Israel Review

Now that I'm in Athens and have access to a computer I'm going to review the places I've been.

First up is Israel. I was there for 10 days on a Taglit Birthright trip. Very interesting country, if you've ever complained about being searched at the airport or having cops follow you, don't go there. On the way in I was questioned twice and had my bags searched. Then I was escorted to the gate. Which means we were not allowed to leave the gate, to go to the duty free shop, or even use the bathroom. I was on a tour group with about 45 other 18-26 year olds. Surprisngly Dave andI got along with everyone pretty well. Even if we spent hours laughing at them all in private.

The first few days were spent in the northern part of the country, the Upper Gailee and the Golan Heights. We saw wreckage from the 67 and 73 wars, which still litter the countryside. We visited Kiryat Shomna which is where the 2006 Lebanese War started. Interestingly enough Hezbollah militants fired three rockets into the town a few hours before we arrived.

We spent the weekend in Jerusalem, visited the Western Wall/Kotel on Shabbat which was like being in another world. We got to spend some time in the old city but most of our time was either at the hotel, or the Holocaust Museum nearby. We had one free night in Jerusalem, Dave and I were gonna try to fight some euro trash but it didn't work out.

After Jerusalem was Arad, boring town but it is near the Dead Sea and Masada. After hiking Masada we drove to Eilat, which is basically the Miami of Israel. Dave and I were going to ditch the group on our free night and walk to the border with Egypt (Eilat is the southernmost city, bordering both Egypt and Jordan). We ended up not doing it, which was a good idea since the border was 10 km from town, as opposed to the 2 I thought it was. We spent two days in Eilat, then drove to a Bedouin theme park type thing a few hours north. Spent the night in a huge tent and went for a camel ride. Kinda cool.

After that we were finally in Tel Aviv. Best city. We didn't really do much on the tour there as usual but we did see Independence Hall and a few other sights. We had another free night which was spent at some shitty tourist bar near the beach. It was cool to chill with everyone for the last night. I fell asleep around 3am, and was awoken by our dumb roommate being drunk. After shutting him up (sort of) I was able to sleep a little until we had to wake up at 6 to head to the airport.

About 12 of us on the trip extended our plane tickets so we could stay. My flight to Greece was the next morning at 7am so I was planning on staying at the airport to make it easier. I spent the day hanging in Tel Aviv. It was about 80 degrees, so Albert, Tiffany and myself hung out at the beach and then wandered around. I took the train back to Ben Gurian Airport around 7pm. I slept for a bit, and then my favorite Israeli ever, Yael, came and hung out with me for a few hours. Shes one of the soldiers who went on the trip with us. After she went home I slept for a while, and then checked in for my flight around 4am. This is where it got ugly. First off, before you can check in, you are questioned by Israeli security. They grilled me about what I was doing in Israel, where I was going and why I was on the specific flight that I was. Then they x-rayed my bag. Then swiped it for explosives. Then made me take everything out. Then repack it and check in. So after getting my boarding pass, I had to pass through the real security. Where again, my bag was gone through, I had to explain everything and they questioned me about my trip.

So after all this I ended up having about 45 minutes to kill before my flight to Larnaca. The duty free store sucked, and I ended up paying about 20 shekels for an orange juice and a muffin. Fail.

All in all I really enjoyed Israel, friendly people, everythings modern, and beautiful girls. But I don't think I'll ever get used to seeing dirty cats and soldiers around everywhere.