Tuscany on crack

Today was my day of putting a check mark on the places I went to. I never intended to do anything at any of the places - just see them as quickly as posible because I had to check into my hostel in Cinque Terra before 6PM. The places I went to were ones that I was told that there really wasn't anything to do there, just to walk around and take some pictuers is enough. So my day started with a 530AM train to Sienna.Sienna is a very Gothic city. I walked around at a stupidly fast rate and managed to see the popular sites. Personally, I didn't like the city. You probably will say thats because I did it at 730AM on a Saturday and beacuse of that htere were no people, or that I walked it in an hour and did not actually stop to appreciate it. However, I simply did not like the dark gothic architecture. Aside from all the major sites in the city I saw a sign for the Sinagoga Ebraica - the Jewish synagogue. I followed the sings and boy was it difficult ot find. Aside from a placque in Italian with 2 lines of Hebrew there were no other indications of a synagogue or Jewish building of any kind. The building was not a stand alone and it was connected to other appartment buildings (I think). I managed ot catch an earlier train out of Sienna by half an hour and headed to my next destination - Pisa with a train transfer back in Florence.

Once off the train in Pisa I had enough time to slow my pace down to a brisk walk. The streets were narrow and every building a different colour. It kinda felt like Florence with fewer tourists. I got to the leaning tower and it was really leaning! I took a bunch of pictures and walked around the area as there was a huge cathedral next to the tower. I bumped into 2 other Canadians from Calgary who happen to also be engineers - one of them a civil and he was able to give me an explanation of why its leaning and hasn't fallen over. It was built on crappy soil and it started to sink. The construction was interrupted due to a bunch of wars. The tower continues to sink but over time its rate of sinking slowed down. Once the construction continued the addional weight of the tower only had a minimal effect on the amount of sinking that could continue. I got back to the train having checked off Pisa and was off to Lucca.

The reason for going to Pisa

Lucca is a city enclosed in a 12 meter high wall. There is a paved road along the wall where you can walk, jug, bike, collerblade, etc. around it and get great views of the city wintin and the greenery in the distance. The train schedule provided me with one houra nd 10 minutes in Lucca. However if I could knock it down to an hour my next train ride would be 40 minutes shorter. So off I went, without time to physically stop to take a picture I powered through the walk around half the city then I had to cut through the city streets to get back to the train in time. I was cutting it REALLY close. I bet your wondering how close is REALLY close. Well it means that after a non stop power walk with my 12kg bag I had about a 400 meter sprint into the terminal, run to the ticket desk straight to the front of the line and ask in a panting voice which platform I needed. I ran to the platform just as the train doors were opening. Later I bumpued into other people whohad been to Lucca and they said that the second half of the city was much like the first half (no surprise there), therefore I wasn't terribly upset that I only saw half of it. It was however a very nice town and I was glad I stopped there.

I ended up in Cinque Terra at about 430PM which was earlier than I had anticipated. If your doing the math, ya I was just in 5 cities in 11 hours, having toured 3 of them. In hindsight with that extra time I would have liked ot have spent more time in Pisa just wandering around. I also would have completely avoided Sienna and spent the day split between Pisa and Lucca.

After an intense day of running around with my backpack, I ditched it in my room and began exploring the villiage of Riomaggiore - one of the 5 villages in Cinque Terra. I'm not sure which was worse - running around all day with a 12kg back on my back or now climbing the stairs around the village after running around all day. I ended up getting a descent night's sleep before my big hike the next day. The minimal stair climbing I experienced was just a tiny taste of what was in store for me tomorrow.

The village of Riomaggiore

Florence Day 2

I woke up early and headed to the train station in order to plan the next few days of travels and check out the train schedules. After creating a plan I went to the local market and saw all sorts of fresh ingredients and butcher shops. I walked to the synagogue again and got to go inside this time for a tour. No phatography was allowed but it was really big and amazingly decorated inside. They had a museum with a lot of really old artifacts. My next stop was the Leonardo da Vinci museum. Inside they had replicas of all sorts of his machine designs. There were things like an odometer, table saw, mortar launcher, machine gun, etc. but by far the coolest thing there was his design for a tank! It was a conical shell with 3 cannons and 4 independent wheels that had to be cranked manually.

Pretty cool stuff, but I'd say my merkava 3 is a lot nicer, wouldn't you?

On my way back to the hostel I stumbled upon an art exhibit in a random building which was a whole bunch of masking tape twisted inbetween the pillars in the building's foyer. It was super weird but I guess thats why they call it art.

Masking tape art

I headed back to the hostel to relax by the pool and sauna before heading back to the synagogue for shabbat services and a dinner at the local Chabad house. At the pool I randomly met another Jew from outside Toronoto and convinced her to join me at Chabad - small world! The services at the synagogue were very low energy and the massive synagogue felt eerily empty. It was interesting however to see how the services are conducted in a place like Florence, Italy. At Chabad there were about 50 people and we sat next to two couples - one Israeli and the other American.

The synagogue in Florence

Florence

I landed in Rome at about 8AM after my 4AM flight from Israel. I booked my flight 4 days ago, and I had my first 2 nights in a hostel booked as well as a 3 day tour booked at the end of the vacation. With my 12kg backpack a travel book, and a mostly blank piece of paper called my itinerary I arrived in Italy for 12 days of adventures! Fast forward to about 1PM when I arrived in Florence after having bought my Eurorail pass. I started walking around somewhat on my way to the hostel. I passed by the Duomo which is the ginormous cathedral in the center of the city. I waited in line to go inside only to find out that I had to take my backpack back to my hostel and then I could go inside. Once I checked into the hostel I began exploring. I went back to the Duomo and walked around the outside, the inside and then climbed up 484 steps to the top of the dome that offere an amazing panoramic view of the city. Once I walked up a circular staircase and got dizzy for a while we did a half loop in side the cathedral at the base of the dome. I got a great birds eye view overlooking all the people who looked like ants on the floor of the cathedral. I also got a much closer look of the painted dome. I'm not going to comment on the painitngs for fear of getting myself in trouble but the paintings were of the style of man getting eaten by dragon, and man getting a torch shoved up his ass, etc. Aside from the graphic nature of the paintings they were well done. I continued up until we reached the observation point at the very top. The view was incredible and aside from the tower right next odor which was slightly shorter this was by far the tallest structure for as far as the eye could see.

A view from the Duomo. The turquoise dome on the left is the synagogue.

As I continued my wandering around I was stuck in a jam of traffic because the police had blocked off traffic. People were taking pictures so I took some as well. It just so happened that the picture that I took was of the Italian President's car as well as the original statue of David just as they were closing the gates. Later in the day I managed to snap a few more pics of his car as he was passing by a different part of the city with his entourage.

I spent the day wandering and exploring the city. In Florence there were lots of very fancy shops in a very nice area of the city. I crossed the famous bridge which is lined with shops and jewlery stores. On the other sode of the river after a descent hike uphill I got to a replica statue of the David but even better - another fantastic view of the entire city. I then continued my wantdering around in search of the big and famous synagogue. It was surprisngly difficult to find despite the fact that it was huge. I planned to take the tour tomorrow but I had the time now to figure out where it was and explore the city. I took my picture and headed back to the hostel. I had some awesome pizza and gelato and called it enough for day 1.

The famous bridge

A view of Florence from the lookout point with the David. That huge massive thing in the center is the Duomo. I climed the domed part.

AEPi North-East Conclave

Another conclave - this one at Rutgers in New Jersey. On the way down there, we made a detour to Manhattan to visit two guys from our chapter that now live in New York, Tim and Sheldon. We left Waterloo at noon and finally got to Rutgers at 1AM, which made for quite the long trip which included the 2 hour pit stop in NYC.

L-R: Dale, Kyle, Harris, Phil, Me, Sheldon, Matthews, Tim, Cory

While everyone else was staying at a hotel for the weekend, I stayed at the AEPi house. One of the guys on my last trip to Israel was in the Rutgers chapter of AEPi, and he let me stay on his futon at the AEPi house. We had a few drinks and then went out for sandwiches called 'fat sandwiches', which are famous at Rutgers. I had a Fat Darrell, which consisted of chicken fingers, french fries, marinara sauce, lettuce, tomato, and onion on a roll. it was amazing. The next night I went out to a house party with Felix and a bunch of other people from the house.

Fairly uneventful conclave, but a good time nonetheless.

Travel Home, Conclusion

My body has completely shut down due to exhaustion and lack of sleep. I managed to fall asleep just before the plane took off. Being awake for 22 straight hours after many nights without enough sleep has finally taken its toll on me. Fast forward to flight #2 from Zurich to New York – Swiss Air has amazing chocolates. Once I got to New York I went to check in for my flight to Toronto via Washington DC. They said that the flight to DC might be delayed due to bad weather, thus making me miss my flight to Toronto. Shit! Not again! Luckily, the ticket agent was able to put me on a direct flight home to Toronto that gets in 4 hours earlier! I had to take a 1 hour shuttle bus from JFK to LaGuardia, and I managed to get home early! Once again 5 airports, 4 countries, 3 flights all in one day.

Of my 4 trips to Israel, this was my shortest one – only 7.5 days. Going and coming took almost 60 hours, and the ridiculousness of almost missing my flights getting to Israel was beyond stressful. I did not know what to expect from this trip. I had only met one person prior to this trip and I was the only Canadian. On a trip geared towards volunteering and community service I did not expect to see anything new on this trip. I did not know what kind of work we would be doing or what kind of impact it would have on me or the communities. I did not know what it would be like to be going to Israel just as Israel was going to war.

The work we did as a group was amazing. We saw a real change when 40 students spend a few hours a day volunteering. The entire group of people was awesome and they definitely helped to pass the time at some of the more tedious jobs (picking up trash). In the 7.5 days here, the only things that I had done before was shop in Tel Aviv (which I could have done without) and visiting the Western Wall and the tunnel tours (which is always a must!). Everything else was a completely new experience which was a pleasant surprise. There are a ton of things to see and do here and I was glad I got to experience a lot of new sites. It was important to be here in times of war. It is imperative to show Israelis that we stand with them and support them in times of peace, and especially in times of war. What you see in the mainstream media is not indicative of life in Israel. Everyday is still business as usual and I was not scared for myself, but only scared for others.

This was another incredible trip to Israel, and another one I will never forget.
Once again, the people of Sderot STILL need your help. You can still donate to the rocket proof playground here.

The Last Day

Today is the last day in Israel – and it’s a long one. 7AM breakfast, then we are heading to the airport and 1AM for our 530AM flight. We left Jerusalem and went Clementine picking in the morning. Farmers who don’t finish picking their crops due to economical reasons allow volunteers to come pick the produce and it gets donated to the needy. They were also delicious.

After that we had free time for lunch then drove to Tel Aviv to shop for 3 hours. I aimlessly walked around and stopped for coffee and tried to kill 3 hours which was very hard to do. We then headed back to Jerusalem for dinner and a final group discussion. At about 10PM we went to the Old City of Jerusalem to visit the Western Wall and do the underground tunnel tour. The tour takes you below the current ground level to the base of the wall (only about 1/3 of the height of the wall is visible above ground). It was a good thing that I had done the tour last year because I was too exhausted to appreciate it fully. At 1AM we got on the bus for a final time and went BACK to Tel Aviv to the airport.

AEPi at the Kotel: (L-R) Shane, Me, Felix

Today was exceptionally good because it was the first day of classes of my last semester at university. I could not think of anything I would rather be doing or anywhere else I would rather be!

Only in Israel...

Only in Israel… is there a $5 million playground that is rocketproof. This morning we heard from a representative from the JNF about this playground in Sderot. This is the project that I raised $1000 for in order to come on this trip. They were telling us about the bombshelters within the playground which is located in what used to be a textile factory. In the playground there is a soccer field, disco, computer and gaming room, and many other things that enables children to play safely in a city that experiences daily rocket attacks. This playground is a safe haven and allows children to enjoy some normalcy to a life that is nowhere near normal. In addition there are therapists to help out any children, as every child is Sderot suffers from PTSD due to the rockets landing almost every day for the past 8 years.

We went into a community in one of the valleys of Jerusalem and worked the land. We helped make a dirt path, pick up garbage, and most fun of all – plant trees!

(L-R) Danielle, Stan, Sabrina, Becca, Jesse, Felix, Me, and the tree!!!

Only in Israel… is there a hospital that does not practice for mass casualty situations because they have perfected the process. After a long morning working outside in the sun we got a tour of the Shaare Zedek hospital, which is one of AEPi’s official philanthropies. The hospital is a world leader in dealing with mass casualties. They talked about how they train hospitals around the world to deal with these situations. Every hospital runs practice drills yearly, however Shaare Zedek unfortunately has become too accustomed to dealing with these situations, and have perfected the process. The hospital has its first 3 floors underground for security reasons. In addition to this, there is a 250 bed underground hospital wing and room for 18 ambulances to be parked outside the ER at once. The hospital will treat everyone, and is non-discriminatory; in addition, Shaare Zedek also treats Palestinian terrorists who are held in Israeli jails.

Only in Israel… is a story like this true, and expected! We headed back to the hostel and the most random thing happened. In Israel I always expect to unexpectedly run into someone that I know from home, but this story could not be any more unlikely. So we get back to the hostel just before dinner and there are about 400 soldiers standing in the lobby of the hostel. They happened to be there for a few days as part of their 10 week training course to become officers in the army. As I walked towards my room someone on my trip told me that there was a soldier that had asked if there were any Canadians on the trip (I am the one token Canadian on my trip). I assumed that it was a soldier that had met a lot of Canadians on a birthright trip, or had relatives, or had been to Canada, or I don’t know what. Someone pointed her out to me in the lobby. I went up to her and said hello, and as she turned around I said something along the lines of ‘Holy shit, I know you!’ To make a long story short, Ashley and I were in the same grade at high school together. She made aliyah (immigrated to Israel), and served as a basic training instructor in the air force for 2 years, and is now training to become an officer. She is the last person I expected to bump into in Israel as we were never good friends in high school and we lost touch afterwards. I had no idea she was in the army, yet alone that she had been in Israel for 3 years!

Ashley and I

In the evening we partied in the hostel as it was our last sleep in Israel. The soldiers had classes and stuff in the evening and had to get to bed for a 530AM wakeup and 3km run, so I did not really have a chance to hang out with the soldiers. I had a bit of time to catch up with Ashley and I also talked to a few soldiers who were on guard duty guarding the backpacks outside the lobby.

Shabbat , Operation Cast Lead Expands

The day was spent in Arad, I walked around the city in the morning and played soccer in the afternoon. I found one lookout point where I was able to see the Dead Sea, and beyond that the mountains in Jordan. After Shabbat we headed to Jerusalem where we were supposed to go to Ben Yehuda St. to eat shop and go to the bars, but we were told we could not go because of security threats. Late in the afternoon Israeli ground troops entered Gaza. For the past few weeks Israel had only been using its air force in fighting the terrorists in Gaza but today expanded the operation. Hundreds of rockets have been fired from the Gaza strip since the beginning of November. Since Israel disengaged from Gaza in 2005 over 2000 rockets, and since 2001 over 8000 rockets – almost 3 a day for 8 years! Israel has finally said ENOUGH!
We headed to a mall for dinner and some shopping instead of Ben Yehuda St. which was disappointing because I was looking forward to going to Zolly's (a bar).

The Dead Sea, and beyond - the mountains of Jordan.

As usual, before we got off the bus to check in to the hostel our tour guide Yishai told us our plans for the next day. He reiterated as he told us on the first day that given the war he might be called up for reserve duty. He said that he had spoken to his commander and did not think that he would be called up at this time. Ten minutes after checking in we get called down to the lobby for a quick important meeting. Yishai told us that immediately after he got off the bus he got a call from his commander saying he had to get on a bus at 6AM (in 8 hours) to get to his army base. This was the end of the trip for him, and it was sad to see him leave in such an abrupt manner, but this is life in Israel. He did not know where he would be placed, and if he would be going into Gaza.

Farming in the Desert

This morning we went to a farm. This specific farm is called a lone farm. It is one family who had a farm outside of Yerucham, thus located beyond the middle of nowhere in the desert. Before we went to the farm we were supposed to have a woman come speak to us about other lone farms around the desert. We were told at the last minute that she had to cancel. She lives in Be’er Sheva and she said that she could not come because her son kept her awake all night in their bomb shelter. Since Hamas has begun shooting rockets at Be’er Sheva the town has basically shut down and people are spending a lot of their time in these shelters. The lady’s son was scared that if he were to go to sleep in the bomb shelter he would not be able to hear the siren if an incoming rocket is approaching – which is not the case. For the entire night, the lady was trying to convince her son that he was safe and that he needed to go to bed. The lady was too tired to meet with us having not gone to bed all night. This shows that the threat of rockets is not only a life and death situation but can also be traumatizing and have lasting effects on people, and children especially. In the city of Sderot, every child suffers from PTSD because of rockets being launched daily for the past 8 years.

The farm we traveled to was really in the middle of nowhere (which everything seems to be). We helped out in a crop field by picking up plastic and water hoses that were used to help cultivate the crops. The second job I had was to insulate the outside of a building. To do this we mixed dirt, straw and water to make mud that had straw in it – duh! (I don’t know of the technical term for the material). We coated (threw mud at) the outside of the wall with it and once it dried it is supposed to be a good insulator for the building.

After we left I found out that the group that took over the garbage clean up in the field got to have a lot more fun because they also got to drive the tractor and then they burned the heaping piles of garbage hat was collected. That would have been pretty cool, but throwing mud was lots of fun as well. After lunch we headed to the city of Arad where we spent Shabbat. We went to a local synagogue for the evening prayers and then had a nice Shabbat dinner and a relaxing evening.

Picking up trash in the middle of nowhere!

Our completed muddy wall!
(L-R) Jenny, Me, Lisa, Jocelyn, Laura, Samantha, Matt

2009 - Back to Work!

Early wake up at 615AM after only 4 hours of sleep. In the morning half of the group went to a soup kitchen and helped prepare food for the needy. The other half of us including me went to a warehouse that acts as a store where people donate clothes and furniture for the needy. We helped to organize the store and clean it up. After spending 2 days in Yerucham painting, we were now qualified painters. We put our new skills to work in this store as well.

In the afternoon we went to a forest and helped to pickup garbage, trim branches and remove the weeds. In the evening we had a leader from the Bedouin community speak to us about their society and their roles within Israel.