Winter 2008-9 Trip....

Behind "what was is like?" many have politely asked since I returned Wednesday are questions either about my safety (isn't there a war going on there?) or my morality (isn't there a war going on there?). How could I possibly have gone on "vacation" in Israel when the country was trading bombs with the Gaza strip?

Well, much of my time there was spent watching the news 2 times a day, checking online news 3 times a day, and listening to BBC radio ten times a day. Almost every conversation I had was about causes and effects. Everyone I spoke with agreed Israel had to respond to the 8 years of rocket fire. Some I spoke with were staunchly opposed to the method. For brief periods, I stopped talking with my mom at all. During these daily exercises I traveled to the north to Safed, to Tel Aviv and Jerusalem, to the Negev and Eilat, and all over the south of the country for 12 days.

Tanks were on the roads when we drove around the outskirts of Beersheba, which was being bombed by Hamas. I saw the IDF's F-16s flying towards Gaza while I was walking through Ramat Hanadiv. My mom had frantic friends with children who were called to support the ground offensive. My friend in Tel Aviv was worried to pick up when I called him from an unknown number, and later to tell his pregnant wife when he did get a call. We drove through East Jerusalem a day before violent protests broke out there. We saw riot police on our way back from Safed. Our hosts in the desert near Azuz said they had large groups cancel their stays.

Beyond these immediate signs, the atmosphere there was not that different for a tourist than my first trip in 2007. Still soldiers at bus stations, highway check points, holy sites, and everywhere else. Still private security checking bags at entrances to stores, malls, and cafes. The threats Israel faces are impossible to ignore while your in the country. During this visit the threat was not just present, but immediate and practical. We altered driving routes to avoid rocket fire, we had to cancel a trip to Petra in Jordon, I had explained to me a public service announcement on the radio detailing what to do if the bomb sirens went off.

I did however profoundly enjoy my time in Israel, especially seeing my friends Pablo and Ester in Jerusalem, going to a wedding in Jaffa with Boaz and Ligad, partying New Years Eve in Tel Aviv with Anat, as well as walking around the Negev and snorkeling in the Red Sea with my mom.

Here are some pictures from my trip.

Winter 2008-9 Trip

Jews.

Ari Ashkenazi Synagogue in Safed. The box on the right says "break in case of need for emergency matza".

The Old City of Jerusalem from Mt.Olives.

Making the desert bloom.

Timna

Ibex at Mitzpe Ramon.

Anat's got ups in Neve Tzedek!

Over one thousand feet below see level. A salted rock in the Dead Sea.

New desert transport.

Old desert transport. Baby camel was two days old, you should have seen this thing try and stand on its ridiculously long and thin legs.

My last morning at Beerotayim, very close to the Egytian Border.

Where's that trail marker?! Lost in Timna.

the beautiful streets of Safed (also know as Tzfat, Tsfat, Zafat...)

cat in a box (cindy(rella)

The ancient Nabatean city of Shivta.

The Southern church in Shivta

My ma, in Eilat. Jordan's coast in the background.

New Years with Anat at Barzilay Club.

East Jerusalem.

Pablo! Mt.Olives in back.

where my mom sleeps.

Our hotel in Eilat, the Orchid. Coral Reef in foreground.

Up at 7AM and on the plane by 11 israel time. nyc at 4pm US time. on the china town bus at 8 and home in brookline at 1230. 24 hours travel time. \

IM HOME! CHECK OUT THE POST AND THEN GIVE ME A CALL!
Josh.

wow. ok, so, anat got back. the next day we walked around town for a bit and then went with some of her friends to a rooftop party with a dj and a band. the next day we were off to the desert, to a place near Arad she knows from her days producing parties, this is also how she knows so many bar owners, more on that in a bit....


the desert was awesome. we stayed at a Bedouin style place, just a semi permanent tent with three canvas walls and mats covering the dirt floor.



the tent was on a hill that overlooked the dead sea and beyond that jordan. we were close to where the dead sea scrolls were found and Masada.



we found out soon after we arrived there would be a meteor shower that night (??!!) there is no better place to watch the stars than the desert. now i have seen shooting stars before, a cool little white streak that disappears as soon as you look. these were very different. the meteors left big streaks of color across the sky, ive never seen anything like it. the first we saw were red, the next greenish and then yellow all with long tails. we stayed out till the sun rose over Jordon.



i woke up the next morning to a few Bedouin ladies walking their camels outside.


we returned to tel aviv the next day (israel is very small). after getting some drinks with boaz at the Betty Ford we went to the Minerva, Anat's favorite local lesbian hang out (good friends with the bartenders and DJ) then to The Mental (good friends with owner), then to Lima Lima (again owner), then to Abraxas a real popular place that plays my kind of music which in anat's mind is black music. we finished with late night eats at Dixie. sorry, no pictures that night.

Tuesday my mom came down from kiriat yam to see me on my last day. we walked all around the city and then ate at Itzik Hagadol (Itzik the great). delicious food, kababs and wine. i can not go into details on the food as there were 30 plates on our table. i was very satisfied.



after dinner my mom headed back north, and it was time to go out again....
first we went to the clara (or was it the claw?) a massive outdoor bar on the beach. there were at least a few hundred people there, I remind you this was a tuesday night. then we went to see anats best friend, shout out to DJ Tammi B, at a new bar also by the beach.

while we were there another one of her good friends (she has many) came and said we had to come next door to another bar to see a very good friend (who owned the bar). we go next door and theres a large crowd out front fighting to get in this place. we met the owner at a back door and were escorted in through the mens bathroom. the place was packed.

again, this was Tuesday night. Tel Avivians know how to party! i really enjoyed this place as it was one of the few I went to that was playing all Israeli music, mostly old disco sounding songs. Everybody in the entire bar including the bartenders was dancing along and screaming all the lyrics. unique. we finished that night with a bowl of the second best hummus in town...

I had an amazing shabbat dinner last night at Boaz's house. there were over 20 people there. After dinner, we played a little poker and I got to reduce my losses from the previous night. Then Anat, my other friend from Upeace arrived after taking the senic route home from costa rica through San Francisco and New York. She has promised to show me "her" tel aviv this weekend....

Went to the Tel Aviv Museum today. My favorite was sort of a auto biographical photo exhibit tracing the family of the photographers mother and two sisters. The first picture is of these three women in line showing their tattooed arms: A 7760, A 7761, A 7762. Three Holocaust survivors (there are still a quarter million of them alive in Israel). The family is now spread all over the physical, economic, and ideological landscape of Israel (and a few are also in Denmark and The Netherlands).

This was some weird poster I liked.


Yall bes to enjoy deez here fotos!... i walked a couple kilometers in the heat to get them.





Tel Aviv from Jaffa.

Tel Aviv.
I've been pounding the pavement hard the last few days. My hosts have been very impressed. The city is one hundred years old, only half of which has been spent with israel being a country.

this is across from Levontin 7 where i saw the music the other night...


This pixilated bird kept following me.













views of the old and new development like this are all over the place. the old building in the middle is the model residential complex that you see thrown up all over the country. they are now in the process of replacing them.

A tree lined Rothschild Boulevard.

She made a very delicious juice mix of beet, ginger, carrot, and orange. these little juice shops are everywhere. she was playing marvin gaye.

this was on bograshov which is kind of like newberry st. in boston, lots of little shops and cool places to eat.

Here i am in Jaffa's market.