The Holy Land, Part II

After visiting Jerusalem, we went about an hour north to Tel Aviv to stay with Assaf's parents. I had the feeling Assaf's mother would be a good cook, but she blew us away with absolute feasts of food on two consecutive nights, all while doing our laundry and attending a wedding. I don't know how she did it. Her food was really good, as was all the food we tried in Israel. I am in love with their thick, soft, doughy pita bread. Anybody know of a good Jewish bakery in Atlanta, or New Zealand for that matter? For a few bucks you can get a pita bread filled with falafel (fried ball of ground chickpeas) or shawarma (the big rotating spits of roasted lamb they also use in gyros), along with french fries, cucumbers, onions, hummus, eggplant, and a bunch of other kinds of sauces and veggies. It's really good. Tel Aviv is a relatively young town both in itself and in it's population. Lots of boutique fashion shops combined with the beach made it feel a little like LA. We used our time there to relax and slow it down a bit as we'd been going pretty fast our first few days. While Assaf and his family went to a wedding, Steph and I visited yet another market and found a really nice handicraft market. Steph hates being on such a long trip because it's too hard to buy souvenirs (but I like that). We also hit the beach, which was really nice, and watched all the locals playing paddleball. They love it! That evening we watched a cool Israeli game show on TV, which was completely in Hebrew so we had no idea what was happening but it was fun anyways!

Dinner on the Sabbath with Assaf's family

From Tel Aviv we headed into the forests and green hills of northern Israel, but first we had to meet up with Ran and his family, who were having a vacation on the Mediterranean coast north of Tel Aviv. We had forgotten some stuff at his place, so we had to pick it up. The beach was nice and his family very friendly, so we spent the afternoon eating, chatting, and swimming in the sea. In just under a week in Israel, we'd now swum in the Red, Dead, and Med seas! Haviv, a mutual friend of Assaf and Ran, joined us from here and took us up to his house in Golan Heights (not exactly sure where). Aviv lives in a former kibbutz, which is a type of village used in settling Israel. The Jews wanted to lay claim to land as much land as possible, so they formed many of these communal societies all over Palestine (before it was Israel). Everyone works and eats together and gets paid based on their needs. There are also communities called Moshav, similar to a kibbutz except everyone owns their own farm and thus gets paid based on their output. Many of the kibbutz are privatized now, including the one Aviv lives in, meaning they are small communities where everyone essentially takes care of themselves.  Aviv's kibbutz is home to a lot of students since there is a university nearby, so we hung out and had dinner with a few of them before going scorpion hunting. We had gone out looking for scorpions on our night in the desert with Ran, but had only found a small horned viper snake. I had been laughing at Assaf for carrying a "scorpion light", which was basically a black light that was supposed to make scorpions glow in the dark. I was skeptical and kept teasing him about it, but when we turned over one rock and saw a bright neon yellow scorpion shining from underneath, I became a believer. I don't know why a dark brown or black scorpion would glow bright yellow under a black light, but it does and it is pretty cool to see. Even Steph thought it was cool, but was on edge from that point on now that there was a confirmed scorpion presence.

Haviv on left with our goat-milking friends in middle and right

The next morning we got to milk some goats with Haviv's neighbors. They use the milk to make goat cheese and other "delicacies" that neither Steph or I are very fond of. It was nice, though, to get a brief taste of life on a kibbutz.

For our last adventure in Israel, everyone on the kibbutz recommended a "hike in the river." We weren't sure what we were getting into, but it was literally a two-mile hike in a small river. It was nice, we got to see a little wildlife (birds and turtles) and enjoy the outdoors. Some parts were deep and we had to swim, which Steph did not like one bit and was very amusing for Assaf and I, but I think overall she enjoyed it as much as we did. That afternoon Assaf drove us the hour and 45 minutes past the Sea of Galilee to the norther border crossing with Jordan so that we could catch our 2am flight to Bangkok. Asia here we come!

a swimming hole near the kibbutz