Day 5.... Stay at home day

I am not used to the food yet so my stomach has been upset.  Today we just relaxed and stayed at home.  I talked to My family who are visiting Israel as well and I will meet up with them either on monday or Wednesday in Jerusalem.  I Made a mistake and put the dome of the rock picture with the lable of  El-azek mosque which was wrong....Oops.   Today I have learned that we cannot go visit many historic towns because they are not safe for jewish people.  Some of these places are Hebron, Bethlehem (where you can visit the place where Jesus was supposedly born), Jericho (which is the oldest city in the world), and many other places. I am very disapointed and I want to go anyway, but I understand that my and Adams safety are the most important thing.  As a matter of fact I think it is forbiden for the Jewish people of Israel to go to Jericho (dont quote me  : ) )

Random Facts:

Tel-Aviv means Spring Hill

You have to show the inside of your bags before entering a public store or coffee shop

When an olive tree is cut down it will grow back

The olive trees in the Garden of Gethsemane are saplings of the original olive trees from the time of Jesus

The Dead sea is the lowest section of the earths crust.

Thats it for today, its been a "cool" weekend and is supposed to heat up starting tomorrow.  Cool is in quotations because it still feels HOT. (its only about 8o somthing degrees out but feels much hotter.)

Day 4

Today Adam and I decided to go to one of the 2 golf courses in Israel.  It was not a hot day for Israel so it was perfect for hitting some balls on the driving range.  we drove for about 30 minutes and arrived at the golf course where I believe there were more visitors than Israelis. When we went into the pro shop they Immedietly greeted us in English and Spoke English to us.  When we puchased the golf balls and the rental clubs the guy behind the counter over charged us, Adam corrected him and told me that people here always try to do that to unsespecting tourists.  After hitting a few rounds of balls (not so well, might I say) We headed off to the beach.  We went to a small beach that you have to hike down to.  There were only about 20 people there so it was quite relaxing.  The water of the Medetrainian was slightly warm and nice to be in.  We left shortly after a quick dip in the water and went back home, ate some food and watched Israeli Dancing with the stars.  Adams Parents have been wonderful to me and I was very lucky to have my own personal tour guides : )  There is so much more to see and do, luckly I have some time.  We will go to Eilat next week and to the Dead Sea.  We also plan on hikeing up to Messada.  Hopefuly I will meet my granfathers brother and his wife while I am here as well, they are traveling through Israel till next week.

Day 3...

Today was a slow day, spent most of the day relaxing.  In the afternoon we went to Jaffo Tel Aviv.  We walked down narrow old walkways and saw more ruins from the time of the Bible.  It was very relaxing and Beautiful.  The nice thing was that it was not that crowded because it is the day before Shabbat.  Afterwards we met some friends of adams parents for dinner at a resturant by the marina.  I had the best Fetta cheese I have ever eaten, and some really good salmon.  We came back to the house, had watermellon  on the porch and now I am off to bed.

P.S.  Just so everyone knows It is very safe here, I hope none of my last posts sounded otherwise.  There are cautions in Israel but it is safe.

Day 2.....Lost between Religions

dispite my jet-lag and not planing to do anything on my first day, Adam and his mom were in a hurry to show me the country.  We decided to visit the old city of Jerusalem.  Adams mom is a tour guide for a living and knows all the places in Israel, so she gave the tour and adam translated.  We drove down a road to Jerusalem that is shut off to Jews after dark because it drives through muslim towns and it is considerd un safe for Jews, although Adam assured me that it was perfectly safe durring the day.  We got to Jerusalem and parked had coffee and walked to the old city. At the coffee shop, before going in you had to show your bag to security. Upon entering the old city the streets became narrow walkways with old stone steps leading past small marketplace shops. as you walked down the narrow walkways you could smell the Intoxicating scent of exotic spices, foods and Incensce.  There were stores that sold Christian, Jewish and Muslim Items, the store workers spoke many languages to cater to most touists.  After walking through long maze like walkways we came upon the church that housed the place where Jesus was put on the cross, crusified, removed and then burried.  It was enchanting to stand in a place so old and to touch the rock where Jesus was crusified.  We walked by the stone where Jesus was Prepared for burial and then the room built over the place where the cave was which Jesus had been put to rest.  Outside were old ruins everywhere of columns, old walls and walkways which were older than one could imagine.  When Inside the building, I lined up to touch the place where Jesus had been crusified and Adam said because he was Jewish he was forbiden to touch it.  I still dont understand, I am not Christian and to me it was just amazing to touch a place so old and so legendary.  We went on to the western wall walking by countless ruins and old pillars and collumns now used as benches.  When we reached the western wall Adam told me to follow his mom to the part for women and he was going to the part for men, he told me to touch the wall, think happy thoughts, and walk away from the wall backwards not turning you back on it.  I am not Jewish either but to go up to the wall and see all the people praying and sticking their notes in the cracks was awe inspireing.  Over the wall you could see the rounded gold plated roof of the now muslim temple, Unfortunatly going beyond the wall was not and option for us.  At that point it was time for me to get some rest, and the 80 degree weather felt more like 99 degrees.  So we left the old city and headed back home, we will go back another day.

P.S. I know I have many spelling mistakes, My spell check was not working... ; )

Day 1

After a long 5 hour flight to New York, and an even longer 10.5 hour flight into Tel Aviv, I finaly landed in Israel. the mother and child behind me spoke English all the way from New York and once we landed in Tel Aviv Imediatly switched to speaking Hebrew.  Some of the religious Jewish men on the flight were praying in the isles as we prapared to cross into israeli airspace.  We left the airplane to find ourselves in a nicely renovated airport with fountains, cafes and lots of glass windows.  Adam was waiting for me outside customs, we got in his car and headed to Modiin Israel.  It was only a 15 minute drive from the large city of Tel Aviv to the small town of Modiin. Modiin is a new residential town half way between Tel Aviv and Jerusalem, it consists mostly of tightly packed apartment buildings, it is what i would have imagined a town in Israel to look like.  I met Adam's parents and used the 5 words in hebrew that I knew, luckly adam did all the translating for us.  We ate and ate and ate watched a little Israeli T.V. and I went to bed.  I had trouble falling asleep because every five minutes or so I could hear Boom, Boom, Boom far off in the distance.  It was quite far away, but sounded like bombs going off in the distance. I asked adam what it was and he said that we were close to the border of where the arabs live and there was always some type of conflict going on on that side of Israel.  Finaly it stoped and I went to sleep, and slept peacefuly.

Finaly leaving

Well, although it seems no one even reads my blog, I will continue to write in it in case somone is interested. I leave tuesday morning, tomorrow my aunt and grandma will drive me to sacramento then I will take a train to SF bay area. My mom and I will spend some time together and she will take me to the airport in the morning. It will be a long flight from San Francisco to New York and then from New York to Tel Aviv. I hear that Israel is on the brink of starting a war with Iran, that is a little scary, however I am sure things will be just fine. My grandparents have been great in helping me get ready for my trip, I am very greatful for that. Now I just need to get that flight over with. Adam says it really hot in tel aviv, however I checked the temperature there and it was only in the 80s I am sure it will get much hotter but I can handle it. I will try to post lots of pictures.

waiting for the day of the flight..

I am terrified of flying. Unfortunatly I have many nights lately where I cant sleep because I am scared of flying on my trip. Once on the flight I always get over my fear (unless there is turbulance.) I just wish that I could blink and be at my destination, without haveing to fly. but it will all be worth it. : ) Today I packed more stuff. I have no Idea what to wear, I checked on line for what the locals wear in Israel. I have heard things from casual dress to dress up. Obviously in the religious areas I would have to wear a skirt to my ankels and a top that has sleeves. Crocs (ewww.) are very popular there, but you wont see me in them. I figure basic comfortable summer wear will get me through the trip just fine. I will not bring jeans, the weather will be way too hot. I have a list of places I would like to visit, from the western wall in jerusalem to the hip shopping areas in tel aviv, and I can always buy clothes while I am there : )

Traveling...

So I got my tickets today. I leave on the 24th of June and return on the 18th of July. My cousins Kiley and Maddi are in Peru right now and will be gone for a few weeks. I am very happy for them and excited to see their photos. I think it is wonderful that we can all see the world. I plan on seeing as much as I can and will post pictures regularly. Anyway I should start packing..... ; )

Going to Israel

I will be going to Israel in a week and spending a few weeks there. I will be meeting Adam out there (my Husband, who has been there for a few weeks already) and I will meet my family in laws. None of them speak English, so I have 1 week to learn as much Hebrew as possible.

Shalom!!

My Blog...

This blog will be mostly about traveling, hoping I will be doing more of that in the future. But it will be about many other things, anything that inspires me to write and share my experiences with others. I have traveled to many different states with my grandparents as I was growing up, when I was 16 my mom took me to Europe for the first time. I loved it! I have always enjoyed traveling, I love road trips. I do not like to fly, it scares me but being able to go anywhere around the world makes it worth it. I moved to Louisiana for a year, and growing up in California, it was quite an experience. I got married in October 2006 to a man from Israel, together we have traveled some of the U.S. states including spending a great deal of time in Florida. (this last Feb we took a wonderful road trip to Key West.) I love all types of places from Paris to tropical paradises. Some places I hope to go to in the future are Thailand, Egypt, Russia, Greece, south America, Cuba, and I would always love to go back to Europe. Thank you for taking time to look at, and read my blog, I hope you read my future posts.