Xin Nian Kuai Le!!!! or Happy Chinese New Year!!! This is the Year of the Horse and today is the first day of the new year. I am hanging in shanghai for this chinese new year and have many activities and fun things planned with friends who are here as well....i will also be using this time to catch up on updates...and hopefully will get two out from my trip over the xmas holiday to israel and jordan and laos....i am putting each into their own update, because they warrant it....so with the sounds of fireworks with my ears...onto israel we go.....
i traveled in israel for two weeks with my good friend cat....we rented a car and drove most of the country, because it is rather small and very doable....the roads in israel were amazing and very easy to navigate...but once you got into some of the towns, that was a bit different...along the way we met people, ate delicious food - tasting hummus in as many places as possible, swam in the dead sea and met up with some of my past students.....it was a great trip....
but....it was definitely a very different sort of trip for me....and brought to light how differences make a place so very....well, different....there were times on this trip when i was very frustrated with the way how people treated each other...and the differences between the people who have money and power is strikingly different from those who do not in this very small and divided country...and i have to say i might never go back...now, if i was a very religious person, or a person going to see her roots or a person on a trip with my entire family or a person on a birthright trip....all types of people we saw on this trip....maybe i would have a different opinion....but my trip left me with a sad feeling about how people treat one another....and he craziness of the security when i was trying to leave this country, was like nothing i had ever experienced anywhere else in the world...it left a very bad taste in my mouth...and unfortunately it was the last thing i experienced there....
this is not to say that YOU should never go there...and really, if you are one of the types of people i mentioned above, i bet it would be a phenomenal place to visit...but for me...not really one of my top choices to go back to....that being said...i saw amazing sites and holy relics and met very interesting people and ate incredible food everywhere i went and was amazed at people's passion....so am i glad i went????? in a nutshell....yes.....and now, onto the pictures.....
so you might be saying to yourself, uzbekistan...why are we starting there???? well, this is the airline i flew to israel....air uzbekistan....and it was terrific....well, at least one -way there and back was terrific....the second flight both ways, was not as great as the first....but if you can fly them...and they are the most inexpensive group for israel...fly them....just to see the israelis taking pictures of snow on their phones and watching the uzbeki soldiers delete them was hilarious...and for the flight from bangkok to tashkent...i had the best veggie meal i have ever had...period....i know...it shocked me too...but this airline did have some quirks...only women could have a pillow...although everyone was allowed a blanket...and it was the old style long flight...one main screen for watching a video...not sure what those were...as i did not watch them, but they were definitely not in english....so it was an experience to get this trip started and to finish it....
when we were in tel aviv, one of my favorite stops was the main market...where i saw tasty treats i don't always get to see here in the markets of china...it was great to see all of the dates and cranberries and dried/fresh fruits...as you can see in the picture above....
and this was just the beginning of all of the baklava we saw on this trip....we went a bit crazy at this stall...but it was sooooo darn good....
we tried to do the hop on, hop off bus of tel aviv....but this ended up dropping us in some funny spots that we did not necessarily want to go to....but on the way to find what we were really looking for in the old harbor, we came across this awesome sculpture....loved it.....the wings fit :)
tel aviv looks like it would be a great city to live in...lots of folks outside at the beach and riding bikes and enjoying the weather...it was a bit too cold for swimming...but that did not stop us from having drinks and enjoying the scenery....this was our second night at the sunset with a cocktail in hand....beauty of a shot....
in this shot i am with one of my past students from zagreb, noam and her mom orli...we had a fun dinner and even better chocolate extravaganza dessert with them our last night in tel aviv....it was great to catch up with both of them and hear their current story of life being back in israel....
from tel aviv, on christmas, we headed to haifa, with a stopover in caeserea....haifa was a great place to be for christmas, as they have a german part of town, where christmas was being celebrated...so we had trees and lights and carols...it was wild...but i guess i shouldn't have been surprised...as israel is a combination of three religions...when i looked this up...it was different than what some people told me percentage-wise...but the three main religions you see are jewish, islam and christian everywhere you go....so it was nice to see christmas celebrated, when i thought there would be none....although, when you think about it...it does make sense...haifa is a small town built on a hillside and to combat the steep climbing up and down to get places, they have an underground funicular they use as a "metro"...it's one line with seven(?) stops along the way...which was helpful for our one day there....
the main thing we saw in haifa was the ba'hai gardens...ba'hai is another faith that was founded in israel...and they have these incredible gardens built on the hillside of haifa....there are 19 terraces down...but you can only walk half of them....this is a view looking down the gardens...they were beautiful....and as you can see in the top of the picture, haifa is right on the water...it was nice city with beautiful gardens and very tasty food....
from haifa we headed to jerusalem....in which the old city of this town is pure craziness....in this picture above, we are standing on the mt. of olives looking across to the section of jerusalem that houses all of the religious importance to the three religions...you can see the gold dome, of the dome of the rock, you can see part of the back of the western wall (which many know as the wailing wall) and over to the left of the picture you see the way up to the church of the seplucher...it's amazing to me that these things stand side by side...in the same area....all right there....yet, folks can't get along...it is interesting to me that they can all be in one picture....the boxes in the bottom portion of the picture are graves....people from all three religions are buried here in their respective sites...and that speaks volumes as well....
this is the wailing/western wall....this is a friday afternoon...just before shabbat....at shabbat, sundown on friday night, this place is full of folks dancing and singing and celebrating the beginning of the holiest day of the week in judiasm....we unfortunately did not get to see the festivities....this wall is divided...men on the left and women on the right...and yes, the men's side is larger...and you can see the weird tunnel thing...that leads up to the dome of the rock...but you can only go there if you are muslim or a tourist....bizarre that they are in the same place...but that is just israel....
this is a shot of the wall up close, with all of the prayers and wishes of the women who had visited before me....did i put one in???? of course...everyone needs a bit of help now and then...and maybe this is the place they can get it from....
as we were wandering in the muslim souk (market)...we came across this sign...i loved it...and i loved the coffee in israel....the tea was quite good as well...and you have to admit that aesthetically, this is much more pleasing than the espresso machine in startbucks :)
while in the old town of jerusalem....we stopped on the corner of the via dolorosa...the main road for the stations of the cross of the christian faith...this is actually station 5...i think this place we had food at was the best hummus we had on the trip....or maybe it was the falafel...but what a place to see people from all over the world walking by or running by to make it to the wailing/western wall in time for shabbat....it was incredible people watching and listening...i heard at least seven different languages and saw outfits i had never seen in my life here...it really was a corner of the world, where the world came to be....
this is the inside of the church of the sepluchre...this church...and in this picture...houses where christ was thought to be crucified....the church is shared by three christian religious groups - eastern orthodox, catholics and oriental orthodox (armenian influenced mostly)...but none of them have the keys...a muslim family opens and closes the church every morning and evening...mostly because the christian groups cannot be trusted with each other....hmmmmm....it was a beautiful church....but very, very crowded and a bit crazy....it was right around chirstmas, so maybe it was busier than normal....i did not wait in lines to kiss important things or take pictures of important sites...i just wandered through and saw what i saw...
this shot above is from bethlehem...located in palestinian territory....it comes from the church of the nativity...an interesting places, with tons of people visiting and priests and monks who are a bit pushy and get easily annoyed with tourists....this was the mosaic floor that was being excavated at the time...it is really, really old...but i am unsure of exact date...bethlehem was an interesting, and rather small town...we were here for a few hours....saw the church...the milk grotto and the shepherd's field...which is not much of an open space any more...it would have been nice to wander around here more, but we went on a tour....and were on a time schedule...but we both liked this town....
here are cat and i toasting jersualem the night before we left....we found this yummy pizzeria, that brewed their own beer...we had a great conversation with folks at the bar and the bartender was a great guy....the beer wasn't too shabby either...one of our favorite stops for food along the way....
from jerusalem, we headed north again to nazareth...a bit of a strange pathway, but that's the way it worked out....this picture is from nazareth and is the church of the annunciation....now, my grandmother's name was annuziata, and i had to go to this church...lit a candle for her here too....BUT...this was one of the most spectacular churches i have evern been too...and that is saying something...churches are not really my thing...but this one was incredible...two stories and enormous...plus, it had mosaics all over the outside from countries worldwide to praise the virgin mary....they were beautiful works of art from everywhere....the church had old styled spots, but much of it was quite modern, from the stained glass, to the dome in the center of the church that let in natural light....i really liked this church....
after nazareth we headed south, again...through palestine...which in itself was a weird experience...you have to drive through this country...on an israeli owned and protected road, with the boarder of jordan off to one side that is three barbed wire fences thick....weird sensation....but on the way to the dead sea and masada...we went to the mitzpe ramon crater....which you see in the picture above....which was incredible!!!! this was not formed by a meteor impact, but is instead known as a maktesh....and was created by erosion...this is the largest one known and they are only found in the negev desert of israel....it was formed when the ocean that used to be here receded....we stopped at this town that overlooked it and then drove through it....stunning land features and colors....
one disconcerting thing though....besides the "road floods" signs and the "camel crossing" signs, are the signs you see above...this is where the israeli army has practice with tanks and such....and if you plan to bike through here, you need to let them know you are coming...i was hoping that the car we rented was big enough to make us noticeable...in the end, we had no problems....but the sign...yeah, disconcerting....
the southern part of israel was my favorite part of the country....from the crater to the desert to the dead sea and masada....the shot above is what the edge of the dead sea looks like...yep...that is a combination of the sand and salt that makes up what you are walking on...and it's really, really salty and hard....you actually have to wash off when you get out of the sea with fresh water...or the leftover water and salt on your body can suck the water out of the inside of your body...crazy that...
and it's true...you can "sit" on this salty water due to it's high density....you walk out carefully...because if you fall in and get this water in your eyes or in your mouth or other places it can lead to your death....and when you get out about hip-level, you can just "sit down"...you cannot sink in this....i could be "on" the water and touch my toes with my hands and still be "floating"....it was simply incredible...i of course tasted a tiny bit, for science, like an idiot....blech!!!!! had to deal with that immediately....the feel of this water is even different than any sea or ocean i have been in...and when you go in, you have to make sure you have no cuts...otherwise the burn is intense....or so i have been told...no cuts for this girl.....but this spot was outstanding and i loved the experience of being in this body of water....we were here for new year's eve day...and it was a terrific way to end 2013...
from the dead sea we headed to masada...a final outpost for the jews vs. the roman army....it's this huge mountain where they made their last stand....well, sort of...when the romans were coming to take them over, the population on the mountain decided they would rather die as free people, instead of becoming the roman's slaves...so when the romans reached the top...all of the jews were dead....it was a beautiful spot....but i am amazed they chose a place to live that had very little water access....beautiful vistas...but getting the water up there...insane....but i guess it was a thriving community in its time....the ruins were quite spectacular....
we took the gondola up to the top, but walked down....this was the view during the walk...you can see the dead sea in the distance....i can only imagine how far they truly had to go for fresh water...crazy that...we loved visiting this place...
from the desert & masada and the dead sea, we went even further south to the red sea...it was a bit too cold for swimming, not for the visiting russians, or the kite boarders you see out there....in the distance you can see the mountains of jordan and this is where we crossed the border for our two day trip to jordan....more on that in the next update....this town, eilat, was a beach town, and we visited the aquarium here, but did not do much else, as we were not here for much time....
this last shot shows me with two more past students, both from bucharest...miri and daniel...both of these kids are now in the israeli army, serving their required time....it was incredible to catch up with them and hear their stories since i last saw them....i love that i get to see past students all over the world when i travel...because at some point they go "home"...which is usually a different country from where i knew them and from where i am living...and i get to see how they have turned out as they have gotten older...i love this job....both are accomplishing much and i know will be successful in their respective futures :)
and so you have it...the trip to israel...i am hoping i have not offended anyone with my honest explanation of here and really, the trip was filled with great moments....it's just not a place for me to go back too....i did have fun traveling with my friend cat and seeing the sites and catching up with students and experiencing the dead sea and the desert...and of course indulging in the food....and hopefully that clearly was expressed in this update....my next update will be on the two days i was in jordan...i visited wadi run and petra only...but the only word that can sort of explain what i experienced is awe....so, until i get the chance to do the next...i wish you all a very happy chinese new year.....feel free to drop a line and say hi and give me your update....
have a fab day :)
dani
