My last bit in Tel Aviv was amazing. Finals flew by, it was almost abnormal how unstressed I was for that time of year. Packing was also not as stressful as I imagined, I kinda of threw all my valuables in a bag and chucked everything else out, or donated it to charity. My last night in Tel Aviv was amazing, we had soo much fun. We went to Whiskey a go go and then to an open bar on the beach. Everyone was so full of emotions since we were all leaving within the next 48 hours. Everyone was in such good spirits and just was all about having a good time.
On May 24th Ariana, Sara, Dave, Mitch, and I got to the airport around 5 am. We had a 7 am flight out to Athens. The next week the 5 of us would be Greek Island hopping. Talk about the good life. We got to Athens at 9:00 and checked into our hostel, called hotel hostel. It was a freak show place. The receptionist wasn’t there when we tried to check in. we had to wait for like 30 minutes. When he finally showed up he was also a huge freak show. With a tupe circa 1970, long black hair with and flip out. He was pale as all hell and looked diseased. A real freak. He put us in a room for 5 even though we paid for 2 rooms, but we weren’t about to argue with this guy. After we locked all out stuff in the room and went to see the acropolis and the Parthenon. They were both pretty disappointing and under reconstruction. We had to walk like 30 minutes up hill to see them and it was bloody hot outside. Afterward we went for lunch in Athens. Athens in very Christian, Greek Orthodox. There are crosses everywhere. There are a bunch of little side streets with shops and outdoor cafes. It was cute but dirty. The next day we got the Piraeus, were the port is and got on a 10:45 am ferry to Santorini.
We spent two days in Santorini. We didn’t get there until 4:15 that day so we just checked into our hostel, Tony’s Villa, walked around, and got a bite to eat. Tony was considered the Legend in the island. He has an autistic son and the island did not have a special school. So he climbed to the top of the mountain on Santorini and chained himself to the telecommunications poll and talked to the government in Athens requesting a school be placed on the island. He didn’t get down from there until his wishes were granted. The next day we headed out to the beach, the black beach. The beaches in Greece were not soft sand but were rocky. Kind of uncomfortable but still beautiful. The boys left at aro9und 3:00 to rent some ATV’s and tour the island. We met back up with them after the day on the beach, and we went for dinner.
The next day we joined the boys on the ATV’s and explored the whole island. It was awesome. We stopped for breakfast on the water then headed out to some places where we saw some killer views, afterward we went to a red sand beach. I had never seen a red sand beach before and it was unreal. But also, rocky. After a few hours on the beach we were over it, it was soo hot in Greece you couldn’t take much more than a few hours. So we ATVed around the island all 5 of us. We went to Oia, which was so cute, a little fishing town. At nightfall we stopped for delicious Mexican food. The restaurant was owned by a woman from Colorado. The food was divine. The next day we got on a ferry for Mykonos.
Mykonos was younger than Santorini. Much younger. And not as “honeymoony” as Santorini. It was definitely more fun for kids our age. We stayed in Paradise Beach. The beach was gorgeous, white sand slash rocks and crystal blue water. About 150ft in there was a sandbar (a rock bar, it was made of rock). We laid on the beach all day it was so fun. That night we went to the opening of Paradise Club, everyone except Sara decided to stay in. that was fun too. It was like our farewell since me and the girls were leaving the next day while the boys went on to Ios.
The next morning we (the girls and I) got on a ferry back to Athens, our plane left at 2:00am and we were in Tel Aviv by 4:00am. We headed over to Ari’s family friend’s house; they were storing our bags for the week. Took a four hours nap, got up and went to the beach for our one last hooray, our last and final day in Israel. That night we wee at the airport by 10. My flight was our by 1:00am.
My semester was mind blowing perfect, absolutely fabulous, and in all I couldn’t of asked for anything better.
Tuesday, June 3, 2008
Tuesday, May 13, 2008
Am Yisrael Chai
So, I got back from Egypt on Sunday night and found a nice little wall post on my Facebook. Apparently, my friend Raechel since I have known since my Beth David days (a.k.a childhood), who is also studying in Haifa this semester was coming to Tel Aviv the next day, Monday! I was so excited! I had visited Raechel in Haifa once in early April and her and I had the most amazing time. we spent the day walking along the mountain looking out at the ocean and then when we got bored with the scenery we headed over to the Druze village and shopped around the shuk. I really clicked with her friends, they were a breathe of fresh air, haha, earthy kids as I call them, those Jewish kids my age that are all down to earth and what not. Anyway, enough with the tangents, Raechel was coming from Monday, May 5- Thursday, May 8 with her friend Kira who is a doll to say the least.
When they arrived they took a cab over to Brodetsky (my dorm) where we hung out for a bit, the real fun started the next day though. On Tuesday, Ari and I went over to Nahalat Binyamin, and art fair that occurs every Tuesday and Friday, Raechel’s hostel was close by so she met up with us. We walked along around for a bit, and then headed to the grocery. At sundown on May 6 Yom Hazikaron, Israel’s Memorial Day would begin. Everything closes, everything. The entire country is pretty much shut down. As a result I had to make the girls dinner that night. The next day, at 11 o’clock the sirens go off, all over the country, and everyone EVERYONE pauses, cars stop, people halt, and national moment of silence is taken. For those few moments the entire country freezes. Its unbelievable, the same occurred for Yom Hashoah (which occurred a week before, its Holocaust memorial day). I don’t want to bore you with every detail Yom Hazikaron was kind of uneventful we went to the beach for the day. it was amazing to be here though to see a nation-state, a people come together and wholly mourn over those they have lost. You feel the sense of loyalty, fraternity, and patriotism just by being here.
The real fun started that night. When the clock stroke 6 the mourning was officially over… and Israel was 60!!! When the close stroke 12 Kyla was 21!!! So the girls and I went to Sushi Republic for a birthday celebration, Israel at a strapping 60 and Kyla at a youthful 21. Dinner was great, everyone had a blast, and my friends loved Raechel and Kira’s company. I was so happy to have her here. After dinner we all headed over to Florentine (same place we were for Purim). The street was packed, Israeli flags (as with most of the city) covering every inch of the place. hundreds of people Jews, all in pure bliss. It was unreal. And in the middle of the madness, a guy steps out of his apartment looking down onto the chaotic street and takes out his massive Shofar. For the next ten minutes everyone was silent while he blew it. Only in Israel. Only in Israel.
The next day, May 8, we headed over to the beach for an air and sea show. Another mod of people, just waiting to see their armed forces perform. The respect, empathy, and heroism, the patriotism, well it’s refreshing. The show was incredible, also impressive. But even more awesome were the cheers, the claps, from ages 1-100. Everyone in unison celebrating the country they love so dearly. This is why I came abroad to Israel.
This week was important for me, impressive. Israel and Israelis it’s an amazing thing. A people, a nation, a state that has suffered so much, endured so much, but still has the spirit, the determination not only to survive but to leave its mark. A country, so small you can hardly see it on a map, but with a soul so large. Larger than life. it reminds you of how proud you are to be a Jew, how proud you are to be apart of something so special.
To say the least, Am Yisrael Chai
When they arrived they took a cab over to Brodetsky (my dorm) where we hung out for a bit, the real fun started the next day though. On Tuesday, Ari and I went over to Nahalat Binyamin, and art fair that occurs every Tuesday and Friday, Raechel’s hostel was close by so she met up with us. We walked along around for a bit, and then headed to the grocery. At sundown on May 6 Yom Hazikaron, Israel’s Memorial Day would begin. Everything closes, everything. The entire country is pretty much shut down. As a result I had to make the girls dinner that night. The next day, at 11 o’clock the sirens go off, all over the country, and everyone EVERYONE pauses, cars stop, people halt, and national moment of silence is taken. For those few moments the entire country freezes. Its unbelievable, the same occurred for Yom Hashoah (which occurred a week before, its Holocaust memorial day). I don’t want to bore you with every detail Yom Hazikaron was kind of uneventful we went to the beach for the day. it was amazing to be here though to see a nation-state, a people come together and wholly mourn over those they have lost. You feel the sense of loyalty, fraternity, and patriotism just by being here.
The real fun started that night. When the clock stroke 6 the mourning was officially over… and Israel was 60!!! When the close stroke 12 Kyla was 21!!! So the girls and I went to Sushi Republic for a birthday celebration, Israel at a strapping 60 and Kyla at a youthful 21. Dinner was great, everyone had a blast, and my friends loved Raechel and Kira’s company. I was so happy to have her here. After dinner we all headed over to Florentine (same place we were for Purim). The street was packed, Israeli flags (as with most of the city) covering every inch of the place. hundreds of people Jews, all in pure bliss. It was unreal. And in the middle of the madness, a guy steps out of his apartment looking down onto the chaotic street and takes out his massive Shofar. For the next ten minutes everyone was silent while he blew it. Only in Israel. Only in Israel.
The next day, May 8, we headed over to the beach for an air and sea show. Another mod of people, just waiting to see their armed forces perform. The respect, empathy, and heroism, the patriotism, well it’s refreshing. The show was incredible, also impressive. But even more awesome were the cheers, the claps, from ages 1-100. Everyone in unison celebrating the country they love so dearly. This is why I came abroad to Israel.
This week was important for me, impressive. Israel and Israelis it’s an amazing thing. A people, a nation, a state that has suffered so much, endured so much, but still has the spirit, the determination not only to survive but to leave its mark. A country, so small you can hardly see it on a map, but with a soul so large. Larger than life. it reminds you of how proud you are to be a Jew, how proud you are to be apart of something so special.
To say the least, Am Yisrael Chai
Walk like and Egyptian
Sara’s brother, Zac, decided to visit, his flight got in on April 29. The two of them decided to go to Egypt that following weekend, and Sara invited Ariana and me. I had an inclination my father would say yes this time (being that he was very against it in the past) considering that Sara’s brother is in the US Navy. I figured my dad would feel safer under those circumstances, so I decided to give it a try. It my semi-surprise the parentals said yes! We were on our way to the pyramids.
You see, the thing is that there are two things on this planet I have always wanted to see (well there’s more than 2, but 2 specifically that were at the top of the list). Guess what they are…the Taj and yes, the Pyramids!!!
That Thursday, May 1, after class Ariana and I took the 5-hour bus ride down to Eilat, Sara and her brother flew. We got there late at night and passed out.
The next day, May 2, we woke up at 5:45am and headed right to the Taba border. Once we crossed we got in a small van and had a 5-hour drive through the Sinai to Cairo. I was not nearly as nervous as I had been in Jordan, I think this was due to the fact that Zac was with us, and that we used the same tour company so I had a bit of trust in them. also, with us at all times was a security guard. Apparently, all American, Canadian, and Japanese tourists are required to have a body guard with them at all times. See tourism in Egypt is important, it supports a large portion of their economy, inasmuch they could not afford to have anything happen.
When we arrived in Cairo I was surprised as to how clean it was, everyone kept telling us how disgusting and dirty the place was, but it was equally as clean as India’s upper class neighborhoods. Yet, just as my thoughts were a-churning, Ariana came out with her own, that Cairo was not clean at all. Apparently Sara and I have greatly lowered our sanitary standards after our 2-week excursion.
Our first stop was the Museum of Cairo. We walked around for 2 hours and looked at tons of historical artifacts, I must say the most impressive was the mummy of Ramses II, the Pharaoh that held the Jews as the slaves, the Pharaoh from Exodus. The guy still had nails, and several strands of white hair. He looked gross, but was still intact it was incredible. And still while I was looking at him I felt this sense of disgust, disgust for enslaving the Jews…call me over protective, call me proud, call me crazy, I cant help it.
While in the museum we also saw the mask commonly associated with King Tut, you know the gold head with the blue headband crown. Replicas are featured in all the Hollywood blockbusters concerning ancient Egypt. We also got to see the chair that King Tut sat on. It was beautiful.
After the museum we were starving so we went to a place for lunch, the restaurant was in Giza, where the pyramids are, a 20-minute car ride from the center of the bustling city. At that point we got a glimpse of the pyramids…soooo cool! I was so excited to feast my eyes on those beasts, but I would have to wait till tomorrow to get up-close and personal, after lunch we went to a papyrus factory and saw how the paper was made. The guy that did the demonstration has a huge black circle on the top of his forehead. It looks like ash, but it’s a mark that develops after years of praying, after years of hitting your head on the mat as you bow to Allah. a lot of men sported them. talk about cultural differences.
I wasn’t too into the papyrus making, I just wanted to see the pyramids to be honest. After we saw the demonstration we headed to the hotel for an hour and a half of down time. at 6:30 we were getting picked up to go on a cruise along the Nile.
The Nile cruise was cool because, well, we were on the Nile River!!!! But there were no reeds around, no papyrus baskets with baby Moses’s or anything like that, the days of exodus are long gone to say the least. Rather I got to see every 5 star hotel in Cairo, since they all have real estate along the river, I'm talking four seasons, Hilton, Sheraton, crown plaza, you name it, it was there (although I'm not sure about the Ritz).
On the cruise we had dinner (very mediocre) and dessert (borderline gross), and watched a belly dancer do her thing. The music was too loud of any kind of social conversation so we headed upstairs to the deck to hang out. That’s where it all went down. Our body guard for the day, Muhammad, fell in love with Sara, let me rephrase, fell in love with Sara’s looks, her beautiful blonde hair and crystal blue eyes really gave her a unique twist. before she knew it he proposed and handed her his necklace, his family heirloom. The poor girl had no idea what to do and clearly Ari and I weren’t about to do her dirt work. The rest of the evening (all 10 minutes of it since the boat was close to the dock) was kind of awkward while we girls decided on the best way of returning the heirloom. When we got to the hotel that night Sara simply handed it back.
I was excited for bed that night, tomorrow: PYRAMIDS!
The next morning, May 3, our tour guide (who was not nearly as great as Ali, our tour guide in India) picked us up at the hotel. 20 minutes later there they were in all their glory, right in front of our faces, we could see them from the bottom to the very top, AMAZING.
We all got out of the car and started exploring the first victim, the great pyramid, the largest of the three. It was unreal, its size was gargantuan. And standing there I got the chills, the same chills I get when at the Kotel. Jews built these I thought. Wow. At that moment our tour guide started talking and explained how the Jews didn’t build the pyramids. Yadda yadda yadda. Ari started asking some complicated question about who did build them, how much they were paid, how they were build and the guys had no answers. All he knew was that the Jews didn’t build them, the Egyptians did. Remember, Israel and Egypt share a cold peace. Just because they have an agreement doesn’t meant they are friends, and that doesn’t mean Egyptians recognize or respect them, clearly! We took tons of pictures, walk up the pyramids, touched the boulders (which were as tall as Ari), and just relished in the moment. After we went to see a view of the three pyramids all lined up and then of the second one. They were really spectacular, utterly amazing, and reminded me how proud I was to be Jewish to be apart of a minority with such a he voice and a bigger heart.
After the pyramids we went to see the sphinx, which was also very impressive. There, Ari asked who carved the rock, the face, the headdress, the long arms, and our tour guides answer, “it was here, it came like this”. He refused to believe that while the rock may have been there man carved the statue! Imagine that.
Surrounding the sphinx and pyramids, these two amazing representations of history, is, what else? American commercialism, Pizza Hut and KFC. Haha. It was too much.
After being blown away by the pyramids we went to an oil shop. Sara and I both bought an oil called lotus flower, which smells delicious. Following we headed to an old church and a synagogue in Cairo, synagogue Ben Ezra. While most of the Jewish population had left Cairo it was still comforting to walk into a Shul. I prayed before we left, imagine praying at a Shul in an Arab country, unreal! We ended the day by walking along the Bazaar in Cairo. It looked like a smaller version of the Grand Bazaar in Istanbul.
At around 4:00 we got in the van for our 5-hour bus ride back to Eilat.
The next day, May 4, Ari and I stayed in Eilat, we went to the beach and hung out. It was a great way to end an amazing weekend.
You see, the thing is that there are two things on this planet I have always wanted to see (well there’s more than 2, but 2 specifically that were at the top of the list). Guess what they are…the Taj and yes, the Pyramids!!!
That Thursday, May 1, after class Ariana and I took the 5-hour bus ride down to Eilat, Sara and her brother flew. We got there late at night and passed out.
The next day, May 2, we woke up at 5:45am and headed right to the Taba border. Once we crossed we got in a small van and had a 5-hour drive through the Sinai to Cairo. I was not nearly as nervous as I had been in Jordan, I think this was due to the fact that Zac was with us, and that we used the same tour company so I had a bit of trust in them. also, with us at all times was a security guard. Apparently, all American, Canadian, and Japanese tourists are required to have a body guard with them at all times. See tourism in Egypt is important, it supports a large portion of their economy, inasmuch they could not afford to have anything happen.
When we arrived in Cairo I was surprised as to how clean it was, everyone kept telling us how disgusting and dirty the place was, but it was equally as clean as India’s upper class neighborhoods. Yet, just as my thoughts were a-churning, Ariana came out with her own, that Cairo was not clean at all. Apparently Sara and I have greatly lowered our sanitary standards after our 2-week excursion.
Our first stop was the Museum of Cairo. We walked around for 2 hours and looked at tons of historical artifacts, I must say the most impressive was the mummy of Ramses II, the Pharaoh that held the Jews as the slaves, the Pharaoh from Exodus. The guy still had nails, and several strands of white hair. He looked gross, but was still intact it was incredible. And still while I was looking at him I felt this sense of disgust, disgust for enslaving the Jews…call me over protective, call me proud, call me crazy, I cant help it.
While in the museum we also saw the mask commonly associated with King Tut, you know the gold head with the blue headband crown. Replicas are featured in all the Hollywood blockbusters concerning ancient Egypt. We also got to see the chair that King Tut sat on. It was beautiful.
After the museum we were starving so we went to a place for lunch, the restaurant was in Giza, where the pyramids are, a 20-minute car ride from the center of the bustling city. At that point we got a glimpse of the pyramids…soooo cool! I was so excited to feast my eyes on those beasts, but I would have to wait till tomorrow to get up-close and personal, after lunch we went to a papyrus factory and saw how the paper was made. The guy that did the demonstration has a huge black circle on the top of his forehead. It looks like ash, but it’s a mark that develops after years of praying, after years of hitting your head on the mat as you bow to Allah. a lot of men sported them. talk about cultural differences.
I wasn’t too into the papyrus making, I just wanted to see the pyramids to be honest. After we saw the demonstration we headed to the hotel for an hour and a half of down time. at 6:30 we were getting picked up to go on a cruise along the Nile.
The Nile cruise was cool because, well, we were on the Nile River!!!! But there were no reeds around, no papyrus baskets with baby Moses’s or anything like that, the days of exodus are long gone to say the least. Rather I got to see every 5 star hotel in Cairo, since they all have real estate along the river, I'm talking four seasons, Hilton, Sheraton, crown plaza, you name it, it was there (although I'm not sure about the Ritz).
On the cruise we had dinner (very mediocre) and dessert (borderline gross), and watched a belly dancer do her thing. The music was too loud of any kind of social conversation so we headed upstairs to the deck to hang out. That’s where it all went down. Our body guard for the day, Muhammad, fell in love with Sara, let me rephrase, fell in love with Sara’s looks, her beautiful blonde hair and crystal blue eyes really gave her a unique twist. before she knew it he proposed and handed her his necklace, his family heirloom. The poor girl had no idea what to do and clearly Ari and I weren’t about to do her dirt work. The rest of the evening (all 10 minutes of it since the boat was close to the dock) was kind of awkward while we girls decided on the best way of returning the heirloom. When we got to the hotel that night Sara simply handed it back.
I was excited for bed that night, tomorrow: PYRAMIDS!
The next morning, May 3, our tour guide (who was not nearly as great as Ali, our tour guide in India) picked us up at the hotel. 20 minutes later there they were in all their glory, right in front of our faces, we could see them from the bottom to the very top, AMAZING.
We all got out of the car and started exploring the first victim, the great pyramid, the largest of the three. It was unreal, its size was gargantuan. And standing there I got the chills, the same chills I get when at the Kotel. Jews built these I thought. Wow. At that moment our tour guide started talking and explained how the Jews didn’t build the pyramids. Yadda yadda yadda. Ari started asking some complicated question about who did build them, how much they were paid, how they were build and the guys had no answers. All he knew was that the Jews didn’t build them, the Egyptians did. Remember, Israel and Egypt share a cold peace. Just because they have an agreement doesn’t meant they are friends, and that doesn’t mean Egyptians recognize or respect them, clearly! We took tons of pictures, walk up the pyramids, touched the boulders (which were as tall as Ari), and just relished in the moment. After we went to see a view of the three pyramids all lined up and then of the second one. They were really spectacular, utterly amazing, and reminded me how proud I was to be Jewish to be apart of a minority with such a he voice and a bigger heart.
After the pyramids we went to see the sphinx, which was also very impressive. There, Ari asked who carved the rock, the face, the headdress, the long arms, and our tour guides answer, “it was here, it came like this”. He refused to believe that while the rock may have been there man carved the statue! Imagine that.
Surrounding the sphinx and pyramids, these two amazing representations of history, is, what else? American commercialism, Pizza Hut and KFC. Haha. It was too much.
After being blown away by the pyramids we went to an oil shop. Sara and I both bought an oil called lotus flower, which smells delicious. Following we headed to an old church and a synagogue in Cairo, synagogue Ben Ezra. While most of the Jewish population had left Cairo it was still comforting to walk into a Shul. I prayed before we left, imagine praying at a Shul in an Arab country, unreal! We ended the day by walking along the Bazaar in Cairo. It looked like a smaller version of the Grand Bazaar in Istanbul.
At around 4:00 we got in the van for our 5-hour bus ride back to Eilat.
The next day, May 4, Ari and I stayed in Eilat, we went to the beach and hung out. It was a great way to end an amazing weekend.
Saturday, May 10, 2008
Udairpur and Delhi, our last days
The next day, April 21, I was still not feeling so hot and Sara had a pretty upset stomach so we decided to cut our trip a little short, rather than spending 2 days in Udaipur we would just spend one, and we eliminated Jodhpur all together. So, for our one and only day in Udaipur we started off with brunch at a heritage house (a fairly nice hotel), Agit Jahwan. We hardly ate, but we did have a great view of the city’s lake.
After breakfast we decided to see some sights. We started with the city palace, it was very unimpressive. We then walked around a little looking at some shops, but at that point we really were exhausted, and shopped out! Inasmuch, we got into an auto rickshaw (a taxi) and asked to go to the Hilton!
This was our first experience in a “nice” hotel while on this adventure. The hotel was beautiful, we manicured gardens, an infinity pool, and the service, well the service was enough to stay the night, but then again we weren’t guests. Oops. Haha rather, Sara and I went to the salon where I got a $6 manicure. Yup, just 6 bucks!
After our afternoon excursion to a 5 star hotel we were ready to return to our dump of a place. we wanted henna before we left the country and the hotel manager told us his sister did it, so we went over to his house and hung out while she put the henna paint on us. Meanwhile, the electricity kept coming in and out, none of them spoke English, and oh, did I mention the cow that put up shop outside the front door?
After henna we headed back, and passed out.
The next day we drove 13.5 hours back to Delhi. We got in around 8 pm, showered, and again passed out.
The next morning, April 23rd, we woke up and I had an email from my father of a list of more upper class shopping areas in Delhi. Since Sara and I had only seen one side of India, the lower and lower middle class, my dad wanted us to get another perspective. India is a country of 1 billion people and a growing economy, not all of them are poor, although poverty is clearly a huge issue. Sara and I chose the one closest to the hotel, Ansal Place, and headed over. We spent out afternoon going in and out of commercial stores, some we have in the US others we don’t. everyone spoke English, they were polite by western standards, and didn’t through their trash on the ground when they were done but in a wastebasket, can you imagine that, there were garbage cans! It was “clean” India, who knew it existed. all in all it was a great day, a perfect way to end our 2-week journey.
Later that same afternoon we returned to our hotel, packed up and called it an early night, a car would be picking us up at 4:00 am in order for us to catch our 7:30 flight back to Israel.
The next morning, April 24th, Sara and I were in for a full 23 hours of traveling. In the Delhi airport, we happened to sit across from this guy who had an uncanny resemblance to Osama bin Laden, clearly not him, but still very creepy. Sara, being the bold blonde she is asked the crew of three where they were headed, and their replied: “Afghanistan”. That was a huge wakeup call for me. At that moment I thought to myself, wow people actually go there!?!?! the world is so small yet so vast at the same time.
In the airport I was feeling pretty lousy, I almost got sick on the customs official, that was fun. At that point I just wanted to get on the plane and get the hell out of there! final boarding! Only 4 hours to our next stop Bahrain, that quaint island right next to SAUDI ARABIA!
When we got to Bahrain I was feeling pretty lousy so I decided to look for some medicine to ease my stomach. I was directed to the airport doctor, yes they had a doctor in the airport. He told me I had a bacterial infection and if it didn’t pass by the next day o go to the hospital, because it could be cholera. he said I had low blood pressure and needed an IV. I refused to have one not feeling comfortable there. instead he gave me the generic form of Gatorade and sent me on my way.
Leaving Bahrain, we had a 2-hour flight into Jordan, from Jordan we had a 4-hour bus ride to Tel Aviv. I thought the day would never end, getting to the dorm that night I put my stuff down and walked over to the supermarket to by water. The Gatorade stuff was disgusting tasting, but I needed my liquids.
Every two hours that night my mom would wake me up to remind me to drink. The next morning Ariana woke me up to see how i was feeling. it had been three weeks since i had seen her and i was beyong elated! i wasnt feeling that great but we decided to go to the grocery store to pick up some thing.
walking into the grocery store in Israel during Pesach, is amazing. They covered up all the chamozet, all of it! they only sold kosher for Pesach goods it was incredible! it reminded me of how incredible this country, a Jewish state is.
After the grocery, I was feeling horrible so I got to the hospital, 2 IVs, 2 antibiotics, and 10 days later I was still feeling a little woozy. The hospital said this kind of infection is common among travelers coming from India, and that it needs to take its course. It did, 2 weeks later I was finally losing some of the effects.
Regardless, looking back on my time, I am so happy I went to India. I learned so much, saw so much, and came out a more complicated individual, more humble, more concerned, more aware, and most of all prouder to be an American. Looking back on it I would go back. Their culture, while annoying (being that they try to rip you off and talk to you every chance you get!) is still friendly, the religion is so unique, off the radar almost, away from Judaism, Christianity, and Islam, Hinduism is different, refreshing, interesting. Their way of life is the yang to America’s yin almost. It’s the opposite of western culture, the antithesis almost, but somehow it works for them. The fun part was watching how.
After breakfast we decided to see some sights. We started with the city palace, it was very unimpressive. We then walked around a little looking at some shops, but at that point we really were exhausted, and shopped out! Inasmuch, we got into an auto rickshaw (a taxi) and asked to go to the Hilton!
This was our first experience in a “nice” hotel while on this adventure. The hotel was beautiful, we manicured gardens, an infinity pool, and the service, well the service was enough to stay the night, but then again we weren’t guests. Oops. Haha rather, Sara and I went to the salon where I got a $6 manicure. Yup, just 6 bucks!
After our afternoon excursion to a 5 star hotel we were ready to return to our dump of a place. we wanted henna before we left the country and the hotel manager told us his sister did it, so we went over to his house and hung out while she put the henna paint on us. Meanwhile, the electricity kept coming in and out, none of them spoke English, and oh, did I mention the cow that put up shop outside the front door?
After henna we headed back, and passed out.
The next day we drove 13.5 hours back to Delhi. We got in around 8 pm, showered, and again passed out.
The next morning, April 23rd, we woke up and I had an email from my father of a list of more upper class shopping areas in Delhi. Since Sara and I had only seen one side of India, the lower and lower middle class, my dad wanted us to get another perspective. India is a country of 1 billion people and a growing economy, not all of them are poor, although poverty is clearly a huge issue. Sara and I chose the one closest to the hotel, Ansal Place, and headed over. We spent out afternoon going in and out of commercial stores, some we have in the US others we don’t. everyone spoke English, they were polite by western standards, and didn’t through their trash on the ground when they were done but in a wastebasket, can you imagine that, there were garbage cans! It was “clean” India, who knew it existed. all in all it was a great day, a perfect way to end our 2-week journey.
Later that same afternoon we returned to our hotel, packed up and called it an early night, a car would be picking us up at 4:00 am in order for us to catch our 7:30 flight back to Israel.
The next morning, April 24th, Sara and I were in for a full 23 hours of traveling. In the Delhi airport, we happened to sit across from this guy who had an uncanny resemblance to Osama bin Laden, clearly not him, but still very creepy. Sara, being the bold blonde she is asked the crew of three where they were headed, and their replied: “Afghanistan”. That was a huge wakeup call for me. At that moment I thought to myself, wow people actually go there!?!?! the world is so small yet so vast at the same time.
In the airport I was feeling pretty lousy, I almost got sick on the customs official, that was fun. At that point I just wanted to get on the plane and get the hell out of there! final boarding! Only 4 hours to our next stop Bahrain, that quaint island right next to SAUDI ARABIA!
When we got to Bahrain I was feeling pretty lousy so I decided to look for some medicine to ease my stomach. I was directed to the airport doctor, yes they had a doctor in the airport. He told me I had a bacterial infection and if it didn’t pass by the next day o go to the hospital, because it could be cholera. he said I had low blood pressure and needed an IV. I refused to have one not feeling comfortable there. instead he gave me the generic form of Gatorade and sent me on my way.
Leaving Bahrain, we had a 2-hour flight into Jordan, from Jordan we had a 4-hour bus ride to Tel Aviv. I thought the day would never end, getting to the dorm that night I put my stuff down and walked over to the supermarket to by water. The Gatorade stuff was disgusting tasting, but I needed my liquids.
Every two hours that night my mom would wake me up to remind me to drink. The next morning Ariana woke me up to see how i was feeling. it had been three weeks since i had seen her and i was beyong elated! i wasnt feeling that great but we decided to go to the grocery store to pick up some thing.
walking into the grocery store in Israel during Pesach, is amazing. They covered up all the chamozet, all of it! they only sold kosher for Pesach goods it was incredible! it reminded me of how incredible this country, a Jewish state is.
After the grocery, I was feeling horrible so I got to the hospital, 2 IVs, 2 antibiotics, and 10 days later I was still feeling a little woozy. The hospital said this kind of infection is common among travelers coming from India, and that it needs to take its course. It did, 2 weeks later I was finally losing some of the effects.
Regardless, looking back on my time, I am so happy I went to India. I learned so much, saw so much, and came out a more complicated individual, more humble, more concerned, more aware, and most of all prouder to be an American. Looking back on it I would go back. Their culture, while annoying (being that they try to rip you off and talk to you every chance you get!) is still friendly, the religion is so unique, off the radar almost, away from Judaism, Christianity, and Islam, Hinduism is different, refreshing, interesting. Their way of life is the yang to America’s yin almost. It’s the opposite of western culture, the antithesis almost, but somehow it works for them. The fun part was watching how.
Tuesday, April 29, 2008
Pushkar: Little Israel
Day 9- april 21- udaipur still sick brinch at and shopping arounf, city palace and heena at night
Day 10- april 22- drive back to delhi (22 hours)
April 23- day 11- upper class delhi shopping and amazment
Day 12 April 24- back home- doctor in Bahrain sick long trek back to TA
We got to Pushkar, or should I say little Israel around 12:30. Pushkar’s small town, full rooftop restaurants, and is another mini shopping paradise. It’s a Hindu pilgrimage town surrounded by a holy lake, housing some odd 400 temples. It’s a religious town prohibiting all alcohol, meat, and dairy, even eggs, completely vegetarian, and is home to a slew of priests ensuring the dietary laws are kept. The place was full of Israelis, there were so many Israelis even the local’s spoke Hebrew, menus were in Hebrew, signs were in Hebrew…little Israel much? It was unreal. Everywhere else we got by telling people we were from Israel (they give Israelis cheaper prices, like I said USA and dollar signs flash), but in Pushkar we were out of luck, if we said we were from Israel the shopkeepers would start speaking to us in Hebrew. My Hebrew is not that great to begin with, neither is Sara’s, couple my limited vocabulary with a thick Hindi accent and I was completely lost.
In Pushkar we checked into Hotel Oasis. It was a nice place, by Indian standards. There were two clocks in the entranceway, one reading Indian time and the other reading, obviously, reading Israeli time. The keyboard for the computers had both English and Hebrew letters, at first the whole thing was bazaar, but cool, oddly enough, we quickly got used to it.
Our room had a TV, yeah that’s right a TV! When we got settled in I turned it on to see what Indian TV was like. I flipped through the channels and found Hindi MTV; it was hysterical, loaded with Bollywood films and scandalous music videos. Sara and I had it on every time we were in the room and just laughed and laughed, it was almost as if they were trying to hard to impersonate Americans. Everyone that was interviewed mentioned the US, every other comment was about America this or America that. I guess the whole superpower thing really comes into play when you leave homebase.
We didn’t stay in the room long at that point we figured we only had one day there we had to walk around and get a feel for the town. There is only one very significant sight in Pushkar; it is home to one of the few Brahma Temples in the world. We checked it out it was a tall white building, with delicate detail, but compared to some of the other sights we had seen it was not nearly as impressive. On the outskirts of the temple were priests, chanting their prayers, it reminded me of Hairy Krishna’s that walk down Lincoln Road on Saturday nights. Watching them pray was different. Afterward we went shopping, by shopping I mean we walked in to every shop, shop to shop. Actually, the shopping here was more fun, less harassment, but they were tougher bargainers. One even turned us down we were shocked. Serves us right I guess.
We got back to the hotel around 6 o’clock after a full day of walking around. We both went over to use the computers and sitting next to us was a religious Jew. We started talking to him and it turned out he was a Rabbi, Rabbi Shimon, he ran a Chabad house that was just across the street. He asked us all about our travels and invited us for dinner, and for Pesach Seder. He said that he rarely used to computers at our hotel since the Chabad house had Internet and that our meeting was meant to be. We were meant to meet him so that he could offer us an invitation for Pesach and Shabbos. Sara doesn’t buy into that kind of stuff, but I agreed with him. I don’t think situations like that are so coincidental. Its not everyday you see a religious Jewish man walking the streets of India, I can tell you that much.
After he was done with the computer we went across the street with him to eat. Him, his wife, and their five kids all lived there, along with two other members of the Chabad community from Tzfat who were just there for 7 months, after which, two other members would take there place and stay for another period of 7 months. The children were born there and him and his wife had been living there for the last 7 years. They were 32. He hated it in India. I asked him how much longer he had to live there for until he could go back to Israel, his response: “until the Moshiach comes”. Wow, I didn’t know what to say. His life was dedicated to providing a Chabad house, a place to pray, a place to go, for Jewish travelers like myself, his life was dedicated to HaShem, he was entirely selfless. Dinner was great! The food was wonderful. Actually I don’t know if the food tasted so good or if it was just the fact that the company was so refreshing. The kids were so cute, ages 10, 9, 5, 3, and 1. There were two girls and three boys. The place had a few Israelis around, after dinner we helped chop walnuts for the Charoset on Pesach (which was just two nights away). We hung out there till around midnight. We loved it. We met great people, they mainly spoke Hebrew, but a few spoke English with us, specifically a guy named Hagay and a girl named Allyah, Hagay had been in India for 3 months already and Allyah just for 2 weeks. Typically Israelis travel after they finish their term in the army and they will stay for months, many go to India.
When we left we were invited to Shabbat dinner the next night and of course Pesach Seder the following night. I did not think we would have the opportunity to have Seder considering we were in India, and this opportunity was too good to give up, so Sara and I decided to extend our stay in Pushkar 2 extra days.
When we left the Chabad house it was like culture shock all over again, being surrounded by Hebrew and Israelis for 4 hours brought us back to the Promised Land. When we left the security inside it was back the chaotic streets, the cows, the harassment, and the dirt, the poverty: India. For one, there were a crowd of people with lanterns walking down the main road, all dressed up, all singing, at the end of the string of people was a man on a white horse, we was the groom, Sara and I were witnessing a Hindi Wedding. We watched him ride on horse back up to the temple where he would meet his bride. It was so culturally different, check! Another experience under our belts.
The next day was Friday; we decided to sleep in since the previous day we had pretty much seen all of Pushkar. We got out and about around 12pm. Our first stop was the lake to see the holy bathers in the water. It just so happened to be a holiday so there were tons of people around. Right when you walk in the priests bombard you giving you flowers to throw in the lake. The catch is right after you throw the flower, which has some form of religious symbolism; they hit you up for a couple of rupees. They then say a prayer on your behalf and put a red dot in the middle of your eyes, symbolizing a third eye. After they put rice in the center of the dot and tie a pink string around your right wrist. All done without explanation…donations required for their services. I didn’t feel comfortable going through the process, I know they say when in Rome…but still I’m a Jew I don’t walk in to a church and take the sacrament, why should I allow rice to be stuck to my red third eye? I politely told the priests no thank you that I was just an observer. This did not make them happy…nope not at all, and they kicked us out. As the Israeli’s say “ain baya” (no problem). Sara and I then stopped for lunch on one of the rooftop restaurants. Pushkar was infested with flies; they were everywhere so it took a few attempts until we found a fly free zone. We ordered cooked red lentils and white rice. The food was just ok. Afterward we headed back to Hotel Oasis, we ran into Hagay along the way and all decided to hang out. After an hour of chit chatting Sara and I were due for a siesta. We woke up 4 hours later…just in time for Shabbat!
We crossed the street and walked into the Chabad house, meal two there. We were slowly becoming regulars; Hagay went there for every meal pretty much. They all took a really strong liking to us. Rabbi Shimon did the Kiddush in Hebrew, but Hagay translated it for us into English. I was mostly excited for Sara, I had been to a Shabbat dinner at a Chabad house before, I mean never in India clearly but I knew the prayers and was raised around Jewish tradition, culture, and religion, while she wasn’t as much.
After the prayers the wine was passed around and the food was served! We talked the whole night as we had the night before. We shared traveling stories, talked about Israel, about India, about the US, war, politics, Judaism, love, relationships, children, Pushkar, religion, the Middle East, on and on and on it was wonderful. The Chabad made my experience in Pushkar. I was so excited for the next night…Seder!
The next day we really had nothing to do. We woke up went to a rooftop restaurant called Baba’s (which means father in Hindi), shared some Indian food, went back to the hotel and napped. I mean I guess that’s what you’re supposed to do on Shabbos. We got up in time to shower and get ready for Seder.
We got there a little early to help Zelda, the Rabbis wife, set up. An hour after we showed the place was packed; literally there were probably 40 Israelis there. We all sat together, and for my first time at a Seder I actually had 4 glasses of wine. Seder wasn’t too long only 2 hours and what I found interesting was how they used boiled potato as karpas rather than parsley which my mother uses. The rabbi said either one is appropriate its all about tradition.
The rabbi told the story of Pesach, again Hagay translated for us, some of the guests asked questions and sparked up controversial conversation. A few debates spurred up but all in good fun. I couldn’t of asked for a better night. If I had to be away from my family for Seder, which on that night I did, I really could not of wanted anything more. It was good company.
The food was not as good as the previous nights. Since there is no meat or chicken allowed in Pushkar, and these were Ashkenazi Jews, so no rice, potatoes were the main course, there were boiled potatoes and mashed potatoes…take your pick. Needless to say, I cannot even think about eating a potato after that meal. But again, it was all about the company. The only place I went wrong was with desert. The night before, at Shabbat dinner they served a fruit salad, I ate it. The food at the Chabad house was clean it was inspected by Zelda and the guests every night for the next days meal, and prepared appropriately. The fruit salad hadn’t given me any problems so I figured why not eat it, its fine…baddd choice (ill get there in a minute). After the Seder was done and it was time to go, they invited us back the next night, they told us that the second Seder was just for family and close guests, within 2 days Sara and I had the same status as Hagay, someone who had been going there 2x a day for 14 days, we were part of the crew. We were honored, however we had to politely decline, 3 days in Pushkar was more than enough and we had more to see on our itinerary. The next day we had an 8-hour drive to southern Rajasthan to a city called Udaipur, known as the Venice of India.
When we left the Chabad we were again slapped in the face with our reality of being in India, not Tzfat. Again we saw all these men in white robes and lanterns walking down the street, this time instead of a groom on a while horse there was a body wrapped in a white sheet which a long vertical red stripe on the top. The body was hoisted up being carried by some of the men. When we got back to the hotel, the owner told us it was a funeral. The body was going to be taken to the lake where it would be burned. That was how they disposed of the corpse, not by burial, but by burning. Sara asked if anyone could go, he said that funerals were open anyone could attend. We then asked if anyone was buried, he informed us that the custom was always to burn the body. Another thing learned. Interesting.
Back to the fruit, that night I went to bed with a horrible stomachache, I figured it would pass. It was difficult to fall asleep but I finally did. When I woke up in the morning I hardly made it to the toilet and then blahhhhhhhhhhh…vomit…FOOD POISONING. I was a trooper though I took a handful of plastic bags and step by step made it down to the car. I was sick the entire day, the entire 8-hour drive, Sara was so great, she sat in the front and gave me the whole back seat to lie down, and try and sleep. After 4 hours, our driver, Mr. Singh pulled over to a pharmacy. He came back with glucose medicine. During this whole fiasco he was so kind, warm, and genuinely concerned. Sara and I completely changed our opinions about him. For the rest of the drive, while I was in between sleep and being sick Sara started talking to him, asking about his family telling him about what we were doing in Israel talking about Hindi tradition and Indian culture. Clearly, we warmed up to him. We liked him.
I made it alive to Udaipur. Sara checked into the hotel for us, hotel Udai Niwas, and I went up to the room and passed out. I was beat, and still felt horrible.
Day 10- april 22- drive back to delhi (22 hours)
April 23- day 11- upper class delhi shopping and amazment
Day 12 April 24- back home- doctor in Bahrain sick long trek back to TA
We got to Pushkar, or should I say little Israel around 12:30. Pushkar’s small town, full rooftop restaurants, and is another mini shopping paradise. It’s a Hindu pilgrimage town surrounded by a holy lake, housing some odd 400 temples. It’s a religious town prohibiting all alcohol, meat, and dairy, even eggs, completely vegetarian, and is home to a slew of priests ensuring the dietary laws are kept. The place was full of Israelis, there were so many Israelis even the local’s spoke Hebrew, menus were in Hebrew, signs were in Hebrew…little Israel much? It was unreal. Everywhere else we got by telling people we were from Israel (they give Israelis cheaper prices, like I said USA and dollar signs flash), but in Pushkar we were out of luck, if we said we were from Israel the shopkeepers would start speaking to us in Hebrew. My Hebrew is not that great to begin with, neither is Sara’s, couple my limited vocabulary with a thick Hindi accent and I was completely lost.
In Pushkar we checked into Hotel Oasis. It was a nice place, by Indian standards. There were two clocks in the entranceway, one reading Indian time and the other reading, obviously, reading Israeli time. The keyboard for the computers had both English and Hebrew letters, at first the whole thing was bazaar, but cool, oddly enough, we quickly got used to it.
Our room had a TV, yeah that’s right a TV! When we got settled in I turned it on to see what Indian TV was like. I flipped through the channels and found Hindi MTV; it was hysterical, loaded with Bollywood films and scandalous music videos. Sara and I had it on every time we were in the room and just laughed and laughed, it was almost as if they were trying to hard to impersonate Americans. Everyone that was interviewed mentioned the US, every other comment was about America this or America that. I guess the whole superpower thing really comes into play when you leave homebase.
We didn’t stay in the room long at that point we figured we only had one day there we had to walk around and get a feel for the town. There is only one very significant sight in Pushkar; it is home to one of the few Brahma Temples in the world. We checked it out it was a tall white building, with delicate detail, but compared to some of the other sights we had seen it was not nearly as impressive. On the outskirts of the temple were priests, chanting their prayers, it reminded me of Hairy Krishna’s that walk down Lincoln Road on Saturday nights. Watching them pray was different. Afterward we went shopping, by shopping I mean we walked in to every shop, shop to shop. Actually, the shopping here was more fun, less harassment, but they were tougher bargainers. One even turned us down we were shocked. Serves us right I guess.
We got back to the hotel around 6 o’clock after a full day of walking around. We both went over to use the computers and sitting next to us was a religious Jew. We started talking to him and it turned out he was a Rabbi, Rabbi Shimon, he ran a Chabad house that was just across the street. He asked us all about our travels and invited us for dinner, and for Pesach Seder. He said that he rarely used to computers at our hotel since the Chabad house had Internet and that our meeting was meant to be. We were meant to meet him so that he could offer us an invitation for Pesach and Shabbos. Sara doesn’t buy into that kind of stuff, but I agreed with him. I don’t think situations like that are so coincidental. Its not everyday you see a religious Jewish man walking the streets of India, I can tell you that much.
After he was done with the computer we went across the street with him to eat. Him, his wife, and their five kids all lived there, along with two other members of the Chabad community from Tzfat who were just there for 7 months, after which, two other members would take there place and stay for another period of 7 months. The children were born there and him and his wife had been living there for the last 7 years. They were 32. He hated it in India. I asked him how much longer he had to live there for until he could go back to Israel, his response: “until the Moshiach comes”. Wow, I didn’t know what to say. His life was dedicated to providing a Chabad house, a place to pray, a place to go, for Jewish travelers like myself, his life was dedicated to HaShem, he was entirely selfless. Dinner was great! The food was wonderful. Actually I don’t know if the food tasted so good or if it was just the fact that the company was so refreshing. The kids were so cute, ages 10, 9, 5, 3, and 1. There were two girls and three boys. The place had a few Israelis around, after dinner we helped chop walnuts for the Charoset on Pesach (which was just two nights away). We hung out there till around midnight. We loved it. We met great people, they mainly spoke Hebrew, but a few spoke English with us, specifically a guy named Hagay and a girl named Allyah, Hagay had been in India for 3 months already and Allyah just for 2 weeks. Typically Israelis travel after they finish their term in the army and they will stay for months, many go to India.
When we left we were invited to Shabbat dinner the next night and of course Pesach Seder the following night. I did not think we would have the opportunity to have Seder considering we were in India, and this opportunity was too good to give up, so Sara and I decided to extend our stay in Pushkar 2 extra days.
When we left the Chabad house it was like culture shock all over again, being surrounded by Hebrew and Israelis for 4 hours brought us back to the Promised Land. When we left the security inside it was back the chaotic streets, the cows, the harassment, and the dirt, the poverty: India. For one, there were a crowd of people with lanterns walking down the main road, all dressed up, all singing, at the end of the string of people was a man on a white horse, we was the groom, Sara and I were witnessing a Hindi Wedding. We watched him ride on horse back up to the temple where he would meet his bride. It was so culturally different, check! Another experience under our belts.
The next day was Friday; we decided to sleep in since the previous day we had pretty much seen all of Pushkar. We got out and about around 12pm. Our first stop was the lake to see the holy bathers in the water. It just so happened to be a holiday so there were tons of people around. Right when you walk in the priests bombard you giving you flowers to throw in the lake. The catch is right after you throw the flower, which has some form of religious symbolism; they hit you up for a couple of rupees. They then say a prayer on your behalf and put a red dot in the middle of your eyes, symbolizing a third eye. After they put rice in the center of the dot and tie a pink string around your right wrist. All done without explanation…donations required for their services. I didn’t feel comfortable going through the process, I know they say when in Rome…but still I’m a Jew I don’t walk in to a church and take the sacrament, why should I allow rice to be stuck to my red third eye? I politely told the priests no thank you that I was just an observer. This did not make them happy…nope not at all, and they kicked us out. As the Israeli’s say “ain baya” (no problem). Sara and I then stopped for lunch on one of the rooftop restaurants. Pushkar was infested with flies; they were everywhere so it took a few attempts until we found a fly free zone. We ordered cooked red lentils and white rice. The food was just ok. Afterward we headed back to Hotel Oasis, we ran into Hagay along the way and all decided to hang out. After an hour of chit chatting Sara and I were due for a siesta. We woke up 4 hours later…just in time for Shabbat!
We crossed the street and walked into the Chabad house, meal two there. We were slowly becoming regulars; Hagay went there for every meal pretty much. They all took a really strong liking to us. Rabbi Shimon did the Kiddush in Hebrew, but Hagay translated it for us into English. I was mostly excited for Sara, I had been to a Shabbat dinner at a Chabad house before, I mean never in India clearly but I knew the prayers and was raised around Jewish tradition, culture, and religion, while she wasn’t as much.
After the prayers the wine was passed around and the food was served! We talked the whole night as we had the night before. We shared traveling stories, talked about Israel, about India, about the US, war, politics, Judaism, love, relationships, children, Pushkar, religion, the Middle East, on and on and on it was wonderful. The Chabad made my experience in Pushkar. I was so excited for the next night…Seder!
The next day we really had nothing to do. We woke up went to a rooftop restaurant called Baba’s (which means father in Hindi), shared some Indian food, went back to the hotel and napped. I mean I guess that’s what you’re supposed to do on Shabbos. We got up in time to shower and get ready for Seder.
We got there a little early to help Zelda, the Rabbis wife, set up. An hour after we showed the place was packed; literally there were probably 40 Israelis there. We all sat together, and for my first time at a Seder I actually had 4 glasses of wine. Seder wasn’t too long only 2 hours and what I found interesting was how they used boiled potato as karpas rather than parsley which my mother uses. The rabbi said either one is appropriate its all about tradition.
The rabbi told the story of Pesach, again Hagay translated for us, some of the guests asked questions and sparked up controversial conversation. A few debates spurred up but all in good fun. I couldn’t of asked for a better night. If I had to be away from my family for Seder, which on that night I did, I really could not of wanted anything more. It was good company.
The food was not as good as the previous nights. Since there is no meat or chicken allowed in Pushkar, and these were Ashkenazi Jews, so no rice, potatoes were the main course, there were boiled potatoes and mashed potatoes…take your pick. Needless to say, I cannot even think about eating a potato after that meal. But again, it was all about the company. The only place I went wrong was with desert. The night before, at Shabbat dinner they served a fruit salad, I ate it. The food at the Chabad house was clean it was inspected by Zelda and the guests every night for the next days meal, and prepared appropriately. The fruit salad hadn’t given me any problems so I figured why not eat it, its fine…baddd choice (ill get there in a minute). After the Seder was done and it was time to go, they invited us back the next night, they told us that the second Seder was just for family and close guests, within 2 days Sara and I had the same status as Hagay, someone who had been going there 2x a day for 14 days, we were part of the crew. We were honored, however we had to politely decline, 3 days in Pushkar was more than enough and we had more to see on our itinerary. The next day we had an 8-hour drive to southern Rajasthan to a city called Udaipur, known as the Venice of India.
When we left the Chabad we were again slapped in the face with our reality of being in India, not Tzfat. Again we saw all these men in white robes and lanterns walking down the street, this time instead of a groom on a while horse there was a body wrapped in a white sheet which a long vertical red stripe on the top. The body was hoisted up being carried by some of the men. When we got back to the hotel, the owner told us it was a funeral. The body was going to be taken to the lake where it would be burned. That was how they disposed of the corpse, not by burial, but by burning. Sara asked if anyone could go, he said that funerals were open anyone could attend. We then asked if anyone was buried, he informed us that the custom was always to burn the body. Another thing learned. Interesting.
Back to the fruit, that night I went to bed with a horrible stomachache, I figured it would pass. It was difficult to fall asleep but I finally did. When I woke up in the morning I hardly made it to the toilet and then blahhhhhhhhhhh…vomit…FOOD POISONING. I was a trooper though I took a handful of plastic bags and step by step made it down to the car. I was sick the entire day, the entire 8-hour drive, Sara was so great, she sat in the front and gave me the whole back seat to lie down, and try and sleep. After 4 hours, our driver, Mr. Singh pulled over to a pharmacy. He came back with glucose medicine. During this whole fiasco he was so kind, warm, and genuinely concerned. Sara and I completely changed our opinions about him. For the rest of the drive, while I was in between sleep and being sick Sara started talking to him, asking about his family telling him about what we were doing in Israel talking about Hindi tradition and Indian culture. Clearly, we warmed up to him. We liked him.
I made it alive to Udaipur. Sara checked into the hotel for us, hotel Udai Niwas, and I went up to the room and passed out. I was beat, and still felt horrible.
Bargaining in Rupees: Jaipur the Peach City
The next day, April 16, we got picked up at the hotel at 9:30am. We only had one day in Jaipur and our plan was to see the sights and then shop in the bazaars. We met an American couple at the Taj Mahal who really got us excited for the shopping, the women went on and on about how much there was to choose from and how easy it was to bargain with shop owners, so, as you can imagine, after all that sightseeing in Delhi on the second day we were kind of “sightseed out”. To be perfectly honest, every fort looks the same, and every palace looked the same, and the forts kinda looked like the palaces and the palaces and a sticking resemblance to the forts. Nonetheless, we took our lonely planet book in hand and trudged on. First stop: you guessed it, Amber Fort!
Amber Fort was actually a 20 minutes drive outside of Jaipur, Amber was the ancient capital of Jaipur and the fort was more of a palace for the royal family (go figure). It was also pink (surprised?) but the actually walls of the fort were built from red sandstone and white marble looked similar to the Red Fort in Agra. Instead of walking up to the fort by foot Sara and I decided to go by Elephant. They were huge! But pretty and so gentile. These elephants were festive; their skin was painted in the front in Indian style designs. My heart went out to them because you could tell they weren’t properly treated. It seems India has no real humanitarian nor animal safety laws, for one, child labor was rampant and animal care was entirely lacking, then again, does a government that is trying to deal with such widespread poverty have time to deal with rights and liberties? Anyway, back to the topic at hand, excuse my tangents, the elephant ride, it was great we got some great pictures of the two of us hoisted up on the beast, which will look great in the photo album. It was cool to of ridden an elephant in India, but there’s not much we had to do, we kind of just sat there and the elephant did the rest, to be frank, it sounds a lot more intriguing than it really was.
25 minutes of an uphill trek the elephant safely got us to the top of the fort where the palace was. Sara and I were both pleasantly surprised. It was beautiful and huge. There were four gardens. The most striking building within the palace was definitely the Kali Temple, the walls of which were decorated in mosaic style, but rather than using tiles the mosaic pieces were mirrors. The ceilings had the same mirror mosaic art but had a different pattern, on the wall there were flowers in pots all symmetrical in lined up in rows and columns, the ceiling was also symmetrical but different circles and just rows of mirrored pieces. It was unique, unlike anything I had ever seen before, and beautiful. While we were there we saw the temple being restored since much the mirrors were chipped away and largely deteriorating, I mean the fort and palace were built in the late 1500’s. It was interesting to see the restoration, done piece of piece, little by little. Talk about tedious work, but hey everybody’s gotta pay the bills. We walked around the palace for a good hour admiring the architecture and the precision of the construction. I think when looking at these historical sights its incredible to recall that they were built before the time of rulers and proper measurements, much of the precision lies in trusting the builders vision of what appeared equal. When taken into consideration it makes it all the more astounding.
After taking it all in we walked back down dodging poop along the way, of course, I mean this is INDIA! The next site was just a brief stop it was on the way back into Jaipur coming from Agra Fort. It is called Lake Palace or Jal Mahal; it is a red sandstone building built in 1799 in the middle of the lake. It was the summer resort for the royal family and was primarily used as a station for duck-hunting parties. It was very cool, just a huge edifice sitting on top of a lake, hanging out on the water, normal? Well in India yes! There were a few buildings like this, in Pushkar and Udaipur too, just isolated in the middle of lakes. Anyway, Sara and I got out of the car snapped a couple photos and were on our way back in to Jaipur where we went to the Hawa Mahal.
The Hawa Mahal (Palace of the Winds) is apparently Jaipur’s most distinct landmark. It is pink, go figure, but the architecture is interesting, the building was built in layers akin to a huge honeycombed hive that is 5 stories tall. It too was built in 1799 in order for the women of the royal household to watch the life of the city, which explains its location in the center of all the hustle and bustle. Again here not much to see in a museum sense, just architecture.
After Hawa Mahal we went to the City Palace, which really was not impressive at all. It was dirty, not kept well, and it was interesting because the current Maharaja still lives on the grounds. We didn’t stay around long; there wasn’t much to see. This was our last stop on our sightseeing tour of Jaipur time to hit the Bazaars!
Shopping in India is not so much to buy things as it is for the experience. In order to be a successful shopper you have to have a sense of humor. There is a central street in Jaipur that is aligned for blocks and blocks with hundreds of different shops. The second we hit that street we were bombarded with shop owners, “take a look at my shop” “free to look” looking is no charge” “come to my shop”…. On and on and on and on. Rather than get frustrated and overwhelmed you kind of have to laugh it off. We spent the day at Johari Bazaar, which was famous for its fabrics and saris. They are beautiful, bursting with color and elegance. Sara and I had a really great rest of the day going from shop to shop talking to the shopkeepers, bargaining prices, looking at all the cultural things, the differences, what they eat, wear, buy. Their style of clothing, jewelry, and shoes. It was unreal not your typical American mall, just complete chaos. And let me tell you they love to bargain, it isn’t a pain for them, it’s a sport, its fun. You walk in they give you an outrageous starting price, especially if they know you’re American, those three letters U-S-A make their eyes light up with dollar signs. So say they start at 500 rupees for a pair of shoes, that’s around $12.50. You then cut that price in half you say $250 they say no no ill give you a good price, a special deal just for you (clearly haha) $450, you say no $200. They say no no, you go down in price? No no. So he bargains with you more and more, you take your 200 rupee out of your fanny pack (yes, fanny packs really come I n handy I have come to learn!) so that the guy can see the money, and once he sees it there’s no turning back. If at first he hesitates say ok thank you and start to walk out of the store, he’s already seen the money, he knows you mean business, and quickly says ok ok ok 200 no problem. Done and done shoes that were $12.50 USD are now just 5 bucks.
As the day went on and out bargaining skills improved we started to notice the smile on all these guys faces they loved it. They knew how ridiculous their starting prices were and they just loved the tennis ball bickering going back and forth between owner and client 1000, 500, 850, 500, 750, no 500, fine fine I make you a deal 650, no 500…ok ok 500. Haha. Simple as that. We got tons of things, I especially got stuff for my sisters I miss them so much and everything just reminded me of them. I got authentic things though things they wont be able to find in the US so that they can share a little bit of my experience with me, Indian bangles, and garb, shoes, and the like. Half way through the day we bout little suitcases to roll everything around it, we got two suitcases for $5.
I had never in my life see such prices as I had in India. It made me realize how rich the United States truly is in comparison to most of the world, and in effect the power associated with all that wealth. Before coming abroad I had a lot of issues with capitalism. Due to multiple experiences I have had here, Jordan, Turkey, and now esp. India, I realize its not so bad. Yes, the US has poverty, high levels of it for a Western democracy, and it has millions of citizens without healthcare, an expanding gap between the rich and poor, and a million and one other problems. But at the end of the day America is still a young country, but a great one, in just 300 years she has accomplished so much, and has become the powerhouse of our universe surpassing countries that have long histories of immense prestige. Everyone wants to be an American citizen (a generalization, I apologize, many want to be an American citizen), and now I know why, like is just a lot easier in comparison. While I was always proud of being an American, being away from home for these 5 months has reminded why I should be so grateful, so proud to be an American, where at least I know I’m free. While my knowledge of other cultures has enhanced, simultaneously, my patriotism has definitely grown.
After a fun-filled day of shopping Sara and I headed back to the hotel, for early nights sleep. The next day we have a 3.5-hour car ride to a small spiritual town called Pushkar.
Amber Fort was actually a 20 minutes drive outside of Jaipur, Amber was the ancient capital of Jaipur and the fort was more of a palace for the royal family (go figure). It was also pink (surprised?) but the actually walls of the fort were built from red sandstone and white marble looked similar to the Red Fort in Agra. Instead of walking up to the fort by foot Sara and I decided to go by Elephant. They were huge! But pretty and so gentile. These elephants were festive; their skin was painted in the front in Indian style designs. My heart went out to them because you could tell they weren’t properly treated. It seems India has no real humanitarian nor animal safety laws, for one, child labor was rampant and animal care was entirely lacking, then again, does a government that is trying to deal with such widespread poverty have time to deal with rights and liberties? Anyway, back to the topic at hand, excuse my tangents, the elephant ride, it was great we got some great pictures of the two of us hoisted up on the beast, which will look great in the photo album. It was cool to of ridden an elephant in India, but there’s not much we had to do, we kind of just sat there and the elephant did the rest, to be frank, it sounds a lot more intriguing than it really was.
25 minutes of an uphill trek the elephant safely got us to the top of the fort where the palace was. Sara and I were both pleasantly surprised. It was beautiful and huge. There were four gardens. The most striking building within the palace was definitely the Kali Temple, the walls of which were decorated in mosaic style, but rather than using tiles the mosaic pieces were mirrors. The ceilings had the same mirror mosaic art but had a different pattern, on the wall there were flowers in pots all symmetrical in lined up in rows and columns, the ceiling was also symmetrical but different circles and just rows of mirrored pieces. It was unique, unlike anything I had ever seen before, and beautiful. While we were there we saw the temple being restored since much the mirrors were chipped away and largely deteriorating, I mean the fort and palace were built in the late 1500’s. It was interesting to see the restoration, done piece of piece, little by little. Talk about tedious work, but hey everybody’s gotta pay the bills. We walked around the palace for a good hour admiring the architecture and the precision of the construction. I think when looking at these historical sights its incredible to recall that they were built before the time of rulers and proper measurements, much of the precision lies in trusting the builders vision of what appeared equal. When taken into consideration it makes it all the more astounding.
After taking it all in we walked back down dodging poop along the way, of course, I mean this is INDIA! The next site was just a brief stop it was on the way back into Jaipur coming from Agra Fort. It is called Lake Palace or Jal Mahal; it is a red sandstone building built in 1799 in the middle of the lake. It was the summer resort for the royal family and was primarily used as a station for duck-hunting parties. It was very cool, just a huge edifice sitting on top of a lake, hanging out on the water, normal? Well in India yes! There were a few buildings like this, in Pushkar and Udaipur too, just isolated in the middle of lakes. Anyway, Sara and I got out of the car snapped a couple photos and were on our way back in to Jaipur where we went to the Hawa Mahal.
The Hawa Mahal (Palace of the Winds) is apparently Jaipur’s most distinct landmark. It is pink, go figure, but the architecture is interesting, the building was built in layers akin to a huge honeycombed hive that is 5 stories tall. It too was built in 1799 in order for the women of the royal household to watch the life of the city, which explains its location in the center of all the hustle and bustle. Again here not much to see in a museum sense, just architecture.
After Hawa Mahal we went to the City Palace, which really was not impressive at all. It was dirty, not kept well, and it was interesting because the current Maharaja still lives on the grounds. We didn’t stay around long; there wasn’t much to see. This was our last stop on our sightseeing tour of Jaipur time to hit the Bazaars!
Shopping in India is not so much to buy things as it is for the experience. In order to be a successful shopper you have to have a sense of humor. There is a central street in Jaipur that is aligned for blocks and blocks with hundreds of different shops. The second we hit that street we were bombarded with shop owners, “take a look at my shop” “free to look” looking is no charge” “come to my shop”…. On and on and on and on. Rather than get frustrated and overwhelmed you kind of have to laugh it off. We spent the day at Johari Bazaar, which was famous for its fabrics and saris. They are beautiful, bursting with color and elegance. Sara and I had a really great rest of the day going from shop to shop talking to the shopkeepers, bargaining prices, looking at all the cultural things, the differences, what they eat, wear, buy. Their style of clothing, jewelry, and shoes. It was unreal not your typical American mall, just complete chaos. And let me tell you they love to bargain, it isn’t a pain for them, it’s a sport, its fun. You walk in they give you an outrageous starting price, especially if they know you’re American, those three letters U-S-A make their eyes light up with dollar signs. So say they start at 500 rupees for a pair of shoes, that’s around $12.50. You then cut that price in half you say $250 they say no no ill give you a good price, a special deal just for you (clearly haha) $450, you say no $200. They say no no, you go down in price? No no. So he bargains with you more and more, you take your 200 rupee out of your fanny pack (yes, fanny packs really come I n handy I have come to learn!) so that the guy can see the money, and once he sees it there’s no turning back. If at first he hesitates say ok thank you and start to walk out of the store, he’s already seen the money, he knows you mean business, and quickly says ok ok ok 200 no problem. Done and done shoes that were $12.50 USD are now just 5 bucks.
As the day went on and out bargaining skills improved we started to notice the smile on all these guys faces they loved it. They knew how ridiculous their starting prices were and they just loved the tennis ball bickering going back and forth between owner and client 1000, 500, 850, 500, 750, no 500, fine fine I make you a deal 650, no 500…ok ok 500. Haha. Simple as that. We got tons of things, I especially got stuff for my sisters I miss them so much and everything just reminded me of them. I got authentic things though things they wont be able to find in the US so that they can share a little bit of my experience with me, Indian bangles, and garb, shoes, and the like. Half way through the day we bout little suitcases to roll everything around it, we got two suitcases for $5.
I had never in my life see such prices as I had in India. It made me realize how rich the United States truly is in comparison to most of the world, and in effect the power associated with all that wealth. Before coming abroad I had a lot of issues with capitalism. Due to multiple experiences I have had here, Jordan, Turkey, and now esp. India, I realize its not so bad. Yes, the US has poverty, high levels of it for a Western democracy, and it has millions of citizens without healthcare, an expanding gap between the rich and poor, and a million and one other problems. But at the end of the day America is still a young country, but a great one, in just 300 years she has accomplished so much, and has become the powerhouse of our universe surpassing countries that have long histories of immense prestige. Everyone wants to be an American citizen (a generalization, I apologize, many want to be an American citizen), and now I know why, like is just a lot easier in comparison. While I was always proud of being an American, being away from home for these 5 months has reminded why I should be so grateful, so proud to be an American, where at least I know I’m free. While my knowledge of other cultures has enhanced, simultaneously, my patriotism has definitely grown.
After a fun-filled day of shopping Sara and I headed back to the hotel, for early nights sleep. The next day we have a 3.5-hour car ride to a small spiritual town called Pushkar.
Monday, April 28, 2008
the Majestic Taj, Peach Jaipur, and the Monkeys Attack
On day 3 of our Indian Adventure, April 15, Sara and I “woke up” at 5:45am. I say, “woke up”, because, while our hotel had a magnificent view of the Taj Mahal, our $5/per night room lacked air-conditioned. The room was sweltering to say the least, the exact antithesis of an icebox. In effect, there was no sleeping involved that night, none whatsoever. So, back to the topic at hand, we got out of bed at 5:45am, just in time to see the sunrise over the grand Taj Mahal.
After a 7-minute walk through the streets of Taj Ganj, we hit the entrance to the Taj Mahal. At first you walk through a courtyard, the surrounding buildings are all red with Arabic writing, influence from the Muslim Shah Jahan who built the monument in remembrance of his late wife. After walking through the courtyard you enter the beginning of the Taj. My first words were: “Sara I feel like we’re in Disney World”. That is exactly what it looks like, its perfection makes it look like a relic, completely fake. You are careful entering because you don’t want to make the area dirty, you are shocked that after seeing such poverty, pollution, and littering there could exist something as pure, white, and clean within the same 500 meters.
Sara and I took tons of pictures with the Taj in the background, at first there is an infinity pond that leads up to the structure all aligned with topiary trees, and flowers. The infinity pond then stops where there is an elevated square bath, empty now and filled with white marble, after the bath the infinity pond continues up until the steps of the Taj Mahal. The closer we got to it the more real it felt.
When we got right up to the stair we saw that the entire edifice was white marble with Arabic carvings, and floral designs made of precious stones. The Arabic carvings were made of gold, while the flowers were made of rubies, garnets, and jade stones. It was truly majestic, right out of Disney’s Aladdin. My descriptions aren’t doing the Taj justice in the least, in order to understand its splendor you have to see it in person. In the true essence of a word that is entirely overused it was AWSOME.
We stayed at the Taj for about an hour, once the sun came up the building just radiated. Once we left we were back to reality, back on those poisoned streets of Agra. It was around 7:30am and we got to see all the kids in their uniforms running off to school, shop keepers opening up shop for the day, starting to hassle the average tourist to pop in and take a look at their merchandise. We walked a good 10 minutes out of our way, because we got lost coming back, 10 extra minutes of hassling, cows, poop, and kids running off to homeroom, or however they start their day. Upon returning to our sweat pit of a room we packed up our backpacks and met the car for our 5.5-hour drive to our next location. Finally, Sara and I were on our way to Rajasthan first stop JAIPUR!
The car ride went pretty smoothly, we stopped off for lunch at a café along the way, had some more Indian food, some more cook vegetables and steamed rice, mmm. At around 3:45 pm we made it to Jaipur, I was so bitter all day from losing a nights sleep that I made sure we were going to have AC that night. We checked into a fairly nice hotel, Jaipur Inn, we were both pleased with the condition of the place, I mean it was no Ritz, but then again we were in INDIA! Jaipur is called the "Pink City", because in the 1980's the whole city was painted Pepto Bismal pink to welcome the Prince of Wales, unfortunatly, but not surprising the place hasnt been touched since so that pink has faded into peach. EVERYTHING was peach, EVERYTHING!
Since it was only 3:45, we were wondering what we should do then, too late to go shopping (Jaipur is notorious for its great shopping, and even better bargaining), too late to start seeing the sights, so instead Sara had a great idea, why not take a 45 minute drive to Galta (Monkey Temple) & Surya Mandir. What is Galta (Monkey Temple) & Surya Mandir you ask? Well the book, Lonely Planet, aka our Bible for the 14 days we were they, really hyped this place up, they made it seem really cool. After venturing into this unknown territory, it came to my attention that we should have given more notice to the first three adjective used to describe this monkey, let me rephrase, animal temple: “desolate, and barren, if evocative, place.” um, desolate and barren is right on! There was nothing there! NOTHING! Sara and I bought peanuts since the book also mentioned how at sunset hundreds of monkeys congregate on the temple for feeding. That’s right HUNDREDS OF MONKEYS, for some reason we thought that sounded cool, after the experience it is down right scary! After buying peanuts we started walking up toward the temple. This place was more like the Jaipur Zoo than a historical site. Within the first 5 minutes we saw dogs, goats, cows, bulls, monkey, sheep. Ha-ha it was UNREAL! But then the sun started to slowly sink, and those hundreds of monkeys started popping up. Vicious little things, they are downright mean. We had to hide our peanuts so they wouldn’t attack us. Yes, those rabies infested sneaky thieves attack! Don’t think monkeys are cute because let me tell you from personal experience there is nothing cute about them! They are disgusting! They make rats look good. While hiding our peanuts, and our valuables (because they are professionals when it comes to pick pocketing more so than humans), tons of Indian kids were following us clearly asking for a rupee or two, and in their midst of their begging a monkey attacked on! Full on jumped on his back and took him down, the kid nonchalantly shook him off and than threw a rock at him, the whole thing lasted about 5 seconds and was done with such normality. At that moment Sara and I dropped our peanuts on the floor and ran, RAN toward the car, toward doors, windows, security, and our closest form of salvation.
After that we called it a day, apparently the monkeys took a lot out of me because I passed out that night at 8:30.
After a 7-minute walk through the streets of Taj Ganj, we hit the entrance to the Taj Mahal. At first you walk through a courtyard, the surrounding buildings are all red with Arabic writing, influence from the Muslim Shah Jahan who built the monument in remembrance of his late wife. After walking through the courtyard you enter the beginning of the Taj. My first words were: “Sara I feel like we’re in Disney World”. That is exactly what it looks like, its perfection makes it look like a relic, completely fake. You are careful entering because you don’t want to make the area dirty, you are shocked that after seeing such poverty, pollution, and littering there could exist something as pure, white, and clean within the same 500 meters.
Sara and I took tons of pictures with the Taj in the background, at first there is an infinity pond that leads up to the structure all aligned with topiary trees, and flowers. The infinity pond then stops where there is an elevated square bath, empty now and filled with white marble, after the bath the infinity pond continues up until the steps of the Taj Mahal. The closer we got to it the more real it felt.
When we got right up to the stair we saw that the entire edifice was white marble with Arabic carvings, and floral designs made of precious stones. The Arabic carvings were made of gold, while the flowers were made of rubies, garnets, and jade stones. It was truly majestic, right out of Disney’s Aladdin. My descriptions aren’t doing the Taj justice in the least, in order to understand its splendor you have to see it in person. In the true essence of a word that is entirely overused it was AWSOME.
We stayed at the Taj for about an hour, once the sun came up the building just radiated. Once we left we were back to reality, back on those poisoned streets of Agra. It was around 7:30am and we got to see all the kids in their uniforms running off to school, shop keepers opening up shop for the day, starting to hassle the average tourist to pop in and take a look at their merchandise. We walked a good 10 minutes out of our way, because we got lost coming back, 10 extra minutes of hassling, cows, poop, and kids running off to homeroom, or however they start their day. Upon returning to our sweat pit of a room we packed up our backpacks and met the car for our 5.5-hour drive to our next location. Finally, Sara and I were on our way to Rajasthan first stop JAIPUR!
The car ride went pretty smoothly, we stopped off for lunch at a café along the way, had some more Indian food, some more cook vegetables and steamed rice, mmm. At around 3:45 pm we made it to Jaipur, I was so bitter all day from losing a nights sleep that I made sure we were going to have AC that night. We checked into a fairly nice hotel, Jaipur Inn, we were both pleased with the condition of the place, I mean it was no Ritz, but then again we were in INDIA! Jaipur is called the "Pink City", because in the 1980's the whole city was painted Pepto Bismal pink to welcome the Prince of Wales, unfortunatly, but not surprising the place hasnt been touched since so that pink has faded into peach. EVERYTHING was peach, EVERYTHING!
Since it was only 3:45, we were wondering what we should do then, too late to go shopping (Jaipur is notorious for its great shopping, and even better bargaining), too late to start seeing the sights, so instead Sara had a great idea, why not take a 45 minute drive to Galta (Monkey Temple) & Surya Mandir. What is Galta (Monkey Temple) & Surya Mandir you ask? Well the book, Lonely Planet, aka our Bible for the 14 days we were they, really hyped this place up, they made it seem really cool. After venturing into this unknown territory, it came to my attention that we should have given more notice to the first three adjective used to describe this monkey, let me rephrase, animal temple: “desolate, and barren, if evocative, place.” um, desolate and barren is right on! There was nothing there! NOTHING! Sara and I bought peanuts since the book also mentioned how at sunset hundreds of monkeys congregate on the temple for feeding. That’s right HUNDREDS OF MONKEYS, for some reason we thought that sounded cool, after the experience it is down right scary! After buying peanuts we started walking up toward the temple. This place was more like the Jaipur Zoo than a historical site. Within the first 5 minutes we saw dogs, goats, cows, bulls, monkey, sheep. Ha-ha it was UNREAL! But then the sun started to slowly sink, and those hundreds of monkeys started popping up. Vicious little things, they are downright mean. We had to hide our peanuts so they wouldn’t attack us. Yes, those rabies infested sneaky thieves attack! Don’t think monkeys are cute because let me tell you from personal experience there is nothing cute about them! They are disgusting! They make rats look good. While hiding our peanuts, and our valuables (because they are professionals when it comes to pick pocketing more so than humans), tons of Indian kids were following us clearly asking for a rupee or two, and in their midst of their begging a monkey attacked on! Full on jumped on his back and took him down, the kid nonchalantly shook him off and than threw a rock at him, the whole thing lasted about 5 seconds and was done with such normality. At that moment Sara and I dropped our peanuts on the floor and ran, RAN toward the car, toward doors, windows, security, and our closest form of salvation.
After that we called it a day, apparently the monkeys took a lot out of me because I passed out that night at 8:30.
Monday, April 14, 2008
AGRA home of the TAJ
We left Delhi at around 10 this morning, and 5 hours later made it to Agra home of the Taj Mahal. The whole time our driver was nagging us (the same guy that drove us around Delhi). See the way it works here is everyone is trying to make a buck (or should I say rupee) if you go into this store or this hotel or this restaurant and someone is making commission just from you walking in. the whole car ride he was talking to us about this hotel and this shopping center and yadda yadda yadda it was like dude just shut up!
We thought Delhi was disgusting, take that multiply it by 10 and that is Agra! Yes a primo shithole! There are wild animal swarming this place, moneys flying through the tree tops, goats, dogs, camel, and cows running along the streets. It is in and of itself a mini zoo! Besides the sites we saw today and the Taj Mahal there is nothing else here, just more poverty, more kids playing in dirt half naked, ore beggars, and more crippled folk. It breaks my heart every time I go outside that there are places on earth that suffer so heavily. Just rips it in a million pieces.
Today we saw two major sites here in Agra, Agra Fort, and Itmad-ud-daulah (also know as baby Taj). They were both very beautiful; especially the Agra Fort was so impressive. Were saving the Taj Mahal for tomorrow we plan on getting there at 5:45am…yes! Haha. We then checked into Hotel Kamal, in Taj Ganj (I swear ganj means ghetto in Hindi). For 10 buses a night our room is decent and the rooftop restaurant has a sick view of the Taj Mahal. I know that when I see it up-close tomorrow it’s going to take my breath away. Right now staring at it from the rooftop it just looks fake circa Disney’s Aladdin. I’m so excited to actually step foot on it. It should be something magical. Sara and I are going to grab some dinner in about an hour. We are having such a good time, just taking it all in, the cultural differences, everything! And, its only day 2!
After our visit to the Taj tomorrow were headed to Jaipur in Rajasthan, a city famous for its jewels (yes! Def gonna get me some of those!). We haven’t shopped at all yet, but no worries, with these prices we will, and hey someone needs to support the India economy!
Just a quick side note, its impressive to see how much Indians like Jews. Some of them even speak a few phrases ion Hebrew. Regardless of the dirtiness, it’s refreshing to go somewhere as welcoming as this, esp. regarding the size of the Muslim population. A lot of cars have Jewish star bumper stickers, most hotels have Hebrew writings. And when we say we come from Israel where we are studying everyone’s faces light up! It’s really great!
Till next time ooxoxoxx
We thought Delhi was disgusting, take that multiply it by 10 and that is Agra! Yes a primo shithole! There are wild animal swarming this place, moneys flying through the tree tops, goats, dogs, camel, and cows running along the streets. It is in and of itself a mini zoo! Besides the sites we saw today and the Taj Mahal there is nothing else here, just more poverty, more kids playing in dirt half naked, ore beggars, and more crippled folk. It breaks my heart every time I go outside that there are places on earth that suffer so heavily. Just rips it in a million pieces.
Today we saw two major sites here in Agra, Agra Fort, and Itmad-ud-daulah (also know as baby Taj). They were both very beautiful; especially the Agra Fort was so impressive. Were saving the Taj Mahal for tomorrow we plan on getting there at 5:45am…yes! Haha. We then checked into Hotel Kamal, in Taj Ganj (I swear ganj means ghetto in Hindi). For 10 buses a night our room is decent and the rooftop restaurant has a sick view of the Taj Mahal. I know that when I see it up-close tomorrow it’s going to take my breath away. Right now staring at it from the rooftop it just looks fake circa Disney’s Aladdin. I’m so excited to actually step foot on it. It should be something magical. Sara and I are going to grab some dinner in about an hour. We are having such a good time, just taking it all in, the cultural differences, everything! And, its only day 2!
After our visit to the Taj tomorrow were headed to Jaipur in Rajasthan, a city famous for its jewels (yes! Def gonna get me some of those!). We haven’t shopped at all yet, but no worries, with these prices we will, and hey someone needs to support the India economy!
Just a quick side note, its impressive to see how much Indians like Jews. Some of them even speak a few phrases ion Hebrew. Regardless of the dirtiness, it’s refreshing to go somewhere as welcoming as this, esp. regarding the size of the Muslim population. A lot of cars have Jewish star bumper stickers, most hotels have Hebrew writings. And when we say we come from Israel where we are studying everyone’s faces light up! It’s really great!
Till next time ooxoxoxx
The Sites of Delhi- Like a True Tourist!
The following morning I woke up at 900. Today Sara, Jeff, and I were to go sightseeing. We had a jam packed day and were all pretty excited to see some of Delhi other than poverty stricken Old Delhi. The driver picked us up right in front of the Major’s Den. He was a little guy who loved to talk although we couldn’t understand a word he says and he couldn’t understand us all that well either.
Our first stop was Jama Masjid (1658), the largest mosque in India built by Shah Jahan (the same guy who built the Taj Mahal). Next we headed toward the Red Fort (1648) which was also built by Shah Jahan, it was amazing, it was a city within itself, made of red sandstone walls encrusted with mother of pearl engravings, white marble interiors, and semi-precious used for decoration. Following the red fort we headed to Rag Ghat, this is Mahatma Ghandi’s memorial and is the location where he was cremated. It was a garden with an eternity flame sculpture in the center, it was very peaceful, and it seemed far away from the hustle and bustle of the outside walls. After we went to Humayon Y\Tomb, built in the mid 16th century. It as also exquisite, it is so hard to describe these places but once my pictures are up you all will see what i am talking about. After the tomb we went for lunch at the chicken inn. Don’t let the name fool you because the food was awesome! I got curried mixed veggies, rice, and naan bread. Mmm mmm mmm.
Finally we made it to Qutab Minar, another city within a city, thriving wit Muslim influence, it is a 70m tower.
Upon leaving Qutab Minar a group of 12 year old girls flocked to us. We were western looking, and therefore different. They all shook our hands, were so pleased to meet us, and they wanted pictures of us. They were so cute and we were pleased to of had that experience.
We then went to India Gate (the tomb of the Unknown Soldier) where the Olympic torch will go through on the 17th of April. After we went to see the Presidents house and the house of Parliament. We called it a day at that point, went back to the majors den and took a nap. At around 11 we met up with Jeff to go and get some chai (Indian tea) and say goodbye. The following day Sara and I would be headed to Agra and he was going up north.
It was a really fun day and got me pumped for the rest of my stay here in India.
Our first stop was Jama Masjid (1658), the largest mosque in India built by Shah Jahan (the same guy who built the Taj Mahal). Next we headed toward the Red Fort (1648) which was also built by Shah Jahan, it was amazing, it was a city within itself, made of red sandstone walls encrusted with mother of pearl engravings, white marble interiors, and semi-precious used for decoration. Following the red fort we headed to Rag Ghat, this is Mahatma Ghandi’s memorial and is the location where he was cremated. It was a garden with an eternity flame sculpture in the center, it was very peaceful, and it seemed far away from the hustle and bustle of the outside walls. After we went to Humayon Y\Tomb, built in the mid 16th century. It as also exquisite, it is so hard to describe these places but once my pictures are up you all will see what i am talking about. After the tomb we went for lunch at the chicken inn. Don’t let the name fool you because the food was awesome! I got curried mixed veggies, rice, and naan bread. Mmm mmm mmm.
Finally we made it to Qutab Minar, another city within a city, thriving wit Muslim influence, it is a 70m tower.
Upon leaving Qutab Minar a group of 12 year old girls flocked to us. We were western looking, and therefore different. They all shook our hands, were so pleased to meet us, and they wanted pictures of us. They were so cute and we were pleased to of had that experience.
We then went to India Gate (the tomb of the Unknown Soldier) where the Olympic torch will go through on the 17th of April. After we went to see the Presidents house and the house of Parliament. We called it a day at that point, went back to the majors den and took a nap. At around 11 we met up with Jeff to go and get some chai (Indian tea) and say goodbye. The following day Sara and I would be headed to Agra and he was going up north.
It was a really fun day and got me pumped for the rest of my stay here in India.
DIRTY DIRTYY DELHI
So it is spring break 08…woot woot… haha.. Sara and I left Israel on April 11th. We met the travel agent at the central train station in Tel Aviv at around 6:45am, we then boarded a bus where we made a three hour drive to the Israeli/Jordanian border, once we crossed the border it was another two hours to Amman (the capital). Once in Amman we bordered a flight to Bahrain where we had a 6 hour layover, we then got a plane to New Delhi. In all it was 24 full hours of traveling.
At the baggage claim in New Delhi we met another traveler, a guy traveling throughout India for the next three months. His name is Jeff summers, he’s 26, and from Detroit. A very cool guy all in all. He’s a massage therapist and all into people’s personal energy and what not. We also met up with a guy who took the journey with us from Tel Aviv, a laughter yoga instructor, yes that’s right I said laughter yoga!!! Seriously freaks come to India! FREAKS! Haha.
When you first get off the plane you are taken aback by the orders, a mixture of spices, poo, and poverty. The streets are filthy they are absolutely foul! Garbage everywhere, poor people everywhere, hungry children flock the streets, garbage aligns the sidewalks, human and animal waste embed the floor, it is truly shit hole. Men go to the bathroom in on the side of buildings. The whole city is one big garbage can. Everywhere you go herds of people come up to you (esp. children) begging for money, pressuring you into buying a rickshaw ride, a pair of earrings, a peacock feathered fan…anything!!!!! They come up to your car windows, harass you on the streets, and follow you down the alley way. There are hundreds of street venders on every street selling some kind of crap or another. Cows roam freely as if they own the place.
Our first day I hated it so much I actually loved it! Sara, laughing yoga Alex, and I all checked into Major’s Den. A rundown hotel in Pharganj (a seedy neighborhood in Delhi where all the backpackers stay). The hotel is run by an ex-military major. He was the sweetest man he took a liking to Sara and me instantly and helped us set up the rest of our 16 days here in India. Through him we hired a car to drive us throughout Rajasthan, and we hired a car for the next day to take us to all the sites in Delhi. He lives on the bottom floor of the hotel with his wife and daughter. The rooms were not as rundown as the façade of the edifice would have made them seem.
Following check in we went to explore Old Delhi. We started off by getting a bite to eat. I am very weary of eating meat here so I am sticking to a veggie diet. Regardless, the food is delicious. We ate at a real hole in the wall place, the bill was $5 US for 4 people, and yes India is super cheap! After we headed to the Chandi Chowk (the outdoor market). It is in old Delhi and is a very Muslim area (although most of India is Hindi). The streets were so crowded and narrow. We had a maimed/crippled boy following us most of the day asking for money we could not get him to go away. The number of diseases he had was probably innumerable. He looked deathly. After Chandi Chowk, we continued our walk throughout Old Delhi, after 24 hrs straight of travel we were truly exhausted, on our way back to the hotel, we came across an image that truly haunts me, a baby, no more than 2 years old, sitting in a dirt pile composed of ash, feces, and old cigarette butts, playing with the butts, with the ash, with the feces, putting it on her body, while her mother sat not even a foot away and watched.
We made it back to Majors Den by 3:30. I passed out at 4 pm and didn’t wake up until the next day.
My first day was definitely full of culture shock. The level of poverty was unfathomable. The amount of pollution and littering that took place was uncanny. But worst of all was the fact that no one knew better it was a lifestyle.
Regardless, never for one second have a regretted my decision to come here. This is a journey, and adventure, a once in a lifetime experience. The good, the bad, the ugly, I will cherish it all, every last drop.
At the baggage claim in New Delhi we met another traveler, a guy traveling throughout India for the next three months. His name is Jeff summers, he’s 26, and from Detroit. A very cool guy all in all. He’s a massage therapist and all into people’s personal energy and what not. We also met up with a guy who took the journey with us from Tel Aviv, a laughter yoga instructor, yes that’s right I said laughter yoga!!! Seriously freaks come to India! FREAKS! Haha.
When you first get off the plane you are taken aback by the orders, a mixture of spices, poo, and poverty. The streets are filthy they are absolutely foul! Garbage everywhere, poor people everywhere, hungry children flock the streets, garbage aligns the sidewalks, human and animal waste embed the floor, it is truly shit hole. Men go to the bathroom in on the side of buildings. The whole city is one big garbage can. Everywhere you go herds of people come up to you (esp. children) begging for money, pressuring you into buying a rickshaw ride, a pair of earrings, a peacock feathered fan…anything!!!!! They come up to your car windows, harass you on the streets, and follow you down the alley way. There are hundreds of street venders on every street selling some kind of crap or another. Cows roam freely as if they own the place.
Our first day I hated it so much I actually loved it! Sara, laughing yoga Alex, and I all checked into Major’s Den. A rundown hotel in Pharganj (a seedy neighborhood in Delhi where all the backpackers stay). The hotel is run by an ex-military major. He was the sweetest man he took a liking to Sara and me instantly and helped us set up the rest of our 16 days here in India. Through him we hired a car to drive us throughout Rajasthan, and we hired a car for the next day to take us to all the sites in Delhi. He lives on the bottom floor of the hotel with his wife and daughter. The rooms were not as rundown as the façade of the edifice would have made them seem.
Following check in we went to explore Old Delhi. We started off by getting a bite to eat. I am very weary of eating meat here so I am sticking to a veggie diet. Regardless, the food is delicious. We ate at a real hole in the wall place, the bill was $5 US for 4 people, and yes India is super cheap! After we headed to the Chandi Chowk (the outdoor market). It is in old Delhi and is a very Muslim area (although most of India is Hindi). The streets were so crowded and narrow. We had a maimed/crippled boy following us most of the day asking for money we could not get him to go away. The number of diseases he had was probably innumerable. He looked deathly. After Chandi Chowk, we continued our walk throughout Old Delhi, after 24 hrs straight of travel we were truly exhausted, on our way back to the hotel, we came across an image that truly haunts me, a baby, no more than 2 years old, sitting in a dirt pile composed of ash, feces, and old cigarette butts, playing with the butts, with the ash, with the feces, putting it on her body, while her mother sat not even a foot away and watched.
We made it back to Majors Den by 3:30. I passed out at 4 pm and didn’t wake up until the next day.
My first day was definitely full of culture shock. The level of poverty was unfathomable. The amount of pollution and littering that took place was uncanny. But worst of all was the fact that no one knew better it was a lifestyle.
Regardless, never for one second have a regretted my decision to come here. This is a journey, and adventure, a once in a lifetime experience. The good, the bad, the ugly, I will cherish it all, every last drop.
Monday, April 7, 2008
PURIM just like halloween in madison but Jewish
On Thursday, March 20, at sunday Purim started in Israel. Purim is just like halloween in Madison. Twice in one year talk abou fun!
that first night everyone on my program pretty much went to Florentine Street, i dressed up like a farmer. florentine was packed with people wall to wall very similar to state street. everyone in costumes, drunk, and crazy. everyone in the program chilled in front of AMPM (24 hr grocery store), people watched, drank, and enjoyed the Purim festivities. upon leaving Florentine Aviv, Sasha, Sharon, Jessica, Shirly, Ruth, and i headed back to the Einstein dorms where we smoked some hookah and stayed up to watch the sunrise, at about 745 am Aviv and i called it a night and made the trek back to Brodestky.
the next night i dressed up as a hippie, we went to Artimis, a club in Tel Aviv. the bar tender loved me and gave me 3 free drinks, TOV MEOD! we danced til about 5 am, it was a blast. after we headed back to Einstein again, this time Ruth left the hookah in her room and her roommate Aviv was passed out. so she takes her key out to try and unlock the door and to her surprise the key breaks off in the lock! to make the situation even more ridiculous Aviva wouldn't wake up! we banged on the door, tried to saw the lock off with a knife, kicked, screamed, finally after 45 minutes with no response Ruth picked up a chair and punched about 5 holes in her door. hahahahhaa 10 minutes later aviva wakes up and is locked in, with the key stuck and everything! it was a mess, finally sasha (the genius) gets the door unlocked. once we got the door open we got the hookah and again chilled until the sunrose where upon i retunred to my dorm @ 8 am.
the next day we woke up and split to the beach for a sunny day in Tel Aviv. while at the beach Aviv and Funt mentioned how they were going to go to Jerusalem that night to celebrate the last night of Purim, while we were there we figured hey why not all go!
so that night @ about 10:30 the crew for the weekend, again, shirley, sasha, jessie, sharon, aviv, funt, and myself, headed toward the central bus station in tel aviv, we got a sharut, and an hour later we were in JRU! we headed toward Sasha's apartment and pre gamed for another amazing night out. i was again a hippi, the crew headed down to Ben Yehuda street for a similar experience as Florentine in Tel Aviv, Aviv and Sharon got lost, me and sasha got lost but in the end of the night we all ended up together. we felt like we were on ben yehuda for 30 minutes but it ended up being 4 hours! it was a great night all of us had a wonderful time, we got back to the apartment, lite the hookah, and took some aero beds upstaris. i couldnt make it to sunrise sharon and i passed out. but the others did. the next morning we woke up and headed for falafel after eating we all were dead, after that weekend how could we not be we were exhausted! we went back to the apartment and slept from 1 am til 7pm rounded the troops together and went back to Tel Aviv.
Purim here was definitely an experience. it was unbelievable, everyone dresses up from 80 year olds to month old babies. the whole country celebrates. they prepare for weeks ahead of time and are costume vendors all along the streets. it was a nation wide celebration and my most cherished weekend throughout this semester abroad.
that first night everyone on my program pretty much went to Florentine Street, i dressed up like a farmer. florentine was packed with people wall to wall very similar to state street. everyone in costumes, drunk, and crazy. everyone in the program chilled in front of AMPM (24 hr grocery store), people watched, drank, and enjoyed the Purim festivities. upon leaving Florentine Aviv, Sasha, Sharon, Jessica, Shirly, Ruth, and i headed back to the Einstein dorms where we smoked some hookah and stayed up to watch the sunrise, at about 745 am Aviv and i called it a night and made the trek back to Brodestky.
the next night i dressed up as a hippie, we went to Artimis, a club in Tel Aviv. the bar tender loved me and gave me 3 free drinks, TOV MEOD! we danced til about 5 am, it was a blast. after we headed back to Einstein again, this time Ruth left the hookah in her room and her roommate Aviv was passed out. so she takes her key out to try and unlock the door and to her surprise the key breaks off in the lock! to make the situation even more ridiculous Aviva wouldn't wake up! we banged on the door, tried to saw the lock off with a knife, kicked, screamed, finally after 45 minutes with no response Ruth picked up a chair and punched about 5 holes in her door. hahahahhaa 10 minutes later aviva wakes up and is locked in, with the key stuck and everything! it was a mess, finally sasha (the genius) gets the door unlocked. once we got the door open we got the hookah and again chilled until the sunrose where upon i retunred to my dorm @ 8 am.
the next day we woke up and split to the beach for a sunny day in Tel Aviv. while at the beach Aviv and Funt mentioned how they were going to go to Jerusalem that night to celebrate the last night of Purim, while we were there we figured hey why not all go!
so that night @ about 10:30 the crew for the weekend, again, shirley, sasha, jessie, sharon, aviv, funt, and myself, headed toward the central bus station in tel aviv, we got a sharut, and an hour later we were in JRU! we headed toward Sasha's apartment and pre gamed for another amazing night out. i was again a hippi, the crew headed down to Ben Yehuda street for a similar experience as Florentine in Tel Aviv, Aviv and Sharon got lost, me and sasha got lost but in the end of the night we all ended up together. we felt like we were on ben yehuda for 30 minutes but it ended up being 4 hours! it was a great night all of us had a wonderful time, we got back to the apartment, lite the hookah, and took some aero beds upstaris. i couldnt make it to sunrise sharon and i passed out. but the others did. the next morning we woke up and headed for falafel after eating we all were dead, after that weekend how could we not be we were exhausted! we went back to the apartment and slept from 1 am til 7pm rounded the troops together and went back to Tel Aviv.
Purim here was definitely an experience. it was unbelievable, everyone dresses up from 80 year olds to month old babies. the whole country celebrates. they prepare for weeks ahead of time and are costume vendors all along the streets. it was a nation wide celebration and my most cherished weekend throughout this semester abroad.
Thursday, March 27, 2008
Jordan: Wadi Rum and Petra 3/13-3/16
The weekend of March 13, Ariana, Sara, Heather, and I set out on a mini adventure to, well none other then Jordan.
First, just a quick recap with names and faces, Ariana is my dearest friend here, she is a fellow badger, in my pictures she is the beautiful girl with the long red curly hair (she is amazing, I think I might be her biggest fan ha!), Sara is the girl with long blonde hair, I’m talking L-O-N-G. She is from Cambridge, MA, but she goes to GWU. She is a lot of fun, she loves to try new things, she is also a dear friend to me here and over the course of the semester I have really valued our friendship more and more. Heather is someone I first met on this trip but also an amazing girl, how blessed I am to have such wonderful friends. She has blonde curly hair but this weekend it was straight. She also goes to Wisconsin and was Ari’s freshman roommate. Heather doesn’t go to TAU with us; she’s studying in Jerusalem at Hebrew U.
Ari, Sara, and I decided to meet Heather in Jerusalem so we could spend a day in the holy city. She woke up early and went to the bus station, mind you this was just two days following a shooting at a Yeshiva in Jerusalem, which was not scary or anything just giving you some facts. The bus ride is about an hour, not a big deal. Jerusalem’s bus station puts Tel Aviv’s to shame. It is like Aventura Mall, they have everything there, shoes, clothes, food, and the works. But I mean come on at the end of the day it is a bus station so it is not like we spent too much time there.
We headed over to the Jerusalem Shuk, which is about 2 times of the size of TA’s. For those of you who don’t know a shuk is an outdoor market. It sells everything, fruits, vegetables, spices, hot foods, desserts, clothes, shoes, kitchen goods, appliances, trinkets etc. after walking through the shuk we headed over to Ben Yehuda Street which is a pretty popular place in Jerusalem it’s a small outdoor area with tons of shops and cafes. We walked around, shopped a little, and then walked down to the old city where we spent most of our time.
In the old city we walked through the Arab quarter, where we also shopped, through the Cardo, and then found a cute outdoor café where we all got the Israeli breakfast (eggs, Israeli salad which is just tomato and cucumber, cheeses, and bread yummmyyyyyyyyy). Sara, Ari, and I ate lunch at leisure sipping on Americano coffees, fresh squeezed OJ, and people watched. After we went into Hadaya (which is a store that sells jewelry, basically you choose a saying you like and they carve it onto the jewelry you choose), we all got something. Afterward we left for the bus station to meet Heather.
We got on the 5:30 bus to Eilat, it is about a 4 and a half hour drive. We arrived in Eilat at around 10 where we checked into our hostel. Now this hostel was only 60 NIS a night, which is about 17 USD per person per night. CHEAP! Hahaha and yes, it looked like a nice prison cell, but we liked it! Nothing too exciting happened that night we had to be up at 7 am the next day.
The next day is where the fun starts, we got picked up from the hostel in an open door white jeep, and by the tour company we hired to show us Wadi Rum and Petra. They drove us to the Israeli/Jordan border where we waited an hour in line for the border to open. Once it opened we were on our way, discharged from Israel and together the four of us walked across the border to Jordan. It’s about a 2-minute walk, literally!
In Jordan, AQABA, Jordan to be exact, they stamped our passports and eagerly we waited. Then Mustafa (the guy in Jordan making sure we got through immigration) escorted us to a taxi, not telling us anything just telling us to get in. at this point I started getting a little weary but figured ok Giuliana this is a legitimate travel agency its fine.
This taxi driver drove about 100 miles a hour, after 5 minutes of following a straight road in Aqaba, which is absolutely filthy, poor, and run down, we were dropped off on the side of the road. Standing outside of an old school Toyota pick-up was an Arab man, turban and all waiting for us WESTERN JEWISH GIRLS! Oooooooookkkkkkkk now I look at Ariana, Sara, and Heather and we are all thinking “WHAT IS GOING ON!?!?!?!?!?!”
He introduced himself to us as Ali, our tour guide for the next two days, and then drove us for an hour to the desert of Wadi Rum. Wadi Rum is actually a desert valley and it is the area that Lawrence of Arabia traveled through during the Arab revolt in 1917 in which Jordan was trying to gain independence from the Ottoman Empire. During the drive we slept, all except Sara, who we made sit in the front, who was scared out of her mind, and who started asking this man questions about the mountains in Jordan to make sure his answer corresponded with those that our Environment teacher gave us in order to ensure his reliability. After an hour drive we were woken up, told to get out of the truck and put into this outdoor Toyota pick up driven by a Bedouin man who did not speak English for the life of him. He was to be our guide for the next hour and drive us around this specific area of the valley. Initially we were petrified, it was a real Syriana moment, but with time we chilled out and started taking it all in.
Wadi Rum is breathtaking, absolutely magnificent. There are huge mountains, rock pictures left by the Nabatean’s, camels roaming around freely, and tons of Bedouin tents. We must have stopped at everyone for some delicious Bedouin tea, I don’t know what they put in that stuff but it is so good! Everyone was so friendly and we all started to loosen up. In one Bedouin tent one of the Bedouin children got there cell phones out (in the middle of the desert mind you) and started playing Fergie my humps, it was unreal hahaha. After our hour drive around this area of Wadi Rum we were reunited with Ali who was to show us the rest of the area.
First he took us to a place in the shade away from the wind and cooked us lunch with salads, chicken, roasted vegetables, and fresh pita. The food the whole weekend was amazing! During lunch we all talked. Turns out Ali is a devout Muslim who is making his pilgrimage to Mecca this year. He is the father of 5 children and is madly in love with him wife. He served in the Jordanian army for 20 some odd years, and has masters in Chemistry. He was a very sweet man and really looked out for us girls. Following lunch we continued on our tour of Wadi Rum, through the sand dunes and the mountains, we saw more inscriptions in stone, some more camels; we climbed some mountains, and had an amazing afternoon. We took a camel ride also which was a ton of fun. The sand in Wadi Rum is amazing it changes in certain areas from yellow to orange than to red and even areas of black. It was unlike anything I have ever seen before.
After a full day of touring around this immense valley we drove an hour to the ancient city of Petra. We spent the night there in a cave in the mountains of the city.
The cave was awesome. The girls and I lined up our mattresses and made one huge king bed, it was cold at night and we all cuddled up together. For dinner Ali’s wife made us roasted chicken, rice with chickpeas, different kinds of salad, homemade babaganush, hummus, and pita. Mmmmmm mmmmmmm mmmmmmm. And for dessert you ask? None other than HOMEMADE barekas. During dinner, sitting under a blanket of millions of stars, and next to a homemade fire, the girls and I started talking to Ali about Muslim customs and Arab traditions. It was fascinating talking to him hearing what he had to say, listening to what he so steadfastly believed in. we did not mention Israel or asked him what he though about Zionism, while we felt comfortable we still needed to be very careful.
Turns out in Jordan, there is no arranged marriage per se. Rather a man will see a girl he wants as a bride (women marry after university at around 25 years old). He will then go home and tell his parents who will make a date with the girls parents for tea. Over tea the girl will come into the room and show herself to the man’s parents. The man’s parents will then make an offer of 1 Jordan Dinar, which is about 3 US dollars. This is the first payment. The girls parents will then go to her and tell her the proposal, if she agrees with the marriage proposal an engagement party is prepared. The second payment is made for the actual wedding at the engagement party. The last payment is the most expensive it can be hundreds of thousands of Jordan dinar, however, this payment is only to be made if the couple gets a divorce. After our late night chat we went to bed.
We woke up the next morning to a homemade breakfast made by none other than ALI. Again, pita, and cheeses, vegetables, Turkish coffee, and tea, there was homemade jelly, and hardboiled eggs. Following breakfast we loaded up the Toyota and headed out to the office where we would leave Ali and meet our guide for our tour through Petra.
Petra was unbelievable too. An ancient city, built in the first century BCE, with everything carved in stone created by the Nabatean’s. All throughout Petra, since it is so touristy, there are small outdoor stores, camel, horse, and donkey rides, and vendors selling all sorts of stuff. After walking for about 15 minutes you reach the center of the ancient city, which is a high hand carved building, its precision, size, and beauty left the four of us in awe. It was unlike anything I had ever seen before. We continued to walk around until we reached the restaurant we were supposed to eat lunch at. We were not yet hungry so the girls and I decided to walk the 1000 steps up to the monastery. It was such a sense of accomplishment reaching the top. Definitely the most fun I will ever have climbing 1000 stairs. After we sat down for lunch, a buffet lunch with salads and fish, chicken, rice’s, the Jordanian food works. We then walked around a bit more and went back into the modern city of Petra to grab a taxi for our trip back to the border.
We were back in Eilat by Saturday night; the weekend was all in all incredible. It was such a once in a lifetime experience, and we all loved it equally. The next day was spent at leisure. We woke up, got a bit to eat, and laid on the beach in Eilat for about 5 hours just looking out at the Jordanian Mountains we had just ventured off in, looking at the crystal blue water, and soaking in the sun. Our bus left at 5 for TA, sun burnt but happy we made the 5-hour trek back home. Another weekend abroad: SUCCESS!!
First, just a quick recap with names and faces, Ariana is my dearest friend here, she is a fellow badger, in my pictures she is the beautiful girl with the long red curly hair (she is amazing, I think I might be her biggest fan ha!), Sara is the girl with long blonde hair, I’m talking L-O-N-G. She is from Cambridge, MA, but she goes to GWU. She is a lot of fun, she loves to try new things, she is also a dear friend to me here and over the course of the semester I have really valued our friendship more and more. Heather is someone I first met on this trip but also an amazing girl, how blessed I am to have such wonderful friends. She has blonde curly hair but this weekend it was straight. She also goes to Wisconsin and was Ari’s freshman roommate. Heather doesn’t go to TAU with us; she’s studying in Jerusalem at Hebrew U.
Ari, Sara, and I decided to meet Heather in Jerusalem so we could spend a day in the holy city. She woke up early and went to the bus station, mind you this was just two days following a shooting at a Yeshiva in Jerusalem, which was not scary or anything just giving you some facts. The bus ride is about an hour, not a big deal. Jerusalem’s bus station puts Tel Aviv’s to shame. It is like Aventura Mall, they have everything there, shoes, clothes, food, and the works. But I mean come on at the end of the day it is a bus station so it is not like we spent too much time there.
We headed over to the Jerusalem Shuk, which is about 2 times of the size of TA’s. For those of you who don’t know a shuk is an outdoor market. It sells everything, fruits, vegetables, spices, hot foods, desserts, clothes, shoes, kitchen goods, appliances, trinkets etc. after walking through the shuk we headed over to Ben Yehuda Street which is a pretty popular place in Jerusalem it’s a small outdoor area with tons of shops and cafes. We walked around, shopped a little, and then walked down to the old city where we spent most of our time.
In the old city we walked through the Arab quarter, where we also shopped, through the Cardo, and then found a cute outdoor café where we all got the Israeli breakfast (eggs, Israeli salad which is just tomato and cucumber, cheeses, and bread yummmyyyyyyyyy). Sara, Ari, and I ate lunch at leisure sipping on Americano coffees, fresh squeezed OJ, and people watched. After we went into Hadaya (which is a store that sells jewelry, basically you choose a saying you like and they carve it onto the jewelry you choose), we all got something. Afterward we left for the bus station to meet Heather.
We got on the 5:30 bus to Eilat, it is about a 4 and a half hour drive. We arrived in Eilat at around 10 where we checked into our hostel. Now this hostel was only 60 NIS a night, which is about 17 USD per person per night. CHEAP! Hahaha and yes, it looked like a nice prison cell, but we liked it! Nothing too exciting happened that night we had to be up at 7 am the next day.
The next day is where the fun starts, we got picked up from the hostel in an open door white jeep, and by the tour company we hired to show us Wadi Rum and Petra. They drove us to the Israeli/Jordan border where we waited an hour in line for the border to open. Once it opened we were on our way, discharged from Israel and together the four of us walked across the border to Jordan. It’s about a 2-minute walk, literally!
In Jordan, AQABA, Jordan to be exact, they stamped our passports and eagerly we waited. Then Mustafa (the guy in Jordan making sure we got through immigration) escorted us to a taxi, not telling us anything just telling us to get in. at this point I started getting a little weary but figured ok Giuliana this is a legitimate travel agency its fine.
This taxi driver drove about 100 miles a hour, after 5 minutes of following a straight road in Aqaba, which is absolutely filthy, poor, and run down, we were dropped off on the side of the road. Standing outside of an old school Toyota pick-up was an Arab man, turban and all waiting for us WESTERN JEWISH GIRLS! Oooooooookkkkkkkk now I look at Ariana, Sara, and Heather and we are all thinking “WHAT IS GOING ON!?!?!?!?!?!”
He introduced himself to us as Ali, our tour guide for the next two days, and then drove us for an hour to the desert of Wadi Rum. Wadi Rum is actually a desert valley and it is the area that Lawrence of Arabia traveled through during the Arab revolt in 1917 in which Jordan was trying to gain independence from the Ottoman Empire. During the drive we slept, all except Sara, who we made sit in the front, who was scared out of her mind, and who started asking this man questions about the mountains in Jordan to make sure his answer corresponded with those that our Environment teacher gave us in order to ensure his reliability. After an hour drive we were woken up, told to get out of the truck and put into this outdoor Toyota pick up driven by a Bedouin man who did not speak English for the life of him. He was to be our guide for the next hour and drive us around this specific area of the valley. Initially we were petrified, it was a real Syriana moment, but with time we chilled out and started taking it all in.
Wadi Rum is breathtaking, absolutely magnificent. There are huge mountains, rock pictures left by the Nabatean’s, camels roaming around freely, and tons of Bedouin tents. We must have stopped at everyone for some delicious Bedouin tea, I don’t know what they put in that stuff but it is so good! Everyone was so friendly and we all started to loosen up. In one Bedouin tent one of the Bedouin children got there cell phones out (in the middle of the desert mind you) and started playing Fergie my humps, it was unreal hahaha. After our hour drive around this area of Wadi Rum we were reunited with Ali who was to show us the rest of the area.
First he took us to a place in the shade away from the wind and cooked us lunch with salads, chicken, roasted vegetables, and fresh pita. The food the whole weekend was amazing! During lunch we all talked. Turns out Ali is a devout Muslim who is making his pilgrimage to Mecca this year. He is the father of 5 children and is madly in love with him wife. He served in the Jordanian army for 20 some odd years, and has masters in Chemistry. He was a very sweet man and really looked out for us girls. Following lunch we continued on our tour of Wadi Rum, through the sand dunes and the mountains, we saw more inscriptions in stone, some more camels; we climbed some mountains, and had an amazing afternoon. We took a camel ride also which was a ton of fun. The sand in Wadi Rum is amazing it changes in certain areas from yellow to orange than to red and even areas of black. It was unlike anything I have ever seen before.
After a full day of touring around this immense valley we drove an hour to the ancient city of Petra. We spent the night there in a cave in the mountains of the city.
The cave was awesome. The girls and I lined up our mattresses and made one huge king bed, it was cold at night and we all cuddled up together. For dinner Ali’s wife made us roasted chicken, rice with chickpeas, different kinds of salad, homemade babaganush, hummus, and pita. Mmmmmm mmmmmmm mmmmmmm. And for dessert you ask? None other than HOMEMADE barekas. During dinner, sitting under a blanket of millions of stars, and next to a homemade fire, the girls and I started talking to Ali about Muslim customs and Arab traditions. It was fascinating talking to him hearing what he had to say, listening to what he so steadfastly believed in. we did not mention Israel or asked him what he though about Zionism, while we felt comfortable we still needed to be very careful.
Turns out in Jordan, there is no arranged marriage per se. Rather a man will see a girl he wants as a bride (women marry after university at around 25 years old). He will then go home and tell his parents who will make a date with the girls parents for tea. Over tea the girl will come into the room and show herself to the man’s parents. The man’s parents will then make an offer of 1 Jordan Dinar, which is about 3 US dollars. This is the first payment. The girls parents will then go to her and tell her the proposal, if she agrees with the marriage proposal an engagement party is prepared. The second payment is made for the actual wedding at the engagement party. The last payment is the most expensive it can be hundreds of thousands of Jordan dinar, however, this payment is only to be made if the couple gets a divorce. After our late night chat we went to bed.
We woke up the next morning to a homemade breakfast made by none other than ALI. Again, pita, and cheeses, vegetables, Turkish coffee, and tea, there was homemade jelly, and hardboiled eggs. Following breakfast we loaded up the Toyota and headed out to the office where we would leave Ali and meet our guide for our tour through Petra.
Petra was unbelievable too. An ancient city, built in the first century BCE, with everything carved in stone created by the Nabatean’s. All throughout Petra, since it is so touristy, there are small outdoor stores, camel, horse, and donkey rides, and vendors selling all sorts of stuff. After walking for about 15 minutes you reach the center of the ancient city, which is a high hand carved building, its precision, size, and beauty left the four of us in awe. It was unlike anything I had ever seen before. We continued to walk around until we reached the restaurant we were supposed to eat lunch at. We were not yet hungry so the girls and I decided to walk the 1000 steps up to the monastery. It was such a sense of accomplishment reaching the top. Definitely the most fun I will ever have climbing 1000 stairs. After we sat down for lunch, a buffet lunch with salads and fish, chicken, rice’s, the Jordanian food works. We then walked around a bit more and went back into the modern city of Petra to grab a taxi for our trip back to the border.
We were back in Eilat by Saturday night; the weekend was all in all incredible. It was such a once in a lifetime experience, and we all loved it equally. The next day was spent at leisure. We woke up, got a bit to eat, and laid on the beach in Eilat for about 5 hours just looking out at the Jordanian Mountains we had just ventured off in, looking at the crystal blue water, and soaking in the sun. Our bus left at 5 for TA, sun burnt but happy we made the 5-hour trek back home. Another weekend abroad: SUCCESS!!
Wednesday, March 12, 2008
Southern Comfort- South trip- Negev & Dead Sea
Last weekend, March 7-9, the program organized a hiking trip for us in the South of the country. at 7:30 am on Friday morning we boarded the buses outside the dorm and headed out.
Our first stop was to the Mitzpe Ramon Crater, the hike was about an hour, some parts were rather steep and rocky, but it was all well worth it. the crater was unbelieveavle the layers of rock changed the further down into the crater, and the colors of the rocks changed according to the level of iron present in the stone. there were purples, reds, greens. it was all desert but not sand desert, dry mountainous rocky desert. following the hike we had lunch all together at the bottom of the mountain. Afterward, we headed to the Tomb of Ben Gurion and his wife. I have been there before on birthright, but it is an experience each and everytime. this is a man who lead israel through pertinent times, but most importantly, was a firm steadfast believer in the state of israel, in populating the desert region, in Kibbutzim, and in the preservation of Jewish identity. he practiced yoga, read books, studied philosophy, sociology, science, history. moreso than a leader he was a fasinating man.
following the visit to his tomb we went to the guest house we were staying in at Dimona and hung out until Shabbat Dinner, which was buffet style and a really nice experience celebrating shabbat with all of my friends and with the whole program, saying the kiddish and the prayers etc. after dinner we went to see a drum show under a bedoin tent which was also fun, a little corny but fun.
the next day we went for another hike in the Negev, this one was great too also beautiful we saw all different desert animals and climed to the top of the mountain, there were latters on the hike which we also had to utilize it was steep but very rewarding. afterward we went to a kibbutz where we used the pool to cool off for the afternoon, the pool was indoor so i took a chair and read my book outside looking out at the view of thr Negev. that night we had dinner at a bedouin tent, very much like birthright. they served us a plethora of bedouin food which is very similar to persian food, chicken kebabs, rice, vevtables, tehina, hummus, lafa bread, picked vegetables, israeli salad, grape leaves, etc. followed by tea and coffee.
the final day we hiked the ein gedi and swam in the king david spring (also something i did on birthright). after we headed to the dead sea for the afternoon where i put mud all over my body and floated in the uber salty water.
the weekend was a also a great bonding experience...
this weekend off to jordan (petra and wadi rum)
Our first stop was to the Mitzpe Ramon Crater, the hike was about an hour, some parts were rather steep and rocky, but it was all well worth it. the crater was unbelieveavle the layers of rock changed the further down into the crater, and the colors of the rocks changed according to the level of iron present in the stone. there were purples, reds, greens. it was all desert but not sand desert, dry mountainous rocky desert. following the hike we had lunch all together at the bottom of the mountain. Afterward, we headed to the Tomb of Ben Gurion and his wife. I have been there before on birthright, but it is an experience each and everytime. this is a man who lead israel through pertinent times, but most importantly, was a firm steadfast believer in the state of israel, in populating the desert region, in Kibbutzim, and in the preservation of Jewish identity. he practiced yoga, read books, studied philosophy, sociology, science, history. moreso than a leader he was a fasinating man.
following the visit to his tomb we went to the guest house we were staying in at Dimona and hung out until Shabbat Dinner, which was buffet style and a really nice experience celebrating shabbat with all of my friends and with the whole program, saying the kiddish and the prayers etc. after dinner we went to see a drum show under a bedoin tent which was also fun, a little corny but fun.
the next day we went for another hike in the Negev, this one was great too also beautiful we saw all different desert animals and climed to the top of the mountain, there were latters on the hike which we also had to utilize it was steep but very rewarding. afterward we went to a kibbutz where we used the pool to cool off for the afternoon, the pool was indoor so i took a chair and read my book outside looking out at the view of thr Negev. that night we had dinner at a bedouin tent, very much like birthright. they served us a plethora of bedouin food which is very similar to persian food, chicken kebabs, rice, vevtables, tehina, hummus, lafa bread, picked vegetables, israeli salad, grape leaves, etc. followed by tea and coffee.
the final day we hiked the ein gedi and swam in the king david spring (also something i did on birthright). after we headed to the dead sea for the afternoon where i put mud all over my body and floated in the uber salty water.
the weekend was a also a great bonding experience...
this weekend off to jordan (petra and wadi rum)
we RAVED- Eilat 08'
first off, sorry it has been awhile, this that and the other gets in the way and before you know it your late on the blog posts!
two weeks ago now (the weekend of Feb 29-March 2) a bunch of us went down to Eilat for the weekend to go to a RAVE, yes, a techno rave! hahaha very bizarre lemme tell you! this was a very last minute decision for us, BUT pretty much everyone from the program was going, 18 of which rented a villa for the weekend and since we were so late in making our decision as to whether we should go or not we didnt get in the villa, but we got to stay in the same hotel as Aviv and Eric (who from here on out will be referred to as Funt).
Anyway, that thurdays night we boarded the 1:00 am bus leaving from Tel Aviv Central Bus Station, the bus ride to Eilat is around 5 hours, so we got there just in time to see the sun rise over the beach. we then went to the hotel and waited for check in which wasnt until 5 hours late...at 10! what did we do for 5 hours you ask? well Aviv, Funt, Adam (Aviv's friend from home who is studying in Herzilya), and i walked down to the market and picked a couple of things up for lunch for the rest of the crew (mars, melissa, and ariana), we basically feasted on rice cakes turkey pita and hummus in the hotel lobby, quite the experience lemme tell ya! we then proceeded to nap in the pool chairs outside.
upon checking in we literally threw our stuff down and darted to the beach! the weekend weather was perfect, sunny, warm, the water crytal clear, it was beautiful. we ate every meal ate aroma, the equivalent of an israeli starbucks with sandwiches and salads, and laid on the beack with the boys from the villa. i got a great tan, not to brag or anything ha! that's what our friday and saturday consisted of, sitting with the boys @ the beach, eating aroma, walking down the boardwalk, and buying fruit popcilces to cool down.
after the first day on the beach we were in for a treat, we went back to the villa with the boys to hang out and Kestey pulled out his guitar (he is a master on it). he played some songs and we all sang along it was sooo camp, but soo fun!
what did we do at night you ask? well we raved duhhhh! ariana and i spent 4 hours in the middle of the rave with all the boys just dancing our hearts out! i know who woulda thought that i would enjoy techno!?!?!? there are some funny characters who enjoy techno though lemme tell you a couple of freakshows were at this thing. it was all outdoors, very causal, very fun! everyone from the program was there together, dancing together etc. saturday the rave or techno fesitval, whatever you want to call it, ran from around 2 pm- 10pm so we went at around 8 for the last two hours which was enough since we were kinda technoed out from the night before. afterward we hit the foodcourt in the mall for dinner (obviously!)
the next day (sunday) we got the 3:00 bus back to Tel Aviv, it was a very successful weekend, a great bonding experience, and a hell of a great time I LOVED IT!
two weeks ago now (the weekend of Feb 29-March 2) a bunch of us went down to Eilat for the weekend to go to a RAVE, yes, a techno rave! hahaha very bizarre lemme tell you! this was a very last minute decision for us, BUT pretty much everyone from the program was going, 18 of which rented a villa for the weekend and since we were so late in making our decision as to whether we should go or not we didnt get in the villa, but we got to stay in the same hotel as Aviv and Eric (who from here on out will be referred to as Funt).
Anyway, that thurdays night we boarded the 1:00 am bus leaving from Tel Aviv Central Bus Station, the bus ride to Eilat is around 5 hours, so we got there just in time to see the sun rise over the beach. we then went to the hotel and waited for check in which wasnt until 5 hours late...at 10! what did we do for 5 hours you ask? well Aviv, Funt, Adam (Aviv's friend from home who is studying in Herzilya), and i walked down to the market and picked a couple of things up for lunch for the rest of the crew (mars, melissa, and ariana), we basically feasted on rice cakes turkey pita and hummus in the hotel lobby, quite the experience lemme tell ya! we then proceeded to nap in the pool chairs outside.
upon checking in we literally threw our stuff down and darted to the beach! the weekend weather was perfect, sunny, warm, the water crytal clear, it was beautiful. we ate every meal ate aroma, the equivalent of an israeli starbucks with sandwiches and salads, and laid on the beack with the boys from the villa. i got a great tan, not to brag or anything ha! that's what our friday and saturday consisted of, sitting with the boys @ the beach, eating aroma, walking down the boardwalk, and buying fruit popcilces to cool down.
after the first day on the beach we were in for a treat, we went back to the villa with the boys to hang out and Kestey pulled out his guitar (he is a master on it). he played some songs and we all sang along it was sooo camp, but soo fun!
what did we do at night you ask? well we raved duhhhh! ariana and i spent 4 hours in the middle of the rave with all the boys just dancing our hearts out! i know who woulda thought that i would enjoy techno!?!?!? there are some funny characters who enjoy techno though lemme tell you a couple of freakshows were at this thing. it was all outdoors, very causal, very fun! everyone from the program was there together, dancing together etc. saturday the rave or techno fesitval, whatever you want to call it, ran from around 2 pm- 10pm so we went at around 8 for the last two hours which was enough since we were kinda technoed out from the night before. afterward we hit the foodcourt in the mall for dinner (obviously!)
the next day (sunday) we got the 3:00 bus back to Tel Aviv, it was a very successful weekend, a great bonding experience, and a hell of a great time I LOVED IT!
Wednesday, February 20, 2008
Turkish Bathing
I went to a bathhouse that was constructed in the 1500’s and was therefore a huge tourist attraction. Marissa and Melissa weren’t down, so they waited for me. At the bath houses the women and men are separated. I entered the women’s area, into a huge locker room. I got undressed with only a sheet wrapped around me. After undressing I walked into this hexagon shaped room. In the center was a huge marble slab surrounding the main room were smaller sub rooms, each sub room had three sinks, this is where you go after to bath to wash off, ill get to this part.
So upon entering the room I was first taken aback by all the naked women. But then I snapped out of it real quickly because I realized I was going to be naked in a second too. Instead of starring I laid my blanket out on the hot marble slab in the center, lay down, closed my eyes, and waited. The heat in the room was like a sauna and in all it was very relaxing. Surrounding the hexagon were Turkish topless women, they are the bathers we the bathes. They call you over to them when they are ready for you. After 15 minutes of lying on the hot marble slab I was finally called over. I lay down in front of this woman whose boobs are the largest things I have ever seen in my entire life and reached down to her waist. Without warning she dumped hot water over my head and body. She then used a huge sponged and lathered my entire body in soap. Afterward she rubbed the soap in and then washed my hair. After 15 minutes of being bathed I was finished. I was then escorted into another room. My blanket was traded in for a towel and I sat in a bench waiting to be called. After 5 minutes of waiting I was called into a massage room. There were 4 massage tables and 4 Turkish women performing oil massages. I laid out on the massage table and had a 30-minute oil massage. They cracked my back rubbed, pressure points, gave me a head, neck, and foot rub. All in all it was very relaxing. Following I went back I into the room with the hot marble slab and relaxed.
The experience was all very cool. Every part of my body was loose, rested, and moisturized I mean even in between my toes. I would definitely do it again and I recommend it to anyone.
I mean hey, when is turkey right!
So upon entering the room I was first taken aback by all the naked women. But then I snapped out of it real quickly because I realized I was going to be naked in a second too. Instead of starring I laid my blanket out on the hot marble slab in the center, lay down, closed my eyes, and waited. The heat in the room was like a sauna and in all it was very relaxing. Surrounding the hexagon were Turkish topless women, they are the bathers we the bathes. They call you over to them when they are ready for you. After 15 minutes of lying on the hot marble slab I was finally called over. I lay down in front of this woman whose boobs are the largest things I have ever seen in my entire life and reached down to her waist. Without warning she dumped hot water over my head and body. She then used a huge sponged and lathered my entire body in soap. Afterward she rubbed the soap in and then washed my hair. After 15 minutes of being bathed I was finished. I was then escorted into another room. My blanket was traded in for a towel and I sat in a bench waiting to be called. After 5 minutes of waiting I was called into a massage room. There were 4 massage tables and 4 Turkish women performing oil massages. I laid out on the massage table and had a 30-minute oil massage. They cracked my back rubbed, pressure points, gave me a head, neck, and foot rub. All in all it was very relaxing. Following I went back I into the room with the hot marble slab and relaxed.
The experience was all very cool. Every part of my body was loose, rested, and moisturized I mean even in between my toes. I would definitely do it again and I recommend it to anyone.
I mean hey, when is turkey right!
MERHABA ISTANBUL
Hey guys!
So on February 14 through the 17th I went to Istanbul. It was an incredible experience! I went with about 100 kids from my program; I’m going to give you the run down of the itenerary, and the culture we were immersed in.
First and foremost, two days prior to our departure the second in command of Hamas was assassinated in a car bomb in Damascus. His death is being blamed on either the US or Israel, however, Muslims are more keen to blame Israeli’s. As a result, traveling to turkey at this time was a risk, and was not recommended by the US or Israel. We were in a catch 22 because we were a bunch of American kids with Israeli student visas in our US passports. However, we went anyway, perhaps not the smartest decision, but in the end we were all ok.
On February 14, we left Ben Gurion airport at around 5, we landed in Istanbul at 7. We flew on Ornu airlines which was a joke of an airline and the flight may have been the most nervous I was all weekend! Ha! Upon arriving in Istanbul we drove to the hotel, the grand halarem. Istanbul is a very interesting city. It is divided by a the bosphorous, as a result half of the city is in Asia and the other half in Europe, furthermore, it is divided by the old city, where our hotel was located, which is home to the historical sites we visited. Furthermore, the old city is more conservative than the new area. We stayed around the old party during the day to see the sites and ventured into the new area at night for some nightlife.
Once we got to the hotel we quickly changed and were out of there. We hailed a cab to ortakoy, which is in the new area, its a quirky pedestrian area wit tons of cafes, shops, street venders, and hookah places. It is located on the bosphorous and some cafes have a beautiful view. Istanbul is home to 14 million people and only 5-7% live on the European side, everyone else is across the bridge in Asia.
That first night we had an authentic Turkish meal, which was interesting, a lot of meat, bread, and salads. I wasn’t that big of a fan but I have definitely had worse food. Following dinner we all went to a hookah place and got 2 hookahs. It was awesome, I also got a kiwi tea BC I had never heard of it before, but let me tell you it was delic! After around 2 hours of "being Turkish" we headed back to the hotel to rest for our HUGE day of sightseeing the next day.
On the 15th we were out the door by 9am. The group for the day was myself, Marissa, Melissa, Ariana (a fellow badger who is amazing wisco girls you guys will love her, she’s one of my closest here!), and Kimmy (who is also great! and for those chi o's reading, she is Andrea Lear's little sister).
Istanbul was home to two major empires, in 537 AD the Byzantine controlled the region, however, but the 1400's the Byzantine Empire was quickly deteriorating and the Ottoman's easily took control of the region. Following World War I, Kemal Ataturk who installed a strict secular society defeated them. Recently, Turkey elected their first Muslim Prime Minister, and their mandate of secularism is quickly diminishing. There are 2500 mosques in Istanbul alone (and 17 synagogues with 24,000 Jews)
Our first stop was the Topkapi Palace, which was built in 1459 under Sultan Mehmed II of the Ottoman Empire. From 1465-1853 it was the home (the official and primary residence) of Ottoman Sultan's who controlled the region. The Palace is made up of 4 courtyards and at its height housed 4000 people. It was really unbelievable it is not a palace in the European sense, it is not just one building, but it is scattered over 70 acres. There was the Harem, which was the home to the Sultan's concubines, and it was said that at night he would got to the Harem to choose his wife for the night. On the palace grounds were also the palace mint, a library, a school, infantry, and a massive kitchen. There were also rooms for armory, the Sultan's hats, and dining areas. It was really spectacular. The palace has a direct view of the entire city including the bosphorous and is located on the European side, however the Asian influence from an architectural standpoint cannot go unnoticed. Most of the buildings were domed shaped, there were tons of Chinese influenced paintings. Interestingly enough, while the ottomans were Muslim they recognized the Jewish faith since Ishmael their founder is a son of Abraham, and Jewish stars were all over the place (check out my albums for some pictures). Check out my pictures in general for an explanation of what i'm talking about. We spent about 2 hours touring the palace, our tour guide, ALP was great a Turkish born man fluent in English. He was very informative and funny. Maybe most interesting at the palace were old keys and locks to the black stone. The black stone is located in Mecca and is where Muslims make pilgrimage to once in their lifetime.
Following the palace we got some roasted chestnuts, which were roasting, on an open fire. Street venders selling their chestnuts were all over the place. They were delicious. I had never tried a chestnut before. Afterward we went next door to the Haiga Sofia.
Haiga Sofia literally means Holy Wisdom. It was formerly a basilica, a Byzantine Church since the Byzantines were Orthodox Christians, it was constructed between 532-537 AD however, in 1453 the Ottoman Sultan converted it into a mosque and in 1935 it was converted into a Muslim by Ataturk. It represents the epitome of Byzantine architecture and is especially famous for the massive dome in the center of the building. Once it was converted into a mosque huge disks were placed on the walls of the Haiga Sofia with the names of Allah, Muhammad, and the four main Muslim caliphs encrypted on them. The interior of the building was very dark and my pictures did not come out as well as I would have like, but the Haiga Sofia was truly incredible to see architecture from the 500s was unreal. It was beautiful, and its enriched past contributed to regality.
Following the Haiga Sofia we went up the street to the Yerebatan Saray, the Byzantine Cistern, which is also referred to as the Sunken Palace. This was really cool. It is 2.4 acres underground, with a capacity of 21 million gallons. It has 336 columns all 9 meters high spaced 4.8 meters apart (check out my pictures for an illustration of my description) there are 12 lines of columns each consisting of 28 columns. It is a HUGE underground water storage tank for water, which was originally built by Constantinople the Great. It was contrasted in the 500s AD in order to provide the Byzantine Empire with water. They would retrieve the water from near by aqueducts and store it in the cisterns for use. It was unreal! Today there are goldfish in the water, which were pretty. Two of the columns of the head of Medusa carved into them, one of the heads is on its side and the other upside down (again check out the pics). Following the cistern we wanted to head across the street to the Blue Mosque, however, Muslims pray 5 times a day, therefore the mosque closes for an hour 5 times a day and at this point it was around 1:30 pm time for their afternoon prayer. Therefore we headed over to lunch at a near by café.
This café was also authentic Turkish food, I got a chicken donor, which is basically chicken kebab wrapped in flat bread with different kinds of vegetables in it, its served with yogurt. It was followed by Turkish coffee, which is very dense and very strong, but nonetheless good. We had lunch for about an hour and a half, time flew by, because by the time we were done it was time for the Mosque to close yet again for the mid afternoon prayer session. As a result we went over to the Hippodrome, which is where Constantinople and the Ottoman Sultans watched sporting events and hosted other leisure events. We walked the streets of the Hippodrome and stopped into a Starbucks (I know soo western of us, but we couldn’t pass it up, we don’t have Starbucks in Israel and Kimmy and I were craving a good ol’ American style latte). The Mosque finally opened and it was time to go in.
The Blue Mosque is also referred to as the Sultan Ahmed Mosque. It was built in 1609-1616 during the rule of Ahmed I. it is called the Blue Mosque because it is adorned with blue tiles on the walls of the interior and exterior. When we walked into the outer courtyard of the mosque we also found Jewish stars, which were used as designs for aesthetic purposes, but nonetheless, an interesting choice. In order to enter the mosque we got in a line with other tourist interested in seeing this historical landmark. We had to take our shoes off, and for respectful purposes the girls and I covered our hair. Honestly, we did this to not stand out. The interior of the Mosque is beautiful, we took some fun pictures, and were lucky enough too be there during on the day of a wedding ceremony, so the bride to be and her groom were in the mosque at the same time taking pre-wedding photos with their families. She was beautiful and it was really a neat experience to see the way a Muslim wedding is set up. We were in the mosque for all of 20 minutes, we saw the architecture and left.
Following the mosque we headed to the Grand Bazaar, an outdoor shopping area compromising 4,000 shops. This was something else. It was kind of uncomfortable everyone shouting out at us trying to rip us off etc. I think the 5 of us were called the spice girls at least 10+ times. We all got some eye bracelets which turkey is known for, I currently h ad 7 on my wrist all in different colors, there are pretty. After about 30 minutes in the grand bazaar we were exhausted, we left, went back to the hotel, and got ready for dinner.
That night we went back to ortakoy to have dinner at House Café, a restaurant with a really contemporary ambiance it was very chic. It was located on the Bosphorous and had a nice view. The food wasn’t authentic but nonetheless not so bad the couscous was very tasty. There I also got lemonade with mint drink that came with apples and strawberries in it. It was unlike anything I had ever tried but also well. After dinner it was around 1 am, we were exhausted from our day’s adventures, went back to room 105 and passed out.
The next day it was snowing, I mean really coming down Madison style. We headed into the new area to this pedestrian outdoor shopping center called Taksim Meydan. There were a bunch of cute stores but the snow was so miserable that we were only there for a short period of time. Which there though we ran into a group of 6 American students who were studying Arabic in Damascus, can you imagine being an American in Damascus? Because I can’t! After Taksim we went to see the Galata Tower and walked through the Jewish area of Istanbul for a little bit. We ended up having lunch at a café called storks it wasn’t that good but was a nice atmosphere. The owner cam over to our table to ask where we were from. Upon departing Israel they told us that whenever someone in turkey asked us where we were from to say Canada. So when the owner asked us I said Toronto. Hahaha he then said where in Toronto I used to live there. I’m so money because I came up with this elaborate lie saying we were at the university there, I told him what we were studying there and what not. It was really funny!
Afterward we went back to the Grand Bazaar since it was indoors for a little bit, and then I went for a Turkish bath. What an experience!!
Following the bath we went back to the hotel, Marissa and I got a quick bite near the hotel in a sketchy little restaurant, afterward we all just chilled in the lobby for a little bit, the boys got a mini keg of beer and we all chatted.
The next morning the bus picked us up and took us to the airport for our flight home to Tel Aviv!
Turkey was a great experience for more than the history I saw first hand. The culture is so different than what I am used to. The Muslim influence was rampant. I hardly saw any women walking on the street in the old area, which makes sense considering, as a aforementioned it is more conservative and old fashioned. However, I was surprised considering that during Ataturk’s reign Turkey was truly a secular country, where public religious practice and garb was suppressed, and in effect the influence was limited. Today, the situation is not the same. There were definitely times, many times, I was nervous. As women we were not treated as human beings but as objects, the men looked as us as though we were dirty, slutty, and unworthy of life. Going out at night was a definite risk; as a result we stayed in the hotel the second night. I was very cautious all weekend, very aware of my surroundings, and I constantly was forced to look behind me to ensure I was not being followed. I did not flaunt my Jewish identity, none of us did, and those on the trip that did were ostracized by the locals in the old area (as I mentioned the new area is more secular, and younger). However to be subjected to this culture was definitely well worth it. It was an incredible weekend. It was 3 days in which I learned more about history, politics, culture, and society than I have in a semester.
So on February 14 through the 17th I went to Istanbul. It was an incredible experience! I went with about 100 kids from my program; I’m going to give you the run down of the itenerary, and the culture we were immersed in.
First and foremost, two days prior to our departure the second in command of Hamas was assassinated in a car bomb in Damascus. His death is being blamed on either the US or Israel, however, Muslims are more keen to blame Israeli’s. As a result, traveling to turkey at this time was a risk, and was not recommended by the US or Israel. We were in a catch 22 because we were a bunch of American kids with Israeli student visas in our US passports. However, we went anyway, perhaps not the smartest decision, but in the end we were all ok.
On February 14, we left Ben Gurion airport at around 5, we landed in Istanbul at 7. We flew on Ornu airlines which was a joke of an airline and the flight may have been the most nervous I was all weekend! Ha! Upon arriving in Istanbul we drove to the hotel, the grand halarem. Istanbul is a very interesting city. It is divided by a the bosphorous, as a result half of the city is in Asia and the other half in Europe, furthermore, it is divided by the old city, where our hotel was located, which is home to the historical sites we visited. Furthermore, the old city is more conservative than the new area. We stayed around the old party during the day to see the sites and ventured into the new area at night for some nightlife.
Once we got to the hotel we quickly changed and were out of there. We hailed a cab to ortakoy, which is in the new area, its a quirky pedestrian area wit tons of cafes, shops, street venders, and hookah places. It is located on the bosphorous and some cafes have a beautiful view. Istanbul is home to 14 million people and only 5-7% live on the European side, everyone else is across the bridge in Asia.
That first night we had an authentic Turkish meal, which was interesting, a lot of meat, bread, and salads. I wasn’t that big of a fan but I have definitely had worse food. Following dinner we all went to a hookah place and got 2 hookahs. It was awesome, I also got a kiwi tea BC I had never heard of it before, but let me tell you it was delic! After around 2 hours of "being Turkish" we headed back to the hotel to rest for our HUGE day of sightseeing the next day.
On the 15th we were out the door by 9am. The group for the day was myself, Marissa, Melissa, Ariana (a fellow badger who is amazing wisco girls you guys will love her, she’s one of my closest here!), and Kimmy (who is also great! and for those chi o's reading, she is Andrea Lear's little sister).
Istanbul was home to two major empires, in 537 AD the Byzantine controlled the region, however, but the 1400's the Byzantine Empire was quickly deteriorating and the Ottoman's easily took control of the region. Following World War I, Kemal Ataturk who installed a strict secular society defeated them. Recently, Turkey elected their first Muslim Prime Minister, and their mandate of secularism is quickly diminishing. There are 2500 mosques in Istanbul alone (and 17 synagogues with 24,000 Jews)
Our first stop was the Topkapi Palace, which was built in 1459 under Sultan Mehmed II of the Ottoman Empire. From 1465-1853 it was the home (the official and primary residence) of Ottoman Sultan's who controlled the region. The Palace is made up of 4 courtyards and at its height housed 4000 people. It was really unbelievable it is not a palace in the European sense, it is not just one building, but it is scattered over 70 acres. There was the Harem, which was the home to the Sultan's concubines, and it was said that at night he would got to the Harem to choose his wife for the night. On the palace grounds were also the palace mint, a library, a school, infantry, and a massive kitchen. There were also rooms for armory, the Sultan's hats, and dining areas. It was really spectacular. The palace has a direct view of the entire city including the bosphorous and is located on the European side, however the Asian influence from an architectural standpoint cannot go unnoticed. Most of the buildings were domed shaped, there were tons of Chinese influenced paintings. Interestingly enough, while the ottomans were Muslim they recognized the Jewish faith since Ishmael their founder is a son of Abraham, and Jewish stars were all over the place (check out my albums for some pictures). Check out my pictures in general for an explanation of what i'm talking about. We spent about 2 hours touring the palace, our tour guide, ALP was great a Turkish born man fluent in English. He was very informative and funny. Maybe most interesting at the palace were old keys and locks to the black stone. The black stone is located in Mecca and is where Muslims make pilgrimage to once in their lifetime.
Following the palace we got some roasted chestnuts, which were roasting, on an open fire. Street venders selling their chestnuts were all over the place. They were delicious. I had never tried a chestnut before. Afterward we went next door to the Haiga Sofia.
Haiga Sofia literally means Holy Wisdom. It was formerly a basilica, a Byzantine Church since the Byzantines were Orthodox Christians, it was constructed between 532-537 AD however, in 1453 the Ottoman Sultan converted it into a mosque and in 1935 it was converted into a Muslim by Ataturk. It represents the epitome of Byzantine architecture and is especially famous for the massive dome in the center of the building. Once it was converted into a mosque huge disks were placed on the walls of the Haiga Sofia with the names of Allah, Muhammad, and the four main Muslim caliphs encrypted on them. The interior of the building was very dark and my pictures did not come out as well as I would have like, but the Haiga Sofia was truly incredible to see architecture from the 500s was unreal. It was beautiful, and its enriched past contributed to regality.
Following the Haiga Sofia we went up the street to the Yerebatan Saray, the Byzantine Cistern, which is also referred to as the Sunken Palace. This was really cool. It is 2.4 acres underground, with a capacity of 21 million gallons. It has 336 columns all 9 meters high spaced 4.8 meters apart (check out my pictures for an illustration of my description) there are 12 lines of columns each consisting of 28 columns. It is a HUGE underground water storage tank for water, which was originally built by Constantinople the Great. It was contrasted in the 500s AD in order to provide the Byzantine Empire with water. They would retrieve the water from near by aqueducts and store it in the cisterns for use. It was unreal! Today there are goldfish in the water, which were pretty. Two of the columns of the head of Medusa carved into them, one of the heads is on its side and the other upside down (again check out the pics). Following the cistern we wanted to head across the street to the Blue Mosque, however, Muslims pray 5 times a day, therefore the mosque closes for an hour 5 times a day and at this point it was around 1:30 pm time for their afternoon prayer. Therefore we headed over to lunch at a near by café.
This café was also authentic Turkish food, I got a chicken donor, which is basically chicken kebab wrapped in flat bread with different kinds of vegetables in it, its served with yogurt. It was followed by Turkish coffee, which is very dense and very strong, but nonetheless good. We had lunch for about an hour and a half, time flew by, because by the time we were done it was time for the Mosque to close yet again for the mid afternoon prayer session. As a result we went over to the Hippodrome, which is where Constantinople and the Ottoman Sultans watched sporting events and hosted other leisure events. We walked the streets of the Hippodrome and stopped into a Starbucks (I know soo western of us, but we couldn’t pass it up, we don’t have Starbucks in Israel and Kimmy and I were craving a good ol’ American style latte). The Mosque finally opened and it was time to go in.
The Blue Mosque is also referred to as the Sultan Ahmed Mosque. It was built in 1609-1616 during the rule of Ahmed I. it is called the Blue Mosque because it is adorned with blue tiles on the walls of the interior and exterior. When we walked into the outer courtyard of the mosque we also found Jewish stars, which were used as designs for aesthetic purposes, but nonetheless, an interesting choice. In order to enter the mosque we got in a line with other tourist interested in seeing this historical landmark. We had to take our shoes off, and for respectful purposes the girls and I covered our hair. Honestly, we did this to not stand out. The interior of the Mosque is beautiful, we took some fun pictures, and were lucky enough too be there during on the day of a wedding ceremony, so the bride to be and her groom were in the mosque at the same time taking pre-wedding photos with their families. She was beautiful and it was really a neat experience to see the way a Muslim wedding is set up. We were in the mosque for all of 20 minutes, we saw the architecture and left.
Following the mosque we headed to the Grand Bazaar, an outdoor shopping area compromising 4,000 shops. This was something else. It was kind of uncomfortable everyone shouting out at us trying to rip us off etc. I think the 5 of us were called the spice girls at least 10+ times. We all got some eye bracelets which turkey is known for, I currently h ad 7 on my wrist all in different colors, there are pretty. After about 30 minutes in the grand bazaar we were exhausted, we left, went back to the hotel, and got ready for dinner.
That night we went back to ortakoy to have dinner at House Café, a restaurant with a really contemporary ambiance it was very chic. It was located on the Bosphorous and had a nice view. The food wasn’t authentic but nonetheless not so bad the couscous was very tasty. There I also got lemonade with mint drink that came with apples and strawberries in it. It was unlike anything I had ever tried but also well. After dinner it was around 1 am, we were exhausted from our day’s adventures, went back to room 105 and passed out.
The next day it was snowing, I mean really coming down Madison style. We headed into the new area to this pedestrian outdoor shopping center called Taksim Meydan. There were a bunch of cute stores but the snow was so miserable that we were only there for a short period of time. Which there though we ran into a group of 6 American students who were studying Arabic in Damascus, can you imagine being an American in Damascus? Because I can’t! After Taksim we went to see the Galata Tower and walked through the Jewish area of Istanbul for a little bit. We ended up having lunch at a café called storks it wasn’t that good but was a nice atmosphere. The owner cam over to our table to ask where we were from. Upon departing Israel they told us that whenever someone in turkey asked us where we were from to say Canada. So when the owner asked us I said Toronto. Hahaha he then said where in Toronto I used to live there. I’m so money because I came up with this elaborate lie saying we were at the university there, I told him what we were studying there and what not. It was really funny!
Afterward we went back to the Grand Bazaar since it was indoors for a little bit, and then I went for a Turkish bath. What an experience!!
Following the bath we went back to the hotel, Marissa and I got a quick bite near the hotel in a sketchy little restaurant, afterward we all just chilled in the lobby for a little bit, the boys got a mini keg of beer and we all chatted.
The next morning the bus picked us up and took us to the airport for our flight home to Tel Aviv!
Turkey was a great experience for more than the history I saw first hand. The culture is so different than what I am used to. The Muslim influence was rampant. I hardly saw any women walking on the street in the old area, which makes sense considering, as a aforementioned it is more conservative and old fashioned. However, I was surprised considering that during Ataturk’s reign Turkey was truly a secular country, where public religious practice and garb was suppressed, and in effect the influence was limited. Today, the situation is not the same. There were definitely times, many times, I was nervous. As women we were not treated as human beings but as objects, the men looked as us as though we were dirty, slutty, and unworthy of life. Going out at night was a definite risk; as a result we stayed in the hotel the second night. I was very cautious all weekend, very aware of my surroundings, and I constantly was forced to look behind me to ensure I was not being followed. I did not flaunt my Jewish identity, none of us did, and those on the trip that did were ostracized by the locals in the old area (as I mentioned the new area is more secular, and younger). However to be subjected to this culture was definitely well worth it. It was an incredible weekend. It was 3 days in which I learned more about history, politics, culture, and society than I have in a semester.
Tuesday, February 12, 2008
Israelis do it right!
Today the program offered a day trip to Jerusalem, since i was there this weekend i opted out, but marissa and melissa went. instead i slept in which was entirely needed, waking up at 12:30 never felt so sweet...yessss mom 12:30, as daddy would say: "good morning, i mean good afternoon" hahaha.
i called Ariana right when i got up to see what he plans were since i knew she didnt go to JRU either. Ariana, for those of you who dont know is a fellow badger!!!!! her and some of the boys (cali boys- stephen, oren, and dave) were going to the taiellet (the boardwalk by the beach). so i got dressed to join them and it started pouring down rain miami style. 30 minutes of rain 30 minutes of sunshine and so the cycle goes....
anyway, i had the briliant idea of going to the movies. the theater is in herzilya which is a 10 min cab ride away. we all agreed to see the bucket list, got in a cab and were on our way.
now, the reason im writing this post is because of the movie theater, it's called cinema city. let me tell you this place is a little city in and of itself. it is beautiful! huge! amazing! when you go up to pay for your ticket you must choose your seat there, they mark your seat in the computer and when you enter the theater you're escorted to that exact seat. after paying, while waiting for your movie to start there is an indoor avenue of shops to browse: a book store, candy stores, a chocolate fondu store, an israeli take on pink berry, an israeli take on tcby, burger joints, jewlery stands, coffee shops, etc. all along the avenue are sculptures, life size figures of real celebrities, elvis, cowboys, astronauts, soldiers, angelina jolie, brad pit, etc. it was like its own little disney world almost. also there were love seats that were shapped like VW bugs. then there was a food court with fast food places, mcdonalds, kfc etc standard US crap food.
upon entering the theater, once you are escorted to your seat, you plop down into the most comfortable chair you have ever sat in, and so spacious, you completely lack the desire to put your feet up.
the movie was very cute i totally recommend it morgan freeman and jack nicholson were great together!
after the movie Ariana and i walked around ramat aviv a little bit by campus and stopped at burgers bar for a scrumptous dinner.
all in all it was really a greatttt day!
turkey in 2 days cant wait!
i called Ariana right when i got up to see what he plans were since i knew she didnt go to JRU either. Ariana, for those of you who dont know is a fellow badger!!!!! her and some of the boys (cali boys- stephen, oren, and dave) were going to the taiellet (the boardwalk by the beach). so i got dressed to join them and it started pouring down rain miami style. 30 minutes of rain 30 minutes of sunshine and so the cycle goes....
anyway, i had the briliant idea of going to the movies. the theater is in herzilya which is a 10 min cab ride away. we all agreed to see the bucket list, got in a cab and were on our way.
now, the reason im writing this post is because of the movie theater, it's called cinema city. let me tell you this place is a little city in and of itself. it is beautiful! huge! amazing! when you go up to pay for your ticket you must choose your seat there, they mark your seat in the computer and when you enter the theater you're escorted to that exact seat. after paying, while waiting for your movie to start there is an indoor avenue of shops to browse: a book store, candy stores, a chocolate fondu store, an israeli take on pink berry, an israeli take on tcby, burger joints, jewlery stands, coffee shops, etc. all along the avenue are sculptures, life size figures of real celebrities, elvis, cowboys, astronauts, soldiers, angelina jolie, brad pit, etc. it was like its own little disney world almost. also there were love seats that were shapped like VW bugs. then there was a food court with fast food places, mcdonalds, kfc etc standard US crap food.
upon entering the theater, once you are escorted to your seat, you plop down into the most comfortable chair you have ever sat in, and so spacious, you completely lack the desire to put your feet up.
the movie was very cute i totally recommend it morgan freeman and jack nicholson were great together!
after the movie Ariana and i walked around ramat aviv a little bit by campus and stopped at burgers bar for a scrumptous dinner.
all in all it was really a greatttt day!
turkey in 2 days cant wait!
Monday, February 11, 2008
JRU aint nothin like it!
On Thursday, Feb. 7, following 4 grueling hours of Ulpan i set out for a weekend in none other than the HOLY CITY: Jerusalem! there were some minor complications getting there (aka we got on the wrong train and went 45 minutes out of our way!!) it was well worth the wait. While i have been to the holy city before, each and everytime i am there it is like my first, in one word it is breathtaking.
there were 8 of us girls, we all stayed in Sasha's apartment which is right outside of the old city jaffa gate enterance, from her dining room window you can see the kotel, i have never seen an apartment like this before it was amazing. our first night there we went for dinner at a place called shnitzy. catchy name i know. i tried schnitzel for my first time, it was good, but i gotta say the whole fried food thing grosses me out. we called it an early night as we were all exhausted. the next day is when all the fun starts anyways.
friday morning we all got up and headed over to the Jerusalem Shuk which is an outdoor market, the one on Jerusalem is about two times the size as the one in Tel Aviv. when you walk in you are bombarded with fresh vegetables of all kinds, then fruits, then the nuts, dried, fruits and spices, followed by fresh fish, followed by baked goods, and lastly clothing and flowers. it is so colorful, and on friday before shabbat you cannot imagine how packed it was everyone in jerusalem must have been there preparing for the evening.
the girls and i picked up all the goodies we needed to make an authentic persian shabbat dinner. i have never had persian food before so this was especially a treat. after we picked up everything we needed we left the shuk and went for lunch, and a walk around the city before we had to retreat to the kitchen.
jerusalem, for those of you who do not know is unique in that the edifices are all constructed from jerusalem stone, a pale pink/peach sandstone type. with everything in unison the city equates a sweet harmony, it doesnt look like one of those developments in westin, it look idealistic, almost unrealistic.
that night to bring in the Shabbas we headed to the Kotel where everyone, im talking generation upon generations of Jewish Mishpuhas were dancing, singing, and bringing in the Sabbath. especially on the Men's side, they were going NUTS!!!! all things i have seen not much changes but each and everytime it revitalizes something in you. for me it reminds me why i am proud to be Jewish, why i came to israel to study, and why i want to keep Judaism alive. i know that may sound trite but its 100% the truth. that night at the kotel the girls and i went our separate ways for 20 minutes and prayed on our own, touching the wall automatically sends chills throughout my body, it makes me recognize the fact that i do believe ever so strongly in HaShem.
following our visit at the wall we walked back to Sasha's apartment via the Arab Quarter, elisa we were there with daddy a few years ago i dont know if you remember. once at the apartment we all gathered around the table, said kiddush, and hamozi and bon apetite! the food was AMAZINGGGG!!! We have rice and stews, a chicken stew and a beef stew. there were so many spieces, hands down the best meal since i have been here which is a bold bold statement since the food here is amazing!
saturday morning we all slept in!!! jerusalem is DEAD on shabbat no one is out everything is closed, it really is a day to just relax. we had shabbat lunch, again said kiddush and hamosi, we had omlettes, cheeses, salads delicious! then we took a small walk around the Jewish Quarter, and went back to the apartment to get ready for the evening.
that evening we went to ben yehuda street where there are a lot of bars and restaurants and clubs. we stopped off first at a place called zollies were we all got a drink and a hookah. it was very american but also very fun. the music was great! afterward we went next store to a bar called nadin which was very similar.
sunday was a great day, we got up fairly early and went over toward ben yehuda. i had the best falalfel i have ever had, some original and some spicy at the falalfel bar. im talking the works were in my pita: humus, cucumber, tomatos, cabbage, tehina, etc...im talking gooooooooood stuff! then we went shopping, and into the old city for another walk around where i got elisa her graduation presents (which you are absolutly going to LOVE), and a last visit to the kotel before getting the sharut back to tel aviv.
all in all it was a wonderful weekend i couldnt of asked for anything better, good company, good food, good times, and an unbelieveable place. it all keeps me appreciative for having the opportunity to be here, to be apart of this, of something bigger than myself.
there were 8 of us girls, we all stayed in Sasha's apartment which is right outside of the old city jaffa gate enterance, from her dining room window you can see the kotel, i have never seen an apartment like this before it was amazing. our first night there we went for dinner at a place called shnitzy. catchy name i know. i tried schnitzel for my first time, it was good, but i gotta say the whole fried food thing grosses me out. we called it an early night as we were all exhausted. the next day is when all the fun starts anyways.
friday morning we all got up and headed over to the Jerusalem Shuk which is an outdoor market, the one on Jerusalem is about two times the size as the one in Tel Aviv. when you walk in you are bombarded with fresh vegetables of all kinds, then fruits, then the nuts, dried, fruits and spices, followed by fresh fish, followed by baked goods, and lastly clothing and flowers. it is so colorful, and on friday before shabbat you cannot imagine how packed it was everyone in jerusalem must have been there preparing for the evening.
the girls and i picked up all the goodies we needed to make an authentic persian shabbat dinner. i have never had persian food before so this was especially a treat. after we picked up everything we needed we left the shuk and went for lunch, and a walk around the city before we had to retreat to the kitchen.
jerusalem, for those of you who do not know is unique in that the edifices are all constructed from jerusalem stone, a pale pink/peach sandstone type. with everything in unison the city equates a sweet harmony, it doesnt look like one of those developments in westin, it look idealistic, almost unrealistic.
that night to bring in the Shabbas we headed to the Kotel where everyone, im talking generation upon generations of Jewish Mishpuhas were dancing, singing, and bringing in the Sabbath. especially on the Men's side, they were going NUTS!!!! all things i have seen not much changes but each and everytime it revitalizes something in you. for me it reminds me why i am proud to be Jewish, why i came to israel to study, and why i want to keep Judaism alive. i know that may sound trite but its 100% the truth. that night at the kotel the girls and i went our separate ways for 20 minutes and prayed on our own, touching the wall automatically sends chills throughout my body, it makes me recognize the fact that i do believe ever so strongly in HaShem.
following our visit at the wall we walked back to Sasha's apartment via the Arab Quarter, elisa we were there with daddy a few years ago i dont know if you remember. once at the apartment we all gathered around the table, said kiddush, and hamozi and bon apetite! the food was AMAZINGGGG!!! We have rice and stews, a chicken stew and a beef stew. there were so many spieces, hands down the best meal since i have been here which is a bold bold statement since the food here is amazing!
saturday morning we all slept in!!! jerusalem is DEAD on shabbat no one is out everything is closed, it really is a day to just relax. we had shabbat lunch, again said kiddush and hamosi, we had omlettes, cheeses, salads delicious! then we took a small walk around the Jewish Quarter, and went back to the apartment to get ready for the evening.
that evening we went to ben yehuda street where there are a lot of bars and restaurants and clubs. we stopped off first at a place called zollies were we all got a drink and a hookah. it was very american but also very fun. the music was great! afterward we went next store to a bar called nadin which was very similar.
sunday was a great day, we got up fairly early and went over toward ben yehuda. i had the best falalfel i have ever had, some original and some spicy at the falalfel bar. im talking the works were in my pita: humus, cucumber, tomatos, cabbage, tehina, etc...im talking gooooooooood stuff! then we went shopping, and into the old city for another walk around where i got elisa her graduation presents (which you are absolutly going to LOVE), and a last visit to the kotel before getting the sharut back to tel aviv.
all in all it was a wonderful weekend i couldnt of asked for anything better, good company, good food, good times, and an unbelieveable place. it all keeps me appreciative for having the opportunity to be here, to be apart of this, of something bigger than myself.
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