Israel - Tzfat & Tel Aviv

I'm having a hard time remembering what we did when in Israel. I can't believe how much we packed into each day. I guess that's what happens when you wake up early, eh?

On Wednesday morning we loaded up the bus and drove about an hour north to the beautiful city, of Tzfat (also known as "Safed" or "Tzfas"). Tzfat is one of Israel's four holy cities, is the highest city in Israel, and is the center of Jewish mysticism, more popularly known as kaballah.

"Madonna is bullshit" - direct quote from a Rabbi

Our first stop was "The Ascent," where we met with a Rabbi, learned about mysticism, debated over Israeli politics, and had our first encounter with strange Israeli sense of humors (hello 9/11 joke).

We spent the rest of the afternoon exploring the beautiful cobblestone streets and learning about the history of the city. I absolutely loved Tzfat. It was one of my favorite stops on the trip.

This pomegranate juice is up there in my top 10 favorite things.

After lunch we re-boarded the bus for a nearly 3 hour drive to Tel Aviv. We made it in time to check into our hotel, eat dinner, and then get ready for a night out on the town. We went to "Friends," a bar that mistakenly OR ironically (unknown) had the tagline "where everybody knows your name"  over the door. It was a really fun night out and the first time the group was really able to let loose together!

Pregaming with lollipops

The next day we were up early again for a full day in Tel Aviv. The highlight of the day was meeting the eight Israelis who would be traveling with us for the next few days. The Israelis ranged from ages 21-29 and were all soldiers, students or professionals. We spent some time getting to know them in Rabin Square before going to see Yitzhak Rabin's memorial. The story of Rabin's death is a very sad one: Rabin, the prime minister at the time, was attending a peace rally and gave a very moving speech. The last lines of his speech:

"This rally must send a message to the Israeli people, to the Jewish people around the world, to the many people in the Arab world, and indeed to the entire world, that the Israeli people want peace, support peace. For this, I thank you."

Shortly after Rabin was assassinated by a fellow Jewish Israeli.

Our last stop in Tel Aviv was Independence Hall, the site of the signing of Israel's Declaration of Independence.

Afterwards we boarded the bus again for the hour long trip to Jerusalem. Before settling at our hotel for the night we stopped at an overlook point and saw the whole city of Jerusalem. It was quite breathtaking. We opened a bottle of "wine" (grape juice), and cheersed to the next few days in the Holy city.

PS: this bus stabbing occurred the day we arrive in Tel Aviv. It was very eyeopening to see how a city that deals with terrorism on a daily basis responds to an attack like this. In Boston, the whole city would have been shut down.