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February 12, 2004
israel entry 3 (finally), plus jordan
so i finished the israel outdoors program yesterday, overall it was so amazingly good and i felt very very fortunate to have been able to participate.
probably the best day was my birthday. it started out with a jeep tour in the golan heights, during which we went to see fields of wildflowers and also the various israeli lines of defense against the syrians and lebanese during the 6 day war and the yom kippur war. at that moment, similar to many times in israel, i found myself reflecting about all the battles and wars and bloodshed that have occured in this part of the world, beginning thousands of years ago and continuing up until today. the wars israel went through in the years following it's creation were hairy, more so then i knew, and several times they held on by the seat of their pants, scarce kilometers from being wiped out.
after the jeep tour went on a 4 hour hike through some amazing canyons in the golan. some of the canyons were full of a bamboo like plant, some were bare except for the ubiquitous basalt that inundates this part of the world, and many had waterfalls flowing down. it felt so good that it was on my birthday, we stopped next to a waterfall and our guide ornit made sugary middle east style tea and we sat listening to the water. that evening we went out to dinner and i was tricked outside, only to walk into the dining room of the restaurant to hear everyone in the group sing me happy birthday in hebrew. they were so excited they sang it twice, plus once in english. thanks guys. we then retired to the hotel bar, where i fended off attempts to get me puking drunk.
the second best day may have been the one day we actually rode bikes. it was in the north as well, i think i liked the north part of israel the most in terms of variety of geography and beauty of scenery. the desert still calls though. we rode bikes in a long line, looking down into stream canyons and over verdant green rolling hills, and near the end the sea of galilee came into view.
we dropped off the bikes and went for a dip in some thermal hotsprings, very egg smelling but nice after a nice ride, plus they had a waterslide that reminded me of a toilet. that evening we went on a weird "disco" cruise on the sea of galilee, the best part being when the boat captain got drunk and ran into a parked boat as he brought us back into port.
i wish i would have been able to update this more often, there are so many things to mention. here are some other highlights:
the wailing wall: seeing this in jerusalem was pretty important, if you consider that it's the holiest place in israel. it was teeming with "black hats," orthodox jews who bustled everywhere, always looking harried. after viewing a video about the history of the wall that included cheesy animations, we went out there. i went down to the wall but didn't put any prayers in or anything. one thing visiting israel has made me feel is a connection to the cultural and ethnic heritage of being jewish. personally i am not interested at all in the religion, for a variety of reasons, so i was very happy to see a cultural aspect, someone spoke about being linked with the jews as a people as opposed to just the religion, i very much agreed with that. anyways, don't see myself going back to the wall, but it was cool to see. also, seeing the al aqsa mosque in the background, on top of the temple mount made me think of how crowded that city is with history and religions and, yes, strife.
Yad vashem: the holocaust museum in israel was heavy, not as graphically as the one in washington d.c., but more in the feeling that so many of the few remaining jews fled to here, in hopes of a nation of their own.
the other kids in the group: i was thinking about it on the last day, that it was probably the last time in my life that i'd ever be around a group of folks who were all jewish and my own age. made some good new friends, had many good laughs, especially sitting in the back of the tour bus while driving around the country. it will be hard to see many of them again, but going to try. a few live in s.f., so that shouldn't be so hard.
i'll surely reflect more on my trip at a later date, now though i should mention that i'm in the country of jordan. last night got dropped off in tel aviv with evan from l.a., justin from brooklyn and nate from the s.f. area. the tour bus drove the kids who had to fly home last night (poor bastards) to the airport, and we waved as they left. we took city busses to the center, where we dropped jessie off in a good hostel. she's watching my bike while i'm over here, i send her a big thank you for that. we hung out a got an expensive beer, and i rung up ran, who sounded pleased to hear from me. i'm gonna meet up with him when i get back to tel aviv. a 10 minute cab ride brought us to a bus heading south towards eilat, and we spent a horrible night trying to sleep as the bus lurched and the rude israeli high school students chattered away behind me, oblivious to the myriad of dirty looks we shot them.
this morn we disembarked, got our bearings, and after changing our plane tickets, slipped through the border control with little problem into jordan. haggling with the cab drivers proved fruitless, and we settled on spending 40 bucks on a 2 hour ride here, to petra. we dropped our packs at valentines hostel then caught a ride out to the site. i used my very expired student i.d. to get a discount, and we entered in, exhausted but anticipating some amazing stuff. of course we weren't disappointed, the treasury blew me away, i had the same sense of wanting to sit there and just stare as i did when i went to the acropolis and to tikal in guatemela. the things they carved out of pure stone were intricate and at times frankly unbelievable, and we found ourselves jaws gaping and awestruck. we hung out for a few hours, but fatigue drove us back here, to the hostel. i'm in a room now with a bunch of arab guys playing guitar and hand drums and singing and clapping, it's cool but the cigarette smoke is murder. they keep picking up these 2 weird israeli girls and making them dance, they have some rhythm but always revert to shaking their asses. funny stuff.
ok off to sleep. be well.
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Posted by bendan at February 12, 2004 11:44 AM
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