In the spirit of full disclosure and record-keeping, I
present to you a summary of my final travel experiences in Israel. I’m not even going to pretend to lie and
label it a “short” summary. Hah! Brevity has never been my strong suit.
Friday morning I finished packing and met a friend for a
goodbye lunch then left the kibbutz around 1:30 pm. A man stopped for me outside the kibbutz and
brought me straight to the train station, talking to me in Hebrew the whole way
and complimenting me on my own apparently-impressive command of the language (“Five
months? How wonderful!”). My distant cousin (second cousin once
removed, to be precise) picked me up from the train station, along with her mom
and brother who arrived on the same train. Her mom and brother live in the U.S. but had
come to visit in Israel, and that night for dinner we were joined by the other
sibling and his boyfriend. As it turns
out, not only do I have family in Israel but they have three adorable children whose
grandmother lives close to where I go to school. Needless to say the distant family is not so
distant anymore.
I spent Shabbat with my family, playing Monkey in the Middle
with the young girls (which is called “hamor
b’emtzah” – “donkey in the middle” - in Hebrew), spending some time at a nearby
kibbutz’s pool, and sharing a mix of Hebrew and English with them all. Saturday night we all went to a bookstore
then got ice cream and I took pictures of the kids.
Sunday morning my cousin
took me to the bus stop and I rode a bus PACKED with soldiers going back to
their bases after the weekend. Now, when
I say packed, I mean there was only enough room for me to stand in the middle
of the isle. Thank goodness Israeli bus
drivers can’t go longer than an hour and a half without a break; instead of
spending all three hours standing in the middle of a mass of sleeping soldiers,
I was able to get a new spot sitting in the isle next to the bus driver – much better
situation for my motion sickness.
I got to Kiryat Shmona
where an exuberant lady from the busy rushed me around and helped me find what
bus I needed next then sat me down where I needed to be and told me to wait,
the next bus would be there in 45 minutes.
When the bus came I found five other girls who were going to the same
state park as me – known as “The Banias” – and I tagged along with them from
the kibbutz that was our starting point.
From Kibbutz Snir we walked the three km to the Hermon Stream Nature
Park and Reserve, rested a bit and ate some lunch, then went through the park
where we saw a most beautiful waterfall.
After leaving the park I
hitchhiked back to Kiryat Shmona. Again,
the man who drove me was incredibly nice (if not a little sketchy), and before
dropping me off exactly where I needed to be he gave me his phone number with
the strict instructions to call him should I need any help at all. I didn’t, but the offer was appreciated.
I spent the night with a
guy I found through CouchSurfing. He is
a 27-year-old student, hiker, traveler, and mountain climber, and greeted me at
his door with a hug. I made myself at
home, took a shower, we talked, then I took a nap while he studied for his
exams this week. We prepared a stir fry
to share for dinner, talked some more, then I passed out from exhaustion.
Monday morning I took an
8:00 bus from Kiryat Shmona to Tel Aviv (three hours, this time with a real
seat) and walked around the city for seven hours. I went to a hummussia and hung out there for
about an hour since I got into a conversation with a young guy from Darfur who
recently came to Israel to go to school.
I also spent some time in Shuk HaCarmel where I bought a touristy
t-shirt, helped some non-Hebrew-speaking women buy a ½-kilo of figs, and met a
guy who just came back from a couple years in Lebanon teaching history and who
will be going to the same university as me in the States next year.
When the train landed me
back in Rehovot last night I was absolutely exhausted and I called the couple
who I’d planned on staying with that night, the son and daughter-in-law of a
couple I know on the kibbutz. Well, they
were all going to their parents’ for dinner and betach (of course!) I
was invited, so I went there and feasted on homemade pizza and cheesy potato
salad with one of my adopted families.
Since all my luggage was at their house anyway (his son hadn’t picked it
up since I dropped it off there on Friday), I stayed with his parents
instead. His mother kissed and hugged me
and took plenty good care of me, his dad gave me practical advice on traveling
around the globe, and when I left they made sure I knew that if I’m ever in
Israel with my own family we are all invited for dinner at their house. You hear that, Mom and Dad? You have a dinner invitation in Kibbutz Na’an.
Finally this morning,
after a hearty breakfast and last goodbyes, my favorite taxi driver and friend
picked me up and drove me to the airport where we exchanged thank you’s and I’ll
miss you’s and tentative plans to get together when he’s vacationing in the
U.S. next month. That one might actually
come to fruition! Either way, we’ll be
friends on Facebook and I know that the next time I’m in Israel he’ll be the
first one I call when I need a ride.
And that was that. I got in the airport, through luggage and
passport control and security, and I got on a plane. And miraculously, the plane is not over
capacity even with all my memories and emotions from the best five months of my
life.
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