This issue of Phases Crossed takes us to northern Israel. Our trip begins in Haifa, where we'll return in a week for more activities. Here is a photograph of the B'hai gardens in Haifa. Nice, no?
A word on pacing. This trip, so far, has been action packed rapid fire never a dull moment for anybody anyhow anywhere. It's not about the email, though. It's about Aaron. This trip is a go-get-em compressed top hits of the past three thousand years Israel tour, and soon that comes to an end, as we leave the comfort of Nadav's parents' Tel-Aviv apartment (Thanks Ora & Yoram! xoxo!), Anya and Nadav return to the states, and Aaron, who has never seen any of Israel, heads back to Belgium to continue his groundbreaking legal research on the Belgian deep frying system, and its effect on North American culinary attitudes, and tort reform.
What I'm trying to say here, but having trouble, is that this trip will soon slow down to a more leisurely, less type A sort of experience soon. Which is good news for the company of writers who are editing, writing, and formulating the text of this publication. They're about to go on strike.
Here we are posing for an Ars Electronique publicity photo for the fall 2008 SEC filing, travel swimsuit edition. This is the Tiberias bus depot, a necessary logistical stop on our tour north. As the guidebooks might say: fans of rustic linens, and students of the algebra of desire look no further -- this city has it all, just bring your own soap and a desire for adventure. Feels like Nevada to me. Devora, our travel buddy and incorrigable tour guide, buses in from Jerusalem and meets Aaron, Nadav, and myself in the city, where we have spent the night in anticipation of a full day of travel into barren contested territories and more.
This is a really interesting graveyard on the shore of the Kinneret, or The Sea of Galilee, where 1/3 of Israel's water comes from. The lake is an important place, and it sits under the Golan heights, which we'll get to later. This area is the site of some of Israel's first Kibbutzes. This graveyard is where many early settlers to Israel from Russia and Eastern Europe are buried. They came early in the 20th century, most of them very young and idealistic.
There were all kinds of problems and wackiness like Malaria we won't get into. Naomi Shemer, who wrote Jerusalem of Gold, is buried here, along with lots of other interesting people and interesting stories. One interesting story Devora told us, is that there was a small splinter group of devil worshippers here that were booted out of the main camp of Zionists, who found them a bit too weird for their taste. Recently, a really unusual buried grave was found, from the early 20th century, and it looks really really devilish and punk rock. Creepy. Apparently, the guy was one of these outcasts, and killed himself (which is not Kosher, but the graveyard technically isn't). One historian thinks he was sacrificed to the devil. You can see and read more here. Creep-tastic.
This is the Kinneret, which has a dangerously low water level right now. Lots of shells abound, but most Jews don't go for that kind of fish.
Next, we drive up into the Golan (below), which Israel captured from Syria in 1967. It's hard to describe how high this high ground is. It just goes straight up from the eastern shore of the Kinneret, and over into Syria. It's cold, and we see very little human stuff, except a few farms, some military installations, and an abandoned Mosque.
We go up to what is probably one of the highest points, to an old military bunker overlooking Syria. There's a delightfully named coffee shop here, and not much else. In Hebrew Annan is cloud, so the name of the shop, on the one hand, is "Cloud Coffee," which is apt. It's also a reference to Kofi Annan, a former secretary general of the UN.
Bunkers are cool, and you can kind of get a sense of how high up we are, and the stuff below is actually quite high as well.
I was the last one to leave, I think, and I had to emphasize that this stuff (military fortifications) is really cool for boys. Click through for more pictures.
Here is our entire expedition team at this point:
No bunker would be complete with a maze of tunnels and rooms below ground. Fa. Above ground trenches are so world war one. Dahling, you wouldn't want to be caught dead in one.
We discuss the history of the 1967 war in a museum inside the bunker, and Devora makes the point that one doesn't really win a war. It's people dying and territory moving around from a country to the next, but to speak of winning and losing is actually a bit weird. Strip away the national aspects, and it's just disaster accounting.
Leaving the Golan Heights, we go to an excellent restaurant called Dag on the Dan, and meet this guy. Fowl of all kind abound.
We go to the old Jewish mystical city Tsfat, and walk around. We find a Cafe Baghdad. There's also one in San Francisco.
Nadav and I bet one another 10 dollars that we will go to Baghdad in our lifetime. I forget who bets which way. So concludes our tour. This was, in fact, one of the longest days of the trip, and we even go to bed after 10pm, incredibly. Night night.
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