On The Golan Trail and Thru-Hiking

I'm trying to find the right words to capture the grandeur of my most recent hike, or trek for that matter, but I can't seem to find anything suitable. I suppose epic would come close. Perhaps mind-blowing, thought-provoking, or exhilarating. Regardless, Ari, Itai and I embarked last Sunday on the Golan Trail, a 125km hike (78 miles) through some of the most spectacular countryside and cultural anomalies Israel has to offer. The hike was tough, and at times I was so sore I swore I couldn't keep hiking, but somehow I did. We tried to test ourselves to see how fast we could do this trail, finishing in 5 days of hiking, which meant waking up each morning at 6:30 and setting up camp as the sun went down. We could have gone faster, but we allotted a fair amount of time to taking in some of the sights along the path.

Green-blue-white

I'll start with a little overview of the region. If you're exemplary of our generation and bore easily or are an uncultured serf, just skip this section. I find this shit fascinating. Anyway...The Golan Heights is a mountainous region of volcanic origin in the northeast corner of the country. The northern Golan rises as it culminates into Mount Hermon, the tallest point in Israel, Syria, and second tallest in Lebanon. The summit itself is in a UN Buffer Zone separating Israel from Syria. Mount Hermon is easily the most prominent peak of the region, visible from all across the Golan Heights. Moving south, the Heights is permeated by volcanic cones, and the further south, the less hilly the terrain is, and the more it forms a plateau. The region has clear vistas throughout of the Upper Galilee and the Jordan River Valley on the west, and the Syrian plain on the east. Strategically, the Golan Heights represents a crucial vantage point. 

Until 1967, Syria controlled the Golan Heights, with the border of the two countries being the Jordan River in the south, up along the Kineret, and northwards along the Jordan River, and then the Banias Stream. Israeli civilians living along the Kineret, during this period, were subject to sniper fire from the Heights. The majority of the population living in the region was (and to some extent, still is) the Druze people who follow a religion based on oral tradition and secrecy. In 1967, Israel went to war with basically all of it's neighbors (Commandments be damned) in a series of battles known as the Six Day War. Basically all of Israel's neighbors except Lebanon were gearing up for war (Egypt, Jordan, and Syria), so Israel preemptively stuck Egypt's air force, causing a full-out war versus the three countries. Israel kicked ass. Seriously. They pushed Egyptian forces not only back to Sinai, but beyond all the way across the Suez Canal, capturing the Sinai peninsula. They pushed the Jordanian forces across the Jordan River, capturing the Old City of Jerusalem and subsequently annexing East Jerusalem and conquering Judea and Samaria (modern day West Bank). And in the north, they pushed the Syrian forces out of the Golan Heights, capturing and securing the northern border. Over 100,000 Syrians fled the Golan Heights following the war. In the aftermath, Israel's land area tripled in size.

Deeply metaphorical

Enough of history for now. So the three of us left Tel Aviv early Sunday morning on an overcrowded bus ride to Kiryat Shmona (as an aside, I love having to spend four hours sitting on the floor of a bus). We switched buses once there to catch the Golan bus 58, service to Buqa'ata, stopping in Majdal Shams (our destination). The bus ride up to the Golan was not quite what I expected. I thought it would be a bunch of Druze, instead, it was a bus packed with hikers. The atmosphere in the bus was glowing. We get into Majdal around 1:00 and check out the town.

Majdal Shams (via Wikipedia)

Majdal Shams is the largest Druze village in the Golan Heights, as well as the northernmost and highest elevation village in Israel. This town is insanely beautiful. It's on the southern slope of Hermon and the town itself bends and contorts to the terrain. The roads flow in such a non-linear fashion, it's breathtaking We walked through the town, stopping for felafel at a pretty cool Druzi joint. From the top of Majdal, we tried to get a taxi to the beginning of the trail (it starts a bit up Hermon), but there's no taxis there, so we started the trail about 3km short of the trailhead. Oh well. We began our hike at approximately 2:10pm, so to finish the hike in 5 days, we needed to finish on Friday by that time.

Day 1: Majdal Shams to Odam Nature Reserve (11km)

The first day of hiking was, comparatively, pretty unremarkable, but even on the most bland of days hiking the trail, we were blown away. Since there were so many people hiking the trail at this time of year (spring break, woo), it felt at times more like a pilgrimage than a trek. Leaving Majdal Shams on the trail, we stared in awe at the snowfields atop Mount Hermon. We meandered through an artificial forest, finding our way to the top of an adjacent hill where there was a pretty legit campsite sporting some tepees and Bedouin tents. Strange.

Tepees with Hermon and Majdal Shams in the background

We continued along the trail (a dirt road for farmers at this point) towards, and then through the Druze village of Mas'ade, passing some quaint farms with rows of flowering orchids. It was really quite picturesque.

Farms on the outskirts of Mas'ade

After Mas'ade, we decided to call it a night, as sunset was quickly approaching. We tried to find our way to a campsite marked on the map, but got a bit lost and ended up having to stealth camp in the reservation. That night, the first night, we made a roaring fire that lasted a couple hours. Our two-person tent that we brought, as the namesake would suggest, only had room for two people, meaning that one of us had to take turns outside. Ari volunteered this night.

Fi-ya!

Day 2: Odam Nature Reserve to Ein Ziwan (27km)


The second day was intense, in-your-face style hiking, more or less to see how far we could push ourselves in a day. Ari made it through fine. I was exhausted. Itai was unresponsive. Despite the strenuousness of the hike, the first full day of hiking was breathtaking and brought us to some of the furthest corners of Israel, giving us a unique experience I doubt anyone else on the program has had. We woke up at 6:30am and broke camp by 8. The trail wandered though the Odam Reserve a bit before breaking free of what I would assume to be an artificial forest into sprawling countryside. The views from behind Har Odam were incredible. The countryside was separated into different circular terraces meant for grazing animals some thousand or so years ago and were currently in disuse.

Countryside and Hermon

The trial wrapped around the side of Odam and worked its way toward the regional "highway". The trail according to our book and markers went south of the Druze village of Buq'ata, but our map showed the trail going through the center of town. So we took our chances and hoofed it a kilometer up the road to Buq'ata, where we were greeted by friendly faces and happy children. Ari and I split a laffa filled with Druzi labne and zatar (Google those things if you don't understand Middle Eastern cuisine). As we walked through Buq'ata, I noticed that everyone was sitting around on their stoop on this beautiful day drinking yerba mate. It felt like I was back in Paraguay. We restocked on supplies at a local market and there again I noticed the abundance of yerba mate (and the lack of suitable food for camping). Strange.

Buq'ata (via Wikipedia)

So we left Buq'ata, navigating the farm roads by map, until we hit a gate marked on the map. So we found it...the Old Golan Trail. What used to be a marked trail was now overgrown, although still a clearly defined path through the Hermonit Nature Reserve. As we walked on this trail, now navigating by compass and map, we stopped for a moment to appreciate the quiet, solidarity, and for me to take an incredibly meditative shit.

"I think this is the trail!"

We met up with the regular trail in early afternoon on the eastern banks of Har (Hebrew for mountain) Hermonit (little Hermon). I'll stop to explain the views we were seeing here. To our north was Mount Hermon clearly visible, both the Israeli peak and the Syrian peak (a thousand meters higher). To the east of that was the UN Buffer Zone defined by the valley between the Golan Heights and Syrian mountains visible in the distance. In the valley itself were a few Syrian villages clearly visible, especially with Itai's binoculars. Due east of us was Syria. There were some hills south of us still in Israel with active military outposts, not to mention the outpost on top of Har Hermonit itself. This entire panorama was seen while standing on top of an abandoned Syrian tank directly adjacent to a minefield. Welcome, my friends, to the Golan Heights. I think at the closest point we were about 500 meters away from Syria.

Tanks for the land, Syria (too soon?)

The trail then turned back toward Israel, where we passed a reservoir (Ari took a dip), bought some delicious apples along the trail, and began to climb Mount Bental. Now if you're a tourist in Israel, there's a good chance you'll come to this mountain. Hell, Aardvark brought us here on our first field trip. Anyways, the trail climbs up the backside, and when I say climb, I mean climb. I'm not sure why it wiped me out as much as it did, but towards the end of a long day of hiking, the last thing you want to do is climb 200 meters in the span of a kilometer.

The peak of Mount Bental afforded us magnificent views of the Golan. Hermon was still pronounced and visible to the north. South of us was Mount Avital, an interesting crescent-shaped mountain, and further south and west were volcanic cones that dotted the Golan Heights. To the east was Quneitra, the abandoned and destroyed capital of the Syrian governate in the Golan Heights. The city has a rich history dating back hundreds of years. During the 1967 War, the Israeli forces were pushing the Syrians out of the Golan Heights and started to put pressure on the city of Quneitra, population 20,000 (huge for the region). Before the Israeli forces got to the city, Syrian command accidentally broadcast an order saying that Israel had captured Quneitria and to abandon post and flee the city. So three hours later when Israel launched its offensive against the town, the fierce counter-attack they were expecting never happened. Instead they were greeted by a completely abandoned and looted city, with the Syrian forces even leaving behind weapons and fully-operational tanks. Quneitria remains largely abandoned to this day. Unfortunately for my adventuresome side, the city is in the UN Buffer Zone and thus is off-limits to everyone.

Quneitra (via Wikipedia)

Back to the hike...we finished the hike a couple hours after summitting Bental and camped next to a tank in the woods across from Kibbutz Ein Ziwan. End day.

Ari and Itai and a vineyard

Day 3: Kibbutz Ein Ziwan to Keshet Settlement (22km)


I woke up in the morning at the standard time of 6:30 and rolled out of bed into a cup of coffee. It wasn't until 8:30 that we left camp, and wasn't until 9:30 that we finished restocking on supplies at Kibbutz Ein Ziwan (our fuel ran out the night before...terror).

Wind turbines and mines...did I mentions the mines? There's a lot of mines

Our walk began as per usual: walking through some footpath through the countryside with sweeping views of Hermon in the background. The trail turned towards a series of wind turbines atop a hill. These things were huge, towering over the horizon. Unfortunately, this wind farm is the only one of it's kind in Israel, and half the turbines aren't functional. Still, to walk beneath these behemoths was quite the experience. We found an abandoned bunker at the other end of the hill, where we went underground and explored it with flashlights. We descended the hill and ended up in a nature reserve that incorporates eight volcanic ash cones (volcanic hills). The path through the park was spectacular: narrow, meandering, and hilly. After we left the park, the day's walk turned to a boring walk for a few miles down farm roads, and we somehow managed to still get lost and finding our way toward Syria.

"I'm bonkers for bunkers!"

Late in the afternoon, we came upon a totally demolished Syrian village. We spent a good chunk of time exploring the concrete shells of houses that once were, and now were no more than slabs riddled with artillery shells and bullet holes. In the distance, we saw a minaret towering over the artificial forest, so we bushwhacked towards it. Once we got there, we were greeted by an incredible sight: a totally abandoned mosque and adjacent minaret. The mosque itself was covered in graffiti, ranging from "Fuck Israel" to "Na Nach Nachma Nachman Meuman", kind of terrible defacement of a holy sanctuary if you ask me. The real treat came when we realized that we can walk up the minaret. So we climbed the spiral staircase up about six stories to the top of the tower once used to call people to worship. It was freaky being up that high in a concrete structure at least fifty-years-old that was decaying and had bullet holes everywhere. But it was worth it. The view from the top was incredible, with Hermon still visible in the distance.

Abandoned and destroyed mosque and minaret, vandalized in every way possible (tsk tsk)

After exploring the village, we set out toward Keshet Settlement, a couple kilometers off the road. We tried to get there a legitimate way, but the path we set out on turned into an animal path through the waist-high wheat-grass, so we bushwhacked the last couple of kilometers and finally ended up at this beautiful yishuv with a central lawn to camp on and dogs to keep us company.

Dog

I slept outside that night, but I think I slept pretty well and comfortably.

Day 4: Keshet Settlement to Synagogue Oom-El-Knateer (30 km)

Our day started early at Keshet, where we restocked on supplies and got directions back to the trail. As soon as we reunited with the Shvil, we found the trail to be quite underwater. I decided to trust my Gortex boots and not waste the time to don my water shoes. Unfortunately, waterproofed boots are not that waterproofed and I got a bit wet. Oh well. We continued the hike past some pastures, where we mingled with some friendly horses.

Southern Golan countryside...walla (did I do it right?)

The fourth day of hiking was defined by poorly-marked narrow footpaths through knee to waist-high wheat-grass. The whole morning was spent in this manner, basically going as fast and far as we could. We set down for lunch on a peninsula of lake and relaxed for a half-hour. We picked up the pace (race) after lunch, getting significantly lost a couple times, and having to navigate by compass and map. The trail brought us to a vantage point of the Gamla Reserve, which is a giant valley from the Golan plateau down to the Sea of Galilee...beautiful.

Yep

So we continued yet again on this, the most intense day of hiking, ending up walking though a valley following Nahal Samekh. Along the way, we met this group of fun-loving Israelis who told us about this great campsite at an ancient synagogue. So we booked it though this valley all the way to this synagogue, concluding the longest hike I've done in a single day (18.5 miles).

Ancient Hebrew ruins near Keshet

The place we camped out at was incredible. Basically we camped next to an ancient Mikvah (a body of water meant for purifying oneself). A bit up this footpath were the ruins of an ancient village centered around a synagogue dating back to the 4th century. There was restoration work going on to turn the synagogue into an active one. From the footpath, you could see the Sea of Galilee through the beautiful valley, with the city of Tiberias in the background.

Packing up camp at the Mikvah

We camped out with this group of hikers who, for lack of any other descriptions, were characters. As night fell and their fire got started, they invited us over for cheers. We all went around with a bottle of wine toasting to the day's trials and tribulations, girls they encountered on the trail, jokes about how much your mother doesn't love you, etc. I think the style they camped out in really exemplified Israeli culture, with a strong sense of camaraderie. As their fire picked up, the began cooking a veritable feast: mashed potatoes with onion, roasted eggplant with tahini, roasted onion and tomato, israeli salad, and rice. They basically fed us a second dinner...not complaining. As the night winded down, they offered Ari a spot to sleep in their spare tent so he didn't have to brave the elements.

Day 5: Oom-El Kinateer Synagogue to Nahal Meitzar Reserve (22 km)

Our hike on Thursday continued where the day before left off: in the middle of the Nahal Samekh / El Al valley system. This valley was beeeeaaaautiful. The hills from a distance looked like they were flowing with green grass, and the valley floor was covered with trees and bamboo lining the stream itself. The hike took us towards Nahal El Al (which remarkably we hiked upstream in September).

Emek Nahal El Al

As we're descending this steep dirt road, a dune bugging comes bumping along up it, followed by a donkey running at full speed. As the donkey passes us, it comes to a halt, turns around, and follows us. We decided to name the donkey Dana, and she followed us on the trail for around two kilometers (30 minutes). We got to the stream at the valley floor and she refused to cross. I hand-fed her an apple, and we said our goodbyes to our four-legged friend and shed a tear as we crossed the river, never to see her again.

Our pack mule

After crossing Nahal El Al, we climbed the other side of the valley, getting lost once more before finding the path and blissfully bumbling along for the rest of the with magnificent views of the Galilee. At around 2 in the afternoon, we made a short detour to a secular settlement called Givat Yoav, where we spent about an hour laying around in the grass and buying food at the market, as well as covertly washing myself in the bathroom there.

Sunset over Route 98 near our campsite

We ended the day's hike in a bit of confusion over the non-existent campsite that the book mentioned. After walking back-and-forth a few times, we figured it made the most sense to camp essentially in the dirt parking lot for a nearby nature reserve, as it was flat ground. That night, there were two other parties camping out there, of whom one shared wine and hookah with Ari and I, the other sharing food and stories with Itai. It was a wonderful last night of camping, and the energy going into the last day was phenomenal.

Day 6: Nahal Meitzar Reserver to Route 98 (16 km)

The last day, or rather half-day, was short. We made it a point to finish by 2:10pm so as to make sure we had under five full days on the trail. The day started with a sharp descent into the expansive Nahal Meitzar Reserve, which is significantly isolated and seldom traveled. I had a blissful dump out of a tree while wandering the reserve. Exiting the reserve, we faced a shit climb for a couple kilometers up a paved road. This part sucked, we all were slightly anxious for finishing. As we got turned down for food from Kibbutz Mevo Chamma (Shabbat and all), we began the final stretch.

The dogs at Kibbutz Mevo Chamma are reason enough to live there

As we neared the cliff face separating the Golan plateau from the Jordan River Valley, we noticed a gathering of people around a bunch of hang gliders, and we sat back and watched people take flight down towards the Galilee.

Look ma, no hands

We finished the rest of the hike in ease, and caught a ride to Kibbutz Degania where we stayed with Ari's friend Franco. Friday afternoon and Saturday were spent relaxing, unwinding, ropeswinging into the Jordan River, and hanging at the beach on the Galilee

So I guess that's pretty much it...The Golan Trail. It was fun.

The Wave - Miike Snow

On Family and Backpacks

This post is definitely overdue. Caroline, for those of you who don't know my lineage, is a first cousin of mine and Ari's (daughter of Bradley Stoner). She was born about a month after Ari and three months after me, but for some reason is in the grade beneath us, meaning she's still in high school. So for her spring break, her parents (thanks again to them) decided to let her come visit us. So visit she did.

Wadi Arugot

To make the most of her time here, we got some scheduled time off the program (very fun). We sent out a ton of couchsurfing requests, all of which were turned down except one. Our positive's name was (is?) Adam Ziv, a dude who lives a somewhat jaded life on Kibbutz Sasa. We were to stay there Wednesday night.

We began our journey Tuesday evening, leaving Tel Aviv northwards via bus to Haifa, and from there catching a bus up to the top of Carmel Mountain (the mountain Haifa creeps up) where we met up with some friends on another program and camped out. That night was chilled, we sat around a bonfire, talked, hung out, did nothing, and (I) slept well.

Campsite in Haifa

Wednesday morning we set out to explore the Bahá'í Terraces, a holy place to the Bahá'í Faith and a UNESCO World Heritage Site. It's one of the most beautifully landscaped gardens in the world. Shit's crazy. Unfortunately, the Bahá'í were have a holy day and as such, the gardens were closed. Bummer. So we walked around Haifa a bit and made our way to the eastern central bus station (Haifa has two central bus stations. Explain that to me) and caught our bus to Kibbutz Sasa.

On the bus, I emptied my pockets for comfort reasons and decided it would be a great idea to leave my possessions on the bus (sort of a token of offering, if you may). The items included my cell phone, my wallet, my camera, my headlamp, and a lollipop. Thank god there are good people in the world, and the soldier sitting opposite us found my gear and was able to coordinate with one of my friends to get my possessions back to me. Soooo yeah, I messed up.

Anyways, we got off the bus and met our host, Adam, and he showed us to our apartment. Basically his friend was away doing something for a significant amount of time, so we had a place to ourselves, which was cool.

Relaxin' all cool

Thursday we set out on a hike along Shvil Israel. Adam drove us up to a trailhead maybe 8 miles away from the kibbutz at around 10 a.m. and we spent the rest of the day walking towards Sasa. The trail was incredible. We started the hike amidst luscious greenery set in a uncivilized valley in the Upper Galilee. The trail followed this creek for the majority of our hike, which meant we had to cross it numerous times. My water shoes came in handy, but as the only person with water shoes, I had to ford the others across via piggy-backing.

Trippy copper deposits

As we progressed through the countryside, the scenery changed a bit from fairy-like to expansive, rolling hillside, to a dried riverbed with a copper sheen, to a dense, jungle-like biome. The hike was a few hours of bliss, until we ran out of water and got a little concerned, until we reached the kibbutz. That night just bummed around a bit and watched the sunset from an old bunker on the outskirts of the kibbutz.

Friday morning we caught a bus to Jerusalem, and I left Ari and Caroline to return to Tel Aviv to recover my gear. During the time I was gone, they walked through the old city a bit and bought food at the shuk. I made my way back to Jerusalem, to the old city, and tried to meet up with them at the Western Wall. Unfortunately, I had my pack with me, which had a container of butane. So there was a stern "wtf" from the security guard and told me to peace. After a good deal of thinking, I ditched the butane behind a garbage can and went to the other entrance, where the security guard there identified me (apparently the two security guards are in cahoots) and pulled me aside, thoroughly searching my pack, finding nothing illegal. So I got in and we waited and waited for an hour there, trying to find this one man to hook us up with a dinner with some Haredim. Finally, we found him, and he got us a dinner with a man named Avidan, a quaint Lubavitcher who was born in Berkeley, California. Besides two other guests, the three of us were the only ones not in his immediate family. Their apartment was tiny, maybe three rooms, which somehow was able to accommodate his five children. Anyway, the Shabbat meal was really nice, with some really good conversations, and none of the in-your-face Zionism I was expecting with the meal. I ended up friending him on Facebook, so maybe he'll see this post, who knows.

That night we crashed at the Aardvark apartments in Jerusalem. Saturday we walked all over Jerusalem. We saw the main attractions in the Old City, did some shopping, and had delicious Arab felafel. We caught a night bus to Ein Gedi and camped out on the beach that night.

Sunday we did Ein Gedi and the Dead Sea. Since I've already written about this place, I'm not going to do that again now, but I will say that I was just as fun as the first time I went.

And that was our backpacking adventure around Israel. I think Caroline got a pretty good sense of the country. I took a lot out of that trip. I guess I've gotten a bit isolated by living in Tel Aviv. It's weird how that works. It's such a big city with so many interesting people, and yet I find it's so much harder to find myself here.

Travel...you won't be disappointed.

Desperation Breeds - Andrew Bird

On Almost Lebanon, Still Israel (Wannabe Syria)

Once every few months or so, Aardvark takes us on an overnight Tiyul somewhere around the country. In times past, we've been to the Lower Galilee, the Druze North, Masada and this shindig in Jerusalem. This time around, they brought us to the very northernmost part of Israel. Our itinerary was apparently changed last minute, as it was supposed to rain the day of our hikes, so we didn't get to do the hikes we had voted on, but things worked out in the end.

Farmington River ain't got shit on Banias

We all went to the Banias (Hermon Stream), which is an incredibly rapid river. Our tour guide said it was Class 9 rapids, to which I argued there's only six classes. He then proceeded to tell me how he's rafted in rivers all over the world (Peru, Costa Rica, Thailand, Colorado, etc.), and I shut up. As I look now on Wikipedia, the academic gods seem to shine in my favor, as indeed there are only six classes of rapids. Ha. Anyway, the hike was beautiful. Yeah, there were like 60 of us, and it was more a social event than a hike, but still, I was grateful for the ability to go somewhere awesome on a Tuesday when I'd normally be bored to death at some museum.

The incredibly green north

The hike followed the stream and the 1.5 hour walk was over in three after a fair deal of stops (one of which was near a rusting overturned tank on the riverbed). After the hike, we went to a youth hostel in Tel Hai, a bit north of Kiryat Shmona. Everyone else at the hostel were incredibly arsey. Seriously, it was weird. Anyway, I spent a good chunk of that night socializing, hanging out, and eating pizza (to which I am still indebted to Zaydek and he left for home today… :-/ ).

The next day, they took us on a bus tour of the area. We drove up to a hill on the border of Lebanon near Metula. Unfortunately, it was really foggy and the otherwise spectacular view was nothing but grey. Other stops included a waterfall in no-man's land between Israel and Lebanon, a museum at this historic farm (I admit I was asleep for much of that stop), and this incredibly impressive waterfall near Nimrod's Castle. It was hilarious…by the last stop, everyone was griping about how much the "tour" sucked, and when everyone saw the waterfall, they all clammed up. Personally, I thought the whole trip was very well executed considering the circumstances.

Sa'ar Waterfall

Turquoise Hexagon Sun - Boards of Canada

On Purim

As legend has it, Haman once plotted to kill all the Jews (real original, dude), and came damn close to succeeding, if it wasn't for Mordecai and Esther, the heroes of this Jewish epic. They defeat the evil Haman by outdrinking him, or something like that, and that's why we drink ourselves stupid and dress up in costumes to celebrate Purim.

Farbrengen!

The first night of Purim was on Wednesday, March 7, but parties began earlier that week—eager beavers. On Tuesday, a few of us donned bloody makeup and talcum powder to take part in a massive Zombie walk down one of Tel Aviv's most affluent boulevards. It was awesome. We all got really into character, with all conversation being nothing more than a jumble of grunts, moans, and "brains". Things escalated a bit when the walk moved onto the asphalt part of the boulevard and we started climbing on top of moving cars and taxis. I'll repeat this now, it was awesome. The walk concluded with a dance party at the end of Rothschild.

Braiiiins

For the first night of Purim, I had my friend Jess draw all over my face with markers and I put on this trippy robe I bought at Jaffa Shuk and this feathered headdress and went as an Aztec God, or something like that. Festivities started early (or at least I did). I had a few people over at my apartment, we had some drinks, went to the next apartment, grabbed a few more people, had a few more drinks, and so on and so on. Jacob, Jake and Ari had made some friends through couchsurfing, and they invited them to a rooftop party, so I tagged along. The place was packed, and the whole roof was taken over. And, and, and, it was an Anglo party. Wahoo! I could actually communicate at a non-Aardvark gathering for the first time in six months. So we socialized, made friends, joked about costumes, and got increasingly and increasingly inebriated.

Eventually, Ari and I decided to leave and check out some street parties. As we walked around, we were drawn in by the booming sound of music and ended up at a party on Rothschild Boulevard, where we ran into some kids from Aardvark and partied there for a while. That's just about all I remember.

Street party madness

 I guess the party never stopped, as there were people walking around day-drinking on Thursday. Basically, the same sort of thing happened Thursday night, except this time I dressed up as a Jedi Knight, although the overwhelming consensus from strangers was that I was Jesus (apparently Star Wars was never a big hit over here). A lot of Aardvarks went too hard the night before and ended up throwing up (poor saps), so they didn't go out on Thursday. I hung out with Jacob and Shani that night a lot, and we went around meeting random people and checked out this street party on Nachalat Binyamin. Jacob met up with some of his Danish friends, so we left him in Scandinavian company. I went out later by myself and sat on Rothschild for a long time, taking some time-lapse pictures, and having some hilarious encounters with strangers. The energy that night was incredible, everyone was letting loose.

Jacob making friends

My mom made a pit-stop in Israel for the weekend on her way to Frankfurt, so I spent a lot of time with her. It was really nice. People were still costumed up on Friday and Saturday, but I was a bit too spent to keep partying. If you're ever visiting Israel for a week, come for Purim. It's really, really fun.

On Tel Aviv (...)

So it's been just about forever since I've last posted, and I feel like I've disappointed a few people in so doing. I apologize. Things have been hectic over here, and I've been either constantly occupied or completely uninspired to write. Hell, I can't even remember the last time I wrote anything (tsk tsk). My last post was from my travels to Gita. I feel like so much has happened since then. First off, the weather has changed. It's more or less sunny every day now and the beach is becoming a more and more alluring alternative to mundane housework. I've been more invested in what I do with every minute of my life, which is awesome. I love my volunteering placement, and I'm learning some really good skills if I ever want to pursue woodworking.

This post is more going to be about what Tel Aviv has come to mean to me, and what it's like living in a metropolis after growing up in a relatively sheltered lifestyle in suburban Connecticut. Things are different here, not only from America, but from the rest of Israel. People refer to Tel Aviv as the country of Tel Aviv, as it's so distant ideologically and culturally. Yes it's still a Jewish city, you'll still see people wearing kipas (though not nearly as frequently), and everyone still speaks Hebrew, but it's by no means the Israel I've seen living in Jerusalem and traveling. There's just too many immigrants, too many worked faces, and not enough smiles. Not that there aren't happy people, but rather the people here are more realistic and more grounded. They don't have an overarching idealism to provide for them a joy that could blind them into making stupid decisions (let's settle here!, etc.), nor are they blissed out in the comfort of communism (or as close as it might get to it). They are just people trying to get by.

Azreili Center by night

So the people here are a bit grumpy, but I guess you could say that makes them more interesting. I haven't really met too many residents of Tel Aviv, but they all seem really cool. Our upstairs neighbor was telling me about these meditation workshops he goes to where you can't talk or communicate with anyone for ten days and this all-rice diet he's trying. The people who frequent the bars all seem like cool people. Even the guy who stole my bike is awesome…jokes. Oh yeah, my bike got stolen. So did Ari's.

Biking around Ramat Gan

For the most part, I've been in Tel Aviv this last month and a half until this past week, which I'll write about in another post. And I've just been living, or learning how to live properly I guess. It's hard to remember all that I've done, as a lot of it has just been slight variations on my weekly schedule. I've been doing a lot of chilling, I guess. My time spent in Tel Aviv is relatively unremarkable, which goes into why I'm planning on spending a considerable amount of time outside of Tel Aviv these coming few months.

I guess that's pretty much it for the city. It's relatively adventureless…I find there's remarkably fewer places to explore than in Jerusalem. I can't see myself living in a city when I'm older, it's just too urban and mostly all forms of entertainment here cost money.

Settlers (the good kind)

I should probably add in a snippet of what Aardvark's been like. It's good. The program itself is a bit tedious at this point, but they've gotten a lot more chilled about my antics (although I guess there haven't been too many antics recently). Our madrich, Ori, is really great. I think we lucked out with having him. I have tentative plans to go hiking and mountain biking with him (although since my bike has been nabbed, not sure how that's going down).

Our roommate sucks. Honestly, I can't imagine a worse roommate. He doesn't clean, he bitches all the time, he never leaves the apartment, and he has a completely backwards set of values that creates a very tense atmosphere whenever conversation creeps pasts the casual, "how was volunteering?" or "how's it going?". It's difficult, but I guess it's a learning experience. And his taste in music sucks.

I'm dreading having to live in dorms next year. I think that's going to be a huge step backwards. I won't have a kitchen to cook in, I won't be able to hang out with people on my own time, and I won't have a space to call my own (unless I bring my car…cough cough).

This year is coming to a close soon. The transition back home is going to be interesting, to say the least. I'm desperately planning weekends already, trying to maximize the rest of my time here.

Places I need to go (in order of importance):
• Jordan – Dead Sea (hiking)
• Judea – Nahal Dalgutz
• Negev – Mitzpe Ramon
• Judea – Ein Prat (Kidron)
• Jordan – Red Canyon
• Upper Galilee – Magdal al-Shams (and Hermon)
• Egypt – Dahab
• Lower Galilee – Beit She'an

So that's it, I guess. I'm going to write a bunch of blogs today to make up for neglecting to keep people updated.

Hiking through the Ben Shemen Forest

Shalom v'ahava

Mandala - Thievery Corporation

On Camping and Climbing

Barring all apologies for being a bit slow with my blog posts, it seems this might be the frequency from here on out, not for lack of adventure or thrill, but rather because, quite honestly, I've got better things to do than waste time on my computer…although writing is justifiable, I simply get too distracted and a blog post that should take an hour to write ends up taking three, et cetera. Anyway...

It'd been a while since Ari and I have really gone anywhere or done anything exciting on our own volition, so we were overdue for an adventure, and anxious to take our new climbing gear for a spin, and the weatherman predicted bluebird weather for the weekend. Quite the ideal combination. So we packed our harnesses and rope and shoes, threw in a tent and some food and warm clothes, and set off for the Arab North. We were headed for the cliffs near Gita, a tiny Jewish settlement near Ma'alot Tarshiha. Well, Shabbat has always impeded our weekend travel plans, at least to some extent, but it really made things very difficult, as the ideal bus that would take us a half-hour walk from Gita wasn't running on Friday, meaning we had to settle for a bus requiring a two-hour walk down roads not meant for pedestrian travelers.

As an aside, I sincerely hope this blog post finds its way through the jumble of Google searches and indexes to the eyes of hopeful climbers in Israel who don't read Hebrew, as the information on this place is really very scarce on the web, and finding our way there sin car was a bit tough. This is a map of our path to the cliffs, bus route in blue, walking route in red. All in all, it took us about five or six hours of travel from Tel Aviv to get there. Rent a car, folks.

Bus in blue, walking in red

Although public transportation has, in our past, been our best friend, in this one situation, it really, really, really would have been nice to have a car. Essentially to get there, we had to take a train all the way north to Nahariya (which incidentally was incredibly relaxing), the northernmost coastal city in Israel. We had a bit of downtime there where we hung out at the beach and had some yummy falafel. From Nahariya, we took the Nateev Express local number 43 service to Ma'alot Tarshiha and beyond, to Yanuh. If you're traveling to Gita by bus, don't go on Shabbat. Go any other day of the week and take the 35 from Acre directly to Jat, it'll save you a lot of time.

Killing time on the bus

Turns out the 43 goes through Kfar Vradim, where our madrich from Jerusalem, Amir, lives (see blog post on Mount Meron). After alighting in Yanuh (we were indeed the last people on the bus), we began the two hour trek on foot. We wound our way through the Druze village of Yanuh, located on top of this beautiful ridge, with sweeping views of Nehariya, Acre, Haifa, and of course, the Mediterranean in the background. We had to straddle the side of the road down to Jat, which lacked a significant shoulder. The walk was a bit tedious, but the views were incredible. Once we got down the mountain, it was a lot easier, and we talked and walked and walked and talked, and sooner or later, we ended up at Gita (just follow the signs once you get to Jat).

Village of Yanuh with Druze flags on street lamps

Ari on left, Druze couple on right

Gita is tiny, yet beautiful. According to Wikipedia, there's only 200 people who live there. It was getting dark at this point, so we didn't linger. From Gita, we followed some directions printed off the internet. Basically, we went to the south-western corner of the settlement and followed this dirt road west, towards the sea for about ten minutes, until we found this quarry. Descending into the quarry, you'll find the path continues at the south-eastern side of the quarry, and the road starts to go down into the valley. You'll pass through a gate in the barbed wire, and then just followed the established path down the slope until you reach the cliffs on your left.

The quarry, great reference point for wayward travelers

Routes left of the boulder

And then we were here. And shit. We were in a valley called Nahal Beit HaEmek, literally stream of the house of the valley (real original). Regardless, we were incredibly isolated in the Druze north, and for a night, I felt out there, disconnected. This feeling alone justified the difficulty we faced getting here.

Moo

We set up our tent on a terrace at the base of the cliff, a place where people have clearly camped before. The night was lazy, we just explored the cliff face a bit, eyeballed the thrity-some-odd routes, ate quinoa and salad, and called it a night, exhausted from traveling. The night was a bit strange. First off, there are tons of wild dogs in the region, and occasionally, one would bark, which would cause the whole valley to erupt in a cacophony of responses. Also, it was windy…really windy. Of course, I forgot the tent stakes, so our tent was oscillating like one of those springy doorstops for the whole night. I didn't sleep well.

Ari by sunset

We woke up at around 8 in the morning to beautifully blue skies and feeling incredibly enthusiastic about the day to come. We ate, donned our gear, and set out to climb. This was our first time climbing actual rock, and as it turns out, it's a lot more difficult than in a gym. Where I can climb a 6b in a gym (5.10c), I came pathetically short of climbing any 5.10's at Gita (granted it had been about a month since I'd climbed before, and I slept like shit). And it's scary. Being fifty meters off the ground is much more of a mental battle than a physical one, at least at my level of climbing. But man is it a great feeling to get to the top, set up anchor, and rappel down. It's rewarding on a basic level; reward stripped down to its components, not hidden behind years of work. Despite how much I need to improve, it was great just to be at the cliff face.

Climb time

The routes at this place are incredible. They have everything here, crack climbing, strength routes, long routes, short routes. And they're so very difficult…or maybe I just suck, I'm not sure. But regardless, I need to get significantly better before I can do anything serious at Gita.

40m up, tent's a speck from up here

At around 10, other people started showing up, all climbers. So we talked and hung out. Ari and I weren't climbing all the time (we actually wore ourselves out rather quickly), and when we weren't we sat around, I napped a bit, he drew, etc. One of the parties there brought a dog, who spent a good amount of time with us. About halfway through the day, Ari cut his finger pretty badly, so that was basically that for climbing.

Good vibes

When it started to get dark, we trekked the whole route in reverse and caught the 35 when it started running to Acre.

Fooling around

So that was our fun weekend adventure.

Beethoven - Sonata No. 17 in D Minor - "The Tempest"