2 Guys' Trip Up North

Friday, 29 Oct, Day 1: Traveling
Today we got in the car and drove for 90 minutes to Tiberius (a city on the edge of the Sea of Galilee). We stayed there for 2 hours. First, Tiberius is a city on a cliff that we were driving on. We had trouble with the parking meter at first, but we finally found one that worked. We then had lunch on a bench on the promenade. We walked around a bit on the promenade, and then got ice cream. Tiberius is 210 meters below sea level, and is an important place for Christian history. We then went to Qatsrin where we spent the night in a field school (a place for people who like to study about nature to sleep and study). But it was only 3:00. So, what do you think we did? We went to watch a 3D 180' movie about the Golan Heights. In the same building, there was a brewery/ restaurant. So, instead of going there for dinner, we went there for dessert. I had a fancy apple pie and my dad tasted their beers, and then had at it. Don’t worry; it was only a little beer. We went back to our hotel room and slept like babies.

(Check out a map of our 4 day trip! http://maps.google.com/maps/ms?ie=UTF8&hl=en&msa=0&msid=108920871766503185879.000494a4c728d5bfcde86&z=10
Saturday, 30 Oct, Day 2: Exploring the Golan Heights
We woke up to the sound of birds chirping. We got up and went to the cafeteria for breakfast. They gave us a surprisingly good breakfast. Because the cafeteria was closed tomorrow, we got our breakfast for tomorrow served on a tray to our room. We put it in the refrigerator for tomorrow. We hung out till 12:00, then we went to a archeological site but we only had 5 minutes till we had to go to our next activity so, we decided to skip the archeological site. Do you want to know what our next activity was? Horseback riding over the whole Golan Mountains! My horse’s name was Lola. My dad’s was Rosie. Both girls! We rode around on the rocky cliffs all over the Golan. We rode for about a hour and a half. Once we finished, my legs were sore. We then went to The Hula Nature Reserve (see my other Post).

Dad and I horsing around, with views of the Golan and Lake Kinneret all around!

Sunday, 31 Oct, Day 3: Extreme Israel

Today, we woke up again to the sounds of THUNDER??????? Yup, it was raining. I could not believe this! On the best day of our trip it was raining!!!!! I woke up before my dad, so only I knew that it was raining. I woke my dad up and told him that it was raining. He did not really care because he was still in sleep mode. After he “woke up”, he said, “Oh, that’s a bummer.” As a result, we stayed inside and watched T.V. 10 minutes later, the sun came out, and it looked like it had never rained. Outside, we tried to start the car, but of course, the car didn’t start. We tried for an hour, no luck. Finally, we called the car rental company and they said to close all the doors and then lock them for ten minutes. We did, and they worked. We were relieved, but we were angry because we had not only had this problem today, but in previous days as well. Once we were on the road, we had called our guide to tell him we would be late. After we picked up our guide Moshe and got to our first destination, it was10:13. Our first activity was a major rope swing. There was a major cave/ closed-in arch that was 200 yards tall. We went to the top bit and dropped a rope down. We then went inside the cave through the slope end of the cave to the bottom of the cave. We attached the rope to our harnesses and started doing a major swing. I made my dad go first. After I had gone, the guide asked us to do it again a different way. I was thinking there is no other way to swing. But, I was proved wrong. The guide took his turn, but when he went, he did a flip in the air!!! Then he got off and told us to do the same. I went "No way!" My dad said sure. After he had gone, I had changed my mind. I said I would try. I tried but only did it half way. When we finished it was 11:22.

Our next activity was spelunking (caving). We went down to the bottom of the cave where there was a small hole in the ground which we climbed into. It had obviously been a long dark ditch a long, long time ago. Over time erosion occurred which caused the falling of rocks. Basically we were like snakes swerving in and out of rocks. At the bottom of the cave, our guide told us to turn off our flashlights. We did and it was pitch, pitch black. The guide told us to put our hand in front of our faces and see if we could see anything; darkness. He then told us to put our hand far away from our face; same result. After that, he told us to do the same thing closing our eyes. No difference. He then explained why it was so important to have your headlight. He then told us the story how a religious orthodox kid was spelunking by himself, and his headlight broke. He was found by our guide’s group the next morning. He was stuck in that cave fore 24 hours without food, water, a phone, or a bathroom! We turned our headlights back on and headed out of the cave. Once we got out, we looked at each other and started to laugh. Why? Because we were the dirtiest things alive. I was kinda hungry so we had lunch. After lunch, we drove to our next destination. By then it was 1: 30.

 We 'splunked' for 3 hours in crevices in Alma Cave in total darkness except for our headlamps!

Our last activities were repelling and hiking which literally was rock climbing very high atop the mountains. We repelled off the top of a 12 story high arch. It was the scariest thing I had ever done in my life. Again I let my dad go first. I only sort of went. I went at the same time as the guide so I wouldn’t be alone. Now I wish I would have done it by myself, but then I was too scared. A long time ago it was a cave like the one we swung in, but over time the roof got too heavy, therefore collapsing. If you flew overhead in a plane, you would see a big hole in the top. If you looked at it from the side, you would see a big hole in the side. Once we repelled down that, we came out the hole in the side. We scooted a little to the right and climbed up the cliff to the level where we started. Then we hiked back to our car. By the time we got back to the car, it was 5:00. Over all, it was a pretty extreme day for us both.


Yep, that's Dad hangin' there!




Yes, that is ME and the guide Moshe hanging off the mountain - look how high up we are!!

Tonight we weren’t sleeping in the field school; we were sleeping in a tzimmer! A tzimmer is a big bed and breakfast kind of a place. There was no second B for us though. A tzimmer is much, much, much fancier than a B and B. The town it is in is one of the oldest towns in Israel. The tzimmer had all the walls made out of stone and everything was old. There was a huge, huge, huge Jacuzzi with special salts, soaps, smelly (good) things, and candles! It was a dream come true! I was so happy I almost fainted! We were so dirty that we had to take showers BEFORE we could take (jacuzzi) baths! Today was one of the best days of my life!

After our 'Extreme' advenure day, we treated ourselves to a luxury 'tzimmer' in beautiful Rosh Pina - complete with bubble bath jacuzzi and comfy white bath robes!

Monday, Day 4: The Army Base

Today, I woke up in total darkness. I thought I was still in the cave! Nope, just the dark curtains in the tzimmer. I got up and fumbled around for my i-pod. I found it and then went back to bed. I stayed up watching it for an hour, and then my dad woke up. We made ourselves breakfast and went outside to enjoy our breakfast overlooking the Golan on our deck. After we packed up and hit the road, we went to a handmade chocolate store and found some of the most amazing sweets ever!!! What we would call pralines, they would call cakes! And what we would call a mini truffle, they would call a praline! We thought we would be eating 5 pralines our size, but instead, we got truffles!!!!!

After our chocolate mishap, we were on the road to an army base. Our friend arranged for a special VIP visit for us to see a very elite fighting force in training - most Israelis never get to see this!  There we got to see real guns being fired and real bullets coming out of the guns. We had to put earplugs in our ear as we watched them conduct a firing routine. They had 40 pounds on them, they were running up hill, they had to dodge huge boulders in there way, they had to roll over while they were running, most of them got very hurt running, they were caring 20 pound guns with a 5 pound bullet case, they had to shoot while they were running, they had to give each other fire cover, and in the real thing dodge real bullets flying at them. Sounds tough? Believe me; I was feeling their pain just watching them. We then went to the cafeteria to have lunch with them and I saw some pretty hungry soldiers in there. I wasn’t the least surprised either!

The soldiers trained to 'take' a steep hill.

When we left the army base we got on the road and there was bad traffic so, I was bored for 3 hours. When we got home, I had a bittersweet feeling for I missed my mom and brother, but this was an experience of a lifetime.