The four of us walked to Roz’s for services. It seemed we were doing particularly random tunes (you never know what tunes will be sung there), but that wasn’t the most interesting part of the service. At the beginning of maariv (the evening service), the lights went out! It being Shabbat, we couldn’t turn the lights back on, but we didn’t need them anyway. With the small amount of light from the heat lamps, we had the most spirited service I have ever experienced. Roz’s minyan is always the best davening.
Shabbat morning, Julia and I went to Yakar. The beginning of the service was really nice, but then it was just a basic service. We had a shiur before Torah reading, but it was over my head. Then we went to Vered’s (a yeshiva teacher) home for lunch with her and her family. It was so nice there. We played with her youngest son, Natan, a lot, as well as their dog Sheba (who has become my favorite dog in Israel) before lunch. Then we ate a lot of yummy food, followed by sitting and talking and looking at their book collection. We then came back to base and I read until the end of Shabbat.
HLOTDTF
K- when I felt like Sheba loved me
M- cute, entertaining little kids at shul
*break*
Jan 15
We wake up kinda early, we leave our room on time, and in the lobby, I see a friend from different summer programs I’ve done over the past 5 summers, Nic. I hadn’t seen him in so long! He was here with his school for a few days, but this morning they were leaving. After just a couple minutes of talking, Julia and I went to the light rail for the bus. We had to wait 10 min for the train, so I wonder if I hadn’t seen Nic if we would have caught the last train…
Well, we made it to the bus station in time to chase after our bus, not catch up to it in time, and wait another hour for the next bus to take us to Masada! Julia had never been before, so after this day she could finally say she had been on a youth trip to Israel.
We had a bit of a walk to the entrance of the mountain (which also has a museum, which we did not visit), paid, put all of our stuff in a locker, and began the hike. It was less tedious, but more difficult than what I remembered. Once at the top, we walked around looking at the remains of the community that lived there. There is a beautiful view, and in the Dead Sea the reflections of the mountains in Jordan are purple. We were both pooped from the hike, so we didn’t see everything, and we came down. We ate and hung out for a while before walking back to the bus stop to take us to Arad.
In Arad, we settled into our hotel room, showered (hiking in the south in the heat=sweat and stench), and rested for a while. That night we went out to the mall, ate, walked around, and saw what Arad is like. It’s a very small town, where they only have 2 bus lines (and probably just 2 buses) which stop running at 8pm. Everyone we met was very nice, including a possibly stray dog.
HLOTDTF
K- davening mincha on Masada
M- making it up and down Masada in one piece
*break*
Jan 16
This morning we woke up, checked out, and headed to the central bus station where we were to part ways. Julia wanted to go back to Jerusalem, so she took a bus to Beer Sheva, to then get a bus to Jlem (can’t go directly from Arad). I took a bus to the Ein Gedi, somewhere I had never been before.
The Ein Gedi was beautiful. I hiked in the mountains for a few hours, saw 2 great waterfalls, and was completely unimpressed by the actual Ein Gedi Spring (maybe it’s nicer in another season with more water). When there, you can’t help thinking, “What is this life doing here?! This is the desert, and the closest large body of water is not really know for supporting life. And here there are waterfalls, plants, animals, and a palm orchard. What?!”
This was the first time I went hiking alone, which I felt safe doing because the whole area had a lot of people (more school trips than I expected) and the hiking wasn’t too difficult. I really enjoyed hiking alone, being alone with my thoughts in nature for a couple hours.
With taking the bus back to Jlem with Lucy and Jake (who had spent the past day in Ein Gedi), I concluded my winter break. I have now seen so much more of Israel, but there is still much I want to see. I feel like I know the country better. Many of my friends went to different places in Europe (England, Ireland, Luxemburg, Paris, Prague, Rome, Spain, etc.), and their trips sound amazing! But I’m glad I was able to immerse myself in my country outside of Jerusalem. I’d say this was a successful winter break.
HLOTDTF
K- falling back asleep after waking up at 6-something that morning
M- the maitre d’ coming to our room, instead of us going to the front desk, for check out
Trivia: What do I want for my next major trips? US- to see the Grand Canyon, Multnoma Falls in Oregon, and Alaska (among other sights); Spain- Madrid and Barcelona; Prague; and everything else in the world really worth seeing. (This will give you an idea of what I mean: http://iwastesomuchtime.com/on/?i=16814)
No comments:
Post a Comment