Mar 9, 2008 - Busy days!

Lisa here. We're all back home, with the possible exceptions of Dana and Andy, who were on different flights. Our last 2 days in Israel were really busy. I posted the itinerary so you can at least see where we were even though the daily entries aren't yet caught up. On Friday the group went to Yad Vashem and the Valley of the Communities in the morning, followed by a visit to Mt. Herzl and the military cemetery. This is where many leaders of Israel are buried, including Golda Meir and Yitzhak Rabin. Paul and I expected to meet some friends...

Mar 6, 2008 - We're all OK

You may see breaking news about a shooting at a school in Jerusalem. It's somewhat near where we all had dinner, but we are all safe. At the moment things are still developing, but we are all keeping in close contact with each other. Karen, Jill's mom, has a friend whose son attends the yeshiva attacked by Hamas. He is fine, and in fact, when the shooting started, ran home to tell his family that he was OK. We'll update more tomorrow.

Feb 19, 2008 - The I, The J, OK

So…lack of time and a few unlooked-for experiences have forced me to catch you up, Dear Reader, on the doings of this second trip of 2008. The first trip, for the (mercifully) uninitiated, was to Jerusalem and Tel Aviv during the last week of Ought Seven and the first week of the year, a trip so impossibly memorable I cannot do justice to it in a few short sentences…so of course I’ll try. Ending 07 on a bang, I undertook a whirlwind family-and-friends sojourn which took me from Wolfville-Halifax to Victoria and back in 18 days in December,...

Jan 20, 2008 - JERUSALEM - DEAD SEA - Israel

Jeruschalajim, that's how Jerusalem is more or less phonetically pronounced in their langugage. My impression went or still goes from: how can people live like that, I'm impressed by it, I'm taking a bow, back to "this is a different world"! On arrival at the main bus station you first have to go thru the metal detector and baggage screener to get into the bus station building. Not being used to such kind of searching, I was afraid of doing something wrong and being incriminated of something serious I would not even know it was not...

Jul 24, 2007 - Jerusalen

Al dia siguiente tome un bus a Jerusalem (4 horas). Encontre un hostal muy bien ubicado en plena ciudad antigua cerca del Jaffa Gate, el Petra Hostel. Jerusalem es probablemente la ciudad con mas historia del mundo. Cada calle, cada metro tiene una historia de miles de anhos. Puedes tomarle foto a cada piedra de la parte antigua. Y sigue igual que cuando fui hace 8 anhos. La ciudad esta dividida en 4 distritos (el armenio, el judio, el musulman, y el cristiano), y cada uno es como un mundo aparte. Los judios se quedan en el judio (tienen...

Jun 26, 2007 - ISRAEL

JERUSALEM DAY 1 It was three in the morning when we arrived at the house of Yoel in Jerusalem. Yoel has been a friend of Dads for years. He goes to Berkeley a lot and him and Dad became good friends. He led us into his beautiful house made of amazing Jerusalem stone. I will probably end up using the word amazing in this journal a million times but that is Jerusalem, simply amazing. His house was very nice, comfortable and had a gorgeous view of parts of Jerusalem. After a quick tour we quickly fell asleep in the guest room, a small room...

May 24, 2007 - Jerusalem

Jerusalem 24-25 May 2007 Jerusalem with its history going back 5000 years has important religious significance for Jews, Muslims and Christians. We stayed at the Hebron Today Hostel in the heart of the old city. Just finding it again took skill! Once you are in the small alleys it is very hard to get one's bearings! Probably photos tell the story here. Jerusalem has a population of 700,000 people and is the largest city in Israel. The population of Israel is 7 million. Approximately 65% are Jewish, 33% Muslim and 2% Christian. Because of...

Oct 24, 2006 - Ein Gedi & Masada

After stopping in Jerusalem for the night we made our way to Ein Gedi on the Dead Sea. Ein Gedi was a sort of half success or half failed experiment depending on the type of person you are. We sadly got there to late to see Masada. That was a disappointment as it was one of our primary must sees in Israel... But we did get to swim in the Dead Sea. That is pretty fricken neat. Agnes and an American fella Bryan met up with us there as well which was cool. It's strange. You float so much it's literally impossible to drown. No matter how strong...

Oct 18, 2006 - Jerusalem

So on our first day in Jerusalem we spent the afternoon strolling the not so straight forward Via Delarosa. Famous as being the path Christ took as he walked his spanking new cross to the sight of his crucifixion. It was definitely a powerful and interesting experience. We had the benefit of having a guide for the walk (book) so that helped break it down as the path is vague and the city has obviously changed a lot since then. The Church of the Scheplre (???) is also really powerful. Nothing like watching grown men and women cry their eyes...

Jul 24, 2006 - Greatest Story Ever Told

Using Madaba as our base camp, we day tripped to Jordans' other must see sites. Perhaps you've heard the story of Moses looking out over the Promised land or can recall the lyrics to 'Swing Low Sweet Chariot'. Well we visited Mt. Nebo- the mountain he climbed and the spot where he died, and were rewarded with great views. After a quick dip in the Dead Sea (the lowest spot on the planet) we walked down to the River Jordan to the very spot where John babtised Jesus- unfortunatly the side spring has dried up since but we couldn't resist...

May 20, 2006 - Israel & Palestinian Territories

The trip to Israel brought with it a certain degree of risk, which I thought would be hard to ignore given the level of publicity surrounding it. Obviously the extra attention at the border, the experience of entering a Palestinian territory surrounded by 10 meter high walls and some reading I did served as reminders. That risk however faded into the background as the place which can simply be described as the cornerstone of modern civilisation presented itself. The 5 days here have been a step back in time and a somewhat religious...

May 20, 2006 - Israel, expresso pela terra santa

Saímos da Jordânia preparados para esperar muitas horas na fronteira com o Israel. Todos nos alertaram que normalmente se espera 5 horas até que depois de muitas perguntas e revistas te liberam para entrar na terra santa. Deve ser o tal do purgatório! Conosco foi diferente, esperamos mais do lado Jordâniano por um ônibus que demorava em sair do que do outro lado do mar morto e do rio Jordão. Muitos soldados, scaner de todas as malas, algumas perguntas e 30 minutos depois recebíamos o carimbo maldito para os árabes em nossos passaportes....