Sukkot Hofesh Part I

For Sukkot we have about 5 days in a row off of school and work.  My friend and I decided to rent a car so that we can go wherever, whenever and to places that the buses and trains don't go.  I was a little nervous about driving around Israel...the people here drive very fast and very aggressively and it's a new place with a new car.  But as soon as we pulled out of the parking lot, it was great!  I felt like a real, normal person again. For about 4 weeks now the only ways to get around are kind of a hassle so I don't do it much.  I had only been off the kibbutz to go to the beach 2 times and with the whole group to Tsfat (so i don't even think that counts). To go from that to having a car and free reign to go anywhere (within Israel)...it was amazing!  And with my NJ driving skills, I could definitely hold my own with the Israelis.

Since we were already in Haifa, our first stop was the Baha'i Gardens.  It is really beautiful (and really steep!) but I really don't know anything about the religion or culture so I couldn't appreciate why anything was the way it was.  On the street that runs above the gardens is this sort of terrace thing.  It looks out over the gardens and Haifa and behind it is like wooded park kind of thing. I really liked that better.  It was just calm and peaceful and had a great view. 

After that we went back to the kibbutz so that we could get our bearings and make sure we knew how to get home. Next we took a little road trip to Nazareth.  We didn't see much there.  We were trying to follow the signs but we missed all of the biblical sights.

Then on Thursday we headed out early with some friends to Tiberius.  We didn't really have a plan but one thing that was definitely on the agenda was to visit this old temple ruins that had a mosaic floor because one of my friends had written her undergraduate thesis on it and wanted to see it up close.  It was pretty cool to hear about all of the symbolism in the designs and the background story of when and how it was built. 

From there we drove north around the Kinneret (Sea of Galilee) to the Jordan River.  We rented some kayaks and kayaked down.  The "river" was more like a stream where we were. It couldn't have been more than 25 feet wide for most of it.  The river was moving pretty fast so you really didn't need to paddle too much, except to keep yourself out of the weeds on the sides. 

After that was the highlight of the day in my opinion (which is the only one that counts on here I guess).  We kept driving around the Kinneret to this restaurant that I am not even sure how we found.  It was a really cute place on the top of a mountain.  Just like I hadn't left the kibbutz too much until now, I hadn't eaten any non-kibbutz food since I arrived in Israel. Just reading the menus and looking at all the options was slightly overwhelming. The whole meal was great but that first bite of bread....I think it was the slowest I ever ate one bite of food because it was so good.  I am pretty sure that the food was actually good, although it's hard to know if it just seemed so good because of what I am used to now.  Two people shared desert, a molten lava cake like mom makes with ice cream.  I only took one taste but it definitely reminded me of home. 

Once we were full, we finished circling the sea and went back to the beach and just hung out for the rest of the day.  No one went in the water even though it was about 100F (there was a lot of litter).  We just sat on the rocky beach and talked until after the sun had gone down.  Got some dinner and took the long way home. 

So its been a good break so far.  Part II when it's over...