28. Family vacation

Since we've last spoken, my family came for a 10 day journey across Israel. We had an awesome adventure together as we traveled from north to south and everywhere in between. We started in Tel Aviv, then went to Eilat (southern-most city in Israel) and Petra (Jordan). Following a quick flight back to Tel Aviv, we went north to the Golan Heights (mountains in the north), looked into Syria and Lebanon, got mystical in Tzfat (the mystical Jewish city), went to TIberias (to the burial site of celebrated Rabbis), and the Kinneret (Sea of Galilee). As it was Easter, there were several Christian pilgrims at our Kibbutz at the Kinneret (because that's where Jesus did his walking). We floated in the Dead Sea, slathered up with mud, and climbed Masada (King Herod's fortress and place of last stand by Jewish zealots). We saw the site where the Dead Sea Scrolls were found by a bedouin shepherd.

That's all before Jerusalem. In Jerusalem, we did lots of walking around the new and old cities, went to the Kotel (Wailing Wall), the Church of the Holy Sepulchre, the Dome of the Rock and al-Aksa Mosque. We enjoyed the Jewish quarter in the old city and did a tunnel tour below the Kotel. We visited Yad Vashem (Holocaust memorial), the Herzl Military Cemetary, and the Ben Yehuda Street Shuk (market). We went to the Israel Museum to see a great exhibit on stolen art from WWII, the Dead Sea Scrolls, and a reconstruction of Jerusalem from around the year 70. We visited the Great Synagogue (an enormous synagogue) on Friday night. After Jerusalem, we went to Tel Aviv. Once here, we went to Tel Aviv Museum of Art (a great modern art museum) and the Diaspora Museum (about the Jewish diaspora). After 10 days, we finally earned some time to sit on the beach and watch the sunset and walk around some of the cool areas of Tel Aviv.

I'll try to put up pictures though it might be a while because I'm off to Cairo on Wednesday for spring break. After Cairo, I'm headed to Central/Eastern Europe before coming back to Israel for a week for more traveling.

I'm also in the middle of "midterms." I've forgotten how to write a paper and can't concentrate. I've come a far way from Bowdoin.