Tiberia and the Golan Heights

We slept maybe 3 hours, and drove to the Golan Heights where we played more dumb games waiting for the jeeps. We did a cold, windy, awesome jeep tour of the Golan Heights. Our guide looked like the last of the Mohicans and he listened only to Spanish music, which was cool. The views were breathtaking, and the drive was exhilirating. We noticed piles of rocks everywhere, which were remains of Ottoman settlements; pretty cool. We also received a pretty intense history lesson on the situation with Syria regarding the Golan.

From there it was off to Tzefat, one of the holiest and most mystical cities in Israel. We met Avraham the painter, who made Aliyah from Detroit, and has since devoted his life to Kabbalah. He was a very interesting guy who sounded like a burnout. He made the study of Kabbalah seem like euphoria, and he was very approachable. We visited some old synagogues and drank pomegranate juice (at an insanely high price) and did some shopping. To be honest, the presence of swindling shopkeepers took away from the great spiritual presence of Tzefat, but nonetheless we did a little shopping. Heather and I spent some time on a playground in the middle of the city where we watched the sunset and watched two children play games. It was an incredible peaceful feeling.

We returned to Tiberia, where Eric and I moved out of our rooms to live with Israelis. Eric had Ariel, and I had Nitzan. The room they gave Nitzan and I was...special. Unlike the other rooms, which had two twin beds, this room only had one full bed. Great. Sleeping in one bed with a stranger. We laughed it off, until we realized the neon light from the hotel shined right into our room. Crappy, but we can live, I guess.

That night was quiet. We had a jam session with our newly-purchased djembes in the lobby, and Eric, the Israelis and I smoked hookah with some really jappy girls from another trip. Around 11:30 I felt it was time for bed, so Nitzan and I stayed up and talked. By midnight, maybe 12:30 he was asleep and snoring and kicking and gasping for air. I left and returned to the lobby to find Eric and Max there, playing djembe and guitar. We talked about philosophies of life and such for a while, Hadassah joined in, and we talked about Hassidism for a bit. Max was nice enough to lend me a sleeping bag, and I crashed on Eric and Ariel's floor.