On Monday we went on a tour with new immigrants to some places north of Tel Aviv along the coast. We explored a nature area/garden that was very beautiful. It also had a crypt but it was closed so we did not get to see it. After about an hour, we got back on the bus (always a half hour after we were expected to be leaving) and went to a winery called Tishbi. We had a short tour of the winery (it’s small)…everyone’s favorite place was the cooler where all the barrels of wine were stored, not because it was the most interesting, but because it was a break from the heat! We sampled a few wines and bought two bottles of our favorite for our hosts in Jerusalem.
After everyone was sufficiently tipsy we headed to the town of Zichron Yachov. It is a small town with a nice mix of old and new things. For some reason it actually kind of reminded me of an Israeli version of Los Gatos (although quite a bit less ‘made up’). There were nice little shops to look into and lots of small restaurants. We took a small historical tour with our guide and learned that the land was originally inhabited by one hundred Romanian Jews. It also had running water nearly 25 years before Jerusalem! The synagogue was opened in 1886 and had been actively used three times a day for every day since then. We did have an interesting experience though was we were about to leave. Some of the men on the tour were inside the Synagogue praying and I guess it turned out that door was supposed to have been locked and we were not meant to have been inside when we were, because an irate man saw the men inside the synagogue and instead of asking them nicely to leave….he locked them in!!! It was horrible and our tour guide inside lost his temper momentarily and kicked open the door!! Luckily it just broke the lock, not the actual door, but there was a lot of yelling following the incident and we left rather in a hurry. It was bad on both their sides, but that man had some nerve to interrupt their prayers to lock them in and yell at them.
We were exhausted after our adventures so Anat heated up some pasta, which we ate in the Sukkah, and we went to bed. It was good for me to get a glimpse of a bit of the Northern part of Israel, but there is still a lot more for me to see. Although we will be living in the most southern part of the country, I will still make it up there sometime.
Rosh Ha'Ayin
For one night we stayed with Eran (Ben’s cousin of some sort) and his family in Rosh Ha’ayin, a bit northeast of Tel Aviv. It was a blast! Eran made a smorgusboard of food for us and we feasted for what felt like hours! They also have two dogs that I had a good time giving attention to...I’ve decided that if I tell them to dogs will send Maybe my love (whatever, it makes me feel better, otherwise I think I’m cheating on her!) After dinner Eran’s 10 year old daughter (Shay, pronounced Shy) and I started playing wii….and we kept playing and kept playing. We bowled, shot arrows, played ping-pong, cycled up and down hills, wakeboarded, canoed, and shot baskets. By midnight I was sweating, sore and smiling. She doesn’t speak very much English so our playing consisted of grunts and laughs and first and progressively graduated to yells of ‘AGAIN’ from her, and “od pa’am” (one more time) from me as we both practiced our few words of the other’s language. Ben joined the games as well and we went to bed exhausted and happy from a very fun evening. I’m still sore!
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