Last Day in the Holy Land ...

Hi Everyone,

Sorry I have been M.I.A. and unfortunately my computer is not loading the pictures I wanted to show right now but I will have to fix that later...

With finals and GRADUATING from college, my life has been pretty busy over here and nothing really grand has happened since Italy, but rather I am just enjoying living normally as a citizen of Jerusalem.

The last few days I have spent most of my time eating all of the foods I will miss and shopping for you folks at home... I will add that Linnea has a pretty awesome souvenier headed her way hahaha

Two days ago I moved out of the Kfar (Where my apartment was located) and I moved in with my friend Laura and we are literally ON Ben Yehuda street which has been amaaaaaazing for my last two days here.  I also ran into Zach Ginsburg the other day in the old city.... and a whole group of Herzl camp moms of campers of mine and it was so fun... Small world.

Last week I also had dinner with Gail Rosenbaum... I swear I run into more people here than I do at home and I have made friends with so many shop owners and students from school that walking around downtown Jerusalem feels quite homey now.

Last night I had dinner with some good friends that I will miss at my favorite restaurant here, Beit Ticho.
It was perfection! Afterwards we stopped for some great aldo's ice cream.

I also got a chance to go to the zoo a few weeks ago which was super cool, there is an area dedicated to animals that are mentioned in the bible and its really cool how they put zebreas, hippos, giraffes, etc all together in one area so  you can see them interact and live amongst each other. So cool!

I've also done so much walking and shopping in the old city that shop owners have started to recognize me and its fun to stop and chat and know who will give you the best deals.

Also in the past few weeks I met a family on the airplane back from Italy who invited me to their house for shabbat, something that would never happen in the U.S. but here its not so uncommon.  So I went to their house in Tel Aviv and it was so much fun, they had a very beautiful house (with an elevator!) and their sons were really fun to hang out with, one of them was my age and the other was having his Bar Mitzvah and invited me but it was this past weekend and I was too busy saying goodbye to everyone.  Its nice to have another connection here and people to visit when I come back!

As my friends have slowly started to leave one by one its different here but it still feels like home, and I see myself coming back in the near future....

As I look back at this semester, I can't believe how lucky I am to have had so many adventures and to have met so many unique people from literally around the world.  Almost everyday here my friends and I just look around and say "we have the coolest lives!"  I am not only lucky to have such an adventurous life but also such wonderful friends and family to come home to and I am very excited to see you all!

Until we meet again, its been real Jerusalem... 

B

Italy Part 3: Cinque Terre and Florence!!

 Hi everyone, 

  

   I LOVE FLORENCE! It was so great to see Hannah and she was such a wonderful host.  The first order of business was obviously margaritas during happy hour at this cute little restaurant near her apartment so we could get reacquainted. 

Next we walked around and she showed me all of the famous landmarks around Florence that she gets to see every day, it was a very different city than both Rome and Venice but I loved it just as much. 

The next day we walked to an amazing viewpoint and of course stopped to eat gelato while we admired the view.  Then we went to the Boubli Gardens and the Pitti Palace which were both really cool.  Hannah pointed out a lot of great things she had learned about the palace from her class and so it was like my own private tour! 

 

That night we made some dinner and shared a bottle of wine… which is sooo cheap in Italy!! You can find bottles for 2 euro! After that began Spring Jam Italy!!! … And we will leave it at that! 

One of my favorite things about Italy is SECRET BAKERY.  These bakeries around town make treats for all over and they are open from 1 a.m. to 4 a.m. It is so funny because its illegal for them to sell the treats while they are making them but if you knock on this sketchy looking door they will poke their heads out and take your orders… if you make any noise they WILL shush you!

Hannah and I were set to go to Cinque Terre the next morning but of course we slept through the alarm so we took the next train two hours later.  Cinque Terre is a series of 5 towns that you can hike through and it was my favorite place in the world.  The pictures will explain why… 

We met up with 3 of Hannah’s friends and hiked through one of the paths the first day and it was quite a good work out.   

  

Looking a little sweaty, this was towards the end of the hike... 

The next day I decided that I wanted to do more site-seeing and so I let them go on their hikes and I wandered around the beach and had such a great time! First I stopped for breakfast and I had just a cute little Italian meal… 

Then I rented a chair and sat down to read a book that I had borrowed from Hannah, I can’t remember the last time I read for fun… textbooks usually take over!

After a few hours I was hungry again so I went to this restaurant with an amazing view and ordered a Caprese salad- my fave! This pictures sums up my trip… 

Overall I lived like royalty that day…. 

 

The next few days were a mix of wandering around and working on homework because Hannah was in the midst of finals and preparing to go home.  I still managed to squeeze in quite a few gelatos….

Last night we went to this great Italian restaurant for Hannah’s roommate’s birthday and along the way we ran into 3 guys from back home… it was so funny because we had extra reservations and so they just decided to join us – the world is so small!  I ordered Vodka pasta to see if I can make it better than them… turns out I can! It was great but I still think mine is slightly tastier…

Today we did a quite shopping trip and I got a super cute dress and then we stopped for gelato and I was off to the train station!! I am currently on the train from Florence to Rome, which is why I decided to catch up on my blogging, I’ll be here for a while.

Hopefully the next time you hear from me I will be safe and sound back in Israel!  The plane ride is not going to be great, I get in at 3 am to Jlem and then I have a Hebrew test at 8 am…. Yikes! I will miss Italy... 

For the last time (until next time I come to Italy),

ARRIVEDERCI!

B

Italy Part 2: Venice!

Hi everyone!

       The train ride into Venice was amazingly beautiful.  All of the sudden there was tons of water and islands and it was  a whole new atmosphere.  As many of you know Venice is sinking and so there are literally no cars anywhere but rather everyone walks or goes by boat.  We got off the train and took a water taxi to our hostel, which was an interesting experience.  The scenery was so awesome and I had just watched the movie the Tourist with Angelina Jolie and Johnny Depp which is filmed there so it was kind of fun to see everything in real life. 

Just as you would have expected, gondolas everywhere! 

You can already see clearly where the city is sinking... Maybe once its gone they will turn it into an underwater attraction... 

 

In Venice there is a Jewish ghetto (their words not mine) with an interesting back-story.  Our hostel owner told is that because the Jews were so good at business no one wanted them around but the people of Venice decided it was smarter to have them around so they basically built this neighborhood that was all Jewish people and allowed them to stay in Venice to drum up business.  This worked out great for the Jews and the Venetians until World War II… the only downfall being that they were all in one area making it easier for the Nazis.  Since then Jews (mostly from Brooklyn according to our hostel owner) have repopulated the area and kept their businesses going.

Anyways we made a friend at our hostel named Garret who took us around the city a little and we ate some fabulous snacks along the way.  That night for dinner we ate at the hostel with everyone else because it was cheaper than the seafood you will find around Venice.  It was cool to see where everyone was from and we all decided to go out together afterwards as well.  I made really good friends with this girl Kat from Australia.  

Everyone at Dinner!

Kat and I with our crazy hostel owner in the background, it was a really fun group!

The next day Kat, Garrent, Andrew, and I explored a bit more and Kat and I decided to catch the earlier train to Florence which was a good 20 Euro cheaper so we parted ways with the boys and left.  Hostels are an interesting culture because its younger people traveling all over and you run into people that you had met earlier in a different city or you end up traveling around with people who you just met. 

Kat and I made it to Florence and I went to her hostel with her to drop off our stuff and get a hold of Hannah.  We stopped for some Tirimisu on the way...

Once Hannah and I were reunited I said goodbye to Kat, but first we exchanged names and numbers because she is going to be in the U.S. in a few months, and who knows when I will make an appearance in Australia… it could be anytime with the way I’ve been going these days.

  

And then I was off to explore Florence...

Love,

B

Italy Part 1: ROME!

Hi everyone,

I am currently on a train from Rome to Venice and it is amazing, besides the tunnel we seem to be going through every 2 minutes that make my ears pop. 

I arrived in Rome at 8 a.m. and took a train to the Termini station and then wandered for about three blocks to the hostel where my friend Andrew was waiting.  From there we talked to our hostel owner who gave us a map and pointed out a route that would allow us to get the most out of Rome for the one day that we would be there.  

View coming into Italy!!

First we walked about fifteen minutes and passed the Santa Maria Maggiore, which is a beautiful church.  Then we headed for the Coliseum.  We were starving so we stopped at a cute little café with the greatest view right in front of it; I got a ham and mozzarella sandwich, which was so yummy! 

 

This is a poster of Gilad- an Israeli soldier who has been held by Hamas for a LONG time, it was cool to see the support of other countries! 

From there we walked some more and passed the archeological park that has all kinds of ancient structures.  We had a few more stops along the way and took some fun pictures and also stopped for some famous gelato, I got tiramisu flavor! 

Fancy Pasta!

Then we went to the Vatican and saw the basilica and the chapel that Michaelangelo painted!

 

Saw about a hundred thousand ceilings painted like this... HOW DO THEY DO IT!? 

Then we took a break and went back to the hostel and we met Phillip who was also staying at our hostel so we invited him to dinner with us.  The three of us stopped at the Spanish steps, the Trevi fountain (which I did not throw money into, I can’t waste my Euros on that, things here are so expensive!), and a few other sites before we went to dinner.  The place we went to dinner was authentic Italian food and our hostel owner said it was where the real Italians go to eat.  It was like I died and went to heaven; it was the best meal I think I have ever had in my life.  We ordered a bottle of wine and then I got a Caprese salad and spaghetti carbonara AND IT WAS UNREAL!!!!  

We then walked back to the hostel and turned in for the night.  Today we went to the train station and boarded our train, little did we know that we bought “no seat guaranteed” tickets, so after about 30 min we stopped and more people got on and we lost our seats to real ticket holders… I sat on the floor for a while and then I snatched an open seat…   I guess paying 45 euros doesn’t even get you a chair…. Which I am quite annoyed with.  Other than that little glitch the rest of the trip so far has been amazing ! I will keep you posted… just 4 more hours on this train… 

Lastly.... Mom, Dad, I'm graduating in just a few short weeks and could really use one of these:

THINK ABOUT IT! THANKS!

Stay tuned for my Venice post!

Arrivederci,
B

Spring Break Part 1: Sea-to-Sea and Passover

Hi everyone, 

   I've been super busy doing some amazing things so I wanted to fill you in before my next post which will be allllll about my Italy adventures! 

  To start off passover break I signed up to do Yam-le-Yam (Sea-to-Sea) which was a wonderful experience but not exactly "sea-to-sea".  We started out with an amazing 4 hour hike that was pretty unbelieveable and exciting.  I am sure that some of you who have never been to Israel will be surprised by the greenery and the landscape... most people think of just desert but the North of Israel is actually very lush and has some unique wildlife.

 This is a fortress built into the hillside, it was quite the view! 

 The water felt amazing! 

 The end of the hike! I had to take an "I made it" picture!   We basically went down in between the hills to a stream and followed it and then came back up... the coming back up part was a bit of a challenge! 

  After the hike we took the bus to Tzfat which is an amazing city way up high on a hilltop which to me seemed more like a mountain.  I've been to Tzfat before but each time is new and different.  My favorite part are the accents of blue everywhere as seen in the picture below.  There are all kinds of shades of blue and there are many theories as to why but my favorite one says that the blue is there so that if evil passes by Tzfat is disguised as the sky and it will pass by leaving the town unharmed...

 This picture below is bullet holes in a building from a while ago, they leave them there as reminders... Further down there are some cool viewpoints that we saw.  It is hard to capture the spirit of the city.  It is a city that is well known for being an artists colony so there are all kinds of unique places!

  We spend the night in Tzfat and all of the next day and then went to a campsite where we were lead in some surprise Israeli army boot camp! During boot camp I got pinched by a friend and I started laughing, which led to me doing push ups in front of everyone... not my best moment.
The next morning we packed up and went onto our next hike.  For those of you who are facebook friends of mine I apologize for the intense amount of nature pictures I posted but the plantslife here is amaazing!  Here I only included my favorite flower that I found-- I learned quickly not to touch it...

Me in front of a large somewhat phallic looking piece of rock that has some significance that I can't seem to remember... 

  At the end of our hike we ended up at the Kinneret which is the body of water that feeds most of the greenery in the North of Israel!  From there it flows down the Jordan river to the Dead sea which is why the dead sea has nothing, all of the nutrients are soaked up before it gets there!

  Somewhat terrible picture of me but I thought my first box of self-bought matzah was a hallmark moment.   

Upon returning to Jerusalem I immediately packed up and headed to Tel Mond to stay with Leora for passover.  Leora was an Israeli Scout at Herzl camp while I worked there and I simply adore her! We got to see her uncle's winery and then we spend Passover with her family!  There was enough food for about 100 people and there was only about 20 of us there.  They only have Matzah ball soup on passover, which is funny because we make it all of the time in the U.S.

The next day we went to Leora's other side of the family's house on a kibbutz which was literally heaven on earth.  I felt like I entered the Garden of Eden.  Fruit was just growing on trees in people's yards and they have become very eco-friendly - below is a statue made from recycled products.

  After I left Leora's I met up with Eliran, who is a friend of Zack's (the boyfriend of one of my best friends in the whole world and former roommate Meg)  We went to the beach and then hung out with a bunch of his friends at a bar also called "The Library" but in Hebrew which I found to be really funny (for those of you who don't know there is a library bar at the U of M as well)  

I also attended my very first all in hebrew with no subtitles movie ... RIO!! Which I recommend for all ages-- the Monkey scene still makes me laugh when I think about it! 

All and all its been a busy and amazing start to spring break... here is a picture of the sunrise outside my room the other morning... 

From here on out I am going to Italy until May 4th to visit my lovely sorority sister Hannah!! Then I have less than a month left before I head home.  Its bitter sweet because I am having the time of my life here and I'm living a dream but I also have many many amazing things to look forward to this summer and I know I will be back here sooner than I think.... ;-)

Stay tuned for an amazing Italy post when I return! Also I will be at the airport for like 10 hours so feel free to skype me! Brittany.beck0914

Arrivederci,
B