Well, after....I don't know how many hours on an airplane between Monday and Tuesday...I'm finally home! It's so good to be back here.
Israel was an interesting place to visit. Hanging out with almost 50 Jews for 10 days was definitely an experience I'm not used to. Overall, the itinerary gave a pretty good taste of the country. We started off exploring Jerusalem, after a few days headed south into the desert along the shores of the Dead Sea, stopped off in Tel Aviv for a day and then headed north to Tiberias and near the Syrian border. I don't think I'll be back any time soon but I'm definitely grateful for the experience.
I guess my only gripe about the trip would be the religious expectations. I grew up in an extremely secular home and sometimes I wish it was different. To me, religion lends to a sense of community and a sense of belonging. I've been struggling with that a lot as an adult and I start to feel very lost and alone. I was hoping this trip would help me find some of that but alas, it was to no avail. Though I suppose I shouldn't have really expected it since the point of the trip was to visit the homeland, not force religion down anyone's throat.
Our first stop after getting off the airplane at Ben Gurion was an outlook that showed the whole city of Jerusalem
The Western Wall with the Al-Aqsa Mosque directly behind it. We later found out Israeli soldiers shot someone just the day before we were there.![]()
We woke up at 2:30 a.m. to do a sunrise hike to Masada, an ancient stronghold. It was an awesome hike, if fucking exhausting.
Yoga at the top of Masada; it became a running theme on the trip
Riding a camel on hump day, whatwhat!
My older sister and I up near the Golan Heights
I suppose it's back to reality!
Israel was an interesting place to visit. Hanging out with almost 50 Jews for 10 days was definitely an experience I'm not used to. Overall, the itinerary gave a pretty good taste of the country. We started off exploring Jerusalem, after a few days headed south into the desert along the shores of the Dead Sea, stopped off in Tel Aviv for a day and then headed north to Tiberias and near the Syrian border. I don't think I'll be back any time soon but I'm definitely grateful for the experience.
I guess my only gripe about the trip would be the religious expectations. I grew up in an extremely secular home and sometimes I wish it was different. To me, religion lends to a sense of community and a sense of belonging. I've been struggling with that a lot as an adult and I start to feel very lost and alone. I was hoping this trip would help me find some of that but alas, it was to no avail. Though I suppose I shouldn't have really expected it since the point of the trip was to visit the homeland, not force religion down anyone's throat.
Our first stop after getting off the airplane at Ben Gurion was an outlook that showed the whole city of Jerusalem
The Western Wall with the Al-Aqsa Mosque directly behind it. We later found out Israeli soldiers shot someone just the day before we were there.
We woke up at 2:30 a.m. to do a sunrise hike to Masada, an ancient stronghold. It was an awesome hike, if fucking exhausting.
Yoga at the top of Masada; it became a running theme on the trip
Riding a camel on hump day, whatwhat!
My older sister and I up near the Golan Heights
I suppose it's back to reality!
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Yea, this was definitely an interesting look into another world. My only other travels outside the U.S. was Japan and shit, that place was better than here! It did make me feel somewhat grateful to come from the States after visiting there, I'll say that.
Glad I went, definitely happy to be home though.