This is the final email in this chain - I know you are all sad :-)
I am back already, (and at work) but I thought I would tell you about our final days in Israel
After my last email Ralph, Antonov, and I went to grab some dinner. We have passed by a really cool lounge called Mambo that was on the beach really close to our apartment and decided that it was time we checked it out. You guys will not believe it - they had salsa dancing. It was incredible, we basically just stumbled into it. Antonov grabbed a beer and Ralph and I ordered sandwiches which would have fed a whole army - neither of us was able to finish even half of ours. Besides, we couldn't sit still and did a bit of salsa dancing. It was really crowded and hot, but lots of fun. I guess Salsa Dancing in Israel is only possible when you are not looking for it. It needs to find YOU. Later on in the night some guy went up there and did HORRIBLE karaoke. Someone took a spotlight and shone it on him the whole time. He was atrocious, but I think well known, since people originally cheered when he showed up. Regardless of his notoriety he basically killed the mood. By the time the Shaffies showed up people were slow dancing and the big screen TV was being prepared for the World Cup watching. I bailed but the rest of the group stayed to watch the game.
The next day we had a pretty big drive ahead of us. Fist order of business was a hike in the Golan in Yehudia. The drive took us about 3 hours and all we could have for lunch was the sandwiches that were sold on the spot. The boys were pretty sad about that. WE changed into our bathing suits and hiking wear and verified the trail that we would take. The Hike was supposed to take around 4 hours and was considered Difficult. we were warned that in some spots we would have to swim with all of our stuff in our hands. Awesome!!! The start of the hike was pretty easy. We walked through a field with Roman Ruins on either side narrowly avoiding the presents that the cows left behind for us. It was pretty hot but tolerable. After a while we got to go down about a million steps (this was the Masada experience all over again - but in reverse and shorter) As we neared the bottom of the steps we could hear yelling and screams of joy.
It was a waterfall!!! We quickly took off everything but the Tivas and bathing suits and went into the water. IT was cold and SOOOOOOOOOO nice after the sun grilled us for the 40 minutes or so of walking. The waterfall was beautiful and everything around us was blooming. There were pink flowers round the falls and trees everywhere. We really needed the shade. I got to go under the waterfall only once since it was pretty powerful and you really have to swim to get under it. I tried doing it again, but ended up swimming in place 5 feet from where I wanted to go. I guess swimming lessons for me wouldn't hurt. When we were sufficiently cooled off we continued the hike. It was basically bouldering. We had to negotiate our way between rocks - some were very hot from the sun. I have to say that the trail was very well marked. Eventually we got to a place that you have to swim across after going down some metal stairs that were jammed into the rocks.
Here we had to wait a bit since there was a camp of 16 year old boys - about 50/60 of them that was taking their time going across this thing. On the positive side though they had a rope and stretched it so that they could slide their backpacks from the top to the other bank without getting them wet. They offered to get our backpacks across in the same manner and we happily agreed. At first things went well with my backpack and the shaffies one, but when Ralph and Antonov's bags were on the rope someone on the other side let go of the rope and the bags were soaked. Fortunately Antonov's camera and phone were in a plastic bag and were not ruined. We swam across and found that we had another swim right away. This time we decided not to wait for the boys and went ahead of them. Sereja went fist and we gave him his backpack to swim across with. Then I went and we got the rest of the bags to me by swimming back and forth. on the other side - where the water was to the waist we formed a human assembly line and got our back backs across that way. Pretty cool huh?
That was the last of our swimming and being in the water. We got to boulder for quite a while in the shade(Thank god) It was really very cool but we had to hurry since the camp of boys was gaining on us and we just wanted to enjoy the nature and quiet instead of their shouts and 16 year old jokes. Antonov was especially bothered by them. He referred to them as Baboons (Litz I'm serious i didn't give him that word - he chose it himself Sheyla haunts us after all). We really had to hurry for the hike up the stairs (another Masada moment) Antonov took full charge and had designated resting points for us. He really wanted to get away from those boys badly. It was probably a 20 minute hike up, so we were pretty tired when we got up there. The last leg of the hike was easy through the fields and ruins again. But we had a great view and we knew that we were almost done. I'm proud to say that the 4 hour hike took us only 3 hours and 15 minutes with the swimming and the waiting for the camp and resting. Go Us!!!!
Our next stop was Mt. Bental right on the Syrian border. we crawled around an abandoned bunker at the top of the mountain and looked into Syria. It was so peaceful and beautiful up there. We hung out a little bit. It's amazing that we were allowed in the bunker. It was previously used by British soldiers. later we went to the gift shop and asked if there was a winery open nearby because we wanted to do a bit of wine tasting. The girl recommended one and we were on our way.
The winery was basically in a co-op. Everyone owns their own land but they share common interests so they work together a lot. At least that is how the co-owner of the winery explained it to us. When we drove up we saw a small farm petting zoo with a donkey chickens, ducks. hens, and even a peacock. Everything was made out of recycled garbage. Even the walkway was made out of broken ceramic bits cemented together. The owner explained how they made the wine and then showed us the dining room - made out of recycled bits again- that was supposed to look like it would in the Talmudic times. We also got to go down into the cellar - a bunker used by Syrians in the war of '67 BTW-to check out where the bottles are stored. The cellar was pretty empty since the winery is popular even though its very small. The woman owner is also a teacher and just does this in her spare time. they started opening up to tourists when their children started leaving home for the army. The husband is an artist who also makes jewelry and builds. The recycling is really his thing. Where people see garbage he sees a project. They even have space in their yard for people to bring them trash. We tasted the Merlot and bought some bottles. We wanted to eat too but the owners were leaving to see their daughter in a play of some sort so they couldn't feed us. They did recommend a good meat place called Meat Shos.
Meat Shos was an awesome experience. When we rode up to it we were a little worried since it was located in a fire house and looked pretty shabby from the outside. Inside was a different story. It was amazing. And the food was just incredible. The Shaffies and I split a sampler designed for 2 people and we were all full. Antonov had a 1 lb burger that he said was the best burger in his life. Ralph got a little unlucky though. He hates medium and rare meat so he wanted his steak well done. Unfortunately this was one of those places where the chef is insulted if you ask for well done because it supposedly takes away from the taste of the meat. The waitress told Ralph that there is no way in hell he will get his meat the way he likes is so he ordered chicken... and that's exactly what he got: a whole spring chicken with all the parts from neck to butt. Not exactly what Ralph had in mind when he ordered. He mutilated his dish until it no longer reminded him of the winery petting zoo. Once that was done the chicken was actually pretty good he said, but he still left a lot of it. The waitress clearly did not approve (no soup for you for one year!!!)
While we were eating we got a call from Misha that he was at his hotel and we promised to visit him. He was staying in Netanya with his birthright group. We were on the road a little after 9 pm and made it to Netanya by 11. Here are Misha's instructions of where he is as told to me by Olya. "We are in the center of the city by the beach. I am playing soccer with a green ball. There is a Pizza hut nearby" awesome right. Well, we found him with no problems anyway. I think we got incredibly lucky but there you have it. Misha grew out a beard since we last saw him and we made sure to complement him by asking if he's looked at himself in the mirror lately. He thoroughly enjoyed it. We only had time for a beer since he had to meet up with his group by midnight. It was cool seeing him and he was excited to be included in one of my emails. Here you go Misha, I hope it's everything you thought it would be :-) (shave the beard!!!!)
Out final day in Israel was one where we split up. Ralph went to the art museum and the beach, Antonov did shopping, Shaffies went to Ben Gurion's house, saw miniature israel and hung out with Sereja's cousin, I went to Yafo, the market and the beach, Antonov went shopping, and Ilyusha was still MIA visiting yet more family. It was just a relaxing day. We got our deposit back from the landlord and had our final dinner on the beach. The lounge was called Cheech Beach and it was the best one yet. They had really comfortable couches and chilled out music. And the food was incredible. The Shaffies came late and I bailed on them again since I wanted some sleep. (we had to get up at 1:30 in the morning to go to the airport)
We made it to the airport without killing each other - quite an accomplishment :-) Our flights were also pretty uneventful. On my flight from Milan to Chicago I sat next to a pretty cool girl who was visiting Chicago from Poland. She had a layover in Milan too. We talked quite a bit, esp in the last 3-4 hours of the ride. I found out that she is actually staying at Belmont and Clark - not too far from me. She took my number so maybe I will hang out with her. Pretty cool huh, I go to israel and make friends with a girl from Poland :-). Well that's all folks. The end of the "novel". I enjoyed writing it and getting your comments. I'm back in chi-town even though very Jet lagged still.
I will see you all soon!!!
Love,
Katya
Wednesday, July 5, 2006
Saturday, July 1, 2006
Vacation email #5 - Nazareth, Tzvat, Teberias, tel aviv, Haifa, Akko
Hey all,
It's email time again. So here we go.........
on Thursday we got up relatively early and drove to Nazareth, where Jesus supposedly lived. This was the Christian part of our trip. We first went into a church where mary may be burried. It was very cool. In the cortyard of the church they had mossaics of Mary from different countries. It was interesting to see that the mary from Korea looked Korean, and the one from Thailand, looked Thai. When we went inside there were more mosaics,sculptures, paintings of Mary. The one from the US was done in a modern style, very cool. This church was built on top of other churches that stood before it so at the lower level you still see the ruins. There is also a little room where Mary's Toumb is. We didn't want to get too close since it seemed that everyone was praying there. We next went to Another church that was built on top of Joseph's workshop. You also get to see some ruins beneath it. Again, it was pretty amazing that people keep rebuilding on the same spot. Our final destination was a greek orthodox church built over the basin where Mary would walk to get water. She must have been in great shape to lug something all the way from there. It was quite a walk :-)
From Nazareth we drove to Tiberias. We were starving so we all had some fish on the boardwalk. It must have been 110 degrees. We were just boiling. Seriously hot weather. After lunch the boys wanted to go for a swim. The free beaches in Tiberias look like garbage dumps (as in there was a shopping cart right there and some garbage laying around) so Olya and I abstained. The boys said the water was nice but got out in about 5 minutes since we were short on time.
We then went to Tzvat where we spent a good 40 minutes looking for the old city. I mean it was definately insanely hidden. We finally found it after asking for directions 5 times. No one here wants to look at a map when giving directions. It's rediculous. I stayed in the car for the hour that the others needed for the city since my foot was acting up again. Besides I have already been there. They visited the synagogue where all the Kabbalahists are and just walked around the most narrow alley in the world.
We left by 5 since the shaffies and Ilya and Antonov wanted to go to this Russian Rock competition that started at 8. Ralph and I decided to go salsa dancing and then meet up with everyone at a trance club at midnight or so. The website Ralph got was really outdated and both of the places we tried no longer existed/no longer played salsa. We might try again tonight with a bigger group.
We met up with the rest of the group at 12:30 and tried to get in to the club. This is how it works: There are about 4 bouncers standing and blocking your way. Then there is a woman that gave me the witch of the west vibe that walks around and looks through you. She is known as the SELECTOR. In order to get in you MUST either know someone who works at the club, be famous, be on some list, or maybe just completely model beautiful. After standing there for about 20 minutes Sereja got a great Idea. He told the lady we were American Tourists and the doors opened for us. It was amazing how easy it was. Cover was a little over $20 dollars US. - 100 shekels. The music was house. I danced almost non stop until about 4 am. It was great.
The cool thing was that the club lets in all handicapped people so there was a guy in a wheelchair doing crazy spinning moves on the dance floor. There was another guy on crutches busting a move in the corner. I thought that was great. Also, unlike American clubs there is very little of the guys coming up to you and grinding. Everyone seems like they are there to dance. If they want to hook up they just hug to break the touch barrier and go from there. Very interesting to observe.
Yesterday everyone basically did their own thing. I slept till 4 pm and chilled out a lot. Ilyusha and Antonov went shopping, Ralph went to Jaffo, and the Shaffies had a relative run. They were exhausted by the end of the day but they were definately well fed :-). They got matching shorts from their relatives so we had them put on a mini fashion show for us. Great stuff really. In the evening we went to a lounge on the beach called the Bungalow and smoked a nergilah with apple tobacco. Very good stuff. Then we proceeded to go home and pass out.
Today we left our house by 8:30 - a record i think. We first went to haifa where be basically hung out at the Bahai Gardens (they even let us into the temple - a very anticlimactic moment for all of us) and walked around for a little bit. Olya met up with her 4th grade teacher and hung out separately. It was a nice city, but not much to see in terms of cultural stuff. There were some museums but we didn't really want to do that.
we went further north to Akko after lunch. Akko is the city that has been fought over the most. It definately has an old atmosphere about it. We walked around the old city for a bit and did some shopping at a silver/jewlery store. I think they don't have to be open again for a month. They loved us so much. We singlehandedly raised Akko's economic status. We also got pulled over on the way for rolling through a stopsign, but got directions to the old city instead of a ticket. I wish American cops were more like this. It would make our lives much easier I think.
We dropped off the Shaffies in Petah Tikvah to visit more relatives on the way back and mad it to Tel Aviv without getting lost. Who hoo!!!!!!!! Now we will go to eat dinner and later on we may attempt to go Salsa dancing again. Tomorrow is a hard day of hiking at Golan hights and maybe crawling around in some caves followed by visiting Savchenko at Natanya. I think you guys will get a final update from me on Monday night. I miss you all and can't wait to see you.
Oh BTW sorry I missed it, but happy belated birthday yan!!!!!!!!!
Love,
Katya
It's email time again. So here we go.........
on Thursday we got up relatively early and drove to Nazareth, where Jesus supposedly lived. This was the Christian part of our trip. We first went into a church where mary may be burried. It was very cool. In the cortyard of the church they had mossaics of Mary from different countries. It was interesting to see that the mary from Korea looked Korean, and the one from Thailand, looked Thai. When we went inside there were more mosaics,sculptures, paintings of Mary. The one from the US was done in a modern style, very cool. This church was built on top of other churches that stood before it so at the lower level you still see the ruins. There is also a little room where Mary's Toumb is. We didn't want to get too close since it seemed that everyone was praying there. We next went to Another church that was built on top of Joseph's workshop. You also get to see some ruins beneath it. Again, it was pretty amazing that people keep rebuilding on the same spot. Our final destination was a greek orthodox church built over the basin where Mary would walk to get water. She must have been in great shape to lug something all the way from there. It was quite a walk :-)
From Nazareth we drove to Tiberias. We were starving so we all had some fish on the boardwalk. It must have been 110 degrees. We were just boiling. Seriously hot weather. After lunch the boys wanted to go for a swim. The free beaches in Tiberias look like garbage dumps (as in there was a shopping cart right there and some garbage laying around) so Olya and I abstained. The boys said the water was nice but got out in about 5 minutes since we were short on time.
We then went to Tzvat where we spent a good 40 minutes looking for the old city. I mean it was definately insanely hidden. We finally found it after asking for directions 5 times. No one here wants to look at a map when giving directions. It's rediculous. I stayed in the car for the hour that the others needed for the city since my foot was acting up again. Besides I have already been there. They visited the synagogue where all the Kabbalahists are and just walked around the most narrow alley in the world.
We left by 5 since the shaffies and Ilya and Antonov wanted to go to this Russian Rock competition that started at 8. Ralph and I decided to go salsa dancing and then meet up with everyone at a trance club at midnight or so. The website Ralph got was really outdated and both of the places we tried no longer existed/no longer played salsa. We might try again tonight with a bigger group.
We met up with the rest of the group at 12:30 and tried to get in to the club. This is how it works: There are about 4 bouncers standing and blocking your way. Then there is a woman that gave me the witch of the west vibe that walks around and looks through you. She is known as the SELECTOR. In order to get in you MUST either know someone who works at the club, be famous, be on some list, or maybe just completely model beautiful. After standing there for about 20 minutes Sereja got a great Idea. He told the lady we were American Tourists and the doors opened for us. It was amazing how easy it was. Cover was a little over $20 dollars US. - 100 shekels. The music was house. I danced almost non stop until about 4 am. It was great.
The cool thing was that the club lets in all handicapped people so there was a guy in a wheelchair doing crazy spinning moves on the dance floor. There was another guy on crutches busting a move in the corner. I thought that was great. Also, unlike American clubs there is very little of the guys coming up to you and grinding. Everyone seems like they are there to dance. If they want to hook up they just hug to break the touch barrier and go from there. Very interesting to observe.
Yesterday everyone basically did their own thing. I slept till 4 pm and chilled out a lot. Ilyusha and Antonov went shopping, Ralph went to Jaffo, and the Shaffies had a relative run. They were exhausted by the end of the day but they were definately well fed :-). They got matching shorts from their relatives so we had them put on a mini fashion show for us. Great stuff really. In the evening we went to a lounge on the beach called the Bungalow and smoked a nergilah with apple tobacco. Very good stuff. Then we proceeded to go home and pass out.
Today we left our house by 8:30 - a record i think. We first went to haifa where be basically hung out at the Bahai Gardens (they even let us into the temple - a very anticlimactic moment for all of us) and walked around for a little bit. Olya met up with her 4th grade teacher and hung out separately. It was a nice city, but not much to see in terms of cultural stuff. There were some museums but we didn't really want to do that.
we went further north to Akko after lunch. Akko is the city that has been fought over the most. It definately has an old atmosphere about it. We walked around the old city for a bit and did some shopping at a silver/jewlery store. I think they don't have to be open again for a month. They loved us so much. We singlehandedly raised Akko's economic status. We also got pulled over on the way for rolling through a stopsign, but got directions to the old city instead of a ticket. I wish American cops were more like this. It would make our lives much easier I think.
We dropped off the Shaffies in Petah Tikvah to visit more relatives on the way back and mad it to Tel Aviv without getting lost. Who hoo!!!!!!!! Now we will go to eat dinner and later on we may attempt to go Salsa dancing again. Tomorrow is a hard day of hiking at Golan hights and maybe crawling around in some caves followed by visiting Savchenko at Natanya. I think you guys will get a final update from me on Monday night. I miss you all and can't wait to see you.
Oh BTW sorry I missed it, but happy belated birthday yan!!!!!!!!!
Love,
Katya
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