The Last Day

My flight back to Toronto via New York City did not leave until midnight, so I still had the entire day left. I took the train into Tel Aviv University where I walked around the campus and went to the Diaspora Museum to learn about the diaspora Jews - those living outside of Israel. I made it back to Rechovot in time for lunch, and took it easy for the afternoon. I packed my stuff and watched President Bush arrive in Israel, and in Jerusalem. Bush was staying in a hotel in Jerusalem about 200 meters from where I had stayed. It was a good thing that I was nowhere near Jerusalem, as it was pretty hectic and crazy with all the security there.

Beautiful Tel Aviv University campus.

In the evening I met up with a friend of mine, Yuval. I had met him in Waterloo when he came on a campus tour of Canada, meeting Jews at different schools as well as sightseeing. We went out for dinner, then for dessert had a last falafel before he took me to the airport.

Rechovot

I stayed with cousins in the city of Rechovot, which translates to 'the streets'. Rechovot is located half way between Tel Aviv and Jerusalem.

Today I went to the Ayalon Museum; Now a museum, this kibbutz (collective community) was secretly making bullets in the 1940s before Israel became an independent country. The bullets were manufactured underneath the bakery and laundromat. The bullets were stockpiled for the resistance fighters in the event that the British left Israel. When Israel declared independence, the British left the land leaving the Israelis to defend themselves with the ammunition manufactured in secret on this kibbutz.

The bullet manufacturing plant below ground. This picture shows approximately half of the plant.

After a tour of the kibbutz, Yithak took me to the Weitzman Institute; Chaim Weitzman, the first Israeli President. I had a tour of his house - now a museum, and also around the university campus founded in his name - Weitzman Institute of Science. In the evening we went to visit some relatvies near Tel Aviv and then I called it a night.

Chaim Weitzman's house

Last Day in Jerusalem

Today's plan was to travel to Rechovot to stay with cousins - Yitzhak and Shoshana. Before I left Jerusalem, there was still some sightseeing to be done. I went back to the Western Wall in the hopes to do the underground tunnel tour, where you go underneath the current ground level to the base of the Western Wall. I get to the ticket counter, and the ticket agent tells me you need to book tickets 3 months in advance!!! I pleaded with him to sell me a ticket, as I was only one person, and it was my last day in Jerusalem. Thankfully he did - for 4PM, which meant I had the entire day to kill before the tour. I walked to the ancient city of David (5 minute walk from the Old City walls). I had just missed the first tour, and I was not able to do the second one because of the conflicting times. Something to do the next time I'm there.

Finally 4PM - the tour starts. What you see of the Western Wall is only 1/3 of the actual wall. When the city was destroyed numerous times, people began to build on top of it, thus there is constant excavations going on, and things being discovered. The tunnel tour took us all along the Western Wall below ground. An underground portion of the Western Wall. The brick at the height of people's heads is ONE piece - and it didn't even fit in the entire picture. Still about 10-15 feet extra beyond the size of the pic!

At the 'market' area of the time of the first temple. The pillars are indicative of separation between stores.

The tour took us all the way across the old city to the other end of the Muslim quarter. Once back at the existing ground level, guards led the way back to the Western Wall Plaza area, where the tour ended.

After a long day of walking, I had to go back to the hostel to retrieve my luggage, and then I headed off to Rechovot. I had to catch a public city bus to get to the main bus terminal, and then a coach bus to Rechovot - about an hour and a half away from Jerusalem. Amazingly I didn't get lost! Exhausted, I finally arrived, and Yitzhak picked me up from the bus stop.

We got to their house, and food was ready for me! I relaxed for a while had a nice meal, and before heading to bed, we planned out tomorrow's activities.

End of the trip

Today was the last day of the trip :-( The morning was spent listening to the last few lectures, but after that we had more free time. For the afternoon I began an impossible mission: I was looking for a restaurant that was on a street corner in the market area. The last time I was in Israel I went to said restaurant and the food was amazing - amazing enough to go looking for it only remembering it was on a street corner. Believe it or not I did not find the restaurant, however, I did manage to pick up some fruits that I saved for the next few days. I also stumbled upon the bakery that my sister had told me to go to. I picked up some food from there, which definitely made the long trek a success.

After the semi-successful mission, I was back at the hotel waiting to head off to the final banquet dinner. With the itinerary coming to the end, I still had another 3 days before I had to go back to Toronto, where the group was heading to the airport after the dinner. I was excited to have some time on my own, however I had not made ANY plans for the next 3 days. No accommodations, no sightseeing plans, NOTHING!

I was kind of hoping that some people on my trip, or a different trip would be doing the same thing as me, and that we would do some traveling together, however those plans didn't pan out.
I also got in touch with the Israeli soldiers that I had met on my last trip to Israel, however plans to meet up with them didn't work out either. I got in contact with some relatives, and they were more than happy to host me for a few days. phew.

We headed off to the final banquet, and after that we all said our goodbyes. Everyone was sad that the trip was over, however I was ecstatic to be staying another 3 days. I had one final night in Jerusalem before I would go to my second cousin's house in Rechovot the next evening. A few other people from the trip were also staying so we decided to head out for another night of partying in Jerusalem.

It was 9 oclock, but before we could go out, I had to find a place to stay for the night. Not a problem, so I was told. One of the guys that was on the trip, Cory took me to a hostel that he said would have availability. Great! We get there, and they said that the last room had just been taken. However the lady said that there was still one room available on the roof. After the accommodation nightmares on the trip, I knew I was going to regret asking for more details about this room. The lady showed me a picture of the rooftop bungalow - it was advertised as "cheap and romantic". With my options very limited, I hesitantly took the bungalow. The "cheap and romantic" rooftop bungalow

As you can see, the rooftop bungalow is a shed. And yes, you have to duck to get inside it. Inside the shed there are 2 beds, a window, a light, and a personal space heater because it gets cold as hell. We get up to the "room" and I meet the neighbours. After about 15 minutes of laughing hystarically about the "room" we all go out for drinks. I definitely did not luck out in the accommodation depatment on this trip. It was hard to believe the accommodations could have gotten worse and worse, yet the worse it got the funnier it was.

Shabbat

We woke up and went for lunch. A number of families hosted lunches for us, so we were split up into groups, and were taken for lunch at their homes. Lunch was great - it was very relaxed and friendly. The rest of the day was spent relaxing and shmoozing. It was nice to get a break from the busy week. As Shabbat came to a close, there was another concert featuring the hippie Rabbi celebrating the start of the new week. After the concert we packed our stuff up and moved out of the horrible Armenian youth hostel, and back into our hotel. After settling back into the hotel, we went out to party as it was our last night on the trip.

Shabbat in the Old City

Today was quite relaxed. We heard from Khaled Abu Tomeh - a Palestinian journalist who report on Gaza and the West Bank. He talked to us about media bias against Israel in the newspapers and television, and how foreign reporters in Gaza and the West Bank require tour guides while reporting because of their safety and the language barrier. Because of this, they are often dictated where to go, and what news to report on, thus only reporting on the news that the Palestinians want them to, which makes Israel out to be the bad guy.

After the seminar, we were taken back to the Old City where we switched accommodation. We moved from our hotel to an Armenian Youth Hostel, which is located inside the Old City - Only 5 minutes from the Western Wall! This was the ONLY positive aspect of the hostel. Firstly, the place was nearly impossible to find - I don't know how we ever managed to find it. We finally get there, and try to get in - only to find that the door is locked, and nobody is answering it. With 15 of us standing outside and nowhere to go, one person starts making phone calls to try and find the phone number for the hostel. After about 5 minutes of standing there frustrated, we hear a voice from above. We look up, and there is an old lady looking out the second floor window - directly above the door. The next thing we notice is she drops a key tied to a piece of string down towards us so that we can unlock the front door. At this point we realized that our accommodations just got downgraded. This turned out to be an understatement of epic proportions. She also throws us keys to the hostel - one per each room, leaving 80% of us no way to get back inside the hostel - great. We get inside, and instantly notice that the place looks not so much like a hostel, but more like a bat cave! There were 4 or 5 of us to each room - which wasn't too big of a problem.


The next part of the bat cave tour was the washrooms. The first problem we noticed that there were only 2 washrooms for all 15 of us. - I guess that was marginally better than 1 washroom for 10 people we had in the first hostel, but nonetheless not a good situation. This next aspect of the washroom could either be convenient, or horrible, depending on your preferences. You can shit, shower and shave all at the same time, because the washroom was at best 25 square feet - not too much room to move around, yet alone even stand. Oh, did I mention no hot water. Wait - it gets worse. The sign on the back side of the washroom door reads "Please don't flush the toilet paper". Thank goodness we are only here for 24 hours!

Before Shabbat started, I had some time to walk around, and enjoy the old city. Three of us started walking, not really knowing where we were going, but it wasn't to difficult to find your way around. There are a number of recognizable places that help you keep your bearings. We walked around and started taking pictures. We had turned a corner and walked past a Birthright tour group. The groups guard stopped us and told us not to continue walking in that direction, as we would be entering the Muslim quarter of the old city. We quickly came to a consensus that we should probably take his advice, and we stopped for a photo-op, then continued our way back.

We got back to the bat cave, and got ready for Shabbat. We had a pre-shabbat concert led by a a crazy hippie Rabbi. The concert was supposed to be outside, but unfortunately it was raining. After the concert, it was time for Shabbat prayer services, where we went to pray at the Western Wall. I was soaking wet and freezing cold, but it was a great experience. We had a big meal followed by a relaxing evening spent snacking and drinking.

Gush Etzion

Today we took a tour Gush Etzion – a Jewish settlement in the West Bank, not far from Jerusalem. We had a chance to see the landscape and see how the people live in the hostile environment. We watched a documentary on the city and about how the city was restarted on three different occasions due to wars. We also got to hear from the Mayor of Gush Etzion.

Later in the evening we heard from the father of Koby Mandell. Koby and a friend were brutally murdered in 2001 at the age of 13 when attacked by Arab terrorists while hiking near their home. The family has since set up a foundation to help families who have been affected by terror.

We headed to the Gush Etzion Winery where we had a quick tour of the winery, followed by a fantastic dinner.

The Big Day

Today we heard from a resident of Sderot and the founder of Sderot Media. Sderot is the closest Israeli city to the Gaza Strip. In the past 7 years, over 8000 rockets have been launched from the strip into Sderot. We learned about the lives of the people that live there, and how they are being terrorized daily by the kassam rockets from Gaza.

We also heard from the founder of Palestinian Media Watch - an organization that monitors things like tv shows, radio, schoolbooks, newspapers, etc. that is shown to Palestinians in the West Bank and Gaza. The findings shown to us were shocking to see the hatred that is being taught and preached by the Palestinian Authority.

The remainder of the day was filled with other lectures and discussions about the anti-Israel propaganda that is spread throughout the media, and especially on university campuses across Canada and the US.

We had some time to walk around during lunch, so here are a few pics of the old city.

Me at the Western Wall

Zimmy and I at the Cardo (used to be a street with shops set up waaaaay back in the day)

Zimmy and I walking the streets of the Old City

In the evening there was a semi-impromptu AEPi event. Through word of mouth in less than a week and a last minute change of location, 50 brothers managed showed up. The group consisted of brothers from all over the US, and me - from Canada. Many people there had since moved to Israel, and others were there for vacation, or other organized trips. I managed to see some guys that I had bumped into earlier on my trip, and also from other road trips and conventions I had been on in the States. After the event I met back up with the majority of my group to party the night away.

Tel Aviv

We were heading back to Jerusalem in the evening, and we still had a lot to see and do in Tel Aviv. I was not particularly excited about waking up so early - having been up late enjoying the first few hours of 2008. Our first stop was a university - the Interdisciplinary Center (IDC), where we heard lectures titled Encroaching Islam, and Counter-terrorism.

From there we learned about IsraAID - an Israeli organziation that is committed to humanitarian aid around the world. We also heard about Save A Child's Heart - which is an organization that performs life saving heart operations on children from 3rd world countries. They bring the child and their family to live in Israel while the doctors perform the necessary operations and give treatment. Following the introduction, we went to the house where the children and their families were living. We came with balloons and candy for the children. This was a great experience to be able to meet these kids. Communication was difficult because the families were from all over Africa, and the Middle East; Neither English nor Hebrew seemed to be a middle ground for conversation. What we did learn from the families was that none of them knew much about Israel, and if it were not for Save A Child's Heart, their children would definitely have died due to their heart conditions.

After the visit, and the long day we headed back to Jerusalem. Due to our previous horrible accomodations (having 10 people crammed into a room with one bathroom) we got upgraded to a hotel with 3 people per room - which was a major upgrade. The hotel even served a great breakfast, which in itself is much better than our previous Jerusalem accommodations.