Akko

About a month ago, Pavel and I started going on weekend day trips. Our first was to Akko, a coastal city north of Haifa. Akko is notable for several reasons. In 1798, Napolean unsuccessfully laid seige on the city. In the picture below, you can see part of the protective wall that surrounds the old city. Akko is also one of the few cities in Israel in which both Jews and Arabs live together. Pavel and I discuss this more in depth in the podcast, but I'll just mention that in general, this doesn't create too many problems, although conflicts arise from time to time. But mostly, I was there for the hummus.

You see, Akko is known as having the best hummus in the world. I learned this while on my birthright trip. We were walking by the water in Akko's old city when Yoni, our tour guide, pointed out a restaurant, saying that this restaurant, here in this tiny city, was home to the best hummus in the world. Did we stop and eat there? Of course not. There wasn't any time to stop. There's never any time for hummus! I made a vow that I would come back to Israel some day, and when I did, I was going to find that restaurant and have me some hummus. In other words, Akko's hummus is secretly the real reason I'm in Israel. (I know what you're thinking. You're thinking, "How much better can the hummus be in Akko? I've had hummus in literally every other city in the world and there's a lot of good hummus out there." If you ask me, you should stop being so cynical.)

Somehow--and I don't know how this happened--Pavel and I couldn't find the hummus restaurant that Yoni vaguely pointed out to me nine months ago. Anyone who knows me knows that I'm usually great at things like that, but in this case, I came up short. Instead of eating the best hummus in the world, we went to some crappy, overpriced tourist trap that was listed in the guidebook as a place that only "insiders" know about. In other news, "insider" is my new favorite pseudonym for "white person." Here's an example of how it can be used:

Pavel: What did you think of the shuk in Akko?

Sam: It sure had a lot of insiders.

Pavel: Yeah, our guidebook sure does a great job of making us feel like insiders.

Some of our fellow insiders shopping at the shuk

What really frustrates me, though, is how stupid I was about finding the hummus place. I could have called Yoni and asked him what the hummus place is called, where it is, and how to get there. I could have also asked any person in Akko those same questions. Did I? Nope. Why? Because I'm a moron. Now I'm going to have to make Aliyah. I really don't want to do that, but how else will I ever get to try the best hummus in the world? I think I'll make a good soldier.

New Akko city street

This view does not impress me

Byeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee

Catching Up

I know I haven't been a great blogger lately. Certainly a lot has happened since my last post. Let's recap some of the bigger things that have "gone down" since April 30th, shall we?

- Citing irreconcilable differences, Justin and I split up as roommates. I got to keep the apartment, while Justin moved back to the United States. We had some great times, but in the end, we weren't meant to be together as roommates in Israel. For obvious reasons, we both agreed not to comment on the split for one month. Well, my friends, that month has passed and I have a few things I'd like to get off my chest. Just because Justin and I aren't living together anymore doesn't mean that we still love you. We don't. In fact, if not for this blog, we'd probably still be roommates. I want you to think about that for a few minutes. To be fair, you're not the only person I blame for this. I also blame Justin.

Can you believe this guy?

Anyway, Justin moving out seriously shook up the Ra'anana social dynamics. Here's how it boils down: Justin, Pavel, and I hung all the time. With Justin gone, it's just me and Pavel most of the time. Pavel works during the day. I rarely do and Justin never did. This makes things considerably more boring during daytime hours. You would think this would lead to more blog posts, right? You'd be wrong.

-I lined up work for my return to the US. I'll be teaching tennis at the same place I did last summer. This is good, because I am very broke. Plus, nothing beats working outdoors and playing tennis all the time. I'll be starting that around June 20th. For reasons I'm about to mention, I may keep the blog going through the summer and into next year. For those same reasons, I also need to find some supplemental work for the summer.

-I did some more traveling. Pavel and I visited the northern cities of Akko and Haifa and spent two nights in the old city of Jerusalem. This week, I visited some family friends who live on a Kibbutz near Tiberias. All of the trips were a lot of fun, and I'll try and get some blog posts up with pictures shortly.

-I sprained my ankle playing basketball. I had the exact same injury last year, only worse. Its been four days and I can already walk without a limp. I may be back on the basketball court, spraining more ankles within a week.

-The big news: On August 8th, I fly to Hong Kong, where I'll spend the following 10 months teaching English in a Chinese public school. Right now, I don't have much more information, other than the fact that A) I'm incredibly excited, and B) I'll continue the blog in some form or another. I may post occasionally throughout the summer on my trip preparation (and maybe even some tennis anecdotes). Obviously, living in Hong Kong will be nothing like anything I've ever done. Hopefully, that'll translate into some interesting blog fodder.

In other news, I only a couple of weeks left in Israel. Pretty soon, I'm outta here. Before going home, though, I'm headed to L.A. for five days to visit college friends. As for the rest of my time in Israel, here's what you can expect:

-A couple of posts recapping some of my recent trips (with pictures).

-A two-part podcast about traveling to Akko.

-A twitter here and there.

-A few exit posts about final thoughts, feelings, murders, etc. These could conceivably continue past my time in Israel.

-A post about L.A.

That's it for now, byeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee.

Podcast now in iTunes

The podcast is now searchable in the iTunes music store. To find it, just follow this link or open the music store and search "gogoisrael." If you use another application to download podcasts, here's our feed:

http://gogoisrael.podbean.com/feed

With the podcast on your iPod, you can listen in the car, at the gym, or on the go! I like to tune in just before going to bed so I can fall asleep to the sound of my own beautiful voice.

Byeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee

Egypt Podcast Part 3 of 3

Hey Bros,

Here's the third and final part of our podcast.

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Were these worth it? Should we do more?

Byeeeeeee

Egypt Podcast Part 2 of 3

Hey Gang,

Check out part 2 of our podcast. Pavel and I "dish" on getting ripped off in Egypt.

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Byeeeeeeeeeeee

Egypt Podcast Part 1 of 3

Okay, I admit it. I've been a bad blogger since returning from Egypt. That's about to change, though. Stupid Pavel and I had been playing around with the idea of doing a podcast for a while now. Well, we did it! The podcast covers all of the fun and horrifying things we saw and did while traveling in Egypt. Part one today, part two tomorrow, part three on Wednesday.

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I have more travel essays coming this week, and I'll try and finally put up some of my awesome photos.

Byeeeeeeeeeeee

Luxoring

After the night in the desert we continued down to Luxor where we had two days of touring various temples and tombs. On the train we met a coepld of other travelers that were coincidentally staying at the same hostel as us, the Bob Marley Hostel (silly name but it was the highest rated hostel in Luxor on hostelworld.com and only $4 per night per person). They were sisters from London traveling together. They seemed like they'd be good company so we invited them to join us on our tours of Luxor, and as the price was right, they joined us (about $20 I think).

Bob Marley Hostel Rooftop

We took a short nap after arriving as the 10 hour overnight train ride was about as restful as playing tug of war with a gaggle of goofy giggling geese guarding Gob's gardens. We then spent the overcast afternoon touring the Karnak and Luxor Temples. Karnak was really cool as it was essentially built piecewise by several Pharaohs, each adding their own part to the vast collaboration of temples, obelisks as well as a sacred man-made lake.

Large Statue outside of the Karnak TemplesOutside of the Luxor Temple

Turns out that every friday night the Bob Marley Hostel cooks dinner for all the guests and conveniently we were there on a Friday. It seemed as if most of the people in the Hostel (about 20 people or so) all went up to the rooftop lounge where a feast was layed out for us to gorge on. None of us could believe that this amazing dinner (as well as good breakfasts) were included in the $4 per night that we were paying.

The next day we went first to the Valley of the Kings. Valley of the Kings was a secret hidden valley in Egypt. When the Pharaohs realized that people could see the pyramids and then would rob the tombs within, they started building tombs in this secret valley. We were told the Valley remained a secret as very few knew its exact location. The workers were blindfolded while in transit to work on the elaborate tombs. They are actually still finding hidden tombs of ancient Pharaohs as the another one was just found in the past year. How crazy is that? They've been there for thousands of years BC and we're still discovering stuff?

Valley of the Kings

We then went to the Temple of Hot-Chicken-Soup (or Hatshepsut as the Egyptians call her). She was a very powerful female king and made this pretty awesome temple for herself so that she could prove her awesomeness.

Huge awesomeness of Hatshepsut

We then went to Ramses III's war temple. I think our tourguide was tired because she told us it was nothing special, but we all agreed that it was pretty amazing. The paintings were quite elaborate and the heiroglyphics carved in were much deeper than usual so that they would never be erased.

Once again, after some relaxation we had to return to the trainstation for another 10 hour, overnight train back to Cairo.

You put your Bedouin the desert?

What can you do the day after seeing the frickin Great pyramids? Relax. We began the next day bright and early with a five hour bus ride out to Bahariah which is southwest of Cario. Following that bus ride, we took a quick jaunt over to the Badr (spelling is correct, fyi) Bedouin ranch type place and then begain our tour of the Black Dessert as well as the Old White Desert and New White Desert.

They drove us in the back of an old Land Cruiser that instead of having seats, had two benches in the back going the length of the vehicle. It was me, Sam, Pavel a French couple (Owen and Marie) and two Bedouin guides (one was named Mohammad and i forget the other one's). They first showed us the Black Desert which has much black sand because of ancient volcanic rocks. It was very cool looking although by far the most noticeable attribute of the desert was the intense quiet of everything. It was nice to finally be able to breath well again after the dusty, smoky and polluted air that plagues Cairo. Another noticeable difference was the temperature. The sun was very strong and hot, yet it felt quite comfortable because it was so dry and there was always a refreshing breeze. Serenity Now.

The black desert and our Vehicular travel vessel lunch

Then after a quick lunch at a rest stop, where I acquired head protection, we continued on to the White Desert. Most of my description will have to be pictorial but I must add that it was so beautiful. We drove around for approximately four hours in the back of that Land Cruiser stopping at strategic points to enjoy the views. What an amazing place. We heard the White Desert looks like something out of Dr Suess, and the description is quite accurate. There were patches of white sand that looked like snow as well as rock formations that could be likened to clouds in that they all seemed to look like sculptures of a face, a chicken, a camel etc. The white sand was also powder soft, almost as if it were in fact made of powder or flour.

so white
b-e-a-utifulMushroom rock formation with Pavel playing Where's Waldo

Chicken and Egg at Sunset

We set up camp after sunset and the Bedouins prepared dinner over a fire. It was so quiet and peaceful. We had a great night just eating and hanging out talking with the guides as well as our new French friends. The most incredible thing was the full moon. We could see a good amount of stars, but the sky was so incredibly bright because of that crazy ol' full moon. The moon was so bright that everything cast shadows and we could see miles in the distance at all times of night. There was no tent, merely a wall of fabric hung up next to the 'Cruiser so we slept under the beautiful desert sky. What a cool night. We awoke the next morning as the sun was breaking the horizon and our guides prepared us breakfast and tea before heading back to town.

Hanging out around the campfireAnd this is where we slept as you see Pavel arising from his slumber.

Travel that day included the three hour drive back to Bahariah and then a five hour bus ride back to Cairo. We then had enough time to shower and relax for a little at the Wakeup Cairo Hostel we had been staying at and before they took us to the train station. From there we took a 10 hour overnight train from Cairo to Luxor.

Oh the life of our traveling pants. Ya YA

CamelFarts (aka the Great Pyramids)

Day 2 in Cairo was a day of the pyramids and then a dinner cruise down the Nile river at night. I took over 200 pictures this one day. My point is that there is no way I can, verbally or in writing, describe the awesomeness of the day.

The Great Pyramids can be seen for miles away because they are so huge

We get up in the morning and head over with our guide to go see the oldest pyramid at Saqqara. It was pretty amazing to see in person. This pyramid is back from when the pyramids were still step pyramids as you'll notice below by the large steps.

Saqqara: The oldest one.

We then continued on where our guide brought us to this essence factory (I think that might be what it was). This is a place where they use chemistry to extract the oils from scented things (flowers, mint, eucalyptus etc) and these are then processed and turned into other scented things such as perfume, candles or scratch-n-sniff stickers. Fortunately, we recognized instantly that this is one of the things we were warned about in our guide books. Often, tour guides will bring groups to visit their friend's businesses to sell them stuff for a hefty commission. We were not interested in buying any of the overpriced odoriferous oils, but we did get a free coffee or tea out of the deal plus some time in an air conditioned room which was a nice break.

Used to do extract smells (gotta love orgo in action).

We then got some amazing Egyptian shawarma from this cheap place on the side of the road. So yummy. We then had to endure another sales pitch. Apparently we had only booked a car ride to the pyramids, so if we wanted to go by camel we'd have to pay extra. After extensive negotiating of packages and prices, we finally settle on a camel ride that came down to 150 pounds per person (so less than $30usd) for a ride on the camels to the vistas that cannot be reached by car. We then were to meet up with our car at the great pyramid. So thus begun our journey by camel to the Great Pyramids!!!

The ride was bumpy but fun. My camel (formerly known as Bush, and now known as Obama) was a feisty one. He didn't want to stay in the caravan of three, so I got to drive the camel all on my own. It was pretty exciting. Although the Pyramids look big in pictures, they look even bigger and are more amazing in person. It's not really even worth explaining too much because words don't do them justice, just look at the pictures and video included and talk to me when I get home (or see them yourself). It is just so amazing that these structures were built about 7000 years ago.

Three adventurers on their steeds traveling to the Great Pyramids!Landing the steed is accomplished by pulling on the rains and clearing one's throat loudly (i'm serious)Well, it worked for two out of the three

SPHYNX

Although not quite as amazing as the Pyramids or the Sphynx, CamelFarts are AWESOME! Although we never saw them spit (possibly because it was so hot and dry out), the farts were a flowing. I never could catch it on video but they sounded like this, “thhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh (sp?).” The best way to imagine a camelfart would be by doing a brain rendering of what it would sound like if a small Harley Davidson engine was put in a camel's butt. Then after the surgical insertion (as a conscious one would be cruel to the poor camel), you start the engine. The engine would rev and burble for about 20 seconds before it realized that instead of being in a motorcycle it was in a camels butt and then shut off out of disgust. that's what it sounded like. I don't care what Sam and Pavel say, a camel fart is well worth about 20 minutes of laughter. I'm actually laughing as I type this because I'm remembering riding behind Sam's camel as it let out a huge camelfart. Luckily it was windy enough that the smell didn't get to me, but oh boy were they funny. Hahahaha. I guarantee that Vinny would love camelfarts too.




After riding through the desert on camels, we finally get to the Great pyramids and walk around them. They're so big. So so big.

After the pyramids, we went back to our hostel to rest up for a little bit before our dinner cruise on the Nile. The cruise was to include dinner and dessert (but no drinks of any sort were included) and entertainment. The dinner was ok, but the two guys from china sitting at our table were really nice. The entertainment was also fine. First the belly dancer came out. Imagine a woman in her early 40s with augmented, plastic looking breasts the size of my head trying to dance without much rhythm. There was an ~8 year old girl with better belly dancing moves than her, but I guess the boobies were enough to get her hired.

From the deck of our Nile floating boating

Next came on a really cool traditional Egyptian dance called Tanoura The opening act was actually a dwarf doing a basic version of the dance and then a real professional came on and it was really cool. The lighting was bad so it was hard to get good video (here's an example from youtube), but the dance basically involved a guy spinning in circles for about 20 minutes and doing things including balancing a glass of water on a tray, pouring the water into the glass and then drinking it all while spinning rapidly. It was much more impressive than I make it sound.

Great...Pyramids or Great Pyramids? we like pyramids

First day in Cairo: there's a storm a brewin (or is that just Cairo?)

For our first day in Cairo (April 6^th) we first sought out our second hostel. After approximately a 25 minute cab ride we arrive at the hostel that was in fact just down the street from where we were. The cab drive had to stop and ask for directions several times because he either couldn't understand our English or he didn't know where the place was although i think it was a combination of the two.

This is a good place to input a brief description of driving around Cairo and why we didn't try to walk to the hostel. We weren't sure how to get there and only some of the street signs are in English. In addition, we didn't know where we were in relation to the new hostel, even if we were in the same part of the city. So we hopped in a cab. Cabs are incredibly cheap, typically they are supposed to be less than 10 pounds per ride to most places in the city yet cab drivers always try to screw over tourists by charging no less than 25 pounds. (at the time, $1 usd was about 5.3 pounds I think). Now, when driving on Egyptian roads, there are traffic lights and street signs at most intersections. Unfortunately, Unless there is also a police officer acting as crossing guard, the traffic signals are optional. This includes at five way intersections with multiple lanes. Just a little honk and anyone could go any way they wanted. Silly me, I just mentioned multiple lanes. The lanes too are also mere loose suggestions on both roads and highways. A road with 1 lane will usually have two cars driving next to eachother. Even on highways, the lane markers are only suggestions at best. Ever see cars going both ways around a round-about? In Cairo, traffic circles go two ways.

Then you might ask, “How do pedestrians cross the street?” Good question. Ever see frogger? Thats pretty much how it must be done. The best way to get used to it is find a local and just do what they do. After a while we almost got used to crossing 6 lane streets as cars are whizzing around and swerving around us. Crossing at a crosswalk just doesn't mean anything when traffic signals are optional. Somehow though, it kinda works. From talking to people we found out that little dings are common, but deadly accidents as well as accidents that leave people mangled are rare.

Maybach just sitting on the sidewalk?

We get to our other hostel and begin attempting to map out our Egypt trip with the help of our overeager hostel owner at Wakeup Cairo. Sam was just getting over being sick with a fever and just not feeling well so we decide to take it easy and spend the majority of the afternoon in the Egyptian Museum. Before the museum we ate lunch at this place around the corner from our hostel and ate “kashery.” This is a dish of grains and beans that is very cheap, very filling and quite delicious. After lunch, the owner of the hostel, Peter took us out for some tea, Hibiscus juice and shisha. We sat, relaxed and got to know each other. Sitting outside at these cafe type places is very common. You really can't walk around any place in egypt without seeing egyptian men smoking shisha and drinking coffee or tea for hours. Egyptian coffee is Turkish coffee. The tea is also really good (I think its some sort of ground up Ceylon black tea).

Pavel working the Kashery

After lunch and relaxing, we continued on to the Egyptian Museum. This is the world famous museum that houses many artifacts from tombs and pyramids including the entirety of the King Tut collection, part of which made a brief stint in the Franklin institute a few years ago. Peter decided to give the 3 of us a free private tour of the museum. Yes this was very kind of him since descriptions of the museum were sparse and he was well informed. Turns out this free tour was more of an investment for him since we went on to book tours of the pyramids, as well as the temples around Luxor through him.

The Three travelers and Peter taking a break outside the Egyptian Museum

The Egyptian Museum was really cool, but I don't have any pictures from inside because they are not allowed. That night we met up with a friend of a friend named Aliza, who has been living in Cairo for the past 10 months (I think) so she could give us the lowdown on Cairo and Egypt (including how to get less ripped off by cabs). We met her at some hotel's rooftop bar and talked over a beer (my first of three beers that I had in Egypt). This was interesting because drinking is not very common in Egypt at all. Walking around, there are very few bars and even fewer places that sell alcohol. The bars are primarily for tourists. Egyptians are much more in to smoking (one of our numerous tour guides said that 90% of Egyptian males smoke cigarettes). Every cab we got in offered us cigarettes before lighting up. They were often confused as to why we would always refuse offers to smoke since so many of them do.

I guess religion dictates their vices there. No drinking, but smoking is fine.

Twas a good day, but the next day is pyramid day!!!!

Multiplicity

Note: Justin seems to be doing a good job handling the day-to-day recap of our Egypt trip, so I'll be providing some alternative commentary.

Pavel recently compared Israel and Egypt to the movie Multiplicity. Stay with me on this one, because I think it's an apt analogy. In the movie, Michael Keaton is so busy (like really, really busy ) that he can't do everything by himself. So what does he do? The only logical course of action: he clones himself. The first clone comes out great; it's just like Michael Keaton, and the only better thing than one Michael Keaton is two Michael Keatons. The next clone is okay too, but pretty soon things start to get a little funny. See, when you start copying your clones--and this is science so don't argue--little defects start showing up. Pretty soon, the copies aren't really anything like Michael Keaton. Yeah, they look alike, but they're completely different people.

If the United States* is Michael Keaton in Multiplicity and Israel is Michael Keaton a couple of copies in, then Egypt is like if you took a copy of Israel and copied it a couple thousand times. Also, it doesn't look anything like the United States. It's a fucking nuthouse. Still, I can see Western influence everywhere.

Take a look at the traffic lights, for instance. In the United States, a traffic light signals to drivers whether or not they are allowed to safely pass through an intersection. If the light is red, not only is it not safe to proceed, it is illegal to do so. Egypt also has traffic lights. I'd compare it to the following: It's as if someone bought a microwave without having any idea what it was used for, didn't ask anyone, and decided that the microwave was supposed to be a table. Sure, they can use a microwave as a table, but why not just use a table? On second thought, maybe that analogy doesn't work because I have no idea what people in Egypt think traffic lights are for. I'm pretty sure that they don't think that they're related to driving, though.

Egypt as a whole works the same way. All of the elements of Western Culture are in place, but their implementation is often distorted past the point of recognition. There are sidewalks, but everyone walks in the street, often in between traffic. There are metal detectors outside large buildings, but no one stops you when you set one off. If you travel to Egypt in the near future and have any expectation of knowing what the hell is going on, forget it. It may look a little familiar, but it's nothing like anything you're used to.


*I could substitute any modern Western country for the US, but I'm not going to because I'm an American.

Byeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee

Camels in the Road (Eilat and travel to Cairo)

Saturday (4-April-2009) evening we take a 5 hour bus from Tel Aviv to Eilat, arriving around 11pm (70 nis each). We spent the night as well as the next day in Eilat. While there we met up with Brandon and his mom, conveniently they were staying maybe 200m down the street at the Hilton which was an insanely beautiful hotel. We spent a little time on the beach which had a beautiful view of the surrounding mountains. Normally my posts wouldn't include stuff like this, but it was so noticeable that I have to. The girls/women in Eilat were absolutely breathtaking. I have never seen so many attractive women in one place. Wow.

A picture of me and brandon since i didn't actually meet any of the beautiful women

The most exciting part of this trip was our plans to go to Egypt Sunday (5-april-09) night. Unfortunately though, it was impossible to find a bus schedule to Egypt in Israel. After much searching, I found a guy at a tourist agency who had spoken to the Egyptian embassy recently. He told us there are daily busses at 1030am and 430pm every day (the time of the conversation was 230pm). We decided finish up at the beach and try to make the 430 bus. We ended up hurrying and taking a cab to the Egyptian border. We cross the border on foot, going through lots checks (money transfer, Israeli exit tax of 90nis, visa checks, passport checks. BUT we made it across without much hassle. We then grab a cab to go the 1km because the bus was supposed to leave in 10 minutes and we didn't want to risk missing the bus by walking the short distance too slowly. After getting to the bus station we find out that Egypt is 1 hour behind Israel and we thus have more than enough time to make it to the bus.

Walking to the Israeli/Egyptian Boarder

We made it through the border crossing!!!

While looking into the bus we are bombarded by a guy who wanted us to take his “small bus” which was basically a four row van. We bargained down from 300 LE to 250 LE for the three of us combined. The bus was going to be 195LE for all three, so it wasn't that much more for what we thought was going to be a quicker and more comfortable ride. I'm not saying that these thoughts were wrong, but they were wrong. First, our driver began by driving around for an hour trying to pick up other fares and get some gas of course. We then finally get on our way and start to enjoy a beautiful and terrifying ride.

Our chariot.

Inside the chariot (still enjoying the relaxing part of the ride)

During the ride we are flying down the bumpy road, just the three of us and the driver for a while. The speed of the ride was only a taste as to what the rest of the ride was going to be like. At one point sam and pavel were sleeping, we round a corner and all the sudden, in front of the car, were a herd of camels (approximately 8 of em). I scream with laughter because camels in the road is so stereotypically hilarious. Sam and Pavel looked more startled as the car swerved around our roadblocks at what must have been in excess of 100kph.

I couldn't get my camera around in time for the camel roadblocks, so this is just one of the nice views from the beginning of the ride. after the first hour all we saw was dessert.

During the rest of the ride we just were cruising along. It was going so well that sam commented “this is great especially since it's just the three of us. Approximately 5 minutes later, we pull over to the side of the road and pick up no less than 10 Egyptian guys so we're all packed in there. They were very nice and offered us each some cigarettes before lighting up themselves. So for a majority of the rest of the 4 hours left we were sharing our minibus with an assortment of Egyptians who just so happened to be chain smokers (we later found out that a vast majority of males in Egypt smoke cigarettes.

We eventually get to Cairo and are dropped off at the minibus station. At this point it's about 11 at night and we have no idea where we are in relation to our hostel, which we actually didn't even have booked for that night. We find a cab and get completely ripped off to take us to our hostel. We were told that he knew where it was, but he ended up dropping us off in the general area. So now it's after 11 at night and we're wandering around trying to find our hostel at first, and then just any place at all. We do end up wandering into a hostel after about 20 minutes of looking. It looked nice and clean and was very cheap, so we stayed there. Besides the lack of hot water that first night, I have no complaints. That was until sometime in the middle of the night, Big Fat Pavel decides to break his bed. The wooden slats that his mattress is laying on start falling out one by one with a CRASH each time. Sam and I wake up with what sounds like pavel throwing wood around the room, but apparently he was just trying to fix his bed. Sam and I decided to help, by just going back to sleep. Pavel eventually just put his mattress on the floor and went to sleep (luckily a wooden floor is not much different from a bed with wooden slats).

the left bed is what was left of Pavel's "sleepwalking"

many more posts on Egypt to come. What a crazy and awesome journey but I'm happy to be back in Israel.

Pesach are abound

Who knows how plans will work out, but i am very very excited. We got our Visas all ready so this weekend Sam, Pavel and I are going to Egypt.

Saturday night, after buses resume their transporting, we will be taking a bus down to Eilat and spending the night. We then plan to relax on the beach there for the day (and hopefully hang out with brandon who's there with his momma). Sunday night we are going to cross the border into the Egyptian town of Taba where we will take a night bus to Cairo. We plan to spend time in Cairo, Luxor, maybe day trip to Alexandria and a night in the Sinai.

So the question many people are asking me is, "why would you not want to spend passover/pesach in israel?" i have a few reasons. first of all, my life is very up in the air right now as some of you may know and I really needed to just plan something and do something and have it succeed. so we'll see how this goes, but i have high hopes. After thinking more and talking to my friend Danit, I realized a few more things. Passover celebrates the exodus and freedom of the Hebrews from Egypt, so now it's pretty cool that I get to return as a free man. Also, how cool will it be to climb Mount Sinai over passover? so cool!

and about safety, don't worry. i've been looking into travel advisories and Egypt is supposed to be very safe at the moment. Obviously there is no such thing as a sure thing so i cannot promise our 100% safety. but just know that we have done the research and we have been watching the news and checking travel advisories for American tourists and there is nothing going on that should raise alarm.

Don't worry, i will be taking many many pictures and by this time next week will have seen one of the 7 wonders of the ancient world (pyramids at Giza and the Sphinx is there too)!

Relative Success

Once upon a time in the far away land known as Ra'anana three young men departed on their day's questing. Sir Pavel, Sir Samuel and Sir Justin took the bus to obtain information on journeying to another far away land (Egypt) that is far from the aforementioned far away land. Soon into the journey, Captain Pavel realized that time was short and that he must go to “work” for it would be terrible to be late for his unpaid internship. Samuel and Justin continued on their quest undeterred. Paperwork, paperwork and paperwork are what they found only to be shut out by the descending metal gate. Not to be dissuaded, the premature ending of one journey became the postmature beginning of another.

“Onward,” shouted brave Samuel. And onward they went (after a brief lunch of course). They continued on their way to the train station they did. After passing through security, they approached a maiden known as, “Information.” The fair maiden told them that the city of Haifa was a mere one hour venture north. “Onward....to Haifa.” exclaimed Sir Samuel once more.

The adventurers arrived to this horrid site. How Ghastly?

The train ride: uneventful. The cab ride, inexpensive. The Carmel Market was fine, but to the Bahai gardens is where our two young adventurers wanted to adventure to. Asking the peasants around town, they found their way to the beautiful Bahai gardens. “Nay!” exclaimed Justin-san before he read the sign aloud, “Last tour is at 1300.” The young men were too late, and had to gaze upon the garden, from above and below but to enter the gardens, the guards said “NO!”

"Yay, or nay?"The young adventurer's debate making a run for it while gazing above the Bahai Gardens.

"The bushes look nice when looking from below"

Walk around they did. Taking the trolley-like-subway. To the bottom of the hill they went. Eating a snack they did. Justin's surprisingly expensive and Sam's surprisingly scorching. Wander around they did some more. To the port! To the German Colony! To Old City...or not. Sundown approaches. What else is there to do? We could stay and check out a bar, but what would be the point? Return to Ra'anana they did to bid the world a good night.

Brave Samuel awaits the gravity assisted metal steed.

Which way did he go George, which way did he go?

"What evil lurks ahead?" "Tis but a giant Robot Penis"

Onward, HO!!!!!

Jerusalem Travel Tips

Justin and I went to Jerusalem earlier this week. Not everything went well, but we learned a lot about the best ways to travel to Jerusalem. I thought I'd share some of our newly aquired knowledge with these ten easy travel tips.

1. Check the weather report before leaving.
What will the temperature be like? Is rain in the forecast? These are important questions.

2. Apply the information in the weather report to your trip planning.
Just looking at the weather isn't enough. If it's supposed to be cold and rainy and you don't have any warm clothes, an umbrella, or a rain jacket, maybe you should postpone your trip until Wednesday.

3. If it's cold and rainy and you decide to go to Jerusalem anyway, stop in a cafe once you get there.
It's a great place to relax and have a couple of drinks while you plan your next move. You should also befriend a waitress who will suggest really interesting things to do in town. She might even offer you a free place to crash.

4. Don't ignore your waitress' suggestions and go see a movie.
Those bars and cafes sounded pretty cool, especially the one with live music and guest lecturers. Even though Rachel Getting Married is a great movie, you can see it any time.

5. Book your hostel BEFORE midnight.
Most hostels stop letting people in at midnight. If at all possible, try to know where you're planning on staying before leaving for Jerusalem, although that could be asking too much.

6. If it's after midnight, call a potential hostel to make sure that a) it's open and b)there are vacancies before walking 30 minutes to get there.
If Justin says to you, "I kind of want to just go there and not call ahead of time," DO NOT tell him that this is a good idea. This is not a good idea. Call the hostel first.

7. If you meet a waitress who offers you a place to stay and you'd like to take her up on that offer because you don't have anywhere to stay, call her before she falls asleep.
She gets off work at midnight, but remember: She has school early in the morning so she just goes home and goes right to bed. Call her before she leaves work or you might not be able to take her up on her offer.

8. When you're wandering around Ben Yahuda street at 1 AM wondering where you'll be sleeping that night and it starts pouring rain, run into the first hotel you see and check the prices. If the rooms are too expensive, go back outside and wander around until it starts sleeting. At that point, you pretty much have to go into the next hotel you see and book a room.
The continental breakfast will be worth the price of the room alone. You will invent a sandwich called the "bread-cheese roll up."

9. Don't go to the Israel Museum on a Tuesday before 5 PM.
This one's kind of obvious, but if it's Tuesday, don't walk 45 minutes to the museum that's open every other day from 9-5. It's only open from 5-9 PM on Tuesdays because that makes sense.

10. You got to know when to hold 'em/know when to fold 'em.
If every single decision you make seems to be the wrong one, head to the Central Bus Station and get on the first bus back to Ra'anana. You'll do better next time.

Happy travels! Byeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee

Southbound

When Justin and I arrived in Israel in early February, we were entering a country that was essentially an active war zone. In the media, many allegations were made accusing Israel of using excessive force in Gaza. Hamas' constant rocket fire into southern Israel received much less attention. In fact, with the aid of Iranian weapons, Hamas was able to dramatically increase its missile range, subjecting several once-safe Israeli cities to almost daily attack. My buddy Pavel had the bright idea to pay a visit to one of those cities to find out what life was like during the bombings. I thought he might be on to something, so I decided to tag along.

We decided to head to Ashkelon, a port city pretty close to the Gaza border. According to Pavel:

Ashkelon is a city of about 100,000 that sits on Israel's golden [Mediterranean] coast. Situated about 50 km (30 miles) South of Tel Aviv (one hour by bus) and 10 km (6 miles) North of the Gaza Strip the city has a beautiful coastline and beaches and a lot of new medium-rise construction. Villas near the water look, stylistically, like homes in Southern Europe and the Caribbean--red tile roofs, pastel shades of stucco, and architecture that mixes Middle Eastern and Southern European traditions.

In fact, Pavel did a very good job chronicling our trip to Ashkelon. You should check out his blog post (linked above). I really have only a few things to add. Although there were no overt signs that there had been a war just a few weeks prior, we saw unusual amount of "construction." Most of the work being done seemed normal, but there were several buildings that appeared to have structural damage. Whenever we saw such a building, Pavel would ask a local what the construction was for. Unfortunately, we were never able to get a clear answer. This makes sense, though. I don't know anything about any of the construction going on in Conshohocken. Hey, look at some pictures with explanations!

We spent a good amount of time at the Marina, the main shopping, eating, and nightlife area in Ashkelon. We later learned that a rocket landed in the Marina during the war. People stopped visiting the section and several businesses closed.

The beaches were very nice.

Look, an ampitheater!

This is a park.

Our trip to Ashkelon? Two thumbs, waaaaay up. Byeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee