A few months ago, it looked like our streak of annually going on an international trip would end at 1 (last year’s Greece and Turkey trip). Then we got an invite to Yaron and Inbar’s wedding in Israel for mid-September. That was exactly the kind of kick we needed to get our acts together and plan our yearly international trip to Israel.

We left SFO on Friday, September 4th around noon, and arrived in Israel around 4:45pm on Saturday, to our surprise, about an hour earlier than expected. Unfortunately, I vomited 5 times between roughly Greece and our hotel in Tel Aviv.

Last year’s trip was an organized tour. On this trip we decided to rent a car and basically cover the whole country on our own- using one of Tobia’s tour books and a map.

On our way to our hotel in Tel Aviv, we got lost pretty badly due to horrible signs (or maybe it was a complete lack of signs). Thankfully, I was able to ask dozens of folks on the road for help with directions until we finally found our hotel. We ultimately had to settle for expensive hotel parking for our car.

Dan Panorama Hotel

Tel Aviv coastline

The bakery we ate at

There was a lovely promenade just outside our hotel room, and it spanned a good few miles of the Tel Avivian Mediterranean coast. During our walk there, we picked up a few baked goods to eat for dinner.

We walked south to Yaffo, which was nice, and ultimately crashed really hard for all of 4 hours from midnight to 4am. I woke up with a horrendous dehydration headache and couldn’t sleep again.

As I laid in bed this morning, unable to sleep, I was also really starving. I had barely eaten anything on the plane, and I also vomited so much the previous day.

Thankfully our hotel’s breakfast started at 6:30am. Exactly at that time we lined up outside the dining area, only to be surprised that about a dozen other people showed up right around the same time.

Finally, breakfast!

We feasted like royalty on burekas, eggs, salads, spreads and other sweets, stuffing ourselves to more than compensate for having eating so little the previous 24-36 hours. I was thrilled! For her part, Tobia was less than amused by the two Korean ladies sitting behind us speaking loudly in Korean. It annoyed her that we traveled halfway around the world to come in contact with “her peeps”.

Following breakfast, we headed down to Be’er Sheva to see Abraham’s well. As we were likely the only people who had come in to that point in the day, the staff treated us with much excitement and attention. From there we continued to Tel Be’er Sheva- which is an (UNESCO) archaeological site, believed to be the remains of the biblical town of Be’er Sheva. Afterwards we continued to the Air Force Museum and I saw my favorite childhood plane, the Lavi. I was obsessed with its development back in ’86. I also got a good look at an F-15 jet.

Abraham’s well	Tel Be’er Sheva panoramic	Excited to head down into the cave
Entering the cave	Some of the planes (and parts thereof) we saw at the air force museum	And, of course, my favorite – the Lavi!

Our falafel lunch

For lunch we had a great falafel meal at a small hole in the wall place. The gentleman who ran the place was very nice and extremely helpful in giving us directions. We fueled and headed off to Sdeh Boker to see David Ben Gurion’s hut and his memorial. I knew a little bit about Ben Gurion, of course, prior to visiting his hut and memorial, but learned a great deal about the man. I found his life and achievements quite interesting and impressive. I guess Tobia’s love of history had some influence on me here.

The area where Ben Gurion is buried is very beautiful. It’s a nice deep canyon. In the surrounding area, we saw tons of Ibex animals. In fact, we saw two lock horns and fight some 30 feet away from us. It was quite a sight.

Ben Gurion’s Hut	Ben Gurion’s study	Ben Gurion Memorial
Ben Gurion Memorial	The canyon just beyond Ben Gurion’s Memorial	Ibex nearby

Scary overhang above Makhtesh Ramon

Tobia reminding me where the crater is

From Sdeh Boker we continued on to Makhtesh Ramon- the largest crater in the world. We walked around a good deal and got to see many different angles and terrains inside the crater. This was another example of something I had no idea existed in Israel until just prior to going there.

Following the crater, we went to check out a lama and alpaca farm. It was also home to donkeys, camels, and horses. I was able to hand feed the animals. When the lamas are together, they fight for the food and spit. One of them spit and snorted on me- it was kinda nasty but ultimately memorable.

Feeding at the lama/alpaca farm

Lovely teeth

Some of the other animals at the farm

We had dinner here, beside all these soldiers

Around early evening we were completely exhausted, so we grabbed some burekas and pizza slices for dinner and turned into our room for the night. We bought some internet access time and wound down while also watching TV.

Another big breakfast

I ended up falling asleep hard at 9:30pm last night, clearly still jetlagged. Unfortunately, I woke up at 4:30am and couldn’t sleep anymore.

We went down to breakfast at the 7am start time and yet again had a fabulous and enormous meal.

Why am I so happy? I didn’t even get out of the car.

Panoramas of the crater

We left the town of Mitspe Ramon, fueled up, and drove down into the crater, south towards Eilat. The crater was really beautiful from below. We could see so many eroded columns and different rock patterns. At least a half dozen times, we pulled over to the side of the road to check out the scenery and take pictures.

Mmmmmm … Yotvata chocolate milk!

A couple hours into our drive, we came by Yotvata, a place I recalled from more than 20 years ago that is known for its excellent chocolate milk and other dairy products. Naturally I had to stop and enjoy some wonderful chocolate milk. Tasted just as good as I had remembered!

Getting back on the road, Tobia was perusing her guide book and noted that there was a safari type zoo nearby, called Hai Bar. The whole premise of the safari is to return biblical animals back to the wild and to keep them from going extinct.

We first took the “indoor” tour, seeing animals in closed off large cages, with attempts to re-create their habitat around them. Following this, we took the safari-like drive. We saw lots of ibex, oryx, Asiatic asses, and ostriches. I found ostriches to be extremely aggressive. Many of them blocked parts of our road, while coming over to size us up. They’d peck at our car with their beaks and use their bodies to intimidate and threaten us. It was a bit nerve wrecking at times, but also kind of an exciting, amused rush at the same time (or maybe just in retrospect).

Various animals we saw

A couple of angry vultures

Dumbass

Woah!

We saw these once the ostriches let us through.

From there, it was on to Timna Park, a really large park full of beautiful different rocks and colors. Some the more memorable things we saw: mushroom and a half rock, mushroom rock, Solomon’s Pillars, cave engravings, and a temple. It was really hot out there- close to 100, and we did a lot of walking. There were also lots of arches and caves with tough hiking involved.

Spiral Rock	Conquering Mushroom and a Half Rock	Kitty at Mushroom Rock	Rocky terrain
Arches	Kitty in arch	Left entrace to crater	Right entrance to crater
I love the different colors.	The Shrine	Solomon’s Pillars	Sphinx Rock

With all due respect to these 6000-year old art pieces, I can draw better blind-folded.

Finally, lunch!

I inhaled a late lunch around mid-early afternoon. It was a hummus dip with vegetables and other platters. All the walking and heat took their toll on me.

We left the park and headed off to Eilat. It was extremely hot and humid down there. We checked into our hotel, instantly put the A/C on, and fell asleep for a couple of hours.

Our hotel in Eilat

Later in the evening we went out for a stroll on the promenade right along the Red Sea. Even at 8:30pm it was still 100 degrees out, though completely dark. The promenade was nice enough, just unbearably hot and too full of people (the whole see and be seen environment).

As our feet were hurting, we were dealing with jetlag, and were also preparing to head to Petra the next day, we decided to turn in for the night with no dinner. We shared an ice coffee and headed back to the room to shower and sleep.

I woke up at 4:30am again this morning, totally nervous and excited at the thought of heading out to Jordan to go see Petra. Despite being an American and carrying a US passport, I was still born in Israel and felt a bit apprehensive about entering Jordan- an Arab country. I feared my presence would not be welcomed.

We were to be picked up at 7:30am outside our hotel room by the touring company assisting the tour. We had to squeeze in a quick breakfast (which started at 7am) at the hotel before heading out. The opportunity to eat would not present itself until 2:30pm, the itinerary showed. We were not allowed to carry food, and they would not sell food at the site at Petra.

Leaving Israel

Following our rushed breakfast, we lined up outside and waited for our ride to arrive. As 7:40am passed, I started entertaining thoughts that our tour group was just a scam to get our money. After all, we had booked on the internet all the way from back home. Finally, at 7:45am, the car came to pick us up. We were briefed while driving out of Eilat- towards the Israeli/Jordanian border- about how the border patrol would work. It all seemed so formal and serious, somewhat intimidating even.

Walking the No Man’s stretch to Jordan

We reached the border roughly at 8am, and after waiting in about 6 different lines (3 for each country), and walking a “no-man’s land” stretch of a few hundred yards, we were in Jordan. We had to wait about 30 minutes to get our Jordanian visas. From there, we hopped into a minivan and headed off to Aqaba, Jordan’s southernmost city.

Reached Jordan

Our group consisted of Tobia and I along with two Argentinean Jews. Our tour guide, Samer, was a young Bedouin guy, spoke English extremely well, was very knowledgeable, and I took an instant liking to him. He even got American nuances, culture, slang and mannerisms… I was most impressed. The entire drive out to Petra we asked him so many questions about culture, life, religion and anything we could think of. He graciously answered all of our questions and explained life in Jordan to us, from his perspective.

Aqaba

We reached Aqaba 20 minutes into our drive in Jordan. It is a nice coastal town. Samer explained that it used to be a Bedouin area up until 2001. It seemed to be developed quite quickly, because we saw a Burger King, Quizno’s, McDonald’s and even a Safeway Market. It still had some original local touch too.

Petra from a distance

Wadi Musa

Following Aqaba, we drove roughly 2 hours through the desert with a couple of quick stops along the way to get to Petra.

Kitty on horseback

Once in Petra, there was a lot of walking to do. During the first stretch of the walk, horseback rides were available. Tobia hopped on a horse and rode it, with the help of a nice gentleman for a small portion of the stretch down to the treasury. The entire walk to the treasury was downhill and took 45 minutes. Along the way, Samer pointed out historically significant things that took place and were constructed at Petra.

When I got my first glimpse of the treasury I was completely in disbelief. It is enormous- pictures can’t even begin to do it justice. It was a nice reddish colored stone, and it was simply carved into an enormous mountain. Samer gave us a brief history and gave us a few hours to roam the entire place. The misconception about Petra is that it’s all about the treasury. It doesn’t take a lot of walking further down the trail to see much much more.

Tombs

Narrow passages

The Shrine

The Treasury

The Treasury

The Treasury

Camels for people who want rides

As we walked down, we were constantly passed up by gentlemen on horses or camels offering to give us rides in whatever direction we needed. It is a very touristy place, and the locals know how to work their magic. “A camel is like a desert Ferrari, come along for a ride”. I gotta give them credit for being entertaining. There were also little booths all over the place selling lovely goods and art. We bought a variety of things.

Eventually we reached a stadium, saw hundreds of tombs, and finally saw Aaron’s tomb. It was quite an impressive tomb.

More tombs

The stadium

Nice colors

Aaron’s Tomb

I like this scene.

It was extremely hot all day, but it felt particularly hot as we made our 1 – 1.5 hour walk back to the top to meet with our driver and Samer.

Me, Marcos and Daniel at lunch

Lunch

Roughly at 3pm we ate lunch at a nearby restaurant. We were all so hungry, but the food just kept coming and coming, and we simply could not finish all the good food.

On our drive back to the border, we chatted the entire time with Samer. We talked about Islam and the Koran among other things. Samer shared some nice messages from his religion, and we could get the sense that he was very thoughtful.

Kitty, Samer and I

I found Jordanians to be very nice and respectful a people. One thing that moved me in particular was how when they walk up and down streets or other outdoor locations, when they recognize someone, they will stop to shake hands and talk. There is no concept of pretending not to see one another, as is common here in at least California and the Bay Area. And it didn’t matter if people were of different “classes”. So many times I would see well dressed folks, or even Samer just go over to elderly street cleaners, exchange some pleasantries, shake hands, and chat for a little while. There’s truly no “I’m better than you” and I appreciated and respected that very much. It just felt genuine.

Leaving Jordan

Returning to Israel

We got to the border at around 5:30pm. We said goodbye to our driver and to Samer, we actually exchanged emails (and have kept in good touch since), and we made our way back into Israel. It took about an hour to cross. In large part, we believe it took a long time because one of the Argentineans had what seemed on the Israeli side to be a troublesome/questionable family background. He got interrogated for quite some time and we had to wait.

Eventually we got back to our hotel around 7pm. We were exhausted but extremely happy with a sense of total accomplishment. We totally stepped out of our comfort zones, saw new places, experienced new adventures, and met great people.

By 10pm we were out cold, sleeping.

Eilat Underwater Observatory

View from top of Observatory

I finally woke up at a more reasonable hour this morning, at 6:30am. We went downstairs to have breakfast, but this time it was a nice leisurely one.

We headed south from our hotel in Eilat to the underwater observatory. At a certain point we were well underground and got great views of underwater life in the Red Sea. We saw lots of rare fish, sharks, and other animals. At the top of the observatory we were able to see out to Saudi Arabia, Jordan, Egypt and Sinai. I really enjoyed the concept of seeing those countries- most for the first time in my life.

Beautiful colors

Nice coral

Underwater coral and fish

Nice, clear water

Tough Road

Mount Sdom

Following the observatory, we hit the road headed north to Mt. Sdom. It was tough to find the right exit (even though I would hardly call a partially paved road an exit) to get up to the lookout point on Mt. Sdom. The terrain was horrible there, and 4×4 cars were recommended. This unpaved path was second, in terms of difficulty of drive, to Windy Point Road near Punta Gorda Lighthouse (which still ranks as the toughest, scariest drive of my life).

Nice reflection

Nice saltwater

We reached the lookout some 20 minutes later. It was 40 Celsius out there (104 F). It was humid and just unbearable to be out there. Still, we walked around with lots of water and tons of sunscreen. We were able to see the Dead Sea as well as Jordan on the other side.

North of Mt. Sdom, we spotted the cave, above which is the presumed location of the pillar of Lot’s wife. We chatted with some folks excavating the cave. They were very friendly and gave us some history and some help with directions.

Lot’s Wife Pillar

Around 2pm we checked in to our En Bokek Spa Hotel. I found it to be a bit pretentious, but it was a comfortable and nice enough a place. We dropped our stuff and headed out to lunch.

View from our room

After lunch we drove out to Mazada to see the old fortress on the cliff. Unfortunately, they close early, and we only managed to check out the museum at the base.

Rather disappointed, we returned to our hotel room, back to the drawing board, to determine how to squeeze everything in for tomorrow.

Mazada Snake Path 5am

Frustrated and disappointed by yesterday’s failure to see Mazada, we woke up at 4:30am this morning. We had a fruit basket from the hotel which we took with us to eat along the way. At 5am we pulled into the Mazada parking lot, bought our tickets, and started our climb- along the snake path- to the top of the fortress to catch sunrise.

We reached the top of Mazada at about 6am, roughly 25 minutes before sunrise- which we saw from the watch tower. There was so much to see in Mazada, we walked all over the fortress for about 2 hours, and eventually took the cable car back down.

Summit before sunrise	Sunrise!	Tobia at Sunrise	Tobia and I at Mazada Sunrise
Harod’s Residence	Harod’s Residence from above	Tobia and I at Harod’s Residence	Great Cliff + Background view
Bar Mitzvah	Guard Tower in the Distance	Nice View down East	Taking the Cable Car back down

Looking at Mazada + Snake Path

Back at our hotel at 9:30am we were starving, having eaten only a piece of fruit each from our basket. Breakfast was a silent time for me (at least in terms of words, I can’t vouch for the loud eating sounds I was making), a chance to inhale some 2000 calories of food.

Cave where Dead Sea Scrolls were believed to be found

Dead Sea Scrolls, Qumran

From there, it was on to Qumran, where we saw the cave where the dead sea scrolls are believed to have been found.

Following Qumran, we drove right by the West Bank (which was on our West), headed North, in pursuit of Mount Tavor – the Catholic Church built on top of the spot where Catholics believe the transfiguration of Jesus happened.

While we were at it, we also went to Tabghe, the Churc of Fish and Bread, the Church of Primacy of Peter, and Capernaum.

Mount Tavor

Inside Mount Tavor Church (Transfiguration)

Capharnaum

Ancient Roman Ruins

Church of Bread and Fish (Tverya)

We had lunch/dinner at a Lebanese food restaurant, with great view of the Kinneret (Sea of Gallilee). Afterwards we checked into our hotel, walked the promenade, had some ice cream, internet’ed in the lobby and ultimately crashed in our room.

I woke up naturally at 7am this morning. The previous night I fell asleep just before 9:30pm, clearly tired following the Mazada early morning trip.

After a good breakfast at our Tverya hotel, we took off to the Mount of Beatitudes Church.

Breakfast at Tulip Inn

Mount of Beatitudes

Nice view

Inside Mount of Beatitudes

From there we continued on to Qiryat Shemona, and then Metula, where we first saw the Lebanese-Israeli border (The Good Fence), followed by Canada Centre, an olympic sized rink hockey facility.

The Good Fence

Canada Centre

Canada Centre Ice Rink

We continued down south to Nimrod’s fortress where we hiked around the ruins for a while. Just down the mountain from the fortress was Banias, a location where we were able to see Pan’s temple as well as other Greek ruins.

Nimrod’s Fortress	Nimrod’s Fortress Close Up	Nice view from Tower
Octagonal Tower	Large Water Cistern	Temple of Pan
Sand Verses, Banias Nat’l Preserve	Pan’s Grotto	Lovely Scent and Sight of Figs

I really wanted to see Syria and Mt. Hermon, so we headed up the Hermon mountain, getting lost a bunch of times and passing by two Druze villages along the way. After Mt. Hermon, we got lost a couple more times en route to driving around the eastern part of the Gallilee. We came across a great lookout point in the Golan Heights that overlooked a ghost town (Quneitra) in Syria. In the distance, I think we saw Damascus (not sure though).

Village of Majd El Shames below

Mount Hermon

Syrian Ghost Town of Quneitra

We then cut South West and got to Rosh Pinna, a small town which had a few lunch places open. As it was Friday, and we knew that meant things would be closed in the more religious city of Zefat, we decided to pull over and eat. We had some delicious falafel at a small restaurant off the main road there.

Falafel Lunch outside Zefat

Stairs up and down town of Zefat

Following lunch we made the drive up the hill to Zefat. We walked around Zefat, which was fairly quiet due to the Sabbath, but we did come across a very friendly soldier who gave us some suggestions of places to visit in Zefat.

Pretty tired at this point, we decided to return to our hotel in Tverya. We briefly stopped outside a museum containing the Ancient Gallilee boat from roughly the year 100 that sunk in the Kinneret. From there it was a 10 minute drive back to our hotel, where we wound down at the bar with free drinks and some snacks.

Me at breakfast at Tulip Inn

Migdal

I clonked out hard last night at 9:30pm and woke up naturally at 7am. After a slow breakfast, we left Tverya towards Migdal to go see some ruins of Mary Magdalene’s home. The problem was, we couldn’t find it. I ended up walking into a Synagogue to ask about the place, and was eventually helped out as well as given food after conversing with the gentlemen doing the morning prayer. Prior to giving me directions, the Rabbi sat me down with a whole bunch of people, someone came up behind me and put a Yarmulke on my head, two guys took my hands, and apparently there was a prayer that involved me. It felt pretty awkward for me, as I was “blasphemously” dressed in shorts, sandals and a t-shirt (on the Sabbath), not to mention, I’m not exactly what one would call a “person of religion”.

We followed the new directions and were able to see some ruins that are said (by some) to represent Mary’s home.

Rosh Hanikra looking South	Israel-Lebanon Sea border	Inside Grotto, beautiful water colors	Loud, mysterious flow	Serene and beautiful
Awesome colors	Rugged Cliff	Distances	Tropical Fruit Stand

From there, we headed off to Rosh Hanikra- the north west corner of Israel, which has, to the west, the Mediterranean, and to the north- Lebanon. There were pretty impressive coastal views from atop the Rosh Hanikra mountain, as well as a cable car that led us down close to the water where we saw lovely grottos with parts of the sea flowing into them. I think it was one of the most beautiful parts of the country.

Yotveta Drinks

Without very solid plans, we tentatively decided to drive south into Haifa. We ended up going to Bat Galim where we had cold Yotvata drinks, which were delicious and cooled us down despite the 37 degree weather outside. During drinks, we decided we’d make a quick trip to Nazareth before meeting up with my grandparents at 6pm later in the day. It was around 1pm at this time.

Getting to Nazareth took about 25 minutes. It took another 35 just to cross about a mile of the old city and see the Church of the Annunciation- built on top of the grotto where Mary lived. We observed Catholic mass. I will remember two things from Nazareth: the first was the church as an architectural piece, and the second, the horrendous traffic flow in the city. There was 1 lane in each direction, but roughly 2 or sometimes 3 pseudo-lanes were being created by cars cramming into lanes that simply were not there. Folks were U-turning in the middle of the road, and people forced their way into spaces that did not exist. There was very little honking, and people were quite calm driving, but I gotta say that was the most tough driving of my life and I was anything but calm. I was probably the only person that was rattled. At some point I just had to laugh about it, there was simply nothing I could do.

Nazareth Souk	Church of Annunciation	Mass inside Church of Annunciation	‘Respectable’ attire
Mary’s Grotto	Worst Traffic Situation of my life #1	Worst Traffic Situation of my life #2	Worst Traffic Situation of my life #3

From Nazareth, we had just enough time to get some lunch before heading off to my grandparents’ house. We returned to Haifa planning to eat at an awesome restaurant we both love- Abu Yusef, in the downtown. A bit lost at one point, a cop car pulled up to us and the two cops helped lead us to the restaurant we had trouble finding. The food was marvelous!

Abu Youssef #1

Abu Youssef #2

Abu Youssef #3

Beautiful Haifa

After the restaurant, for one of the first times in the trip, we didn’t need a map, because I had actually remembered this part of the city from my childhood and led us up to my grandparents’ house at the top of the hill. We had a lovely time at my grandparents’ house, also meeting my grandma’s sister-in-law, as well as my cousin Lital, and her whole family.

A couple hours later, we all headed off. Tobia and I checked into our hotel at Dan Panorama in Haifa, and wound down for the night. We made tentative plans to meet up with my grandparents for a short day trip the next day.

Beautiful Haifa

The Dan Panorama in Haifa was the best of all hotels we stayed at in Israel. We woke up around 7:30am and went to have breakfast. Around 10am we picked up my grandparents, as well as Rina a few minutes later, and the five of us headed to Bet She’arim. In typical style, the signs were really bad and we struggled to find the destination.

Once we got there, though, we had a wonderful time. We had a tour guide for the five of us. We saw catacombs of Jews from the 2nd and 4th centuries. There were a number of caves we were able to walk through as well.

Beit She’arim with Grandparents and Rina

Burial Sarcophagi

Cave where glass was made

Some folks joined our group

Great Restaurant in Atlit

After dropping the 3 at their needed destinations, Tobia and I started heading to Caesarea for Yaron and Inbar’s wedding. On the way we stopped in Atlit to have a great lunch which consisted of humus, various salads, fries, and fish. It was delicious. It was a quick drive to Caesarea from Atlit.

We rested in our room for a while and showered/prepared, and finally headed to the wedding at 6:45pm. We saw the bride and groom, hung out, had a nice meal, and ultimately came back to the hotel to wrap up the night.

Yaron and Inbar’s Wedding (set-up) in Caesarea	Beautiful View and colors	Self Portrait
Happy Tobia	Yaron, Inbar – Under Huppa	Yaron, Inbar- Dancing

Last Breakfast (Dan Caesarea)

We woke up as late as we could, which was roughly 9am this morning. We packed and headed to breakfast at our hotel in Caesarea.

Following breakfast, we headed to Latrun to see a theme park that represented a mini-version of Israel. It had so many things in it, and the attention to details and little things were really awesome.

Mini Israel (Caesarea)	Mini Israel (Haifa)	Mini Israel (Zefat)	Mini Israel (Western Wall)
Mini Israel (Ben Gurion Airport)	Mini Israel (Mazada)	Mini Israel (Mazada, Roman Ramparts)	Mini Israel (Timna Park)

As it was still only 2pm, and we didn’t have to be at the airport until 8pm, we decided to drive off to Jerusalem, which was only 20 miles away. We found some free parking garage, took advantage, and set off on foot in the Old City. I could not believe how incredibly well Tobia knew the Old City. She led me through various parts of the city, going through souks and eateries (seemed like a confusing maze to me), and eventually we reached the Western Wall. We also saw the Mount of Olives and a few other significant sites.

Jerusalem

Me at Western Wall

Tobia at Western Wall

Golden Menorah

Lunch in Jewish Quarter

We had a quick and simple lunch of pizza and burekas at one of the small eateries near the Western Wall, and ultimately returned to our car to drive to Ben Gurion Airport.

We put lots of miles on the car

Our trusty rentral car

We got to the airport at 6pm, two hours before the initial check-in for our 11:30pm flight to Atlanta, so we pulled up at a cafe and took advantage of the free Wi-Fi that they have all over this place.

I took a couple of dramamines before boarding, and slept really well on the 13 hour flight from Tel Aviv to Atlanta. It also prevented me from vomiting. I also caught “The Hangover” movie a few hours before landing, and enjoyed it.

Some general thoughts and other random things about the trip:

• People helped a lot when I asked tons of questions about directions.
• People are also impatient, often rude to unknowledgeable customers or those who don’t understand how things are supposed to work.
• Horrible, horrible directions on the road, if any at all. We lost so many hours going in the wrong direction. Sometimes sign comes up pointing to road right in front of it.
• I learned so much about the country (Ben Gurion, Abraham’s well, Makhtesh existence).
• Can’t believe we had to pay for parking at hotel where we were staying.
• Nickel and dimed so often at places (like parking, and internet); kinda reminded of Vegas in that regard.
• Unbelievably good breakfast(s) at every hotel.
• I still vomit too much when I fly- hate to fly really badly. Though Dramamine seems to help some.
• Just like CA, Israel has many terrains and faces. Amazing for that to be the case for such a small country.
• Humidity is unbearable.
• Driving is tougher in cities; pushier, more crowded, harder to park. I honked a lot and occasionally screamed out to people (seemed like I was right at home when I did).
• Frustrated that internet is blocked at every hotel and you must purchase plan for anywhere between 30 minutes to 24 hours- and it’s quite expensive.
• Impressed to see an Olympic sized hockey rink in Israel. Ice quality was not so good (maybe because of summer), and facility not as large as I expected, but still very nice.
• So much history, sites, faces, important people in Israel.
• Have learned a great deal about Israeli geography on this trip.
• Learned that there are a lot of places in the country (not just Jerusalem) that are important/holy to Christians and Muslims.
• Drove 2nd worst road ever, behind Windy Point Road (in Lost Coast near Punta Gorda Lighthouse)- en route to Mt. Sdom lookout.
• Way less censorship; for example, Nat’l Geographic is simply amazing in Israel, with better shows and the shows portray more without cutting or dumbing down content. Can’t imagine watching it the old way again.
• Only in Israel can a police man find it more important to lead me to the restaurant I’m going to eat at over stopping a guy driving the wrong way on a 1-way street right in front of him.
• We put 1889 kilometers on the car (3936 km – 5825 km) on our trip in Israel. This doesn’t include Petra, Jordan trip. The round-trip to Jordan was 230 km. (Mileage totals- Israel: 1174 miles; Jordan: 143 miles).
• Gas is really expensive in Israel. It was $50 just to fuel half a tank at most places. You pay sheqels per liter, and typically that’s about 6.40, which works out to roughly 6.37 dollars per gallon.

As Israel is in the same time zone as Estonia, and fairly close by, I arranged to work for 1 week from Israel following Estonia. I hadn’t seen my brother nor my grandparents in a couple of years, and thought it would be a good idea to visit both.

Tobia and I pulled up in a hotel in Tel Aviv for the week, and we visited my grandparents a couple of times up in Haifa.

Abu Yussef restaurant, Haifa. The picture and food just don’t get old. I still love ‘em after more than 25 years.	Board walk to Yaffo.		Tel Aviv coastline
At the business lounge where I worked everyday	Amazingly fresh rogalach in Jerusalem	Guy and Tobia, ba Kotel	Holy of Holies
		Judaean Valley, right outside Yad Va Shem	Victims Memorial, Yad Va Shem
	Guy, Lihi, Tobia and I after dinner		Guy and Saba
	Rainstorms created a great surfing evening for these folks		Hummus with fuul