It’s been over 6 years since this trip. I compiled these entries relying on a combination of memory and the trip journal I kept at the time. Okay, mostly the trip journal – my memory’s not that good. But in…
Home again
Home sweet home. When the plane landed, we clapped. The rest of the passengers – commuters and the like – probably thought we were insane. But we’d been in transit for 18 hours at that point, so it made sense…
Toronto again
Despite the counting issues, we arrived in Toronto a little bit early. Exhausted, we all made our way to the domestic terminal, where we attempted to get onto earlier flights to Montreal. There were a lot of rushed goodbyes in…
The flight attendants who can’t count
The flight was long, but I slept through most of it. Despite the constant noise, I was so exhausted, I barely noticed the time passing. The airline, in its wisdom, seated everyone alphabetically, leaving friends who wanted to sit together…
Day 10: Tel Aviv, Old Jaffa, and dinner at Yotveta
Last day of the trip. We made our way to Tel Aviv in the morning and visited Rabin Square, where Rabin was assassinated in 1995. Then, we went to the Old City of Yafo (Jaffa). We saw a group of…
Day 9: Golan Heights, Safed, and disco in Tel Aviv
Today we went up to the Golan Heights. It was so cold and windy, Boaz refused to get off the bus. (Yeah, he really wouldn’t like Winnipeg, especially in the winter). We saw tanks that were left over from various wars,…
Day 8: Arbel and Tel-Dan
Mud in everything. Socks, jeans, shoes, hands, hair. That was the picture after a day of amazing hiking. It all began with a hike down the magnificent cliffs of Arbel. It was beautiful, though I’d never climbed down cliffs with…
Day 7: Atlit, Haifa, Druze Village and Tiberias
Destination: Northbound. We jumped on the bus in the morning, headed for Atlit. I kept thinking about how small the distances were in Israel compared to home. We passed Israel’s richest area, in Caesaria by the golf course, and right…
Day 6: Shabbat and the Gala
Shabbat programming took up the day – exercises on Jewish Identity, and a seminar on Mideast politics. Both were very interesting and well-done. Of course they were one-sided, especially the seminar, but the person running it was engaging and well-educated…
Day 5: Yad Vashem, Tel Aviv, and Netanya
We woke up and had a short preparation seminar, and then went to Yad Vashem. It was the most emotionally difficult part of the trip. I’d already been there back in ’93, so I guess I wasn’t expecting to be…