Tales from the Holy Land: 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!