So, we got to Ein Gedi.....without any of Jeremy the GPS’s help; a good choice since most of the drive was again through the West Bank and he gives us the silent treatment when we do that anyway. Noah was particularly happy about Jeremy being shunned to the glove compartment as he has serious sibling rivalry with Jeremy (Noah has quite the navigational skills, as many of you know).
In Ein Gedi we stayed at the Kibbutz/spa/resort with breakfasts and dinners included. Breakfasts and dinners were in fact plentiful, fresh and quite good....so much so that we helped ourselves to “extra” breakfasts, that we stored in our knapsack until lunch every day. Note to future travelers: remember not to squish hard boiled eggs, yogurts, and buns in knapsacks already containing large bottles of water, unless using separate containers. We’ll leave the appearance of our first lunch to your imaginations - serves us right for yet again trying to beat the system!
For our first full day in Ein Gedi we went on a water hike to a hidden water fall (not the usual touristy 30 minute hike). In Israel it is popular to hike in rivers...yes, in the rivers not beside them. We thought this very strange when we heard about it in Canada, but having done it, it makes perfect sense. The heat is oppressive, but the mountain water is cool and refreshing, and we frequently immersed ourselves, in our clothes, and continued hiking. At the outset of the hike, Aaron noted some black creatures that we now believe are water slugs, but he worried that they were leaches, and was reluctant to step on the water, preferring to hop from one stone to the next. Eventually he was reassured and joined the rest of us as we slogged through the water. When we got to the hidden water fall we went for a lovely swim, but then quickly continued up another half hour to the fresh water pools that feed the river. The water comes down from the hills of Jerusalem, leaching through the rock over a period of days to years, and first emerges at these pools, cool, filtered and clean enough to drink. On the way up, we heard a cute little boy yelling out to the echoes in the hills. We called back to him a couple of times. Within moments of our arrival at the top, a person who we initially thought was a 12 year-old boy, but turned out to be a 20-something female park ranger, accosted us angrily saying, “Didn’t you hear me yelling at you earlier?!” Once again, we were in trouble with the Israeli authorities- this time for not responding appropriately to a park ranger; it turns out that the yelling child we'd hear earlier, was no child, but said angry park ranger. Apparently we were not supposed to have gone up to the very top after 2:00 pm. We consequently received a ranger escort back down the mountain. So we sang religious songs in 3 part harmony in the hopes of either entertaining her, or annoying her. We wondered if she was particularly angered by us because she doesn’t like kids, so Aaron renamed her “The Kid-Stop-o”. After the hike we went for our first dip in the Dead Sea and all enjoyed the floating, but not the stinging in various body parts.
The next morning we awoke at 3:45 am!! You’d think this would be an annoyance, but not for us; we did it on purpose. We got in the car and started driving further south.....to....Massada for sunrise. The hike is a steep 45 minutes, and you definitely need a flash light as the Snake Path is not lit up and it was pitch dark at the beginning. Even in the dark it was still quite hot, but manageable. When we got to the top, we sat on an ancient wall overlooking the Dead Sea. We watched the sun come up over the mountains of Jordan. It was beautiful. We then walked around the grounds of Massada, discussing the story of the 967 people who died there in order to be free and not to become Roman slaves. We took the cable car down; a mere three minute ride.
Back at the kibbutz, we had breakfast (and fed the knapsack more carefully its lunch), and then went off to bed for two hours. In the late afternoon, we headed to the spa of Ein Gedi, where we swam in the pool, smeared ourselves with mud and took typical tourist pictures of ourselves. The next day we went the spa once more so that we could soak in the Dead Sea again, and then we made our way to Mitzpe Ramon.
Mitzpe Ramon is a small desert town on the ridge of the world’s largest “erosion crater”. We stayed at a place in the desert called “Succah BaMidbar” which means, Huts in the Desert. This was the most amazing place we’ve stayed at so far. It is way outside the town, in the middle of absolutely nowhere, in the Negev Desert. It consists of several straw huts each quite isolated from the others. A gong is rung twice a-day, when it’s time to eat amazing, plentiful vegetarian meals in the main succah. The first morning we went on a hike to the crater and saw its immenseness. It reminded some of us of the Grand Canyon - vast, inspiring, and untouched. In the afternoon we met up with a guide, Oded, who took us off-road cycling along the ridge of the Canyon, as well as into the desert. He was the best guide we’ve had to date - knowledgeable, fun, and totally rugged. He described the geology of the place, pulled up a plant whose leaves have oils and salt and with a few drops of water can be lathered into a kind of soap, and found some camel poop that he opened up and dissected; bringing it up to his nose and taking a long sniff, claiming it smelled fine (camels are herbivores).
In the village of Mitzpe Ramon, we had a few adventures. It is a weird combo of artist colony and army base. So, in the main square we saw oodles of Israeli soldiers, young men and women, stocking up on junk food, buying pizza and falafel, and generally hanging out like the normal teenagers that most of them are. Around the corner from their is an artists’ cooperative and a true french chocoatier, where we nibbled on home made truffles and sipped on chocolat chaud. While driving through the town, we found ourselves being chased down by Israeli authorities yet again. This time the police pulled us over and we had no idea why. Turns out Rob ran a stop sign and made an illegal left turn all in one combo move. The police officer seemed quite irritated as Rob tried to explain that we were looking for a restaurant and got confused by traffic. The officer wasn’t impressed and said, with a thick Israeli accent, “If you were an Israeli citizen, I would take away your license and take away your car and make you take the bus. But since you are a tourist I will just give you a warning. Now, for restaurant recommendations......” - and he proceeded to tell us all the local restaurant options we could choose from. This is now our prime example of the Sabra (Israeli native); prickly on the outside, but sweet on the inside.
The next day we drove to Eilat, which is where we are now, reeling with culture shock as we have gone from a silent desert retreat to a booming beach resort town.
Until the next time....RANAD!
Tuesday, August 25, 2009
Wednesday, August 19, 2009
Tuesday August 17, 2009
Israel entry 2
Jerusalem
So, obviously we made it to Jerusalem safe and sound. Jeremy, our GPS, was not happy with us driving through the West Bank, and so he gave us the silent treatment the entire time. And then, suddenly, once we arrived in the city, he woke up from his passive-aggressive slumber and decided to start giving us directions again.
Our apartment here has been great. Great location. Great lay out. Great price. Great cockroaches. OK, we’ve only seen two, at the beginning, but they are massive here in Israel, so they are pretty scary. Consequently, we come home from our touring every night and have done “Makak checks” (Cockroach checks). By the way, both roach murders were committed by our hero, Rob. The first, squeezed between two bottles of olive oil. The second squashed with his foot (well....with his sandled foot; he’s not that barbaric).
The first day in Jerusalem we took a comprehensive guided tour of the old city, although not necessarily all that well organized. Our enthusiastic guide, Dorit, explained tons; everything from the coming of the various Messiahs to the current political situation, with a little about local plant life along the way. We went to all four of the Old City’s quarters, met the Armenian Arch Bishop in a little shop, hung out in all of Jesus’ stops along the Via Dolorosa, saw the Western Wall, where the kids placed notes they had written, saw a bunch of Mosques, one synagogue, and went into a gazillion churches. The number of churches we saw per minute kept increasing in our minds as we subsequently relayed our day’s site seeing to others. We also toured the Western Wall tunnel, which was most excellent thanks to a superb tour guide and really cool archeological work, and we ended with a tour of the Arab Shuk, which was totally cool. At one point during the day we went into a Messianic church, and received a little lecture from a New Yorker turned Jews-for-Jesus. The lecture started out factual, but was followed quickly by a healthy dose of full-on attempted conversion. We got outta there quickly. Of course, it goes without saying that we saw many Roman ruins. At one spot, there was a bunch of highly under-supervised kids, one of whom was whacking at a Roman pillar with a mallet; okay, it was a toy mallet, but still...
That evening we ate at an amazing Armenian restaurant in the Armenian Quarter of the old city. On the English menu they offered pieces of chopped lamp (perhaps they meant lamb?). On our way home from dinner we bumped into Rob’s dad’s cousin Michael and his wife, Sarah, who were in town from Tel Aviv to celebrate their 37th wedding anniversary. In the same block, we next ran into our friends from Toronto, the Newmans, We don’t typically run into as many people we know in downtown Toronto as we did that night in Jersualem!
The next day we had to buy Rob pants. You see, he somehow thought that he could show up at this Bar Mitzvah we were invited to in shorts and a t-shirt. So Diane had to explain to him that he is no longer 12 years old, and that grown men actually dress like grown men when they go to functions. While we waited for his pants to be altered, we ate lunch at Sam Bagel’s, which in the rest of the world is called Sam’s Bagels; one of many interesting alterations to the English language here. While on the topic of alterations in language, the hardest part about reading Hebrew is reading the English words transliterated into Hebrew. The other day, Diane saw a business and said “Oh look, that place is called ‘Disco-net’, I guess you can dance and go on the computer there!” It turns out it was really a bank called ‘Discount’ (both look the same when written with Hebrew letters). At the end of that day, we visited the museum of Islamic art, which is in the neighborhood we’re staying in. The first exhibit we went to could have been called Islam for dummies; it was very basic. But the exhibit on swords, shields, and armour, from the Persian and Ottoman empires was very cool. That evening we had Shabbat dinner at our friends’ Lee and Shira, who graciously answered about a million questions that we had been saving up for them on Israeli politics, army duty for Orthodox Jews, and so on.
Saturday morning we took a walking tour of the new city of Jerusalem, offered by the city. This time, our tour guide was less than desirable - speaking in a monotonous, quiet and uninspiring manner. He was far more organized, however. It’s amazing that the city of Jerusalem is this ancient ancient place, and yet the modern city only began in 1860. After the tour and a quick brown bag lunch, we went to watch a time elevator movie. Time-elevator is a company that makes video experiences for ancient cities. They take you back in time thousands of years, teach you the history in an animated way. All the actors were dubbed into English, including a 14-year-old boy who had the misfortune of having a woman dub his voice; he sort of sounded like he was on helium. For the afternoon we went to the Newman’s, grazed and hung out with them until the end of Shabbat. It was so fun, and we rolled out of there at the end of the evening.
The Newmans have a nephew named Ilan who has a vast amount of knowledge about the history of Jerusalem. On Sunday, he took us on a wonderful tour of the rooftops of the old city. We learned a lot about the current situations in Israel, as well as a ton of historical information. After having taken three tours of the city of Jerusalem, we feel as though we have barely scratched the surface of this incredible city. We then took a tour of the City of David, just south-east of the old city. This tour goes through underground tunnels that used to be the water system for the city of David, 2700 years ago. During the entire walk through the tunnel, we were submerged in water up to our thighs. The enthusiastic tour guide kept turning around to explain stuff to us. Since the tunnel was very thin, we all had to walk in single file, and so every time he would tell us something, we would have to relay it back to the people behind us who then told the people behind them, and so on. It was like a real life version of broken telephone. We figured that when he told us there were calcium deposits on the wall of the tunnel, by the time the last person heard it, they would think that’s where you can make bank deposits.
That night, we went to the Ellis Bar-Mitzvah. Aaron and Noah’s friend Eitan had his Bar-Mitzvah in Israel, and it was really lovely. It felt like a Heschel school reunion, as there were a number of families here in Israel from the children’s school. We had an amazing time schmoozing with everyone. On a funny note, Aviva was seated directly next to some of Eitan’s cousins, who had a bickery moment. The sister yelled at her brother about how disrespectful he was for not wearing a kipah to a Bar-Mitzvah. They had an elaborate argument in Hebrew, assuming that no one could understand them.
The next day, we all went to Yad Vashem for an emotionally-moving and informative journey through the history of the Holocaust. It’s hard to find words to describe it without sounding trite. We didn’t want to miss anything, so we only got part-way through the museum. We’re hoping to return.
Yesterday, we went to the Soreq caves in Beit Shemesh. The caves are just outside of Jerusalem, and so we took a sheirut to get there and back. A sheirut is a cross between a public bus and a taxi. People get on and request where they want to go, and the price is negotiated accordingly. Our bus driver was driving barefooted. On the way back, he kept yawning and shaking, and we realized he was falling asleep. So Diane asked Rob to start firing questions at him in Hebrew to keep him awake.
As for the Soreq caves themselves, they contained huge stalactites and stalagmites. We were forced to take a tour in Hebrew, with a guide who had a thick Russian accent. Through the five of us understanding various segments, we eventually figured out the full picture. That is, they were the result of millions of years of water dripping through limestone, leaving behind tiny deposits along the way, creating these formations. The caves were gorgeous, true natural wonders. This was the most impressive part of the trip, in Aviva’s opinion. We felt as though we were in a Dr. Seuss novel, because the formations were so surreal feeling.
We had dinner at this funky courtyard near the old city. At our table, there were a bunch of cats begging for food (Jerusalem, apparently, is the stray cat capital of the world). At one point, an off-leash dog chased one up a tree where we were seated. Rob was convinced that the cats, in the tree just above, would poop on his head. He insisted on wearing a napkin, and finally settled for a safari hat for protection. Then, one of the cats started having a coughing and sneezing fit, but eventually, the cat quieted down and fell asleep. We were all certain, at this point, that the cat had died, and Rob became convinced the dead cat would fall on his head. In explaining the situation to the confused waitress, we learned how to say, “We are afraid that a dead cat will plop on his head,” in Hebrew.
Today we are driving to Ein Gedi, an oasis near Massada and the Dead Sea.
Love to all of you,
RANAD
Israel entry 2
Jerusalem
So, obviously we made it to Jerusalem safe and sound. Jeremy, our GPS, was not happy with us driving through the West Bank, and so he gave us the silent treatment the entire time. And then, suddenly, once we arrived in the city, he woke up from his passive-aggressive slumber and decided to start giving us directions again.
Our apartment here has been great. Great location. Great lay out. Great price. Great cockroaches. OK, we’ve only seen two, at the beginning, but they are massive here in Israel, so they are pretty scary. Consequently, we come home from our touring every night and have done “Makak checks” (Cockroach checks). By the way, both roach murders were committed by our hero, Rob. The first, squeezed between two bottles of olive oil. The second squashed with his foot (well....with his sandled foot; he’s not that barbaric).
The first day in Jerusalem we took a comprehensive guided tour of the old city, although not necessarily all that well organized. Our enthusiastic guide, Dorit, explained tons; everything from the coming of the various Messiahs to the current political situation, with a little about local plant life along the way. We went to all four of the Old City’s quarters, met the Armenian Arch Bishop in a little shop, hung out in all of Jesus’ stops along the Via Dolorosa, saw the Western Wall, where the kids placed notes they had written, saw a bunch of Mosques, one synagogue, and went into a gazillion churches. The number of churches we saw per minute kept increasing in our minds as we subsequently relayed our day’s site seeing to others. We also toured the Western Wall tunnel, which was most excellent thanks to a superb tour guide and really cool archeological work, and we ended with a tour of the Arab Shuk, which was totally cool. At one point during the day we went into a Messianic church, and received a little lecture from a New Yorker turned Jews-for-Jesus. The lecture started out factual, but was followed quickly by a healthy dose of full-on attempted conversion. We got outta there quickly. Of course, it goes without saying that we saw many Roman ruins. At one spot, there was a bunch of highly under-supervised kids, one of whom was whacking at a Roman pillar with a mallet; okay, it was a toy mallet, but still...
That evening we ate at an amazing Armenian restaurant in the Armenian Quarter of the old city. On the English menu they offered pieces of chopped lamp (perhaps they meant lamb?). On our way home from dinner we bumped into Rob’s dad’s cousin Michael and his wife, Sarah, who were in town from Tel Aviv to celebrate their 37th wedding anniversary. In the same block, we next ran into our friends from Toronto, the Newmans, We don’t typically run into as many people we know in downtown Toronto as we did that night in Jersualem!
The next day we had to buy Rob pants. You see, he somehow thought that he could show up at this Bar Mitzvah we were invited to in shorts and a t-shirt. So Diane had to explain to him that he is no longer 12 years old, and that grown men actually dress like grown men when they go to functions. While we waited for his pants to be altered, we ate lunch at Sam Bagel’s, which in the rest of the world is called Sam’s Bagels; one of many interesting alterations to the English language here. While on the topic of alterations in language, the hardest part about reading Hebrew is reading the English words transliterated into Hebrew. The other day, Diane saw a business and said “Oh look, that place is called ‘Disco-net’, I guess you can dance and go on the computer there!” It turns out it was really a bank called ‘Discount’ (both look the same when written with Hebrew letters). At the end of that day, we visited the museum of Islamic art, which is in the neighborhood we’re staying in. The first exhibit we went to could have been called Islam for dummies; it was very basic. But the exhibit on swords, shields, and armour, from the Persian and Ottoman empires was very cool. That evening we had Shabbat dinner at our friends’ Lee and Shira, who graciously answered about a million questions that we had been saving up for them on Israeli politics, army duty for Orthodox Jews, and so on.
Saturday morning we took a walking tour of the new city of Jerusalem, offered by the city. This time, our tour guide was less than desirable - speaking in a monotonous, quiet and uninspiring manner. He was far more organized, however. It’s amazing that the city of Jerusalem is this ancient ancient place, and yet the modern city only began in 1860. After the tour and a quick brown bag lunch, we went to watch a time elevator movie. Time-elevator is a company that makes video experiences for ancient cities. They take you back in time thousands of years, teach you the history in an animated way. All the actors were dubbed into English, including a 14-year-old boy who had the misfortune of having a woman dub his voice; he sort of sounded like he was on helium. For the afternoon we went to the Newman’s, grazed and hung out with them until the end of Shabbat. It was so fun, and we rolled out of there at the end of the evening.
The Newmans have a nephew named Ilan who has a vast amount of knowledge about the history of Jerusalem. On Sunday, he took us on a wonderful tour of the rooftops of the old city. We learned a lot about the current situations in Israel, as well as a ton of historical information. After having taken three tours of the city of Jerusalem, we feel as though we have barely scratched the surface of this incredible city. We then took a tour of the City of David, just south-east of the old city. This tour goes through underground tunnels that used to be the water system for the city of David, 2700 years ago. During the entire walk through the tunnel, we were submerged in water up to our thighs. The enthusiastic tour guide kept turning around to explain stuff to us. Since the tunnel was very thin, we all had to walk in single file, and so every time he would tell us something, we would have to relay it back to the people behind us who then told the people behind them, and so on. It was like a real life version of broken telephone. We figured that when he told us there were calcium deposits on the wall of the tunnel, by the time the last person heard it, they would think that’s where you can make bank deposits.
That night, we went to the Ellis Bar-Mitzvah. Aaron and Noah’s friend Eitan had his Bar-Mitzvah in Israel, and it was really lovely. It felt like a Heschel school reunion, as there were a number of families here in Israel from the children’s school. We had an amazing time schmoozing with everyone. On a funny note, Aviva was seated directly next to some of Eitan’s cousins, who had a bickery moment. The sister yelled at her brother about how disrespectful he was for not wearing a kipah to a Bar-Mitzvah. They had an elaborate argument in Hebrew, assuming that no one could understand them.
The next day, we all went to Yad Vashem for an emotionally-moving and informative journey through the history of the Holocaust. It’s hard to find words to describe it without sounding trite. We didn’t want to miss anything, so we only got part-way through the museum. We’re hoping to return.
Yesterday, we went to the Soreq caves in Beit Shemesh. The caves are just outside of Jerusalem, and so we took a sheirut to get there and back. A sheirut is a cross between a public bus and a taxi. People get on and request where they want to go, and the price is negotiated accordingly. Our bus driver was driving barefooted. On the way back, he kept yawning and shaking, and we realized he was falling asleep. So Diane asked Rob to start firing questions at him in Hebrew to keep him awake.
As for the Soreq caves themselves, they contained huge stalactites and stalagmites. We were forced to take a tour in Hebrew, with a guide who had a thick Russian accent. Through the five of us understanding various segments, we eventually figured out the full picture. That is, they were the result of millions of years of water dripping through limestone, leaving behind tiny deposits along the way, creating these formations. The caves were gorgeous, true natural wonders. This was the most impressive part of the trip, in Aviva’s opinion. We felt as though we were in a Dr. Seuss novel, because the formations were so surreal feeling.
We had dinner at this funky courtyard near the old city. At our table, there were a bunch of cats begging for food (Jerusalem, apparently, is the stray cat capital of the world). At one point, an off-leash dog chased one up a tree where we were seated. Rob was convinced that the cats, in the tree just above, would poop on his head. He insisted on wearing a napkin, and finally settled for a safari hat for protection. Then, one of the cats started having a coughing and sneezing fit, but eventually, the cat quieted down and fell asleep. We were all certain, at this point, that the cat had died, and Rob became convinced the dead cat would fall on his head. In explaining the situation to the confused waitress, we learned how to say, “We are afraid that a dead cat will plop on his head,” in Hebrew.
Today we are driving to Ein Gedi, an oasis near Massada and the Dead Sea.
Love to all of you,
RANAD
Thursday, August 13, 2009
RANAD Philipp-Muller family blog.
Summer 2009. Trip to Israel.
Israel entry 1:
Haifa and the Galilee
Our trip was scheduled to begin like any other. We had five tickets for Israel, scheduled to leave at 8:40 P.M. Our plane decided to leave two hours early, or more accurately put, Diane had the times mixed up, and realized that we had two hours less than we thought we had. This of course was no issue for the Philipp-Muller family who, as always, was completely ready far in advance, in fact, our bags were packed 8 days ahead of time. NOT.
Anyway.....we had a restful plane ride, relatively uneventful, and ate vegetarian meals along the way. Aaron, however, was still hungry after his vegetarian breakfast, so Diane scored him an extra one by hiding her platter beneath her tray table, and “innocently” accepted a regular meal when they came around a second time.
Upon our arrival, we got off the plane, got hit by a wall of Israeli heat, and collected our bags. You all know the song “United breaks guitars” (if not, check it out on u-tube), well here’s a new one for you: “Austrian Airlines breaks bag handles.” Diane’s bag handle was completely broken off, and she had to perform immediate surgery to salvage her bag.
We picked up our rental car, and all seemed to be going as planned. That is until Rob tried to put the car into gear. The car growled its disapproval. After a couple of laps around the airport, we finally figured out the problem with this crazy car - that we have nicknamed ‘the golf cart' as it continues to growl disapproval anytime we climb a hill.....not great if you’re touring Haifa and the north, where we were headed.
So we raced out of the airport at a fast clip, only to hit terrible traffic en route in Tel Aviv. A drive that should have taken an hour ended up taking three hours.
We arrived in Haifa, excited to get to our apartment, only to realize that we forgot to get the address, telephone number or any means of communication with the owner of the apartment building. We had a little adventure in “Burger Ranch” trying to access internet, because this is the only joint in Haifa, that our lame Canadian brains could find, that has free internet access whatsoever, no matter how crappy it is. After about an hour, we were finally able to open our email and we retrieved this elusive information.
We had dinner at a pizza place and headed off to bed from our tiring adventures.
The next morning we ate breakfast using the groceries we bought from a very Israeli location. Apparently the Hebrew word for drugstore is drugstore - although actually it was a convenience store; very confusing. We had a gorgeous two story apartment with magnificent windows overlooking the Haifa harbour, and the entire city and skyline of Haifa. In every Israeli home there is a metal room that exists in case of attack, the entire family should hide to be safe. This room happened to be Aviva’s room. So essentially she was sleeping in a bomb shelter.
The first day in Haifa we went to Dado beach, which is a beautiful beach on the Mediterranean, but not before we had to buy a GPS. With great difficulty, we finally reached the Grand Canyon Centre, the mall where we purchased our wonderful GPS. We realized that the reason no one could give us directions to the Grand Canyon centre was because we don’t know the proper Israeli pronunciation of the term. In Haifa, they call it “Grond Conyon Centerrr”. Our GPS has never failed us once. We named him Jeremy. Jeremy has told us to turn where there is no turn. Jeremy has sent us going around and around in circles, destined to never reach our destination. Jeremy has told us to turn straight into the Mediterranean. Jeremy has not failed us once, he’s failed us multiple, multiple times.
After purchasing our little friend, we spent the afternoon body surfing, swimming, and lying on the beach and resting. Sitting next to us were several characters. There was a man laying to our left that had a huge tattoo of Jesus on the cross covering his entire back. Rob thought “Wow, these Israelis are becoming so edgy that they tattoo crucifixes on their backs.” This was the moment that Rob remembered that there are, in fact, Arab Christian Israelis as well. Behind us, there was a group of kids smoking a very large bong, or hookah as the kids these days are calling it. Aviva explained the basic concept of a hookah to Rob and Diane who were nicely listening to their little lesson.
After the day was through, we went to an amazing beach-side restaurant called Ha Chavit, or Barrel, for supper. While at the restaurant, Aviva had a little adventure in the bathroom. She realized that she had literally locked herself in the washroom stall. This would have been an okay situation if this were a normal bathroom door that had a gap at the bottom, out of which she could crawl. In fact, in her jet lagged state, her Hebrew was so poor that she couldn’t even remember how to call for help. She wasn’t worried, however, because she knew that eventually her family would sense her absence and look for her. In the end, she figured out how to unlock the door, and she rejoined the rest of the Philipp-Mullers for a wonderful meal.
After dinner, we went for a nice walk on the boardwalk of Dado beach. We saw some Israeli guys playing an interesting combination of volleyball and hackie-sac. There were two guys on either side of a net, hitting the ball over without the use of hands. They used their heads, chests and legs to basically play volleyball. We then encountered a rooftop wedding ceremony, which we admired from afar. And here comes to an end the first day of our Israeli experience.
The next day, we went to Akko, and learned about the history, culture, and architecture of the ancient city. We learned about the significance this historical town has had through the past 4000 years. We learned about the various empires that have taken over this city, and we recognized the differences in architecture. We joked that Akko reminds us of Toronto, in that the various occupiers would just tear down old buildings to build new ones. Upon arriving in Akko, we wanted to go to the visitors centre to pick up headsets to tour the city. This is the day we came to the realization that Akko-ians are just not that great at giving directions. One man told us to go straight and then turn at the orange man. We wondered whether by “orange man”, he meant a man who was literally orange, was wearing an orange shirt, or was selling oranges. We decided he meant the latter. We finally found the visitors centre, after passing three orange men; making erroneous left turns at the first two.
We ate our bagged lunches in the shade in a beautiful garden in Akko. In the middle of our lunch, a little hassidic boy of 3 or 4, right next to us, pulled down his pants and took a whiz. Rob thought he looked like an unmanned hose, and told Noah to take cover, as he was in this boy’s potential line of fire. The boy was quite prolific as he sprayed just about everywhere. He then ran away from his sister, still naked from the waist down, as she chased him around the garden of the visitors centre. We had our second lunch of Shawarma, where the owner gave us complimentary slushies, and taught us how to say “thank you” in Arabic (shukran). There were a lot of “independent” cats in Akko.
That night, we went for Shabbat dinner at Diane’s father’s second cousin’s house. Amos, looked strikingly like Rudy, his cousin. Oddly enough, his wife Pninah, did not. Amos and Pninah were incredibly hospitable, knowledgeable, and kind. Amos has been a ship-man since birth. After the navy, he became a ship builder, and has always been interested in the sea. Pninah, who is almost 60, took up drumming five years ago, and now drums about two hours each day. The running joke throughout the evening was Amos trying to convince us all, especially Aaron and Noah, to drink more wine, and take up cigar smoking ....Well, we think he was joking.
The next day, Amos and Pninah took us out for the day, giving us a tour of the area, and the Golan Heights. The kids sat in their car, while Rob and Diane followed behind in the golf-cart car. Amos explained about different locations and landmarks that were involved in the six day war. We saw the Jordan river, the border between Syria and Israel, and plenty of abandoned Syrian tanks along the side of the road. We took a chairlift up Mount Hermon, the only ski mountain in Israel. We got to the top of the mountain, and could see Syria down below. Pninah was very proud that it was her first time ever on a chairlift. She told us that Amos is afraid of heights, but he hid it exquisitely. We had dinner at a restaurant called “Milkman and Witch Casserole” (it loses a bit of it’s catchiness in translation) The food was unbelievable. They had the best ostrich Rob and Diane have ever tasted. Amos and Pninah took us to see a lovely view of Haifa and the Bahai gardens, and then we said our goodbyes.
The next day we started out with a ride on the only subway in Israel. It is actually only 6 stops and goes up and down the mountain in Haifa. Even at rush hour there was hardly anyone on it. Kind of weird.
Next we headed off by car to the Galilee. We arrived at the Shavit Guest House on a Moshav in the Arbel. We ate a fantastic meal, made by the owners and explored the gorgeous, lush grounds of the guest house. There were trees of all sorts everywhere. We could pick our own fresh grapes and figs whenever we wanted. There was a beautiful pool, and clay tiled pathways. On our first day on the Moshav, we went for a short hike. Rob and Diane, the supposed parents, tried to get us all to sneak into the nearby national park, in a very adolescent way, but in the end we were caught, and payed the full price. Serves us right.
After our hike, we headed to Tsfat, where we met Susie, our niece/cousin. Tsfat is a Kabbalistic town, that has many artsy folk and had a Klesmer festival going on that week. Susie had quite the adventure on her way to Tsfat. She took the bus from Jerusalem to Tsfat, and it was incredibly crowded. Old people were shoving others with their canes, trying to find a spot on the bus. At some point, the driver turns to Susie, and asks her if she knows how to get to Tsfat. Apparently this was his first time driving there. Eventually, after much yelling and gossiping at and about the bus driver, a man from the back of the bus comes forth, and leads the bus to Tsfat. This is the most eventful bus drive we had ever heard of!
Susie showed us around Tsfat, showing us her favourite restaurants, art galleries, shops, and tourist sites. We saw a weaving shop, a candle store, and many art galleries and jewelry shops. Susie was amazing showing us around the bustling city; including a tour of an amazing synagogue. That night, the Klesmer music we heard was fantastic, but we were very tired, so we headed back to Arbel, until the next day.
The next morning we went on a much longer hike on the Arbel cliffs. The hike was a scramble on sheer cliff with hand and foot holds. It was like rock climbing but without the harnesses. Okay okay, the holds were permanently welded into the rock, and the majority of the hike was performed on all twos. But still, it was one of the most challenging hikes our family has been on, and included some moments of serious anxiety as Diane’s fear of heights reared it’s ugly head. Fortunately she had her handy pocket psychologist, Rob, to help her do some deep breathing exercises mid-cliff. Along the way, we saw many caves, that had clearly been used thousands of years ago as a dwelling place by centuries of humans. We saw an ancient castle that had been used by the crusaders. And when we got back from the hike, we went for a much appreciated swim in the glistening pool and had a blast.
That night, we went to Rob’s father’s cousin’s house for supper. Avi and Yonit were great hosts, and we enjoyed practicing our Hebrew with them. In fact, we had no choice but to speak in Hebrew, as Avi does not speak English. All five of us were surprised with the amount of Hebrew that flooded back, the moment we began using it in conversation. It helped that Yonit used to be a Hebrew as a second language teacher, and therefore used basic vocabulary, and spoke at a slower pace.
As we write this blog, we are driving through the West Bank, witnessing lots of dry desert, rocks, cliffs, rocks, abandoned formerly Israeli Kibutzim, rocks, palm trees, rocks, agriculture, rocks, settlements, and.... more rocks. We are currently sort of nervous about our location, but you couldn’t tell by our style of writing. If you’re reading this blog, we emerged okay.
RANAD Philipp-Muller
Summer 2009. Trip to Israel.
Israel entry 1:
Haifa and the Galilee
Our trip was scheduled to begin like any other. We had five tickets for Israel, scheduled to leave at 8:40 P.M. Our plane decided to leave two hours early, or more accurately put, Diane had the times mixed up, and realized that we had two hours less than we thought we had. This of course was no issue for the Philipp-Muller family who, as always, was completely ready far in advance, in fact, our bags were packed 8 days ahead of time. NOT.
Anyway.....we had a restful plane ride, relatively uneventful, and ate vegetarian meals along the way. Aaron, however, was still hungry after his vegetarian breakfast, so Diane scored him an extra one by hiding her platter beneath her tray table, and “innocently” accepted a regular meal when they came around a second time.
Upon our arrival, we got off the plane, got hit by a wall of Israeli heat, and collected our bags. You all know the song “United breaks guitars” (if not, check it out on u-tube), well here’s a new one for you: “Austrian Airlines breaks bag handles.” Diane’s bag handle was completely broken off, and she had to perform immediate surgery to salvage her bag.
We picked up our rental car, and all seemed to be going as planned. That is until Rob tried to put the car into gear. The car growled its disapproval. After a couple of laps around the airport, we finally figured out the problem with this crazy car - that we have nicknamed ‘the golf cart' as it continues to growl disapproval anytime we climb a hill.....not great if you’re touring Haifa and the north, where we were headed.
So we raced out of the airport at a fast clip, only to hit terrible traffic en route in Tel Aviv. A drive that should have taken an hour ended up taking three hours.
We arrived in Haifa, excited to get to our apartment, only to realize that we forgot to get the address, telephone number or any means of communication with the owner of the apartment building. We had a little adventure in “Burger Ranch” trying to access internet, because this is the only joint in Haifa, that our lame Canadian brains could find, that has free internet access whatsoever, no matter how crappy it is. After about an hour, we were finally able to open our email and we retrieved this elusive information.
We had dinner at a pizza place and headed off to bed from our tiring adventures.
The next morning we ate breakfast using the groceries we bought from a very Israeli location. Apparently the Hebrew word for drugstore is drugstore - although actually it was a convenience store; very confusing. We had a gorgeous two story apartment with magnificent windows overlooking the Haifa harbour, and the entire city and skyline of Haifa. In every Israeli home there is a metal room that exists in case of attack, the entire family should hide to be safe. This room happened to be Aviva’s room. So essentially she was sleeping in a bomb shelter.
The first day in Haifa we went to Dado beach, which is a beautiful beach on the Mediterranean, but not before we had to buy a GPS. With great difficulty, we finally reached the Grand Canyon Centre, the mall where we purchased our wonderful GPS. We realized that the reason no one could give us directions to the Grand Canyon centre was because we don’t know the proper Israeli pronunciation of the term. In Haifa, they call it “Grond Conyon Centerrr”. Our GPS has never failed us once. We named him Jeremy. Jeremy has told us to turn where there is no turn. Jeremy has sent us going around and around in circles, destined to never reach our destination. Jeremy has told us to turn straight into the Mediterranean. Jeremy has not failed us once, he’s failed us multiple, multiple times.
After purchasing our little friend, we spent the afternoon body surfing, swimming, and lying on the beach and resting. Sitting next to us were several characters. There was a man laying to our left that had a huge tattoo of Jesus on the cross covering his entire back. Rob thought “Wow, these Israelis are becoming so edgy that they tattoo crucifixes on their backs.” This was the moment that Rob remembered that there are, in fact, Arab Christian Israelis as well. Behind us, there was a group of kids smoking a very large bong, or hookah as the kids these days are calling it. Aviva explained the basic concept of a hookah to Rob and Diane who were nicely listening to their little lesson.
After the day was through, we went to an amazing beach-side restaurant called Ha Chavit, or Barrel, for supper. While at the restaurant, Aviva had a little adventure in the bathroom. She realized that she had literally locked herself in the washroom stall. This would have been an okay situation if this were a normal bathroom door that had a gap at the bottom, out of which she could crawl. In fact, in her jet lagged state, her Hebrew was so poor that she couldn’t even remember how to call for help. She wasn’t worried, however, because she knew that eventually her family would sense her absence and look for her. In the end, she figured out how to unlock the door, and she rejoined the rest of the Philipp-Mullers for a wonderful meal.
After dinner, we went for a nice walk on the boardwalk of Dado beach. We saw some Israeli guys playing an interesting combination of volleyball and hackie-sac. There were two guys on either side of a net, hitting the ball over without the use of hands. They used their heads, chests and legs to basically play volleyball. We then encountered a rooftop wedding ceremony, which we admired from afar. And here comes to an end the first day of our Israeli experience.
The next day, we went to Akko, and learned about the history, culture, and architecture of the ancient city. We learned about the significance this historical town has had through the past 4000 years. We learned about the various empires that have taken over this city, and we recognized the differences in architecture. We joked that Akko reminds us of Toronto, in that the various occupiers would just tear down old buildings to build new ones. Upon arriving in Akko, we wanted to go to the visitors centre to pick up headsets to tour the city. This is the day we came to the realization that Akko-ians are just not that great at giving directions. One man told us to go straight and then turn at the orange man. We wondered whether by “orange man”, he meant a man who was literally orange, was wearing an orange shirt, or was selling oranges. We decided he meant the latter. We finally found the visitors centre, after passing three orange men; making erroneous left turns at the first two.
We ate our bagged lunches in the shade in a beautiful garden in Akko. In the middle of our lunch, a little hassidic boy of 3 or 4, right next to us, pulled down his pants and took a whiz. Rob thought he looked like an unmanned hose, and told Noah to take cover, as he was in this boy’s potential line of fire. The boy was quite prolific as he sprayed just about everywhere. He then ran away from his sister, still naked from the waist down, as she chased him around the garden of the visitors centre. We had our second lunch of Shawarma, where the owner gave us complimentary slushies, and taught us how to say “thank you” in Arabic (shukran). There were a lot of “independent” cats in Akko.
That night, we went for Shabbat dinner at Diane’s father’s second cousin’s house. Amos, looked strikingly like Rudy, his cousin. Oddly enough, his wife Pninah, did not. Amos and Pninah were incredibly hospitable, knowledgeable, and kind. Amos has been a ship-man since birth. After the navy, he became a ship builder, and has always been interested in the sea. Pninah, who is almost 60, took up drumming five years ago, and now drums about two hours each day. The running joke throughout the evening was Amos trying to convince us all, especially Aaron and Noah, to drink more wine, and take up cigar smoking ....Well, we think he was joking.
The next day, Amos and Pninah took us out for the day, giving us a tour of the area, and the Golan Heights. The kids sat in their car, while Rob and Diane followed behind in the golf-cart car. Amos explained about different locations and landmarks that were involved in the six day war. We saw the Jordan river, the border between Syria and Israel, and plenty of abandoned Syrian tanks along the side of the road. We took a chairlift up Mount Hermon, the only ski mountain in Israel. We got to the top of the mountain, and could see Syria down below. Pninah was very proud that it was her first time ever on a chairlift. She told us that Amos is afraid of heights, but he hid it exquisitely. We had dinner at a restaurant called “Milkman and Witch Casserole” (it loses a bit of it’s catchiness in translation) The food was unbelievable. They had the best ostrich Rob and Diane have ever tasted. Amos and Pninah took us to see a lovely view of Haifa and the Bahai gardens, and then we said our goodbyes.
The next day we started out with a ride on the only subway in Israel. It is actually only 6 stops and goes up and down the mountain in Haifa. Even at rush hour there was hardly anyone on it. Kind of weird.
Next we headed off by car to the Galilee. We arrived at the Shavit Guest House on a Moshav in the Arbel. We ate a fantastic meal, made by the owners and explored the gorgeous, lush grounds of the guest house. There were trees of all sorts everywhere. We could pick our own fresh grapes and figs whenever we wanted. There was a beautiful pool, and clay tiled pathways. On our first day on the Moshav, we went for a short hike. Rob and Diane, the supposed parents, tried to get us all to sneak into the nearby national park, in a very adolescent way, but in the end we were caught, and payed the full price. Serves us right.
After our hike, we headed to Tsfat, where we met Susie, our niece/cousin. Tsfat is a Kabbalistic town, that has many artsy folk and had a Klesmer festival going on that week. Susie had quite the adventure on her way to Tsfat. She took the bus from Jerusalem to Tsfat, and it was incredibly crowded. Old people were shoving others with their canes, trying to find a spot on the bus. At some point, the driver turns to Susie, and asks her if she knows how to get to Tsfat. Apparently this was his first time driving there. Eventually, after much yelling and gossiping at and about the bus driver, a man from the back of the bus comes forth, and leads the bus to Tsfat. This is the most eventful bus drive we had ever heard of!
Susie showed us around Tsfat, showing us her favourite restaurants, art galleries, shops, and tourist sites. We saw a weaving shop, a candle store, and many art galleries and jewelry shops. Susie was amazing showing us around the bustling city; including a tour of an amazing synagogue. That night, the Klesmer music we heard was fantastic, but we were very tired, so we headed back to Arbel, until the next day.
The next morning we went on a much longer hike on the Arbel cliffs. The hike was a scramble on sheer cliff with hand and foot holds. It was like rock climbing but without the harnesses. Okay okay, the holds were permanently welded into the rock, and the majority of the hike was performed on all twos. But still, it was one of the most challenging hikes our family has been on, and included some moments of serious anxiety as Diane’s fear of heights reared it’s ugly head. Fortunately she had her handy pocket psychologist, Rob, to help her do some deep breathing exercises mid-cliff. Along the way, we saw many caves, that had clearly been used thousands of years ago as a dwelling place by centuries of humans. We saw an ancient castle that had been used by the crusaders. And when we got back from the hike, we went for a much appreciated swim in the glistening pool and had a blast.
That night, we went to Rob’s father’s cousin’s house for supper. Avi and Yonit were great hosts, and we enjoyed practicing our Hebrew with them. In fact, we had no choice but to speak in Hebrew, as Avi does not speak English. All five of us were surprised with the amount of Hebrew that flooded back, the moment we began using it in conversation. It helped that Yonit used to be a Hebrew as a second language teacher, and therefore used basic vocabulary, and spoke at a slower pace.
As we write this blog, we are driving through the West Bank, witnessing lots of dry desert, rocks, cliffs, rocks, abandoned formerly Israeli Kibutzim, rocks, palm trees, rocks, agriculture, rocks, settlements, and.... more rocks. We are currently sort of nervous about our location, but you couldn’t tell by our style of writing. If you’re reading this blog, we emerged okay.
RANAD Philipp-Muller
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