Laura's Visit

A few short days later my friend Laura came to visit! Yet another happy surprise that I didn’t know I’d get to have when I first trekked off to Israel. I seem to really love playing tour guide (whether here, or Los Angeles, or Albuquerque, you name it), so this was a blast. It was especially wonderful since Laura had never been to Israel before. We started in Tel Aviv. My roommate Maya and I took the bus there for the weekend (We also celebrated my birthday- 26! Wow!). The 3 of us had a great time walking around the funky artsy section of Neve Tzedek, going to Rabin Square, lounging on the beach, eating a wonderful birthday fish dinner at the Tel Aviv port, and walking around Jaffa.

Enjoying the beach in Tel Aviv

At Kikar Rabin (this sculpture is a Star of David from an aerial view)

We headed back to Jerusalem for the week. I had a wonderful time showing her the sites and seeing this wonderful/often bizarre country through fresh eyes. We filled ourselves silly on hummus and pastries, and she’s such a wonderful explorer that when I had classes I had to just point her in the right direction and she was off exploring the city for herself.

My delicious cheese filled bourekas in the shuk

View of the Western Wall from above from our Old City tour

The Tuesday she was here I played hooky from class and we signed up for a tour for “independent travelers” that took us to Masada, Ein Gedi, and the Dead Sea. First stop at Masada. We hiked the “Snake Path” which is 2mi long and an ascent of 1,300ft. It was blazing hot and quite a hike. I don’t understand how the Romans could possibly have done that with all their equipment. We got to the top and explored a little bit, but determined to not pay for the cable car on the way back down we nearly sprinted back down the snake path to catch our bus.

Thoroughly exhausted, but we made it to the top!

After that we were bussed to Ein Gedi. Ein Gedi is a beautiful nature reserve. Luckily it was not a strenuous hike, but merely a walk and we got to see some beautiful waterfalls.

At the first waterfall

In front of the David waterfall in Ein Gedi

After that we were bussed to the Dead Sea. They took us to a wonderful section that didn’t have too many other people. The Dead Sea has different areas along the water and not all of them have accessible mud. Luckily for us, the mud was right under our feet so we could just dig it up and slather it on.

Soaking up the nutrients in the mud

Friday morning Laura and I bussed it up to Tiberias. The city itself normally isn't a major destination point, but we wanted to see the Sea of Gallilee (Kinneret), and without a car it seemed to be the easiest point to find a place to sleep at night. We had a wonderful (although quite hot) hike with gorgeous views of the Sea. And then with a little effort we found a nice place to go for a dip.

View from our hike

Where we went for a swim

The next day we headed to Tsfat- the city of mystical Judaism/Kaballah. It was a nice city with lots of artists. It’s an interesting place as you see a lot more “hippy Orthodox” than other places.

After that we returned to Jerusalem and Laura took off back to America literally at the crack of dawn the next day.

I only have a handful of weeks left for my classes so I’m working on wrapping up my projects and enjoying the rest of my time in Jerusalem.