Unfortunately, luck has not yet been quite in my favor this trip. When I left the Twin Cities on Sunday, my checked bag was never placed on the plane to Newark. Yesterday evening, Wednesday, my enormous backpack (packed full for the coming six months,) finally arrived at our hotel. It was a very happy reunion.
In Newark I met the group of 40 kids with whom I'm now traveling Israel. We had to head through double security at the airport. The first time I'd ever experienced double security was on the way home from Honduras, when apparently the San Pedro Sula airport security didn't meet Delta's standards, so we were re-screened at the gate. I do understand, though, why it didn't meet their standards. When we had to go through a second security screening to board our flight to Israel, that was the first moment I realized that I was legitimately going to the Middle East, and I was a bit shocked.
As the plane was landing I was absolutely blown away by what I saw beneath me. I'd never seen any sort of landscape like Israel. We first flew over the coast, with Tel Aviv skyscrapers lining the edge of the sand. Then over hills and farms and cities and towns and I don't even know what else. It was an incredibly jaw-dropping first impression.
As the plane was landing I was absolutely blown away by what I saw beneath me. I'd never seen any sort of landscape like Israel. We first flew over the coast, with Tel Aviv skyscrapers lining the edge of the sand. Then over hills and farms and cities and towns and I don't even know what else. It was an incredibly jaw-dropping first impression.
By that point on Monday, it was 10am in Israel, most of us had been awake for 20 hours, we'd sat for several hours on airport floors, and were finally on a bus in a country colder than we'd anticipated. We were not at the peak of our energy. We headed to Tzippori, some ruins of Roman rule where Jews (maybe some important tanakh authors??) also lived, and we sleepily walked among old rocks. The thing about our tour guide is that even though he talks loads, it's tangential and not super coherent. It's very difficult to follow his explanations of what we're seeing, why it's important, and what it means. So I couldn't actually tell you what Tzippori was supposed to be.
We then headed to our hotel, which turned out to be a fairly depressing hostel. The trip leaders took me to a supermarket to buy extra clothes, but to their surprise the supermarket had no clothes. I was in no way surprised. I borrowed lots of layers.
Tuesday morning we went to Tzfat. From my understanding it's a very old town in the mountains with lots of modern-day artists. Apparently Kabbalah, Jewish mysticism, originated there. It was cool and super pretty, but very rainy and wet. And very cold.
The weather has not exactly been cooperating. Monday night our tour guide announced that snow might arrive to Jerusalem this week, a very rare occurrence for Israel. I thought I'd escaped that when I left the Midwest. The whole super cold rainy weather thing since we've arrived was rough with the whole not having my luggage thing. And the thing is, Israel isn't used to rain or snow, it appears. Roads and museums everywhere have been shutting down in anticipation of snow. So far, our itinerary has been very rained out. But, the country is completely green and lush, which is definitely not what any of us imagined.
Yesterday, our entire tour of the Golan Heights got cancelled because of the rain. I'm still bummed. We did drive around the Golan Heights a bit and visited their visitor center, where we watched a strange sensory film about the region. Our tour guide, scrambling to find replacement activities for us, took us then to an olive oil factory place. Which I really enjoyed. It sounds like the business we visited is kind of on the cutting edge of the olive oil industry and is making all these alternative products from toxic olive residue rich in antioxidants. I tried some of the best hand soap of my entire life. We watched a film.
Because of the rain, we headed to lunch at a museum place. It turned out that's it called the Jesus Boat museum. A 2,000 year old boat was found in the Kinneret, and based on location and time period, this boat could potentially maybe have been a boat that Jesus rode on. Or one similar to what he used. In my mind, however, the odds are pretty slim. Nonetheless, the museum took pity on us and allowed us free entry in to see the boat and two more movies.
A note on the eight movies I have seen this far at museums in Israel. They are so strange. I can't comprehend what they are going for, but it's certainly not what I'd go for in a movie. At our next stop, a date farm that was really just a store with lots of date products, we watched another movie.
Israel is unbelievably beautiful, but way too cold and wet - just my luck. It's incredibly different from Honduras in every respect. But the landscape is amazing, and just like in Honduras, there is always something to look at. I really really like it here.
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