a little late

So, a couple of weeks ago Nicole (another intern) and I ended up renting a car and driving up to the Sea of Galilee, about a 2.5 hr drive.

Here is the car we rented, a cute little something. Maybe a hundai? Nicole's brother is a race car driver, one level below Formula One, and she had done this race car driving school, so I was thinking her driving would be excellent.

But she was a slow driver in the fast lane!!! I was shocked! Israelis were honking and giving dirty looks left and right. (It is against the law to not treat the left lane as a passing lane in israel)

As soon as we arrived in Tiberious, we get out of the car and start walking around. Right away, Nicole randomly runs into a friend from school, a kid named Ben, who we end up hanging out with for the whole weekend.

We dropped our stuff off at the hostel, for under 10 bucks a night, and hit the town. 'Town' is really just a boardwalk with a row of similar restaurants. The place was dead, unfortunate for a town that depends so much on tourism. I think the restaurant we ate was trying to cut costs by getting rid of some staff - the place was pretty dirty.

That night we drove out to a reggae party at a kibbutz that we had read about in lonely planet.
The place was full of kibbutzniks from all over the world.

I met someone from South Korea who did not know a word of English. It is so rare to meet someone with whom I share not even a single word of a common language. Actually he did no a couple words; he made the motion like he was at bat and then said "LA Dodgers" and nodded and smiled.

Here is a picture of Ben and some Colombian who was working at a kibbutz. I dont know why I am posing like that. I guess it's better than the Colombian's pose, though:



That next day we woke up early to go for a hike in the Golan. Here we are at the entrance to the hike. I really should have been wearing a hat:

By this time, I think it was already around 11 am and really, really hot.


There are about 3 natural pools during the hike, two places where you are required to swim if you want to go any further. At the first pool, Nicole decided to jump off one of the cliffs, but she forgot to keep her legs straight. Check out the bruise:



We had to descend this ladder on the side of the cliff, and then swim across this pool with all of our stuff. Strong people were able to hold there backpack across their heads as they swam across to prevent stuff from getting wet. As you can see, I couldn't do that:



After the hike, the three of us snuck into some hot springs back in Tiberius. Well-deserved relaxation. Here is a pic of the view of the Sea of Galilee:



That evening we ate at a good restaurant called Decks, right on the water. (Remember Mom, we went there?) Since it was Saturday and the place is kosher, we had to wait until sundown for the place to open. We amused ourselves by taking pictures. Here is a nice one that Nicole took:



And here we are petting the dead fish:



THe next morning Nicole wakes up with Pink Eye, from the hot springs we think, (that's what you get for sneaking in!). We went to the pharmacy to try to get some eyedrops, while Ben waited at the hostel. We felt bad for making him wait, so here I am picking him up some treats:



After a quick stop at a nearby kibbutz to see a boring tank, we drove home and back to work!