The day after Yom Kippur, I began my week and a half vacation from classes. For the weekend, I went to Jerusalem. The moment I stepped off the bus from Haifa, I knew that I was in Jerusalem. Not because of the Dome of the Rock. I couldn't see that. Too many buildings. But I suddenly could understand what people were saying. Everyone was speaking in English...American English at that...with no accent. It felt like I was back in the US and with the exception of mobs of Black Hats, it was. I got on a bus in Jerusalem with no idea where I was going. I had directions to "get off right after the gas station", but the buses don't stop at every stop if there is no one there and I couldn't just press the button until I found the gas station. The person across from me was speaking in English and Hebrew so it was good bet that she knew her way around J'lem so she told me where to get off. The buses in Israel all have air conditioning. Not only because it's hot, but because on Friday afternoons everyone thinks that they will never be able to eat again and so the shuks are crowded and everyone squishes onto the bus. I eventually found my friends in the German Colony and we put our stuff in the apartment, where we were staying. My friend's cousin had recently bought an empty apartment across from her own so that her mother could move in, but she hasn't yet and so the apartment was bare.
The family we were with is originally from New York so they all spoke English. As a matter of fact, the part where they live basically is New York. Everyone speaks English and jaywalks, which is illegal in Israeil. For lunch, she took the four of us to a a really good falafel place. After picking out dessert and doing last minute shopping, my friend from the plane and I got ready to go to Kabblat Shabbat at a synagogue where her mom's friend works. Somehow everyone knew that they were supposed to harmonize so it sounded amazing. We got back to the apartment and were fed a delicious dinner of chicken and noodles and other yummy delights. It was like being at home for a few hours.
On Saturday, we went to the Kotel (Western Wall). Being there was great, but. There was only one guy in our group (he loved the shopping part oh so very much) so he went to go do Shacharit (morning service) which is all fine and dandy, but us three girls had to go to the women's side---obviously. Honestly, to me it felt like I was in jail trying to peek in/over hear the Torah service. When the Torah was raised I couldn't see it. The only reason I knew was because I could just make out the prayer. I stood because it's the Torah, you're supposed to stand. But I felt very segregated and the whole Mechitza thing always turns me off from Orthodox Judaism.
After an hour, we met up again and walked around the Arab and Christian quarters. In the Arab quarter there were lots of pretty scarves and bags and handmade jewelry. There were also tons of candy stores. We ended up eating lunch on the border of the Arab and Christian quarter. My friend's cousin made us a lunch of schnitzel and tabouli salad and cucumbers, oh and hummus too of course. After lunch we walked around the Christian quarter a little more then went back for some R 'n' R, 'cause we haven't had enough of it during our week off. After showering and Shabbas, we went to Ben-Yehuda Street, where we ate pizza at The Big Apple. After dinner we walked around looking for good things to buy. Ironically, only the boy was successful, probably becaue he knew exactly what he wanted and we didn't. Ben-Yehuda is a popular place to go after Shabbat. There were lots of Orthodoxy roaming the street and it was kind of like Boston with people playing music and magicians and of course the sketchy homeless people haggling you for money. After dinner and walking around, we decided to go to a bar, called Zumi's. It was a very chill and relaxing place, I definitely recommend it to anyone who comes to Jerusalem.
The next day, Sunday, was a regular normal work day for people so when we got up there was traffic and people in the streets. We went out for delicious breakfast of omelets so we got a late start. We went back to the Old City so that I could my souvenir at Hadaya (a famous jewelry store that only Americans know about) and re-visit the Kotel. I wanted to put a note in the wall and I couldn't do that the day before because there is no writing on Shabbat. We then went to walk around the New City and got a little lost finding the King David Hotel. Once we found it, we walked around the lobby and it was beautiful and I think that if I'm a billionaire, I still won't be able to afford it. We then walked back to the German colony and while everyone was napping, I went to visit my friend who worked at Umass last year. She lives/works off the main street that we were off of so don't worry mom, I wasn't roaming the streets of Israel by myself. It was good seeing a familiar face. We went to Aroma, which is the Starbucks of Israel, only better. I got shocolat cham, which translates to Hot Chocolate, but this is hot milk and melted Israeli chocolate that you have to mix yourself. It is so good and I will be drinking it again.
For dinner, we met up with a friend of someone in the group. The person we met up with, I actually knew from hebrew school and from Umass. She goes to Hebrew U and unlike us has class so she left right after dinner. We went to a movie theater a whole three minutes from the place we were staying. We saw the new Brad Pitt movie, I think it's called Burn Before Reading or something like that. It was ok. Again, it was the experience that mattered in this case, not the actual movie. Unlike American theaters, Israeli movies have intermission which is good when you really need to pee and the seats are assigned when you buy the ticket and they are comfortable. I heard that Israelis like to talk through movies because they just have to read the subtitles, but it was quiet. In Israeli standards.
We left Jerusalem after a big "free" breakfast of bagels at Tal's Bagels (transliterated exactly like that in Hebrew). We went with my friend's cousin's daughter who offered to pay if we helped her move stuff into the unfurnished apartment so we agreed. We left Jerusalem behind with it's people hustling around to get ready for Sukkot. It was really cool to be there then. In Jerusalem, apartments are built so that the patios aren't all on top of each other. This is so the Sukkah can be built and you can see the stars. There is also a law in Jerusalem that you cannot build a permanent building and they define this as a place to eat and sleep, which is what you do in a sukkah so they get around the this by saying that you can't have a permanent building up for more than seven days. Once in Haifa, we slept and packed for our trip to Masada. Well, not exactly sleep.
On Wednesday we had to be at the bus at 6am sharp so we all had to get up well before that. It rained, I mean poured, that day. The second time that it has rained so it was exciting to see, but it was also the second time that it rained while we were leaving for a trip. Although, I thought that it was ironic that it rained the day after the beginning of Sukkot. We only left half an hour late, which is not bad at all and after sleeping for two hours we were already in Jerusalem and it was only another hour and a half from there. By the time we were at Masada, it was sunny-ish, hot, and humid. The weather was actually perfect for climbing, not too hot and there was wind. We took the ten-minute Roman path up and the snake path down. The tour guide told us to be careful going down because you can fall a few thousand feet before hitting the ground. Once on the path, I realized how many more difficult/steep paths that I have actually been on. After Masada, we went on an hour hike through a small nature preserve. This was just the preclude to the next day's hike. The path was a stream so those of us who were wearing sneakers got a little damp. As the sun began to set, we made our way to the Dead Sea where we had to pay to change so a bunch of other people and I just put our feet in. For the night, we drove to a Bedouin tent in the middle of nowhere, literally. After a dinner of hotdogs and hummus and pita, we made s'mores. Because not everyone on the trip is from the US, not everyone knew what s'mores were or how to make it so we had to teach them. The marshmallows were strawberry flavored and kind of gross, but with both Israeli chocolate and chocolate cracker-cookies it tasted just fine.
The next morning, we woke up at 6:30 and the sun was so bright that it looked like it was the middle of the day. We did our seven hour hike in Ein Gedi and it was sweaty and wet. What would you do: wear flip-flops in the water and then walk on rock with them for twenty minutes before reaching water again and risk slipping or just suck it up and get your shoes wet? I decided to get my shoes wet after tripping over rocks. I had hiked through ice cold snow in wet shoes. I could do warm water. Besides the sun was hot enough to dry them off pretty quickly. There was a lot of down time at the pools/waterfalls so that's why it took so long, but it was fun. We got back to Haifa at around 9pm and after eating dinner and interneting, I went to sleep.
With an empty fridge, my friend and I went to a shuk in Hadar. I had only been there once and she had never been there. I am proud to say that we didn't get lost! And the bus systems here are confusing...
The family we were with is originally from New York so they all spoke English. As a matter of fact, the part where they live basically is New York. Everyone speaks English and jaywalks, which is illegal in Israeil. For lunch, she took the four of us to a a really good falafel place. After picking out dessert and doing last minute shopping, my friend from the plane and I got ready to go to Kabblat Shabbat at a synagogue where her mom's friend works. Somehow everyone knew that they were supposed to harmonize so it sounded amazing. We got back to the apartment and were fed a delicious dinner of chicken and noodles and other yummy delights. It was like being at home for a few hours.
On Saturday, we went to the Kotel (Western Wall). Being there was great, but. There was only one guy in our group (he loved the shopping part oh so very much) so he went to go do Shacharit (morning service) which is all fine and dandy, but us three girls had to go to the women's side---obviously. Honestly, to me it felt like I was in jail trying to peek in/over hear the Torah service. When the Torah was raised I couldn't see it. The only reason I knew was because I could just make out the prayer. I stood because it's the Torah, you're supposed to stand. But I felt very segregated and the whole Mechitza thing always turns me off from Orthodox Judaism.
After an hour, we met up again and walked around the Arab and Christian quarters. In the Arab quarter there were lots of pretty scarves and bags and handmade jewelry. There were also tons of candy stores. We ended up eating lunch on the border of the Arab and Christian quarter. My friend's cousin made us a lunch of schnitzel and tabouli salad and cucumbers, oh and hummus too of course. After lunch we walked around the Christian quarter a little more then went back for some R 'n' R, 'cause we haven't had enough of it during our week off. After showering and Shabbas, we went to Ben-Yehuda Street, where we ate pizza at The Big Apple. After dinner we walked around looking for good things to buy. Ironically, only the boy was successful, probably becaue he knew exactly what he wanted and we didn't. Ben-Yehuda is a popular place to go after Shabbat. There were lots of Orthodoxy roaming the street and it was kind of like Boston with people playing music and magicians and of course the sketchy homeless people haggling you for money. After dinner and walking around, we decided to go to a bar, called Zumi's. It was a very chill and relaxing place, I definitely recommend it to anyone who comes to Jerusalem.
The next day, Sunday, was a regular normal work day for people so when we got up there was traffic and people in the streets. We went out for delicious breakfast of omelets so we got a late start. We went back to the Old City so that I could my souvenir at Hadaya (a famous jewelry store that only Americans know about) and re-visit the Kotel. I wanted to put a note in the wall and I couldn't do that the day before because there is no writing on Shabbat. We then went to walk around the New City and got a little lost finding the King David Hotel. Once we found it, we walked around the lobby and it was beautiful and I think that if I'm a billionaire, I still won't be able to afford it. We then walked back to the German colony and while everyone was napping, I went to visit my friend who worked at Umass last year. She lives/works off the main street that we were off of so don't worry mom, I wasn't roaming the streets of Israel by myself. It was good seeing a familiar face. We went to Aroma, which is the Starbucks of Israel, only better. I got shocolat cham, which translates to Hot Chocolate, but this is hot milk and melted Israeli chocolate that you have to mix yourself. It is so good and I will be drinking it again.
For dinner, we met up with a friend of someone in the group. The person we met up with, I actually knew from hebrew school and from Umass. She goes to Hebrew U and unlike us has class so she left right after dinner. We went to a movie theater a whole three minutes from the place we were staying. We saw the new Brad Pitt movie, I think it's called Burn Before Reading or something like that. It was ok. Again, it was the experience that mattered in this case, not the actual movie. Unlike American theaters, Israeli movies have intermission which is good when you really need to pee and the seats are assigned when you buy the ticket and they are comfortable. I heard that Israelis like to talk through movies because they just have to read the subtitles, but it was quiet. In Israeli standards.
We left Jerusalem after a big "free" breakfast of bagels at Tal's Bagels (transliterated exactly like that in Hebrew). We went with my friend's cousin's daughter who offered to pay if we helped her move stuff into the unfurnished apartment so we agreed. We left Jerusalem behind with it's people hustling around to get ready for Sukkot. It was really cool to be there then. In Jerusalem, apartments are built so that the patios aren't all on top of each other. This is so the Sukkah can be built and you can see the stars. There is also a law in Jerusalem that you cannot build a permanent building and they define this as a place to eat and sleep, which is what you do in a sukkah so they get around the this by saying that you can't have a permanent building up for more than seven days. Once in Haifa, we slept and packed for our trip to Masada. Well, not exactly sleep.
On Wednesday we had to be at the bus at 6am sharp so we all had to get up well before that. It rained, I mean poured, that day. The second time that it has rained so it was exciting to see, but it was also the second time that it rained while we were leaving for a trip. Although, I thought that it was ironic that it rained the day after the beginning of Sukkot. We only left half an hour late, which is not bad at all and after sleeping for two hours we were already in Jerusalem and it was only another hour and a half from there. By the time we were at Masada, it was sunny-ish, hot, and humid. The weather was actually perfect for climbing, not too hot and there was wind. We took the ten-minute Roman path up and the snake path down. The tour guide told us to be careful going down because you can fall a few thousand feet before hitting the ground. Once on the path, I realized how many more difficult/steep paths that I have actually been on. After Masada, we went on an hour hike through a small nature preserve. This was just the preclude to the next day's hike. The path was a stream so those of us who were wearing sneakers got a little damp. As the sun began to set, we made our way to the Dead Sea where we had to pay to change so a bunch of other people and I just put our feet in. For the night, we drove to a Bedouin tent in the middle of nowhere, literally. After a dinner of hotdogs and hummus and pita, we made s'mores. Because not everyone on the trip is from the US, not everyone knew what s'mores were or how to make it so we had to teach them. The marshmallows were strawberry flavored and kind of gross, but with both Israeli chocolate and chocolate cracker-cookies it tasted just fine.
The next morning, we woke up at 6:30 and the sun was so bright that it looked like it was the middle of the day. We did our seven hour hike in Ein Gedi and it was sweaty and wet. What would you do: wear flip-flops in the water and then walk on rock with them for twenty minutes before reaching water again and risk slipping or just suck it up and get your shoes wet? I decided to get my shoes wet after tripping over rocks. I had hiked through ice cold snow in wet shoes. I could do warm water. Besides the sun was hot enough to dry them off pretty quickly. There was a lot of down time at the pools/waterfalls so that's why it took so long, but it was fun. We got back to Haifa at around 9pm and after eating dinner and interneting, I went to sleep.
With an empty fridge, my friend and I went to a shuk in Hadar. I had only been there once and she had never been there. I am proud to say that we didn't get lost! And the bus systems here are confusing...
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