Day 49 - Swimming the day away

We all woke up around 7:15 am in an attempt to be hiking by 8, but of course it was not to be. Once we packed, headed outside and organized the car, found a functional ATM, and Ari managed to acquire a cab for the other four of us (this time Me, Lisa, Clay and Tanmay), it was around 8:30. We all made it to Yehudiya, a nature reserve where we planned to spend the day hiking. After some map consultaion and deliberation and advice from the visitor's center, we decided to embark upon a circular hike estimated to be about 3 hours of walking, which passed by two pools and a waterfall and followed a stream for part of the journey.

After filling up our water bottles and slathering ourselves with sunscreen, we began the hike by having Ari shuttle us the 3 kilometers down the road to where the hike began. I went in the first batch with Roni, Iris and Clay. The only hitch was that about halfway down the dirt road, a herd of cows sat, blocking the car in front of us from passing through. Iris, being the animal lover she is, decided to get out of the car, and through some magic the nature of which remains unknown, cleared a path for the other car and then ours. Ari dropped us off in the parking lot at the end of the road and went back for the others.

Once we were all there, we set off. The path was dirt and boulders for a while, surrounded by bwon and crinkled spiky grasses and flowers, and wove around a few ruins and piles of stones. After a bit, though, it crossed a small, still stream, which seemed to be a turning point: trees began to line our way, and green plants could be seen ahead and below us to the left. The path gave way to large rocks in shallow water, then wove its way down and around a small hill. Ahead of us we could now see a gigantic group of middle-aged tourists, slowly making their way through the gate in the fence (to keep the cows in). We joined the line and made it through the bottleneck, then tried to quicken our pace to pass the tour group. This was made more difficult by the fact that the path now took us alongside a rock wall and underneath a canopy of slightly poisonous flowers, but we managed to make it to the first pool and found one side of it relatively peaceful and deserted.

We put our stuff down on the rocks and discovered a sort of natural "slide" which would deliver us into the pool, and after a dip some of us jumped in from the conveniently shelf-like rock protrusions of various heights. Iris befriended all three of the dogs who passed by during our time at the pool, swimming with one of them. Ari and Lisa had some sort of fish-catching contest which obviously resulted in a tie (with scores of 0:0 fish caught), and many photographs were taken of all of these events. After we had swum our fill, we dressed, dried off and munched some snacks before attacking the trail once more.

This part of the hile followed the stream, so we saw the second pool from above as we clambered among the rocks to a lookout point from which we could see the water cascading 50 meters down into the third and fourth pools below. The vegetation at the bottom was green but turned progressively browner as it approached our level. We didn't linger, instead heading onward in an attempt to keep ahead of the large group we'd passed earlier. The trail wound its way down, at one point forcing us to climb down a metal ladder in the mountainside to reach the bottom of the waterfall. The first pool along this path was large, but we picked our way along it and around the cliff to the pool with the huge waterfall.

Many of us sat to rest in a nearby cave, but others stripped down and jumped right in. This water was not as clear as the previous pool, but was cooler, and very deep. We swam over to the waterfall, and Daniela and Martin discovered some brown crabs devouring a large piece of fruit. Lisa climbed into another cave which could only be accessed from the water, and I joined her for a bit. Getting out of the water was exciting, as the rock was slippery and didn't extend into the water at all from the shore, but once we all figured it out, we could get dressed, drink some water, and then all head onward.

The climb back up was steep but not as painful as expected, and once we reached the top, the path reverted to a wide, dusty, rocky way through dry, dead fields back to where we had left the car. We passed ruins of walls and lonely-looking trees before the end of the trail was upon us; after a longer walk than the map implied, it was a surprise when the path suddenly gave way to the parking lot. Ari shuttled us back to the main gate, where were learned of a nearby place to eat where Ari then shuttled us. Daniela, Martin, Clay and I were in the second batch for this journey, which meant we waited for Ari along the side of an empty highway in the middle of the Israeli desert for a few minutes.

After reaching the place and eating (by this time it was near 4:00 pm) indoors with air conditioning, Iris managed to get us a great deal on a cab back to the bus station in Tiberias. Clay, Tanmay, Iris and I would be taking the bus, while the others joined Ari in the car. We arrived at the bus station to find the next departure for Tel Aviv leaving in 10 minutes, and managed to be among the first to board. I fell asleep relatively soon after the ride began, and was awoken once to move over as the bus filled up along the way, and a second time when Mom and Dad called me. We had a lovely chat once I woke up, but I believe I was quite surly at first. Apologies, guys.


Finally we reached Tel Aviv and grabbed a bus back to Rehovot, which took way too long but which dropped us near the main gate of the Institute. After a shower, I joined Clay for some food, then did some catching up on my blog and chilling before calling it a night.

Today's pictures are from Yehudiya. Behold, and be jealous!

Iris and the cows

Landscape at the start of the hike

The first pool, and slide-like part
Picture taken from in the water!
Ari's acrobatics
Iris and dog #1
Clay, Tanmay, Roni and Iris
Hiking down to the waterfall
The big waterfall!
Ladder, on the way back up
A lonely tree
The Sea of Galilee, at high speed

Day 48 - A day beginning with failure

I woke up very early this morning to shower, pack, and go grocery shopping. After purchasing somewhere near 48 liters of water, 10 apples and about a bajillion granola bars and lugging them back to the Clore lobby, I brought my packed bag up and waited as Clay, Tanmay, Daniela, her boyfriend Martin, Lisa, Iris, Ari and Roni arrived. I then took Daniela and Martin to Eldan, the car rental place, to pick up our reserved car. The one hitch: Daniela's driver's license is in Austria. Oops. So we tried the next-best thing to someone who is at least 24 years old: someone who is 23 (i.e. Tanmay). Of course, since I had already pissed them off by trying to rent a car without a license, this didn't fly. So we sat in the Clore lobby contemplating my failure until it was suggested that 4 of the 9 of us take a bus up to Tiberias and meet the carload there.

So we set off, Martin, Daniela, Clay and Tanmay to the bus station, the rest of us on a sherut to Petah Tikva, just north and east of Tel Aviv. Lisa, Iris and I wandered into the local mall for a bit while Ari and Roni took a cab to pick up the car Ari was borrowing from a relative. Soon they returned, and us girls had meanwhile acquired malawah for everyone, so we ate the deliciousness as our trip began. We drove north, and called the others to discover they were taking a bus to Nazareth, where they'd get another to Tiberias, because the direct route didn't leave for at least an hour. This information convinced us to stop there too, as my Israel guidebook had some interesting things to say about the place, and within an hour or so we were there.

As we drove around the city following random signs supposedly leading us to the "Old City" or various locations, we saw a large, church-like structure on the horizon. Opening my guidebook revealed to us that this was the site we were looking for, so after acquiring parking and walking past banks, shooks and a Muslim prayer gathering, we found our destination: the Church of the Annunciation. A modern structure finished in 1969, its interior contains the remains of the place where Gabriel told Mary she would give birth to Jesus.

Just outside the church, we ran into the bus group, who had just finished seeing the site.  After making hypothetical lunch plans, we entered the church grounds. It was a really interesting sight. The outer walls contained mosaics and similar works, from almost every country, representing the Annunciation, and the church itself had very modern stained-glass windows, more modern depictions of the Annunciation in varying styles, and, in the very center, a stone ruin thought to be where Mary was at the time of the event.

We examined the ground and first floors, then departed, running into the other group again and sitting down for some falafel and shwarma. We chatted and such, then the car group decided to head out, to see if we could make it to Tiberias in time to maybe rent another car there. The bus people had one more hour before the next connection, so made their way gradually to the station.

Our drive from Nazareth would have been slightly faster if we hadn't headed back the way we came for 5 minutes or so before turning around and going through the city once again on our way North. As we drove through the second time, though, we got some amazing and new views of the valley. Once we left, the landscape began to change, and soon we reached Tiberias, catching a few glimpses of the Sea of Galilee on the way. We parked and Ari and Roni went to check in to the hostel. The three girls went in search of open rental car places, but we found Avis, Hertz, and Eldan all closed. By the time we made it back to the hostel to join the others, the bus group had arrived.

There were 4 girls in one room and 5 boys in another, and the place was rather nice despite its slightly sketchy exterior. We brought all our stuff in from the car and relaxed for a few minutes, while Ari chatted with the hostel manager about beaches and nightlife. Finally we all changed into bathing suits, grabbed beach egar, and headed out, walking south for about 20 minutes until we reached a clean, free beach, creatively called "South Beach." There were lawn and beach chairs, straw umbrellas, and water "misters" overhead to keep us cool, but most of us went straight for the water.

It was a hot day, but the water was cool and pretty nice except for the fact that the bottom was covered in huge rocks. We made the best of it, though, swimming and chatting and discovering the one spot in the water where if you stood still for too long, something came out of the lake bottom and sort of bit your toe (quite frightening, as I was the one to discover it, but hilarious for me once everyone who didn't believe me gradually proved my point).

Once we had swum our fill and the breeze got too chilly, we sat outside to dry in the last rays of the sun as it dipped below the mountains (but didn't set). After about a half hour, we began the walk back, heading a slightly different way and finding a restaurant for dinner. They set up a table for the nine of us, but as many of us ordered from the fixed price menu (which wasn't even really that good a deal) and only a few of us ordered drinks, our server seemed pretty fed up with us, and only grudgingly and with three or so requests managed finally to bring us tap water. To sum up the meal, the food was fine but the service was mean. After some confusion as to whether or not we wanted the check, we paid it quickly as soon as it arrived and left as quickly as possible.

It was only a short walk back to the hostel, and we cleaned up a bit before beginning our incredible evening of ice cream, tasty beverages, and Settlers of the Catan. It was a marathon evening. We played in teams of two and three, trying to pair every new player with a veteran. While I had seen the game played before (at Tristan's game weekends), I had never participated, and so was paired with Clay. Remarkably, the two of us won! Technically. Somewhere near the end Ari and Roni decided to accept donations of Victory Point Development Cards, which is a blatant violation of the game rules, but if one doesn't consider this bit of cheating, they won first. Except that they cheated.

By the time we finished it was very late, so we all went directly to bed in preparation for an early morning of hiking. Enjoy some pictures from the trip so far!

In Petah Tikva, across from the mall.  Iris looks thrilled!

A sign in Nazareth

The Church of the Annunciation

 An example of the mosaics. Zvonimir, this is for you!

Stained glass...

...another, up close

Communism?

The board of Settlers of Catan when Clay and I won!

Tanmay, Iris, Roni, Ari, and Martin in the hostel

Day 47 - Living underground

Today began earlier than usual, because we met at 7:00 am in the San Martin parking lot for a KKISS trip to the caves at Beit Govrin and a stalactite cave. After not too long a ride, we arrived at Beit Govrin. We munched on sandwiches as our guide gave us an introduction, then he walked us through various caves and cave networks. Many of the caves were used to breed pigeons/doves for food, fertilizer, and some religious uses, while others were water cisterns and still others housed presses for making olive oil.

The caves were amazing, and the air was cool and wonderful in comparison to outside, which was already hot despite it still being the morning. We had to walk outside to get from some caves to others, and along the way we found some carob trees, and tasted the pods which turned out to be very sweet and crunchy. We spent about two hours in the park, seeing mostly the highlights, before getting back on the bus.

The next stop was for the stalactite cave.  We got off the bus and walked a ways down the mountain towards the cave entrance, basically a set of doors in the mountainside.  Just inside was a miniature theater, and we all sat to watch a video which would tell us a bit about the caves.  It was a very dramatic film, which basically flashed pictures of the caves at us while defining (with appropriately-placed pauses) terms like stalagmite, stalactite, and others, set to very creepy and at times disturbing music.  The highlight, though, was towards the end, when the narrator told us "Absolutely no photography is allowed in the cave, except on Fridays."  Of course, that makes perfect sense.

The cave itself was pretty amazing.  Many of the stalactites and stalagmites are still active, and the huge formations are made of many different types of water flows and everything.  As it turns out, photography is allowed towards the end of the path, so pictures can be seen below, but the tour guide was very unfriendly about this and, well, everything, and throughout the tour pointed out formations which resembled various biblical, fairy tale, and cartoon characters. 

After this tour we returned to the bus and headed back to Rehovot.  We were on campus again by 1:30 pm, so I stopped by Clore to get my flash drive and went in to work for the afternoon.  I also stopped in and gave Nitzan some more music for his birthday, which was yesterday (happy late birthday, if you're reading this, which is unlikely because you can't really read, right?), then worked more until around 5:45 pm.  

I went back to Clore and changed, then Ari and I headed down to the field to play soccer!  It was a smaller game this week, but that was fine; I hadn't played in a while and it was really nice to run around a bit.  It ended up being me, Ari, this guy I hadn't met before named Alex, Olivia, Michael, and after about an hour, Doron (once the others finished playing frisbee).  We used bags for goals, which was much easier, and had a great game.  

After a quick shower, I went to Cafe Madaa with Ari, Zvonimir, Iris and Rachel for dinner.  The food was typical, but things of note included that it was Zvonimir's fourth time there today, and the waitresses thought this was amusing.  It was also close to closing time, so the waitresses were making complete fools of themselves behind the counter, dancing and casting spells on each other.  But when they started doing the Soulja Boy dance, I was somehow recruited to join in, and, even more remarkably, Zvonimir took video of it.  [Un]fortunately, he is having trouble uploading the video, so I can't share, but I'm sure it was hilarious.

After dinner, a group of us met in Clore to discuss our trip plans for the weekend, then hung out while some people started a game of Settlers of the Catan, which Clay just bought.  I went to bed soon after they began, to stock up on sleep for the weekend.

Let's start with Beit Govrin photos...

A dovecote (for raising pigeons)

Outside the caves

The group, with our guide

Daniela eating a carob pod

Look up!

An olive press

All of the doorways were this short!

Some limited shots from the stalactite cave

(limited because it's not Friday)

Day 46 - Hi, my name is Alissa. Nice to meet you!

Today was a bit low after yesterday's awesomeness. I got in relatively early in the morning, as always. I like to start before 9 usually, even though most people in the group don't get in until 9 or 9:30, just because I am much more able to concentrate and be productive in the mornings, and so I usually work with few breaks from 9 to 12:15. This was the case this morning. I began processing the new images. Usually I save as I go along, which is just good sense, and I thought I had been, until at around 12:09 Excel stopped responding and had to quit, and when I reopened it there was no recovered file and everything I had done that morning was gone. Wonderful. So I decided to stop for the morning, maybe write a bit in my lab notebook, and go get lunch with everyone at San Martin.

Since I was there somewhat earlier than usual, I got to eat with a slightly different group, including Zvonimir, Lisa, and Onur. As I was finishing, more people arrived, but I decided to go back and get an early start redoing everything from that morning. I worked, but less diligently because the afternoon is always a harder time to concentrate for me (and because of my new lack of faith in Excel), until around 5:30 or 6, when I returned to Clore and had a snack of hummus and pita.

Ari, Dan and I then decided to go out and try a cafe we'd neer been to, called Lool. I posted a picture of this cafe's sign a while back, mostly for Joe Coyne due to its similarity to how you'd write LOL in Hebrew. The menu didn't really appeal to the boys at first, but once the server came by they decided to tough it out (translation: she was cute). Ari ordered a pizza and Dan a salad, but she recommended to them an apetizer for two involving corn. I graciously volunteered to abstain so they could both impress her, so they decided to go for it. It turned out to be corn on the cob, which itself was delicious and perfectly cooked (I had a bite), but which was then coated in mayonaise, parmesean and chili powder. See below for the guys' impressions.

The rest of the food was pretty good, actually, and I'm sure we'll go back there (for more resons than one). As we were on the way home, Ben called, so I sat in the lobby for a lovely chat with him. Once I hung up I noticed a group chatting and joined in. Somehow the topic of music sharing came up, and I said that while illegal, massive music downloading is and obviously should be illegal, it is perfectly legal, and rightfully so, to lend a friend a CD. Alissa then said that she thought massive music sharing should be legal, because all music should be free. Lisa and I agreed that the music industry isn't the best thing ever but that people should be paid to make music. Maciej made the excellent point that without payment, the quality of the product would be significantly reduced. I then tried to compare the situation to the publishing industry. The issue got convoluted by Alissa's environmentalism and desire to save trees, but it turns out she thinks all writers' work should also be free. When questioned further, she revealed that she believes the notion of property to be wrong, harmful, and unnatural. And then the fun began.

Logically (or amazingly), the remainder of the conversation entered the arena of environmentalism and the history of civilization. We discussed the nature of materialism and trade, the myth of the noble savage, the destruction of our planet, and related topics. Asaf, Lisa, and Onur took rather moderate views, while I played devil's advocate to every one of Alissa's rather hippie-like points. The argument got quite heated, which was fun because we both knew it was just for kicks. I actually agree with her on a lot of the points she made. Alissa, if you're reading this, the book you MUST read, which my friend Jamie recommended to me, can be found here. Seriously. Read it.

Anyways, more people began to arrive gradually, and in the end the group had swelled to include Stephen, Dan, Zvonimir, Tanmay, Iris, Clay, Ori, Rachel, and later Jessica. As more people joined, the topics became less antagonistic, which was a welcomed relaxation opportunity. Zvonimir kept leaving to grab something and coming back to find his chair taken, and having to pull up another one as a result. It was most amusing the fourth time, when I deliberately removed his chair.

At about this time, Alissa randomly came up with a fun game to play. She asked everyone to go around in the circle and say "Hi, my name is Alissa. Nice to meet you." in a language other than English. It took some convincing, but eventually we all tried. Asaf went first, using Chinese, just for kicks. Next was Onur, with Turkish. Tanmay said it in Hini. Hebrew came next, furnished by Amir, followed by Rachel with German. I was next, and got to use French before anyone else did. Iris had to pass because Hebrew was taken, but later lamented that she hadn't said it in Canadian. Zvonimir got to use Croatian, and Maciej Polish (and, impressively, Russian). His stood out, in addition to his double contribution, because he was the only one to literally follow the directions and refer to himself as Alissa. To wrap it up, Alissa attempted Yiddish, with some grammar corrections by Rachel. When Jessica stopped by she used Spanish. I hadn't expected it would be as entertaining an activity as it was!

Jessica and I then went downstairs to change. We then headed out with Zvonimir, Tanmay, Dan, Ari, Stephen, Iris and Jessica to the science park, with the intention of going to a sort of Clore event at a club called Truman. We didn't make it to Truman, however, stopping around the corner at a really cool bar/club with very varried music (from the "Cinderella" remix of Rihanna's "Umbrella" to Israeli metal) and, oddly, those free foam and plastic ice cream cone toys which have a button so you can "shoot" the foam "ice cream." It was really fun! We hung out and sort of danced, had some Goldstar, etc. Eventually Iris and I decided to leave, and Tanmay joined us, so we could get some sleep.

I took a few pictures tonight at Lool, for no real reason.

Jay Olman, if you are reading this: look, a threek!

Dan and Ari: reactions to the corn thing (a comparison)

Day 45 - Would you like some cheese with your wine?

I began work today by grabbing TEM grids and heading to the TEM to work with Talmon. We examined samples of carbon nanotubes functionalized with COOH and NH2 groups, and while the former were very damaged, the latter yielded many great images. And so, as predicted, I now have more images to process.

Anyways, that took most of the beginning of the day. I left around 1 pm, which was too late to join everyone for lunch, so I ate some leftovers and hummus and pita back in Clore. The rest of thw workday was rather unexciting, but I left around 5:30, at which point I went directly to Hertzl Bar where Zvonimir and Dan were having an early-ish dinner. We then changed and dropped stuff off in Clore, and left for the mall to catch a bus to Jerusalem. We were running sort of late and so decided to take a cab. This was a much more pleasant (read: air-conditioned) method, but wasn't that much faster than walking, as it turned out. When we got close to the mall, we got out sort of in the middle of the traffic circle and literally ran to the mall entrance. Through the security check we began running again, weaving in and out of old ladies and strollers, groups of people chatting in the most inconvenient locations, and dashing down the stairs.

While I've found that most buses here run remarkably close to perfectly on time, this bus was of course ten minutes late. Meaning we shouldn't have even worried. But better safe than sorry, I suppose. We got on and sat together in the back row of the bus, and I called Jonathan somewhere along the way to find out exactly how to navigate to our final destination once we arrived. He told us a bus number but said they'd just taken a cab, so we did the same when we arrived, pulling up to a rather long line to enter the Israel Museum. The event: the Annual Jerusalem Wine Festival.

We paid admission, then walked to the outdoor area, each receiving a wine glass as we passed into the open plaza. There was an outer ring of stands and an inner one surrounding a large sculpture, serving all sort of different tastes of wines. A few stands had crackers, one had wine-inspired jams and jellies, and one, which I found particularly enticing, was serving cheese. We wandered, trying various things, and without seeking them ran into Jonathan, his friend Etan, Jordan, his friend Dan, and Joel. They had been there for about an hour already. We walked with them for a bit but eventually broke up into the original groups.

The wines were diverse. One stand, which was probably rather cheap wine, poured rather large tastes with the claim that the stuff was "the best of the best of the west," whatever that means. Another had red dessert wine, which I had never tasted before and probably never will again. Many of the wines were mixtures, and many of them weren't bad. And of course some stands were much more serious than others. An interesting aspect of this particular location for a wine tasting was that many of the wineries weren't kosher, so occasionally you'd see someone in a kippah approaching and have the server say loudly, before they even reached the front of the line, that they should probably try elsewhere.

After a bit I parted with Zvonimir and Dan to grab a snack of sushi, which wasn't bad, before we finished our rounds. One of the wineries near the live music (!) had its own sort of stage, and a very cute server, so after one taste I went to get some cheese while Zvonimir debated how to go about proposing to her, with advice from Dan of course. After a while it became apparent he wouldn't have the guts, so we decided to call it a night. We luckily caught a cab outside the museum (luckily because there weren't many and it was getting close to the departure time of the last bus). We made it to the bus station 15 minutes before the scheduled departure of the last bus, but it pulled up about 7 minutes before this (which is more typical, in my experience). We got on, and got off outside the main gate of Weizmann. Dan and Zvonimir gave me their glasses and headed off to continue the party at Hertzl Bar. I was exhausted, so went back to Clore. After an entertaining chat with Ari and Rachel in the lobby, I headed off to bed.

I took pictures at the wine festival!

Me with an odd sculpture just inside the Israel Museum

Some of us once we all found each other.

Left to right: Etan, Jonathan, Me, Joel and Zvonimir

The band and a sculpture

Zvonimir and Dan...

A view of the whole festival

Zvonimir being a model

In the cab: