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Plan B
We slept well, only interrupted by one missile attack. But it was nothing half. We are much closer to the action here, and the booms sometimes shake the ground. Also the very real threat of falling shrapnel is always on our minds. Some of the group ended up in the shelter for a while, but…
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Galilee
We got the all clear at 3:00am and it lasted till late afternoon. That was blissful! We packed all our belongings, scrubbed and buffed the apartments and headed North. Is that stupid? Who knows. We don’t know anything anymore. The roads had a decent amount of cars on them, so that felt good. We arrived…
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Uncertainty
Ugh. This is getting so old. I know, I know, we’re not suffering, we have everything we need, including but not limited to water, and everyone is doing an excellent job of being cheerful. We can get out and about and can stay in our beds if we want during the attacks, but we’re getting…
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Still Kicking
And so it was a normal day. Normal is relative, but we left town, got fierce hot and sweaty, ate delicious food at Bethlehem and successfully crossed four checkpoints with no issues. We’re all so grateful to be in a non targeted area. The minibus picked us up at 8am and we headed down the…
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Brilliant Blue Sky
It’s morning and the sun is already blazing on the house, slowly turning our bedroom into an oven. The roosters are crowing and I just fed the sleepy looking kitties. Heath and Matt are cooking breakfast and the world is slowly coming alive. I am hugely grateful for the mundanity of it all. Not everyone…
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Calm
There is something absolutely breathtaking about watching a large orange moon rise over distant mountains right after a missile attack. The contrast is almost jarring. It’s almost 11pm and time to get off the rooftop and go to bed. There were two major waves, with hundreds of missiles flying overhead and we stood on the…
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Still Alive
But experiencing a radical “firework” show. Not very much fun. A little bit interesting. Iran’s 100 or so latest missiles were intercepted and we watched the orange tracers seeking them out and exploding in the air. Not quite above us, but nearly. This caused way to much cheering in our town, and now the IDF…
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Lockdown
I’m sitting on my bed in Abu Dis, bored out of my mind. We’re supposed to be going through Hezekiah’s water tunnel, strolling through Jerusalem streets munching falafel, but no. Sirens woke us at 3:00am and that’s when we first found out about Israel’s attack on Iran. It’s also when Israel basically went into Lockdown,…
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Botherations
As in harassment,bothering, annoyance,bugging, aggravation, bedevilment, and sometimes funny. Warning: Image might be triggering, for sure to Nette. Carriage Drivers It’s seems rather negative to write a whole blogpost on the things in Egypt that would keep me from going back, but as they were a very real part of the trip, an issue of…
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Feast Or Famine
Navigating the intricacies of eating during Ramadan in Egypt Traditional Food Egypt knows good food. And it’s cheap. When we ate better, things like large shawarma wraps or massive bowls of Koshary, with a side of coke, it was right at $2USD a person. For the meals when food was scarce and our only options…
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Tours and Guides
A brief outline of what we saw and the people who took us. Pyramids Egypt is liberally sprinkled with pyramids, and since I already talked about the Giza ones, we’ll move on to Saqqarah and Dashur, places an hour or so from Cairo that are actually much more interesting than Giza. While the pyramids themselves…
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Transportation
Getting from point A to point B and coming out alive. Train The comforting clunking of the rails and the gentle swaying of the train made sleep easy. At least for me. We were in the last car, so the whistle was a distant noise whenever we crossed a road. Occasionally other trains would pass…
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Street Things
Stuff we encountered while out and about in Egypt that was memorable If I had to describe Egyptian cities with one word I would say “hectic”. Cairo in particular is a wild swirl of street vendors, classy shops, horses, smog, shisha bars, beggars, mini busses, ancient taxies, pastries, all overlaid with the smell of sewer…
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Egypt or Bust
Nine groggy, travel worn souls met at 8pm in the Cairo airport Saturday evening. Heath, Andrew and I maybe weren’t so travel weary but more having Shabbat hangover. In a good way. Our earnest meet and greet rep faithfully waved his Richard Tilton sign till we had all gathered and then we were herded out…
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Shabbat Shalom!
Imagine a house in the middle of Israel, the tantalizing smell of exotic spices, a massive dog and the twinkling of candles. Around the table are three different nationalities of people and three different conversations going full swing. The table is heavy with food, and most of the men have trouble with their kippahs falling…
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The “Situation”
We were very curious how exhausted and beaten down Israel would be by now, with the whole war situation, but were pleasantly surprised! After spending a year reading the media, it starts to mess with the head a little. The airport was bustling and we had to wait a long time in Passport Control. No…
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The Foodies Leave Cyprus
Today was shipwreck and church day. And of course food. I’m not sure it’s a good idea for Andrew and us to travel together, we definitely have similar unquenchable appetites. At this rate I’ll soon need a new wardrobe. The shipwrecked vessel Edro III was first on our sight seeing list. It’s sitting just off…
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Oranges and Gorges.
The sun rose at 6:21am, but we had it beat. So much to see in such a short time, there’s no point in lolling around in bed. A local bakery overfilled our bellies, and off we went. Our plan was to drive along the South shore of the Island, stopping where interest was piqued and…
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Back To The Olive Trees
Swish, SWISH go the windshield wipers on our little Hyundi car, indicating that the driver intends to turn. Raucous, overtired laughter comes from the passengers. It feels like midnight, but in all reality it’s shortly after 7pm, local Cyprus time. Cypronians drive on the left, so hence the small fracas every-time Heath tries to signal.…
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The Final Chapter
All good things must come to an end, and it was with heavy hearts that we travailed over our final packing. Travailed being the key word here. It was actually quite hilarious how much we had accumulated from here and there, and how tremendously hard it was to fit it all in. For anyone out…
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