Blogging from my phone...

Only a couple more weeks until I'm on a 12 hour flight to the middle east. :/






Wonder if I can get bumped up to first class?

Can't wait to write for the majority of the flight...

Location:Frankford Ave,Philadelphia,United States

January 24th, 2009 - Tel Aviv, Israel

I woke up up from a nap after finally checking into the Sky Hostel. It's in the heart of a Tel Aviv, a street called Ben Yahuda, down the street from a gorgeous beach. I showered and went out to search for a nice place to eat with Jackie. We ended up at a cafe/restaurant that Jackie had eaten at before. I had sweet potato and Parmesan ravioli, accompanied by a fresh salad and a couple Stella Artois beers. The weather was perfect, so we ate outside and watched people walk around on Shabbat. We drank, and talked about the trip in full detail for the first time. We had a ton of laughs and learned about each others favorite times. It felt good to reminisce, as the entire day was filled with sadness that the trip was over and our friends had all gone home. It is a strange feeling to be the last ones from our trip still around. All that is left to do at a moment like this is to ponder what fun you've already had. It's a great feeling, but an extremely vulnerable one. Especially when you are forced to walk around the last place you saw all of your friends for 6 hours until your hostel is ready! This gave me time to think about everything in great detail, and almost re-experience it in a way... During our "timeline" discussion, my phone rang. It was one of the Israeli girls that was on my trip, Maya! We met up with her, another Israeli friend named Or, and a few of their friends and drank a couple bottles of wine at a nice little pub. We had the best time, remembering the littlest things... Before you know it, the time was 4am. Jackie, Maya and I left to get early morning sushi at a crazy sushi bar in the middle of the street. It was fantastic and unbelievably cheap. An entire roll of sushi was 11 NIS. $1 = 4 NIS. We are meeting up with the Israelis again today for one last run around Tel Aviv before we head to the airport at 10pm. We are going to Old Jafo today to ride on magic carpets. Hopefully they are less turbulent than the airplanes we have been riding. Old Jafo is kind of like a reallly old flea market with tons of second hand/third hand items. It's very fun. I'll send a wrap up I'm sure, but some of you may see me before you read my last email. If you are one of those people, I cannot wait.

January 23rd, 2009 - Tel Aviv, Israel

We arrived in Tel Aviv around 4 in the morning. We slept the entire flight, so it didn't matter too much that our hostel reservations got a little screwed up. We decided to take a walk and get some food because we weren't able to get dinner last night. We had falafal and pizza at 5:30am on a strip in Tel Aviv that was still crazy bumpin til all hours of the morning. The clubs were still blaring music when we left to go to the beach to watch the sunrise. We sat on a bench across from the hotel where we spent our last night with the group and watched as the sky change colors in the most amazing way (see picture.) We are still up and waiting to check into the hostel at 11. We walked a little and ended up at a cafe in Old Tel Aviv that is really awesome. We remembered it from a tour we did with the group because of the graffiti paintings on the wall across the street that we took pictures with. Great coffee and hot chocolate! Yesterday we spent the rainy day in Paris by going to the Musee D'Orsay and eating at our favorite French restaurant in the gallery district. Before we caught the airport shuttle, I decided I couldn't leave Paris without trying some real creme brûlée. The airport was a fiasco. We were pretty much flagged as terrorists and had to take everything out of our bags and get swabs taken of our stuff for ion testing. Israelis do not like to stand in lines, so they all barge in one big clump and get stuck in doorways. So you can imagine what each part of the airport check-in was like... Needless to say, a whole bunch of Jews in one small packed space is always a kvetch. We will probably sleep all day and go out with some friends tonight. Maybe the beach tomorrow? We have lost our tans from being in the cold of Europe for a week... I cant believe its almiat over! We've begun the countdown however, with slightly less than two days until we see our homes, family and friends. I think we are ready.

From Israel with love...

January 12th, 2009 - Masada and The Dead Sea

My Israel trip is almost finished, and it has gone by so fast that I have hardly had time to really take any of it in... Not really sure where I left off, maybe I was about to meet the Israeli soldiers that were to join my trip...? Well they have been traveling with us ever since, and I have really become friends with all ten of them. It is really great to have them around and get a better understanding of Israeli life, but even better to hear their stories about the war going on right now... I have learned so many things about the conflict and it's history along with what feels like every piece of Israeli history ever. The whole trip has been one very concise history bio in the likes of some discovery channel biopic. Today I climbed Masada, swam in the dead sea, rode a camel through the desert, and attempted to ride a donkey, although my feet were hitting the ground. Last night I slept at the Bedouin tents in the middle of the desert. Bedouins are Arabs that live sort of nomadic lives and have absolutely no material belongings other than coffee, tea, and musical instruments, which they live by. The night was a blast, and I played Jewish Geography for hours with the other groups from birthright. So far I have run into four people I know from home in the deserts of Israel. It's a funny feeling when your across the globe and you see someone from another life. I'm leaving for Paris in a couple days with Jackie and although we will surely see the louvre and other areas of interest, my real interests are as follows: drawing in cafes, finding the worlds best falafal, drinking coffee, finally relaxing.

January 8th, 2009 - Jerusalem, Israel

So right now it is 6:20am and I am watching the sun rise in a very fancy hotel in Jerusalem. We arrived here last night after a 3 hour drive from Heifa, a huuuge city that reminds me of a mix between San Francisco and Dubai... It is massive and everything is run on solar power. Israel is extremely energy efficient in every way, it's quite unbelievable. We visited our tour guide Dani's kibbutz yesterday and hiked such a beautiful trail with olive bushes and lemon trees and mango trees. The kibbutz really reminded me of the show Lost! You'll see pictures when it doesn't cost me a fortune to send them! I should be able to upload in Paris... Two days ago we had a full day of greatness. I have to tell you that we are really treated like kings and queens over here. First we woke up and hiked the Golan Heights, which was too beautiful for words. Waterfalls, every kind of fruit imaginable, palm trees, eucalyptus and bamboo everywhere. I've seen eagles and lizards and wild boars and wild cats (they all look just like Rufus and MIA!!) There is definitely a discovery channel aspect about this trip and you know I dig that stuff! After the Golan Heights, we went for food and a wine tasting at a vineyard in a volcano. We drive our bus down into the volcano which would have made you all puke. It's like one of those twisty turny little roads that is so close to falling off the edge... To tell you the truth, we saw multiple cars at the bottom that had fallen off over the years, kinda freaky. After the winery, we went to a hot spring SPA!!!! Now when I say that this was the most amazing, rejuvenating experience of my life so far, I am not lying. It was like a real Turkish bath at the bottom of a volcano, but the whole place was made into an ornate Spa with basketball coarts, soccer fields, alligator ranches, masseuses, underwater valleys of natural hot tubs... We spent 3 hours getting pampered there. Then we went back to our kibbutz where we partied all night with two other groups from birthright, one from England, and one from Toronto. We drank wine from the vineyard until every last drop was gone. Everybody instantly became friends, and it was sad to leave the first kibbutz that we visited. Today, we have 8 Israeli soldiers that are joining our group permanently to spend the rest of our trip with us. Yes, Israelis do birthright too! It's a huge thing in their culture, and it's a great way to really get to know their life. I've met so many kinds of people here so far. The markets in the cities are like the ones in Aladdin. They are so cool! All the Arabs try to barter with you... They all like my mustache and tell me I have the "cousin" discount!! Hehe. I have been partying and enjoying everything so much, that I really haven't slept much. Last night I finally stayed in instead of going to the bar. It was much needed. I can't wait to see what's in store next.

Peace in the Middle East!