Fulbright Trip

Over the 9th and 10th of February my parents and I went on a trip up north with Fulbright. Fulbright is the organization that awarded my dad the award that allowed us to go to Israel. My grandparents are also here for the next 2 weeks and because the Fulbright trip was picking us up in Haifa, a beautiful port city in the north, the morning of the 9th we decided to go up to Haifa, with my grandparents, the night of the 8th. My grandparents would then pick us at the end of the Fulbright trip on the Sea of Galilee. On the way up to Haifa we stopped in Netanya, a beach town around half and hour drive north of Tel Aviv, for a walk and lunch. The beach was beautiful. The sea was bright blue in parts and greenish blue in parts. The Mediterranean Sea is one of the prettiest oceans, in my opinion. Once we arrived in Haifa and went to our hotel, the Hotel Nof, at around 7pm we took a walk and then went to bed because my parents and I knew that we had an early start the next morning. But before I went to bed a made sure to take a nice hot shower!! Hot water is a rarity in Israel and we don't get a lot of it at our apartment. The morning of the 9th we quickly ate breakfast, said good-bye to my grandparents, and met the tour guide and the rest of the Fulbright people to begin our two day tour up north. Our first stop was a Tunisian synagogue near the beach town of Akko. There were a lot of mosaics in the synagogue. They were all amazingly put together and that clearly pain off because they were all beautiful. The one on the back wall was of the town of Akko. However, there were also mosaics on the ceiling and even some on the floor as well. This synagogue was definitely one of the most beautiful ones I have ever seen. After the synagogue, we went to Akko. In Akko we saw the jail house where prisoners were kept as recently as the early to mid 20th century. One of the neat things about Akko is that when the excavators found it, it was completely buried in sand. Since Akko is a huge town, it was hard to imagine the amount of sand. After exploring the jail, we went to the Knights' Halls. The halls were wear the Roman Knights would be if they were in Akko. The halls were huge and they were all made out of stone, so it got very cold in the halls during the winter. Knights even died from the cold. After Akko, we went to lunch in a Druze village. The religion, Druze, is a form of Muslim though it was made from parts of Judaism, Christianity, and Muslim. Druze cannot marry a person who is not a Druze and nobody can convert to being a Druze. Lunch was made up of pita with many dips and salads, which were pretty good though not the best that we've had. When we thought that the food was done coming and we were all full, they started bringing out pieces of chicken and lamb. The chicken and lamb were very good and perfectly seasoned and grilled, but we weren't hungry anymore so we didn't eat a lot of the chicken and lamb. When very full and done with lunch, we continued our tour to a Circassian village. Circassians are also Muslim though not the typical type. They came from the Ottoman Empire and parts of Russia, though later on some of them moved to the Middle East. The Circassian man that talked to us about he and his people was in Circassian attire. Circassian attire consists of long robes (some with patterns) and tall wide hats. Whenever the man giving us the presentation on Circassians pointed, his sleeves fell over his hands, which made him look like Dopey from Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs. :) After the presenter mumbled stuff to us (his English wasn't very good), we went to our last stop for the day, Kfar Blum, a Kibbutz hotel in the Hula Valley which is near the Golan Heights. Kfar Blum was much different then Kibbutz Hatzor. Kfar Blum was much more like a place that family reunions would take place. (It was like a hotel, just the rooms weren't connected to one main building.) Our room was very nice and had hot water!!! It was so nice to take another hot shower! The next day we started early again because like the day before, we had a lot to do and see. Our first stop of the day was a water fall in the Golan Heights. The Golan Heights is the area in the far north east of Israel. It is the part of Israel that borders both Lebanon and Syria. It was sort of freaky driving on the narrow roads of the Golan Heights seen signs saying "WARNING! DO NOT GO BEYOND THE LINE. LAND MINES." When the Golan Heights still belonged to Syria, the Syrians put land mines down to help keep outsiders out. The water fall was beautiful. Though it wasn't very tall, it was still beautiful. When the water splashed at the bottom of the water fall it was picture perfect. After the water fall visit we went to Gamla. Gamla is an area that people can hike, though we didn't have time to. Also, Gamla was a village on the top of a hill that the Jews fled to when the Romans were coming after them. All that is left now is ruins. For my mom, dad, and I, our next stop was our last with Fulbright. Our last stop was at the Sea of Galilee. The Sea of Galilee is beautiful; especially the day we saw it. It was calm and a beautiful greenish blue. The sea looked even more beautiful with the sun shining on it. After we saw the Sea of Galilee, we said our goodbyes, especially to the bus driver, Chaim who we became good friends with, and my grandparents picked us up so that we could continue traveling with them. The two days we spent with Fulbright were very packed with lots of adventures!