Category Archives: Israel

Final few days in Israel!

Phwar!

In exactly three days I’ll be on an airplane coming home! And I can’t wait πŸ˜€

I’m in [[Haifa]] at the moment, staying with Tom (Maia’s Cousin). I’m hoping to go to [[Tel-Aviv]] tonight but it’ll probably be in the morning because I have nowhere solid to stay (and I’m waiting for a reply from my new favourite site www.couchsurfing.com).

I ended up back on kibbutz the other day! Despite my ‘really really this is actually the last time I’m leaving’ goodbye last week! I was meeting Mike and Orly to goto the Carmelite Monastery (as recommended by Eli as one of the places I need to goto if I get a chance). The view is insane, I’m not even going to try and describe it!

The plan was to meet at the kibbutz, but we managed to miss each other (no idea how) so we met at the monastery instead (by luck of course, since none of us have a phone). Afterwards I couldn’t get a lift to [[Yokneam]] to get a bus back to Haifa, and after a couple of hours trying I gave up and went to see Inbar (Toms sister who lives on the [[kibbutz]]) to give Tom a call and let him know I was going to be even later.

Inbar called Tom, and Tom came to visit and brought me back to Haifa – where I promptly fell asleep. It’d been a sleep deprived few days!

After half a days sleep I set off to Haifa – keeping an open mind despite my vision of Haifa as a city of one landmark – the Bahi Gardens. The very pretty but totally useless tourist office only confirmed that there’s nothing to do. I wandered around a little, found a small art gallery and a tourist synagogue (eh eh) and saw a lot of back alleys whilst trying to find the bus back to Tom’s place. The tourist office turned out to be worth something, she told me where the bus stop was – and was right!

woop woop!

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A Boat Upon the Rainbow River

I started in [[Rosh Pina]],
had some fantastic things for dinner,
went there for a week or two,
ended up staying a few.

peddled my way back down south,
stopped a lot, to water my mouth,
arrived in [[Nahalal]] within the day,
couldn’t meet Irit, so thought I’d stay.

Sunday the 7th came along,
what the hell rhymes with along,
cycled the hill to [[kibbutz]],
stuck again, flangrant atutz.

Saw everybody, had a great time,
the food was good, the weather was fine,
went to the pub, saw a band,
cleaned up a virus, gave them a hand.

stayed there a week,
never got around, to sorting my teak, (bag in Hebrew!)
emailed some farms, worked up a hype,
got no replies, so made a Skype.

Spoke to Marc, down in the centre,
agreed to go there, he’d be my mentor,
we’d build some ovens, and lay some concrete,
I’d stay 10 days, perhaps a week.

Now here I sit, in his living room,
on his laptop, sleeping soon,
went on a trip, then rested [[Shabbat]],
have yet to work, emptied his fridge but. (using some Hebrew grammar there ;))

I think another week I’ll stay,
then travel to Evron in a day,
spend some time with the family,
organize my stuff and my diary.

my last week will be in [[Tel Aviv]],
catching the culture like a sieve,
might make some stops, see some friends,
say bye to all, tie up some ends.

a few more weeks and I’ll be home,
visiting the tower, seeing the dome,
can’t wait to be there, it’s been a lifetime,
thank god for the [[Internet]], my mothers lifeline πŸ˜‰

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Rosh Pina and Returning Home!

hey,

I can’t remember what I said last time, but I’m here on a farm in [[Rosh Pina]] – making bread, keeping the garden tidy and being the IT/Electrician guy!

Had the chance to do some paid work cutting weeds last week which was much appreciated by my wallet!

I just got off the phone to the wonderful Dani (Maia’s uncle) who’s managed to have my plane ticket moved so that I won’t be missing Mehaks wedding at the end of June! So I’ll be back on the 25th June (Thursday, late night) instead of the 30th!

I’ve been coming up with a bit of a plan, no grand take over the world ideas – simpler things like where I’ll be in 5 days time!

I’m going to stay in Rosh Pina until Friday – [[Shavuot]] – which means I get to go to school on Tuesday and serve cream cheese (home made from goats milk!) and pita to a whole load of rowdy school children. It’s the year 6 from one school meeting the year 6 from the school in the next town, and they all hate each other – apparently riots and fights break out every year!

That fun aside, we have about a hundred quiche to make and a whole pile of cheese cakes! Wednesday night is a no sleeper! (Well, for them… it’s optional for me!)

Then on Friday, morning or evening – depends how I feel at the time – I’m going to head back towards [[Nahahal]] (where I was before here). Spend another night there, and see if I can meet up with Irit (my teacher from the ulpan) the next day. From there I’ll be heading back to [[Ein Hashofet]] to say bye to a friend (Talya) who’s leaving.

A couple of days there, and I’ll either be heading up north to another [[permaculture]] WWOOF place near-ish to Haifa, or south to [[Tel-Aviv]] to try to meet Illy who may or may not still be volunteering there!

Sami

p.s To the more geeky of you, checkout the new totally awesome badly labelled new search feature on www.youque.net wuuhaaay API yeah!

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Mushav Nahalal

I’m on a [[Moshav]] now ([[Nahalal]]), just arrived today. We’re building an educational eco-farm – much like a small CAT centre. That’s about all I know, got here this afternoon and was lugging sand around for a few hours. Seems nice. Thought I’d write. Short sentences. Here for one week, then hopefully going elsewhere. Don’t know where yet. Like this writing style? Let me know.

Love. Hugs. Kisses. Write soon. Sami.

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Cycling + Rosh Pina

Just a short email because I’m not in a writing mood πŸ™‚ I got to my place today.. it’s in [[Rosh Pina]] just north of the Kineret (next to [[Tsfat]]). I cycled here from [[Nahalal]] – the eco farm – over the weekend. (71 km of uphill!)

I did about 3/2rds of the way, then camped by a completely clear incredibly clear, see-through-almost-invisibly-clear spring (made a little less romantic by the concrete box they (the army) put it in). And today set off the last part, which turned out to be less than a third of the way – but this literally was all uphill.

I camped out under a flyover for a couple of hours when the sun was high, finished my book and had some lunch (bread, humous and sunflower seeds) then cycled – wearing a blue blanket like a cape to keep the sun away – the last… what turned out to be kilometre to Rosh Pina.

Following my written directions, I entered the town.. cycled up the hill and asked for Mark Rubin. Don’t be sceptical my friends, it worked a charm! Turns out everyone in the town knows this guy.

So now I’m here, sharing a room/restaurant with a guy called Amir. This places opens as a cheese/bread restaurant twice a week, and our room is part of that. Here they have a bunch of goats and some chickens and they grow some vegetables. They make cheese with the milk, and bake – from what I’ve heard – amazing bread.

Ok enough writing. Feel free to write back and tell me what’s going in your boring goat-free lives πŸ˜‰ mwhaha

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Cairo you say?

Here’s a diddie update!

After dad left I spent a night back on the [[kibbutz]] and then headed up to stay with Maia’s family on Kibbutz Evron. There was loads of fun =] We did Seder with 600 people and lots of singing the first night, and then with family from around Israel the second. The day after that I went down to [[Jerusalem]] to meet Eli, and went straight from there to [[Eilat]] and then over to [[Jordan]] and up to [[Petra]] – so I was travelling from 3.30 am till 6pm! We found a hostel and the next day went to see Petra – which is amazing!

Met a great couple that evening whilst looking for a cab share to Wadi Rum – a really amazing bit of desert – and ended up sharing their rented car and camping with them in the desert. The next day started with coffee and a 4 hour hike through the dunes and rocks back to Rum village where the car (and more water) was waiting – with two tires nicely flattened and nailed by the local kids; the local engineer fixed it for us though.

Then Eli and I went to [[Aqaba]], and got a ferry over to Egypt! Followed by a really, really long night bus to [[Cairo]].

We’ve been here now a couple of days, it’s the most amazing city – an indescribable balagan of people, cars and salesmen. Saw the pyramids (the pyramids!) today, went inside one of them, lots of cool stuff =]

Probably going back to Israel in the next few days, to do some volunteering and a bit of living in Jerusalem!

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Life after Ulpan, Bombs in Haifa and Roni has a job!

Hello! Rob sent me an email and I wrote him a proper reply, so here’s an extract from my latest work “An email to Rob”.

Went to Megedo today, which is where the [[Armageddon]] is supposed to be happening! (ArmageddonΒ is actually from the words Har Megedo, which means Megedo mountain!). Swam in the [[dead sea]] the other day, climbed [[Masada]] (up the Roman path!) πŸ™‚ This country is full of amazing things to do!

I have a few days left of the [[ulpan]]! I finish on Thursday, and dad’s coming on Friday. Then we’re travelling for a little over a week. The rest is a bit of a haze of going to [[Petra]] (in [[Jordan]]), camping a few nights on the [[Kineret]] and spending time with Maia’s family for [[Pesach]]. On the 16th I start volunteering on a farm up north for two weeks, and I just heard today about another place in the [[Negev]] helping to build an eco-building (or something similar) on a place who get eggs from their own chickens, milk form their goats, grow their own vegetables and recommend you take a tent with if you don’t want to sleep in the open!

After that, nothings fixed (not that any of that was fixed!). I would like it to include some time in [[Sweden]], followed by a week in [[Holland]] before getting a bus back to [[London]] sometime in June or July!

I had no idea Roni was doing a paper round! The police found 6-7 bombs in [[Haifa]] the other day. Nothing exploded, but they’re pretty sure they came from [[East Jerusalem]] (which means they’re Palestinian). (Don’t panic)

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Wuhay! (Still Alive and going to IDF Book Camp Gadna)

Wuhay! Still here!

Going to [[Jerusalem]] next week to stay with Illy for a few days.

Did I mention that? I forget..

Apparently in January we’re going to IDF Boot Camp for a week! There’s a base near the [[kibbutz]] and… yeah.. should be interesting πŸ™‚

Missing you all, etc etc

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A weekend in Evron, and back to Ein Hashofet

Just got back from being at [[kibbutz]] Evron for the weekend πŸ™‚ It was good! Hopefully going to Jer next weekend!

It rained today. Every time I leave the country you get snow!

On Skype no good time to get me, I’m only online a few minutes a day here (and loving it!) but you can call me any time after 2.30 London time any day by calling 02033553172 or 08448615959 and when it asks my number is 009725xxxxxxxx. I don’t think 0203 is free in the evening, probably not.

Hebrew is going good! Learning lots, collecting verbs etc!

I liked Evron, would have been better with some company though! So.. you guys should come πŸ˜‰ How it compares to other Kibbutzim? Well I can only compare it to [[Ein Hashofet]] which I think is quite opposite!

Ein Hashofet is more communal. Ein Hashofet is in the middle of nowhere… Evron… isn’t! The pub was a lot bigger and busier, which probably has something to do with the city so close by, we get the odd person from Haifa or another nearby kibbutz (theres 3 or 4 within about 8km) but for the most part it’s just kibbutzniks. The Dining Room is the same – though from what I gather they’re all the same!

Jer is the only way I can write [[Jerusalem]] without looking it up or spelling it wrong πŸ™‚

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