• Bad luck in Budapest
• Out of my element in Deutchland, part 1
• Out of my element in Deutchland, part 2
• What will history reveal about US?
• Bringing the Jersey Pump to Europe’s club scene
• Prague will take your breathe away

Photos:

• Prague
• Germany
• Budapest

So let’s see what stories I can muster up this time.  First, let me give you a visual of how the city is mapped out.

Day 1

Josefov (Jewish District)

Old Jewish Cemetery, Prague

This was formerly the Jewish ghetto until the Roman Emperor, Joseph II, freed them.  As a thank you, the district took his name.  I wanted to start here so that I can work my way down through Old Town and finish up in New Town for dinner.  I bought a museum pass so that I could check out all the museums in the District, but realized I did not opt for the more expensive one to include the Old New Synagogue.  I also found out later that the Spanish Synagogue was not to be missed.

After visiting the Old Jewish Cemetery, I continued to follow the guide books preferred walking path.  It took me around the entire district while avoiding stepping on old footprints.  While I was in the north east corner of the district the aromas of goulash flooded the narrow streets and my senses.  The aroma drew me in and I sat down to thaw out, regroup for the next area to explore and of course eat!

Staré Město (Old Town)

Old Town Square

Old Town was just how you paint Prague in your head.  All the stories of beautiful architecture is right here.  There are hundreds of small shops and a lot of traditional Czech cuisine.  If you’ve been to Venice, Italy before this shared the small town feel, but without a million tourists.  I think Venice is beautiful, but waaaaaay too touristy (thus the reason for locals to flip signs and arrows pointing the wrong way).  Old Town is none of that, but with all the beauty.  In the center of Old Town lies the Astronomical Clock.

From wikipedia:

The astronomical dial has a background that represents the standing Earth and sky, and surrounding it operate four main moving components: the zodiacal ring, an outer rotating ring, an icon representing the Sun, and an icon representing the Moon.

Nové město (New Town)

Wenceslas Square, New Town, Prague

New Town is just that… newer.  The architecture isn’t as magnificant, and in my opinion, like many other cities in Europe.  I don’t want to knock it, but after coming from the last two areas this just wasn’t even on the same level.  Nonetheless, there are several bars and restaurants and lots of shopping here.  The National Museum is also at one end of the strip (pictured above).

Total time on your feet: ~7 hours
Total calories burned: 10,000 

Day 2

Malá Strana (Lesser Quarter)

Nerudova Street, Lesser Quarter, Prague

Malá Strana is one of the oldest areas in Prague.  Like many villages that reshape and adapt to wants and needs, Malá Strana was in close proximity to the castle and became a thriving area of merchants.  The center of the town, known as Malostranské náměstí, is where I spent a lot of my time.  Not only are there lots of great eats, it also happens to be home of a Starbucks with free internet and a free resting place of students from the nearby universities (including Jenn’s).

And for those of you I’ve told about the “beehive of meat”… I wasn’t kidding!  And you can get it too.  If you happen to be in Malá Strana that is.

Olympia in Little Quarter (Malostranská), Prague

Prague Castle

Gates of the Prague Castle

The Prague Castle is the largest, ancient castle in the world.  It was first built in the 9th century, but as its rulers changed (or were assassinated — poor Wesceslas) so did the castle.   My favorite picture of the trip is probably the statues of the warriors at the front gates.  I would surely be scared out of my pants if I was a merchant delivering goods to the king in those times.  The statue alone would be enough to keep my eyes on the ground.  Geezz!

Prague Castle from the top of Vysehrad

Day 3

Personally, I would spend at least a week in Prague as I did.  It gave me two solid days of sight seeing before I slowed down and enjoyed my thoughts over a cup of tea.  If you have only three days I would recommend taking the third day to just relax.  Go back to your favorite area and just take it all in.  Where you are — the aromas, architecture, everything!

Of course if you are the ADD type or if you have more time there is much more to see.  Just south of New Town you will find the Vyšehrad castle.  The grounds are beautiful and there are quite a lot of sights around the castle.  Unfortunately the sun decided to part with us quite early and we only had time to snap a few shots.  You can, however, get some great shots across the river at the castle (as I did above).

Vysehrad Castle, Prague

There are also several day trips you can make from Prague.  We decided to make one to the Pilsner Brewery in Plzen.

Na zdraví! (Cheers!) — Plzen, Czech

Goulash soup — Plzen, Czech

Tips/Recommendations

• You may think they are bringing you bread with your meal, and they are, but for about $1 USD
• Drink plenty of pilsner and kozel (recommend)
• goulash is not just soup (unlike Budapest).  if you want the soup make sure it says “soup”
• Observation:  It’s interesting to see these colossal cathedrals and buildings being visited by people from around the world in just complete awe.  And more importantly, it’s crazy that its exactly what these emperors, conquerors and murderers intended. 

The clubs in Europe are absolutely ridiculous!  The photos (taken from the nights we were at the club) don’t even do it justice.  Not only was this an introduction to European techno clubs, but to techno clubs in general.  I’ve been listening to techno/trance/electronic music for years now.  My collection probably totals over 50 GB which might be 200-300 hours of music.

The toughest part of getting used to the scene in Europe is the time in which you go out.  Clubs in Europe rarely start before 11pm and usually go through the night.  This was definitely hard to adjust to.  The first night we were in Prague and ready to go out — we didn’t.  We had good intentions, but we went so wrong.  Jenn, Kelsey and I headed to Olympia for a happy hour pre game.  You can get 0.5L of beer for less than $2.  Several beers later the buzz had kicked in.  Unfortunately we were a few hours early.  It was only 4pm.  We decided to continue to get our drink on for another hour or two.  Finally, around 6pm, we headed home.  The plan to was chill out for a bit before going out at night.

We decided it was best to “rest” for an hour or so.  That way we’d all be fresh and ready for a full night of dancing.  Unfortunately the only dancing we did that night was in our dreams.  We all passed out for the entire night and didn’t wake up until the next morning.  Oops!

I will say that we learned our lesson.  As part of round 2 we headed to a club I’ve heard a lot about — Mecca.  The venue had a good vibe and the DJ was absolutely sick with it!  Needless to say we danced for quite a while.

Can you find us?  We are in the center.  @Mecca, Prague, CZ

Dancing is interesting in Europe.  Europeans, at least at these types of clubs, don’t require a significant other to have a good time.  I don’t know what it is about America, but it seems all of us (including me) need to be dancing with someone.  Never just dancing.  But sometimes just letting go and feeling the music is the best kind of dancing.  I put it all out there, let the music take over, and had an unbelievably good time.  And no, I didn’t need any drugs to do it. 

Enough with the stories… here are some photos from the clubs…

Mecca

Prague, Czech Republic - website
How to get there: Metro C Holesovice, Tram 5, 12, 15 station U Pruhonu

Roxy

Prague, Czech Republic - website
How to get there: Metro B, various tramways like 5, 22, 24, 26, buses like 217… The station is Namesti Republiky (The Republic Sqare) and is located in the very center.

H2O

Berlin, Germany - website
How to get there: No clue.  We went bar hopping and I couldn’t feel my body by the time we got here.  Jenn was nice enough to take me home after she saw I was dancing with my eyes closed!

???

Budapest, Hungry
I think we did a bar crawl this night too.  I remember dancing with Jenn and a bunch of her friends/roommates, but no clue where we were.  And they didn’t know either.

Berlin

My first impressions

On Friday morning we boarded a very fancy train to Berlin.  At 4 hours, it was a fairly quick trip, but quite an expensive one — the effect of a lack of planning and traveling day-by-day.  The good news though, was that the train was nice enough to drop us off at the main station (Hauptbahnhof) which was in the center of the city.  Unfortunately Koln’s train did not take on the same role.

After only one day I had already fallen in love with the city.  The people, the beer, the culture, the history.  Berlin has it all.

Germany, and specifically Berlin, has been in the center of so much destruction it amazes me that the people are so positive.  I think it is common knowledge that Germans are tall and attractive, but generally speaking, I never realized how outgoing they were.  I was on the receiving end of several smiles from passerbys, as was Jenn.  ;)  I was most amazed that some people actually thought I was German.  Despite my obvious similarity in height (I’m actually only 5′9″), several people tried speaking to me in German.  I was delighted, but unfortunately was only able to say something to the tune of “Nien Deutch.”  Yeah, not so eloquent.

The weißen

The beer of Germany is deserving well respected.  I have always been a fan of the weißen (wheat beer), and Germany just intensifies that interest.  I drank the dark (dunkel) wheat and the light (hell) wheat.  I kinda of want one right now.  But I am writing this from Praha, so I guess it is only right to order a Pilsner or Kozel (the dark stuff).

Street performers in front of the Bradenburg Gate

The history and culture

The people are friendly and the beer flows endlessly, but the culture is what really attracted me to Berlin.  Although Berlin is no longer divided by walls, it still seems to be divided figuratively.  After WW2, the four allies (the United States, the UK, France and the Soviet Union) retained control of Germany.  However, the tension over communism escalated into the splitting of Germany and further into the split of Berlin.  The Soviets took control of East Germany and East Berlin while the other allies had control of the rest.  The interesting thing about Berlin’s division was that West Berlin, controlled by the three allies, was located in East Germany.  This is similar to the current situation in Israel where it’s neighbors are all deemed aggressors.

Until the reunification of Germany in 1990, West Berlin was surrounded by Soviet control.  The Soviets took control of the people by constructing a wall around West Berlin.  This, as you may know, was the Berlin wall.  It stood about 12 feet high.  However, more dangerous was the territory between the wall and another fence constructed in East Germany.  This came to be known as the “death strip.”  It was booby-trapped with mines and offered a clear line of sight for watch guards to shoot to kill.  The top of the wall was once covered with barbed wire, but this wire actually gripped bed sheets and other materials easily that it was changed to a large rounded metal.

Berlin wall in East Berlin

Now the wall is only a distant memory

Brandenburg Gate, view from West Berlin

Only a few blocks from the Brandenburg Gate, one of the main gates between East and West Berlin stands the Holocaust Memorial.  It was constructed here in part because of its proximity to the gate which happens to be a major tourist destination.

A memorial to move the soul

The memorial was designed by architect Peter Eisenman.  It is one of the most powerful memorials I’ve ever experienced.  Usually memorials aren’t even experienced, they are simply viewed.  This was different.  It is constructed of different sized concrete slabs that appear to grow in height.  It begans to dwarf you as you move through it.  I felt isolated.  I was with Jenn and we had lost each other for a few minutes.  The footpaths even rise and fall which create a sense of instability both physically and mentally.  As the slabs rise over your head it started to feel like a maze.  I think this is what the creators had invisioned.

The memorial starts out with only a few slabs about knee level (although some are actually in the ground and almost unnoticable).  I think this correlates to how, in my opinion, the Holocaust started out.  Many people couldn’t fathom how it could get so bad.  But little by little, eventually Hitler was massacring entire ethnic groups.

They are but memories

Last evidence of communism

Another interesting observation was the buildings constructed by the Soviets during their communist rule.  While most buildings were the target of endless bombings by the Allies, the one building left unscathed was the Ministry of Ministries.  Some believe this was a deliberate act by the Allies to use as a reference point for navigating the landscape.

Ministry of Ministries, Berlin

Like all the buildings built during the height communism, they were built like high squares.  No decorations, just large stones with immensely large doors.  Everything was built with intent.  The intent here was to make the people feel small and scared.

Interestingly enough there is a mural painted on the side of the building that portrays communism as the people in power would like the people to think about it.  The politician greeting the working man with a hand shake.  The railroad workers effortlessly lifting a piece of metal.  Humorous now, scary then.

Dictators never prosper

We also made our way over to Hitler’s old bunker.  If it wasn’t for the free tour we took, we would’ve never known about this.  For obvious reasons it was not included on any maps or tour books.  No one wants to show off anything having to do with Hitler.  He should die with the history books.  Therefore there is no memorial, just a small plaque several feet away marking the general area.

Our guide told us an interesting story while we were standing around in the cold looking at the parking lot that now sits in its place.  After hearing how Italy hanged their dictator, Benito Mossolini, and cut off his penis, Hitler feared the same humiliation and ordered his army to burn him.  Fortunately they did a horrible job and his body was later found.  He was cremated and his ashes spread around so he would live in unrest forever.

This was the building made famous by Michael Jackson’s famous baby stunt.

Villages blanketed with snow near the Germany-Czech border

Tips/Recommendations

• Grab a free tour of the main sites in East Berlin.  Meet at the Starbucks across the street from the Unter Den Linden metro stop at 11am or 1pm.
• If you happen to have a suit jacket and feel like going to the hottest club (at the time of this writing) check out Berghein off the Ostbahnhof metro stop.  (we didn’t have the clothes for the part)
• U-bahn is the underground metro, S-bahn in above ground (trams)
• Drink plenty of dunkelweissen
• If you have some extra cash to invest, get a place in Berlin!  I might actually move here in the next 10 years.  Real estate is extremely cheap!  And the culture is second to none.  I want to go back already.

Köln

Me to lady leading the group: Where are we?
Her: ::shrug::
Me: Uh, where’s the metro?
Her: ::shrug::
Me: WTF! (unfortunately only in my head)

Getting our bearings

WEDNESDAY — We stepped off the bus into what literally felt like another world. I finally felt out of my element. Partly because we were dropped off on the side of the road, probably for convenience to get back on the highway, and partly because the first few people we approached for directions spoke not an ounce of English. Not to worry though, this is what traveling is about.

We took a few minutes to get our bearings. I remember making a mental note of a huge cathedral only a few miles from our bus route. I assumed this to be Kölner Dom, or Cologne Cathedral for us Americans. OK, great.. a starting point!  After spitting out several “sprenken sie deutch?” lines I got one to bite!  She was an extremely friendly (and tall) woman on a bike.  She pointed us in the direction of the metro and we continued walking around this unexplored territory.  METRO! Turns out it was only 10 minutes from the bus stop.  It’s funny though, until you can see the forest from the trees the forest seems unmanageable and neverending.  We grabbed the next train and headed for the city center, Köln Hauptbahnhof (Hpf).  (Hpf denotes the city centers in Germany.)

Dunkel weißen (e.g. dark wheat beer).  One of my favs!

View from atop the Köln Cathedral

Germany, from what I’ve seen thusfar, has a fantastic metro system.  They have both above ground (S-Bahn) and underground (U-Bahn) metro rails.  Berlin also has a superb tram system to take you to all the places where the other metro rails fall short.

The moment we exit the metro and breathe the fresh, German air, we are simply taken back by the shire size of the Cathedral.  It is the most famous Gothic structure in Germany.  The structure took nearly 500 years to build!  It immediately reminded me of La Sagrada Familia in Barcelona.  And like La Sagrada, you can climb its 509 stairs to the top.

View from atop Kölner Dom

Getting a feel for college life

After some much anticipated tourist site seeing (and figuring out where we would lay our heads for the nights to come), Jenn thought it would be cool to check out the University of Köln.  OMG! I need to note that our hostels were terrible!  The staff was pretty unfriendly and the place was dirty.  I would recommend to consult the guide books at all times for hostels.  We got the list from the tourist office directly across from the metro.  It was stupid of us to assume crediability by association.  Do not stay at the Jugenherberge youth hostels (I think they are city run).

Chocolate Museum. We got to see the whole process and of course dip into the fountain of chocolate!

Sorry for the tangent.  We arrived at the university and attempted to blend in.  It’s amazing to see students on the other side of the world, speaking foreign languages, yet displaying the same habits as people on campuses in America.  Cramming for exams, consuming goddly amounts of caffine, and working on group projects.  I guess we really are all one people.  But I didn’t need this example to justify that.  Still, it is a nice observation.

We decided to sit down at a table outside while I try to catch my breathe amongst the thick clouds of smoke.  Jenn was wondering how many students attended the university and that sparked my curiosity as well.  I overheard words and phrases I could identify the meaning to behind us.  I preceded to turn around, interrupt conversation and start my own.  I don’t think they were that upset though.  Honestly, I think they enjoyed speaking with us (I hope).  We began with the stat question (I believe 50,000 was the answer), but started talking about a number of things.  Including socialism and the differences between culture and society between the two countries we were brought up in.

Their country pays for their university or subsidizes it to the max (where they find themselves owing little to nothing upon graduation).  American on the other hand slaps a big fat check once you are done with college.  $120,000!  BAM!  Thank you!  That’s all folks.  Oh yeah, and good luck paying that on $30,000/year salary.  We’re a fear and debt society though, what do you expect? (I will save those views for another time though).

Of course money doesn’t come from no where.  Those working in Germany only see about 60% of their paycheck.  A huge chunk, like 40%, is taken out in taxes.  Those taxes also go to universal health care.  The United States is actually the last of the “wealthy” nations to not move to universal health care.  If the people getting such services hated it so much wouldn’t they speak up in anger?  I hear many of the righties preach about the long lines for checkups (and emergencies) and the decrease in quality.  Somehow I think that is somewhat of a smoke screen.

We had to have dinner, so we ate the tradition — currywurst! And it was damn good!

Anyway, I disgress.  Back to the students… Phil was his name.  After a long conversation it started raining and we talked about meeting up that night for drinks at this club.  We headed to Subway, the name of the club, but we were there before it even opened!  And it was like 10:30pm.  I love how clubs in Europe don’t even open until like 11pm or midnight.  Subway, the club we were in, played a variety of old school hip hop.  It was funny because I was expected crazy house and trance music (I’m hoping I get to do that before I leave), but this was quite different.  Fun though, because we knew a good portion of the songs… and surprisingly so did others.

Tips/Recommendations

• Grab a dinner at Curry Cologne — great, traditional wursts and cheap wheat beer
• My favorite place in Köln was off the Friesenplatz metro stop.  It was a long strip with bars, restaurants and a great vibe
• Book trains (the Deutch Bahn or DB) at least 3 days in advance for cheaper prices
• Go to a university (they call it Uni) and interact with some locals of similar age… you’ll never know what you might get into at night
• Don’t buy metro tickets from people selling them next to the ticket machines… they have already been validated and expired (I did not learn this the hard way… I simply shouted “Nien!” at the deuche).

Continue to part 2

I set off for my second European excursion in 3 years.  The last trip was a 3 week backpacking trip through 5 countries.  Need I say — rushed?  Well I’m entering this trip with the mindset of a slower pace.  In addition to the extra sleep I hope to gain, the real benefit is to soak up more of the cultures in the countries I am visiting.

I took off from San Diego with the destination of Praha (Prague, Czech Republic).  Of course there are no direct flights to Praha.  I wouldn’t expect that.  I can’t even get a direct flight to DC!  So I bounced around from San Diego to DC (huh.. actually I guess I can.. but only when I’m still en route I guess).  Then DC to Vienna, then Vienna to Praha.  I have no problem with lay overs, but I do have a problem with the airports.  I mean can I actually count Austria as a city I traveled to?  Sure I was in the airport, but I didn’t get a feel for the city.  I wish airports were fitted more to the culture of that city.  I mean I know everyone is in a rush, but for those with layovers over 4 hours there should be more than just shitty airport food.  I digress…

I arrived in Praha the next morning where my girlfriend met me at the airport.  It’s been nearly 2 months since we’ve seen each other, but being across the planet just exacerbates the situation.  Needless to say we were both overcome with excitement once our eyes met after customs.

Jenn, my girlfriend, has been studying in Praha since August and has a really nice apartment there too.  We will be using Praha as our homebase over the next 3 weeks.  It’s interesting to have a temporary “home” while in Europe.  The last time I was here it was really living on the edge of our seats (or park benches), but this is somewhat of an upgrade.  Interesting to see how it unfolds.

I knew we’d have time in the coming weeks to explore Praha, so we decided to leave for Budapest (Hungry) that same day.  (That’s right… after like 20 hours of travel, what’s another 8 more?)

One of the oldest underground metro lines in Europe

After dropping off our stuff at her place we headed to the bus station to catch the 4pm bus.  And the bad luck begins to set in…

So, we decided to meet up with Jenn’s roommates in Budapest.  They left in the AM, but of course I was still flying then so I couldn’t even get to the station until the afternoon.  Therefore, we bought tickets for the 4pm bus… so we thought.  We arrive at the bus station almost 45 minutes early with the intention of being in Budapest that night.  We approach the bus guide and that’s when we get delivered the bad news.  ”Umm, sorry, the ticket for you bus already left,” she said.  Apparently the ticketing agent registered one of us for the 4pm bus and the other for the earlier bus with the other roommates.  Of course the bus filled up and I was told a flat no when asked if I could sit on the ground (or even her lap)!

Statue, Hosok tere (Heroes’ Square), Budapest

Uhh.. so now what?  Not only do we have friends waiting for us, but we also have a hostel waiting for our arrival as well.  (Another reason why planning is bad… although there are so many reasons that justify planning.. but anyway).  After several attempts at failed persuasion and much freaking out we came to our senses and crossed our fingers that we’d be able to get a night train.  I will save you the time of another dragged out story and say that we were successful and made it to Budapest early the next morning!!

But the bad luck continued…  shortly after getting off the train Jenn realized she didn’t have her camera.  Why is it that whenever you are on route nerves are always high and something bad usually happens?  We tried to shake problem #2 off us and take in the new country together.

Hoping the bad luck ran dry, we hopped on the metro in pursuit of our hostel.  As we step off… bad luck #3!  Jenn was stopped by metro police and — bam!  Fined 3000 HUF (~$15 USD).  I tried to see what the deal was and — bam!  I was slapped with the same fine.  I managed to reduce our 6000 HUF fine back to 3000, but we couldn’t shake the full fine.

The 3-day pass we bought after getting slapped with a fine for not having the proper ticket.

Note to travelers to Budapest: If riding the metro, you need to buy additional tickets for every transfer train you ride!  Of course when we purchased our tickets they didn’t tell us that.  And metro police target Americans to get some easy money.  BS if you ask me.

The Good Luck

I’m going to keep this fairly short because we leave for Germany soon, but also because I don’t want to bore you with an already longer than anticipated blog post.

Food

Traditional hungarian (magyar) meal: goulash… and it is damn good!

Szechnyi Baths, Budapest, Hungry

Overall impression

My overall impression of Budapest was fairly unexpected.  I think my perspective was formed in part because I had already been to Europe, and it was a lot different the second time around.  I’ve been to Europe, South east Asia and the Middle East (in that order) and each place was uniquely different in both culture and environment.  Perhaps I had thought that I would get a fourth culture shock going back to Europe the second time or maybe I just need to step back and take it for what is it (which I am trying to do now).

Or maybe it was just Budapest itself.  For some reason I was not able to get a real vibe of Hungry.  I consider myself a world traveler and somewhat of a cultural sponge.  I live to laugh, love and learn.  Budapest was a huge city and while the people were somewhat friendly, it was hard to get a feel for Budapest itself because of the city life.  It makes me wonder how traveling will be in the future.

It seems that every culture strives to increase GDP, create more jobs, more roads and more railways.  Some call this “growth and wealth building,” but they are giving up their uniqueness in the process.  And I fear traveling will be very different in the years to come.

Tips/Recommendations

• The goulash is the best I’ve ever had… so get it a couple times while you’re here
• The Metro — they are serious and will fine you.  You have to buy separate tickets for each line you are on… even transfers!
• Visiting the baths is a MUST!  Szechnyi Bath has it’s own metro stop.
  

A few weeks ago, my friend Dave Ford wrote a blog post titled, Life Long Travel Goals.  I decided to take a run at it myself.

Read my Travel Goals.

I had envisioned Israel being a completely adventuresome journey. At work I was asked if I was going for spiritual reasons to which I quickly replied, “No.” Of course if that were true I wouldn’t be writing this piece, would I?

I, like most children born into a Jewish family, went through Sunday and Hebrew school. Hebrew school was actually on Wednesdays after regular classroom study where my education continued, but now in Hebrew. We were taught a majority of the stories from the Torah, and without a doubt all the popular ones. One thing missing from that though was the spiritual side of Judaism. If such a thing exists that is.

Before this trip I didn’t know there was a spiritual component to Judaism. I thought Judaism = Tanakh (Torah) just as Christianity = Bible (e.g. Tanakh+New Testament). In the last year or so I have been exploring other cultures as well as religions. I wanted to pursue an inner peace, and explore a more spiritual understanding of the world. The journey started with Buddhism. Unfortunately with the chaos of life, work, and pursuing my own business I did not yet have the time to get below a general understanding of the teachings of Buddhism.

Avraham teaching us about Kabbalah, Tzfat, Israel

Now I find myself in Tzfat, Israel. Starring back at me was Avraham. Avraham is a spiritual man. He began talking about the teachings of Kabbalah. That’s right, Kabbalah. The supposed religion of Madonna and several other A-list celebrities. It’s not my place to question their beliefs, but that is probably the first thing most people think of when they hear the term. I did myself! Actually, Kabbalah was not traditionally taught until after one masters the teachings of the Torah. Only then, usually around age 40, does that person begin to learn the inner meaning of the Torah, known as the kabbalah.

A meditational map of the 100 sounds of the Shofar, Tzfat, Israel

Avraham is an artist, a religious artist if you will. He showed us several pieces of his work, but one in particular seemed to resonant with me. He calls it Tashuv-Hey or in Hebrew, תשובה. This painting represents balance, sort of like the ying and yang. The bottom ה is associated with the desire to receive, the place of conditional love. The upper ה is associated with the desire to give, the place of unconditional love. The Kabbalah explains that through the transformation of the lower ה within ourselves, that is the self-love, to the place of the upper ה, the love of all things, that we become united with infinite goodness.

This image can be viewed two different ways. Similar to the glass being half full or half empty, do you see a single letter at the top or a white background with a cutout of a letter?

The transformation of self-love to a love of all these brings infinite goodness

Imagine for a second that the upper ה, the greater love, is nearly complete, but missing that last piece. Once you have reached that unconditional love, the bottom ה (white letter on the black background) will float up and fill in the black ה at the top. The image is now transformed into a single white rectangle and a single black rectangle. This represents infinite goodness. Can you see it?

If you want to learn more about Kabbalah, Avraham recommended that you start with a book called Jewish Mediation.

Israel in all her beauty

We took the bus up the coast of Israel. We had the Mediterranean Sea over our left shoulder, but I struggled to keep my eyes open. Not because the views weren’t spectacular…because they were! The problem is that I don’t think I’ve slept yet. The first night it was my mistake to not shut the blinds, so we were up at the crack of dawn. Even if we had remembered to shut the blinds, those damn roosters would’ve woken us up just moments later. At least it wasn’t just me that had my eyes closed, but failed to drift away. Both my roommates, Shaun and Mike, experienced the same problem. Good thing our wake up call of 6am didn’t arrive too soon!

Baha’i Gardens in Haifa, Israel

Sorry for the tangent. So yes, Israel is quite beautiful. The two towns we got to experience were Haifa and Akko. Both these towns lie about 24 km (~15 miles) from the border of Lebanon. It’s hard to believe that in 2006 bombs from Lebanon rained down from the skies on both of these towns. Even more unbelievable is that many of the people living here chose to remain in their homes and go about business as usual. Did you change your habits after what happened on September 11th?  I remember a lot of people canceled flights and postponed travel plans.  Actually, I was probably one of about twenty people that went to high school the next day.  We had a school of 1400.

Retirement. Akko, Israel

We slept in a Kibbutz!

A kibbutz, for those unfamiliar with the term, is a planned residential community based on socialistic principals. In a traditional kibbutz you own nothing and share everything. They began as utopian communities, but are becoming increasing privatized. One of the ideals I really like about these communities are the environments they create for children. I had the priviliage of growing up with my brother (what’s up Scotty!), but for those that were only children, a kibbutz gave you twenty children to play with and call family.

Ok, that’s all for tonight. Gnight.

But let’s try…

Background

I will start with a little background. I went on a Taglit-Birthright Israel trip. This is a free trip given to young people ages 18-26 to experience Israel. The trip is paid for by Jewish charities and the people of Israel. I arrived with 2 friends, Dana and Jess (pictured below). But I left with so much more than that. Memories, a greater sense of Israel’s current situation, a love for their people, and 50 new friends.

First Thoughts

We arrived at Ben Gurion Airport in the evening. After a long 11 hour flight without sleep I was definitely ready to get some shut eye. You might be thinking, “11 hours… that should be plenty of time.” While it was always cool to sit in the back of the bus, quite the opposite is true of airplanes. The fact that I was also in the perfect position to actually feel my right eye get drawn into the bathroom with each suctioning flush of the toilet only exacerbated the situation.

Like many people, whenever I get into a new country it doesn’t actually hit me when I get off the plane. Instead, it is a specific moment at the start of the trip where this revelation usually occurs. For me it was seeing words in Hebrew/Arabic. If these languages were romance languages it might be different, but because their character sets are so different from ours the feeling of being totally out of my element became a reality. The sign below being one of them.

We took a chartered bus from the airport near Tel Aviv to Jerusalem. The first thing that amazed me was their use of solar power. It seemed like every home had a white bucket on the roof (which I am told is some sort of solar power generator). Wikipedia actually says that Israel is the leading nation in solar energy per capita. Interesting.

The other amazement was how similar Israel reminds me of Southern California. Tel Aviv, Haifa and Akko (which I get to later) are all directly on the water. They have volleyball courts and sandy beaches like San Diego or Hermosa Beach. Drive a couple miles east and you’ll get to drier land, which again, resembles San Diego/SoCal. I’d say the only differences at this point are that California doesn’t have anything close to the Negev Desert and Israel is much smaller than that of California. In fact, Israel is closer to the size of New Jersey.

I might as well show you a map of Israel so you can visualize it. The route we took during the trip is in red.

According to the map, we drove right through the West Bank! Fortunately, that is not true. I was surprised to find that a lot of the maps online have the West Bank as this big bubble. In actuality this is not the case. True, most of the towns and villages in that bubble do in fact belong to Palestinians/Fatah, but there are some towns that are still controlled by Israel’s government. So it would only make sense that the maps we were given in Israel had much more detail about exactly what was and wasn’t under Palestinian control. Of course, if I were to obtain a map in say, Lebanon, Israel wouldn’t even be on the map! But that’s another story.

An interesting bunch

The Druze are a religious group of Jewish converts from Islam community that began as an offshoot of Islam. The majority of Druze are found in Lebanon, Syria and Israel. These people are both fascinating and friendly. We had dinner our second night in the Druze village of Osafia. It was a traditional meal of hummus, bread, eggplant (my favorite!), beans, and chicken.

Having dinner with people from a Druze village

The beliefs of their culture fascinate me. They take part in a now closed religion, meaning you cannot be accepted into their faith. Moreover, if you marry outside of the religion you are banished from your village or community. Even with these rules in place, love doesn’t always act pragmatically. People have been known to marry outside the religion knowing full well the consequences. The Druze are aware of this problem, but at this point don’t feel they can do anything about its inevitability. One day soon they will be the last practicing Druze.

A scary truth of these people is that some migrated from Lebanon pre-Lebanon war of 2006. This put family against family and friends against friends. I can’t begin to imagine what they must have went through. I don’t even know how to convey my feelings right now…

Divided in all directions

My first encounter with division was when I heard about the agreements the Israeli government has with several groups in Israel. Israel is home to Israelis, Arab Muslims, Druze, Bedouins and Hasidic Jews, not to mention a variety of other minority groups. The reason I call out Hasidic Jews is because I couldn’t believe they actually got the government to agree to never having to pay taxes again. (Btw, they are also not required to serve in the army.)

I had been in Israel for less than 24 hours and I could already see the subtle clashes between the different groups. Israeli men are required to serve 3 years in the military (and women required to serve 2 years) with the majority serving between the transition of high school and college. Hasidic Jews, however, do not serve because it is against their religion. I’m not sure if it’s their interpretation of the Torah or additional texts that they follow though. My thoughts are that if their neighbors aren’t fighting for them then what? Is there a point where they have to put down the religious scripture that they have followed all their lives for survival or do they fold their cards and hope they lived their life to the fullest?

We were also able to meet a group of Bedouins during my time in Israel. Bedouins are a nomadic group often found living in the Negev, Sinai, and Arabian Deserts. It only took a short while before I learned of the tensions between the Bedouins and other groups living in Israel. Apparently the government pays families a monthly stipend for each child they have. Both the Bedouins and Hasidic Jews typically have twice (or three times) as many children as a typical Israeli family. The fact that many Bedouins live on tax-free land complicates the situation even more.

The West Bank is just behind those 26 ft high concrete walls

While there seems to be a clear mental divide between people for reasons of country service and money, nothing screams division like a physical wall. When you put the name West Bank to the name it only exemplifies its purpose. I have learned a lot about both the West Bank and the Gaza Strip, but it deserves its own post at the very least (which I will be writing in the coming week). For now I will say that the wall is itself a very controversial undertaking. Supporter say that the barrier is necessary to protect Israelis from Palestinian attacks. This point is justified as it helped reduce terrorist attacks by 97%. Opponents, however, claim that the wall is an attempt to divide land before an official agreement is reached. While not as quantitative, it also makes sense imho. More on this topic later…

The Dome of the Rock, which happens to be real gold.
80 kilograms of it (funded by King Hussein of Jordan).

After starring in awe of this great wall I glanced left to find one of the best known landmarks in Jerusalem — the Dome of the Rock. The Dome of the Rock lies in the center of the Temple Mount. The significance of this structure has roots in both Islam and Judaism. Muslims believe that this marks the spot where Muhammad ascended to God in heaven. There he consulted with Moses before coming back to Earth for a journey from Mecca back to the Dome of the Rock.

In Judaism it is believed that this was the place where God tested Abraham by asking him to sacrifice his son Isaac. This was also believed to be the rock where the Ark of the Covenant was placed in the First Temple.

Unfortunately I wasn’t allowed inside the Temple Mount. Until just recently there was a ban barring all Jews and Christians from entering the Temple Mount. Now there are specific hours in place where non-Muslims may enter the structure, but entrance to the Dome itself is still forbidden to non-Muslims. At first this did not make sense because it was under the control of the Israeli government. Our guide instructed us that the Israeli government actually gives full control of this site to the Muslim Council.

It is so difficult to comprehend a restriction like this. Sure, society in America has these types of restrictions all over the place, but we’ve grown up with it. We have yacht clubs and members-only golf courses, but you need to have money. There are clubs that require your name to be printed on the guest list, but you can get on if you know someone. Barring someone because of religion seems like it’s on a different level. Essentially you were born with a lifetime ban from a certain geographical location. What gives someone the right to own that piece of land?

I hope they are praying for peace. Western Wall, Jerusalem.

The last 2 physical divisions I witnessed today are of the Western Wall and Jerusalem itself. The Old City, an area located within modern day Jerusalam, is divided into 4 quarters. The names are politically correct and include the Armenian, Jewish, Christian and Muslim Quarters.

While the Western Wall has the least dangerous division imho, laughing in front of your wife may cause you to wind up sleeping on the couch tonight.

Western Wall, Jerusalem

Looking at the picture there seems to be a clear division splitting the praying area into two unequal pieces at about 75/25. To the left are the men. To the right — women. Men and women are required by religious law to pray separately. What’s worse, while the women are forced to congregate in a group in over 100ºF heat, the men can choose to pray to the far left in an air conditioned area inside the walls shaded from the sun.

Myself jamming a prayer I wrote on a piece of paper into the cracks of the wall. (It’s a tradition)

In my opinion it’s a good idea not to know exactly what you are getting into. That’s part of the fun. But I do like to have a little background before getting on the plane.

That said… I’m going to Israel! I will be getting on the plane tonight without expectations. More to come…

Here’s the tentative itinerary:

Monday, May 26 2008 - Jerusalem
Shalom and welcome home to Israel!
Arrive at Ben Gurion Airport
Opening Session with Shlomo (Momo) Lifshitz, President of Oranim Educational Initiatives
Group opening session

Neve Ilan
+972-2-533-9339

Tuesday, May 27 2008 - Haifa
View Armon Hanatziv
Visit King David’s tomb
Enter the Old City and explore the Jewish Quarter and the Southern Wall Excavations
Visit the Western Wall
Head north
Visit the Druze village of Ossafia and enjoy a traditional meal

Mount Carmel Hotel
+972-4-838-1414

Wednesday, May 28 2008
View the Baha’i Gardens in Haifa
Visit the ancient city of Akko
Visit “Or Tora” synagogue
Explore Zfat the city of Mystical Judaism (Kabbalah).
View the narrow alleyways lined with ancient synagogues and artists’ galleries

Kibbutz Shomrat
+972-4-985-4897

Thursday, May 29 2008
Holocaust seminar
Enjoy the view from Gadot Kayak in the Jordan River
Enjoy a night under a million stars on the banks of the Jordan River

Jordan Park
+972-4-692-1078

Friday, May 30 2008 - Tiberius
View deep into Syria from atop Mt. Bental
Hike to one of the sources of the Jordan River
Visit “Kinneret” cemetery
Tour Tiberius Boardwalk
Welcome the Shabbat at the hotel Group session and activity

Astoria Hotel
+972-4-672-2351

Saturday, May 31 2008 - Tiberius
Enjoy beach time in the Kinneret Group session and activity
Enjoy some free time at the hotel pool
Time for family and friends at the hotel Havdallah
Enjoy some free time on the Boardwalk
A night out

Astoria Hotel
+972-4-672-2351

Sunday, June 1 2008 - Jerusalem
Explore the ancient city of Beit She’an
Head to Tel Aviv
Israeli soldiers join the group
(Soldiers meet at Tel Aviv at 11:30 A.M. To co-ordinate your pick up please contact the tour guide two days before you join the trip)
Visit Independence Hall
Tour Old Jaffa and Neve Tzedek
Mega Event

Neve Ilan
+972-2-533-9339

Monday, June 2 2008
Visit Mt. Herzl
Enjoy lunch and a chance to swim (float) in the Dead Sea
Hike a trail in the Big Crater
Enjoy a Camel Trek
Enjoy a Bedouin Hafla (feast) and a World Music Festival

Mamshit
+972-8-943-6882

Tuesday, June 3 2008 - Eilat
Ascend Massada
Swim in the blue waters of the Red Sea
Enjoy some free time on the Boardwalk
Party at Eilat’s popular club Unplugged

Briza Hotel
+972-8-638-8888

Friday, June 4 2008 - Jerusalem
Visit Ben Gurion’s gravesite and learn about his legacy at Kibbutz Sde Boker
Closing session with Shlomo (Momo) Lifshitz, President of Oranim Educational Initiatives
“What’s Next?” – A Session with Oranim alumni
Group closing session

Ma’ale Ha’hamish
+972-2-533-1331

Saturday, June 5 2008 - Home
Israeli Soldiers leave the group
Leave for Ben Gurion Airport back to NYC