tuesday morning had us up bright and early.. well, sort of early. jaki, yehuda and daniel came over to the apartment and we distributed things like food, camp stove, dishes, tents, etc in our backpacks. around noon, we left for the tachana merkazit and caught bus 963 to head up to kiryat shmona.

the ride was long, uneventful. i got a little car sick from being in the back so i moved to the front. napped, snacked, napped again. by five, we had arrived at the cbs in kiriyat shmona.  since it was a short drive to the campsite, we asked for directions and hitched to the general area. once we arrived, we walked and wandered and attempted to find aforementioned campsite… unsuccessfully. we found a campsite, but it had closed at 4. this is, by the way, pretty typical for a hike in israel. you don’t really know what to expect except for whatever sparse details you can get from online sources and guide books and by word of mouth. we did, however, pass a man selling cherries. they were overpriced but daniel decided to swap a cigarette for a handful of them. we munched on the cherries on our way back to the main road, pondering how to get to an open campsite…

we asked people for directions along the road and before long, we found a sprawling site with green green grass… and an exorbitant entrance fee. the guys chatted up the staff there but they kindly said they couldn’t change the entrance fee for us. thank gd i was with the people i was with— laidback, flexible, and didn’t complain one bit. the high entrance fee was a bummer, but we sucked it up and moved on. the staff said there was she’ar yashuv, a moshav close by on which we could camp for cheap.

yehuda stayed behind to find a minyan to daven for his grandmother’s passing anniversary, and the three of us walked on towards the moshav. the sun was setting at this point, and as we found the road leading to moshav she’ar yashuv it became dark. daniel made a few phone calls to the number on the moshav entrance gate and the guy on the other end, eilon, said we could camp at his place. we ended up taking the looong way to his place (due to *ahem* poor directions) but we found it nevertheless.

around 9 pm, we arrived to eilon’s property. his family’s home was near the back of the property. the front half consisted of a hangout corner— with picnic benches, a funky trailer, a stereo system and a refreshments bar, everything mosaic’d in everyway— and a spacious grassy area for campers.

(photos in this post brought to you by the letter J… for jaki!)

yehuda met us not long after our own arrival. eilon came to greet us and turned out to be a jovial young man who was recently released from the army. he reminded us of chris farley… so we nicknamed him farley :)

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on wednesday we awoke long after the sun came up, around 9 or so. we picked up a few things at the makolet (convenience store) on the moshav and made a pretty hearty breakfast— eggies, bread, hummus and yogurt with fruit. soon after, farley drew up a map for us and away we went to the banias!

we took a quick taxi ride to the park entrance north of the moshav, and started out at the origin point of the banias spring @ pan’s cave. from there, we walked down the trail that paralleled the river. we saw the remains of a water-powered flour mill in the park, at which point the boys bought a quick sweet pita snack (that resembled a lafa) from a local druze. we sauntered down to the waterfalls… along with crowds of beis yakov seminary girls.

further down the trail and past the park entrance, we stopped at a defunct, bellied- up syrian tank that took a fall into the river during the six day war. its treads were missing on one side but the other side where the treads were still intact made a perfect place for sitting. we took a dip in the fast river currents and ate lunch on the belly of the tank.

we hiked along the river until we found our roundabout way back to the moshav by late afternoon. the boys headed out to find a minyan for yehuda while jaki and i went to the makolet to pick up dinner fixins. we chatted over preparing dinner and ate before the boys returned; they ended up having to hitch a ride to the first campsite we visited to find a minyan.

yehuda and daniel came bearing gifts when they returned— beer and wine, to be exact. we had it with a stellar dinner of teriyaki tuna over seasoned rice and pasta. the boys told us that a guy they had hitched with invited us to a jam session on nearby kibbutz dan, so after dinner we took up his invite and walked along the main road to dan.

a pub in the center of the kibbutz hosted this “jam session”— it was more of a casual performance/ open mike, where one main band played with other guys from the kibbutz coming up on stage every other song or so. they played covers and proved to be pretty entertaining. we even saw farley there! the jam rocked with american and israeli songs and by the end, the four of us were exhausted from a long day and an equally long night. we cut out and returned to she’ar yashuv, to rest for another long day ahead of us.

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thursday = flying by the seat of our pants!

we had no idea what we were going to do for the day when we awoke. since we finished off the banias and the surrounding trails on wednesday, we decided to go to the coast. we talked to the people on the moshav and they suggested hof dor— a small place by the beach, a bit north of qessaria (caesarea, in english?) and free after 4!

we tramped from she’ar yashuv to the cbs in kiriyat shmoneh, then bussed it west to a stop @ faredis and caught two tramps to the hof dor beach, going two by two (it’s harder to get one hitch willing to take four people). yehuda and i arrived in no time to the beach but, unfortunately, we discovered there was an entrance fee… and it was after 4pm! so yehuda chatted up the guy at the beach entrance about schooling in america vs. in israel and, in the end, the guy shook yehuda’s hand and said to him in hebrew, “you’re a good guy,”… and procceeded to kindly let us in, free of charge. sometimes that’s the way it works in israel— you talk to people in hebrew, you show them you’re amicable and they’ll often provide you with what you want. sometimes not. but as the guy welcomed us in to the beach, he told us there was a place for us to camp down the shoreline, up and over on the other side of the tel (there are some words that i can’t seem to remember if they’re english or hebrew— in this case, it’s like a finger of land that extends from the coastline).

as yehuda and i started to make our way to the tel, jaki and fleisch (daniel) caught up with us. we snagged pita, hummus and israeli salad from the beachside restaurant and walked to the camping area on the other side of the tel.

see where that white tent is in the first pic? we walked ten minutes down from there and set up camp.

fleisch constructed a makeshift dinner table out of rocks and a plank of wood. we pitched our tents and had dinner on the beach: hummus, tuna, pita, salad… and sand! nom nom nom.

jaki and i held down the fort and talked as it became dark. the boys headed out to crash a beach wedding (which, incidentally, they could’ve pulled off if a) it was a religious wedding, or b) they were dressed in clothes that hadn’t been worn for the past few days straight). they were successful inasmuch they scored some *more* pita and hummus and returned with a grapefruit drink and coke zero for me and jaki. it started to rain off and on so we retreated to the guys’ tent to play cards. after a while, jaki and i returned to our tent (which had plastic baggies attached to it for lack of a tent fly.. i kicked myself for forgetting it) and fell asleep to the sound of rain and the ocean.

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friday, friday, the end of another week.

we packed up, had a quick dip in the ocean (jellyfish- free this morning, as far as we could tell) and hitched to our junction @ faredis. we grabbed a few snacks at a nearby makolet and waited for the bus. one stopped, we passed it up because the driver misinformed us, and then as he left we realized that was the bus we wanted.

we waited longer, and ended up getting a friendly hitch before the next bus arrived. our driver, a kind young man, eager to speak english, took us into tel aviv. i fell asleep in the back seat on the way… as usual. from there we bussed it to one of the two central bus stations and from there finally returned to jerusalem.

upon returning to the apartment, i discovered sadie in a state of calm yet chaotic shabbos balagan! as usual :) we quickly went to work— i went to the shuk, picked up items for shabbos and spent the rest of the day cooking with sadie. there was so much to get done and we cut it so close to sundown… but we made it!! shabbos settled in and soon after candle lighting, i made my way over to jaki’s new apartment for dinner.

it was such a feel- good meal— intimate, quiet, relaxed, full of feminine energy. such a difference from the week! our table consisted of  jaki, our friend carol (previously from mayanot), sarah (their friend from brazil), and jaki’s roommate. the food was simple and delicious, and the conversation was colorful— english, portugese and hebrew danced about, and since jaki’s roommate didn’t speak english well, it forced us all to use our hebrew. some of the portugese i could understand because it was similar to spanish, and most of the hebrew i could understand… speaking it was a welcomed challenge. we all tried to be on the same page and every topic required some sort of translation. it was like a game of multi-lingual telephone— fun, sincere and without judgement.

on saturday, sadie hosted yet another epic lunch meal. this time, it was a sheva brachot (one of seven meals after a wedding) and we must’ve had at least thirty people stop by, eat and hang out. of course, in a group this big, it was hard to avoid shenanigans. our neighbor, reb mottle (of isralight fame), brought forty birthrighters over to say “mazal tov” to the bride and groom. it was a fun time, and we all sang and danced in what little space we had. later in the day, a girl from the sheva brachot became seriously drunk, blacked out and passed out on our couch. thank gd, she was able to sleep off some of the alcohol and was able to walk home safely before havdallah.

as for me… i also took a nap. an epic one, at that, because i ended up sleeping through havdallah at sunset ’til almost midnight. stayed up ’til four, and slept again. it’s funny how not having a set day schedule provides no structure for sleeping whatsoever. fortunately (for my adrenals..) come wednesday, i’ll have a schedule for at least the next ten days. i *finally* decided to do the second session of isralight and will be based out of the old city for the program. soooper exciting :)