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 The website Ralph got was really outdated and both of the places we tried no longer existed/no longer played salsa.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
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