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July 14, 2014

You say Shawarma, I say yum!

Posted by Grendel's Mother under adventure, Israel, travel, Uncategorized | Tags: avissar house, Holy Land, Israel, jaffa, shawarma, yemin moshe |
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This post is the second installment in the Holy Land series of our 2014 trip. Fresh off the plane, we got out of the airport with very little fanfare. An interesting tidbit about passport stamps in Israel—they gave us a small slip of paper that had our photo on it—a visa stamp that was not a permanent stamp in the passport. I’m thinking that’s to avoid complications for travelers who want to visit countries not so pro-Israel. Upon exiting the concourse, I saw a huge mezuzah adorning the wall. (A mezuzah is a blessing that is wrapped in a case—something you’ll see on the doors of Jewish homes and businesses.) Anyhoo, we were met by our guide and whisked off to stretch our legs in the ancient city of Jaffa.

First Stop: Jaffa

Jaffa is a 4,000 year old town on the outskirts of Tel Aviv, which is only about 100 years old. In Israel, our guide says that in order to be considered old, a building, ruin, or relic must be about 1,000 years old or more. Several hundred years is considered new.

Andromeda’s rocks in Jaffa.

We walked to the top of a Tel, a man-made hill, and saw layers of excavation revealing the remnants of cultures from thousands of years ago. Before the modern age where we demolish and remove structures, people established towns by building on top of the ruins of previous inhabitants. This created layers of history that we now explore and learn from.

Jaffe is on the coast of the beautiful Mediterranean Sea. As we looked out over a marina, our guide told us the story of Andromeda and Perseus—the rocks Andromeda was placed on as a sacrifice (and that represent her) are said to be located off the shore near this little marina.

The Adventure of the Israeli Meal

After walking through a lovely artistic area, we sat down for our first meal. The owner placed a number of small bowls of various items on our table. Evidently in Israel, traditionally you are given a salad which is comprised of a number of bowls filled with delicious treats such as carrots, potatoes, eggplant, corn, humus, and baba ganush (among other dishes). The baba ganush was yummy and so were the flatbread pitas they brought us. We ordered some falafel and enjoyed the outside café with our new feline friends who came by for handouts. LOTS of cats run around wild in Israel. People feed them scraps and they earn their keep by keeping the rodents away.

Shwarma in the Old City.

Throughout our stay we tried a number of dishes we weren’t quite sure about that turned out to be delicious. A staple over there is a sandwich called a Shawarma—turkey that is cooked in lamb’s fat or oil, salad items, and humus wrapped in a big pita. YUM! On our first night, mom and I went exploring and sat down for a meal where the language barrier was a challenge. So we tried some soup called Kubu which turned out to be a delicious stew. We identified some meat and beets and decided it deserved two thumbs up.

Home Away from Home

The Avissar House in Yemin Moshe.

Our home in Jerusalem for the next few days was an apartment, the Avissar House, located just a few minutes walk from the Jaffa Gate. It had a little terrace on the roof where I spent several wonderful nights under the stars looking across the road at the walls of the Old City and listening to the sounds of the night—a concert, some young people laughing, dogs, and the breezes through the pines around the neighborhood. Our landlord Yoseph was a kind gentlemen and we loved our accommodations nestled in a very cute pedestrian cobble-stoned street below the Montefiore Windmill in Yemin Moshe. Once we got settled and had a nice walk through the neighborhood to explore, we prepared for the day ahead, and with that we’ll explore the Old City of Jerusalem in the next post.

The Yemin Moshe neighborhood–our apartment was below the windmill. This is a view from the Jaffa Gate.

The view from Avissar House. The building across the road is David’s tomb and the “location” of the last supper.

View from our terrace. The Jaffa Gate and walls of the Old City in Jerusalem.

The Italians could take a lesson from the Jews. This is a typical meal–all the little “salad” bowls go with all the meals.

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The street sign in the artistic area displayed zodiac signs on pretty tiles.

July 12, 2014

A trek through the Holy Land.

Posted by Grendel's Mother under adventure, Family, God, Israel, travel | Tags: Holy Land, Israel, Jesus |
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Visiting the Holy Land is a dream for many people throughout the world. Jews, Christians, and Muslims all consider this land to be the center of our religious and historical past. But visiting this place has its risks. Growing up I never really thought it would be possible with all the fighting, but over the past few years, as more people I know went there, my parents and I thought it would be a good time to go.

And go we did, just last week. Our timing was fortuitous. Throughout our visit, our Jewish guide kept asking us if we felt safe and asking us to be ambassadors back home, “You can tell everyone that it’s safe—we all get along and the news outlets exaggerate.” At first we agreed. But we did a little minor eye rolling when on our last day she said it again and we silently wondered if she had watched the news the night before. The latest battles between Hamas and Israel were heating up with several deaths of boys on both sides. In the week that we’ve been home, the news outlets are reporting that tanks are rolling and missiles are being launched.

Although that seems scary and may keep people from traveling there, the sad fact is, there were dozens of people (at least) killed by gunfire on the streets in our own backyards just over the weekend. So, perspective is in order. We live in a fallen world and you have to make choices whether or not to get out and see the world the way it is.

Overall, the trip was great. There were some instances where it was next to impossible to envision the way the landscape was 2,000 or more years ago. But I think in general what I took away was the reality of the hard terrain that Jesus and his disciples (and the ancient people of the land) traversed. Lots of hills, vast deserts, and hard rocks added some serious damage to my already bad knees. But we had it easy with our air conditioned rooms, cars, restaurants with plenty to eat, and time to leisurely enjoy the days. When I think of Jesus walking up the steep slopes with his friends in 114 degree heat, I can only thank Him once again for his sacrifice and His love for us.

The land has played host to different cultures for many thousands of years. Its history can be seen in deep layers of tells (man-made hills) across the country. Much of it has yet to be unearthed but so much has been discovered already that we can now see how our ancestors lived. But more on that later.

I will be writing about the details of our trip, starting in Jaffa, a 4,000 year old city, then on to Jerusalem’s old city, to the desert heat at Masada and the Dead Sea, up to the gorgeous Sea of Galilee, and ending in Tel Aviv with a nice swim in the Mediterranean. For now, a few pictures to get started.

Genesis 13:17

“Arise, walk about the land through its length and breadth; for I will give it to you.”

August 11, 2013

Itteh bitteh African kitteh committeh.

Posted by Grendel's Mother under adventure, Africa, Animals, travel, Uncategorized | Tags: Africa, balloon ride, cheetah, hippo, lion cub, Mara river, Masai Mara, Nairobi, rhino, safari, tauck tour, tent camp |
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Coming to the end of our wonderful safari, we flew to our last stop, the tent hotel in the Masai Mara. Roughing it is not how I would describe these gorgeous canvas covered hotel rooms along the Mara River. Once again, getting there was via a little air strip and as we arrived, the Masai had set up a “duty free shop” selling spears and other chotchkies. I kept my tent flaps wide open all during the first night, listening to the animals—including the hippos who were floating by in the river below.

The next day I spotted what looked like a young/baby crocodile. It was actually a massive monitor lizard, several feet long. It freaked me out and after explaining that my tent flaps were open all night and that kind of creature was roaming about, Eric said I shouldn’t have kept them open. I guess the sleeping outside thing didn’t apply to the Mara Safari club tent camp. Next night I was zipped up tight!

Distract the Rhinos!

Our game drive in the Masai Mara was one of the best of the trip. Yes, the bar was raised once again. Eric had the group drive up a mountain side toward a ranger station where we got to see two white Rhinos up close and in person.

We had to be quiet so as not to disturb the female. She couldn’t see us (they can’t see very well) but she could sense us and if she knew we were close, she might not like that. You probably haven’t been next to a rhino before so trust me, you want them to be happy and distracted or not see you at all. And that is exactly what the rangers did to the male rhino so we could get up close and touch him and take a photo. I won’t go into details but it was a happy ending for Mr. Rhino and we left our tips in the rhino tip box for the hard working ranger.

Back down on the plains, our driver Abdi, who I dubbed, Happy Abdi, was awesome. He knew where a number of animals hung out so he took us over the a pride of lions and their cubs. We were the first to arrive so got some excellent shots and great views of the little guys nursing and playing. The mamas got tired and would roar and show their teeth—frightening but it didn’t scare the cubs too much—they just moved on to the next set of nipples to try out auntie and her sister. I dubbed them the itteh bitteh African kitteh committee (a line taken from LOLcats). One of the mom’s sneezed which made us laugh—her response was to give us a “look” and then settle back down again. Glad she wasn’t up for some whooping.

Moving on, Abdi drove us over to where a Cheetah was hanging out under a tree. He was getting up from his day of napping and stretched and yawned (which looked frightening in the photo I snapped). This guy just walked around our jeep and got so close we could have touched finger to paw if I was feeling stupid enough—which I was not.

More giraffes, buffalo, wildebeest, a Secretariat bird, and more dotted the landscape on our way back to the tent camp for the evening. We needed a good rest for the seriously early wake up call the next and final morning.

Up Up and Away

Before the sun was up—a looooong time before—we got in our jeeps and drove out to the bush where the balloons awaited us. It was freezing at that time and the wind was up so we had to wait before getting started. The process for getting into the basket was such…they tipped the basket on its side and one by one we climbed in and sat on our backs with legs up—like the astronauts do on lift off. The basket is divided into five parts—the middle for the captain, and two compartments on each side that hold 3-4 people each. I held onto my hat, closed my eyes, and pressed my ears shut while they inflated the balloon. A few peeks told me this was not something I wanted to witness—loud blowing fans, fire spewing out of the machine in the middle—yeah, just tell me when we’re up. And then poof! we were up!

What a ride! We flew low for the most part—an occasional lift into higher elevations had my dad gripping the sides with white knuckles. I was somewhat okay with the whole thing because the balloon drifted very slowly down—no hard crashes were in store and I felt pretty secure inside of it. Not that I wanted to go any higher though. Along the way, the fire blowing into the balloon scared the bajeesis out of the animals who all fled as we approached. Kind of cool to see them from above. We also saw a number of Masai bomas and people waving at us from below.

The touchdown was very smooth and our drivers met up with us to take us over to our champagne breakfast they had set up in the middle of the Masai Mara. Before we stopped, we saw a big buffalo carcass. The vultures were all hanging out and started to leave–one by one like planes taking off—as we approached. The hyenas also took off—with a leg of course—can’t leave good food behind! This was all just yards from where breakfast was being set up.

As we walked around the breakfast site, I noticed a tremendous amount of poo. Maybe this was a hot spot for taking their morning coffee breaks or something, but you could not walk two steps without hitting a pile of poo. It really amazed me as I did a 360 turn and saw miles and miles of grass lands stretched out before me. Was there really that much poo out there?

After a bumpy ride back we relaxed by the pool, watched the hippos swim and snort and then got back on the road, up the mountain for a beautiful evening of wine and treats by a big bonfire as we watched the sun set over the Masai Mara. A truly exhilarating site to see. Again, Tauck knows how to treat their guests and create exceptional experiences.

Off to Nairobi and the first leg of the trip home.

As we climbed aboard a plane with the smallest seats in the world for a quick (thankfully) trip back to Nairobi, we said goodbye to the animals, the Masai people, and our jeeps. We flew in over a sad steel-lined ghetto where about a million people live cramped in poverty. The traffic in Nairobi is similar to D.C. so I felt at home and was entertained by the vendors. See they have a great system going on over there. The police hold up traffic at the roundabouts (causing more congestion) to give the street vendors time to run up and down the line of cars. Once they’ve done a circuit, the cops let that line go and the process starts over again with a new set of potential customers. I didn’t see anything I was really interested in—the hello kitty dolls and Elvis Presley photos seemed less than authentically African so I passed. After a brief rest in the hotel we were off again to the airport where we arrived precisely at 7:59 when Eric said we would. Man he was good!

Final Thoughts

Go. Save your pennies and go. Africa is so amazing and you’ll never experience anything like it anywhere else. The people were lovely, wore beautiful clothes, and even though most were dirt poor, seemed content with their lives. The animals were extraordinary—seeing them in their environment up close was so different than any zoo experience. The vast and endless sky—that included the Southern Cross which I got to see for the first time—was breathtaking. Over and over again I just found myself saying “Thank You God for your beautiful earth, for letting me experience this, and for all Your blessings!”

Tauck Tours and our guide, Eric, were exceptional as usual. Our fellow travelers were fun and added much delight to our trip. The hotels were top of the line and the service was beyond expectations.

Throughout our trip we had some laughs about the toilets. Many were heard to say as they were coming out of a facility, “Well now I can finish writing my book about toilets.” In some places where you would think an old outhouse would be a treat if you could get it, you’d find a clean, full toilet with flushing water and paper. And then you could drive an hour later and stop somewhere more civilized and find a closet with just a hole in the ground. Yup, I tried that just to say I did. I worked my muscles good on that one! In any case, the toilet situation was as diverse as the animal species and you never knew what you were going to get.

The trip over and back was long. I don’t love flying and am extremely uncomfortable in planes (big butt and long legs with arthritis make sitting on them very painful). But even with that and the root canal pain I had the first several days, it was completely worth it. I’ve been culling through the couple thousand photos I took, trying to pull just a few out to share—it’s so hard when you’ve had the experience of your life.

Well, happy anniversary mom and dad. We lived our dream trip and can continue to dream about it for a long time to come!