We Missed Charleton Heston So Much, We Just Had to Go to Egypt

For a timely pre-Pesach vacation we decided to take a short trip across the border into Egypt. A five-hour bus ride from Jerusalem left us in Eilat, Israel's southernmost city, where we spent the afternoon relaxing in the sun and feasting on Middle Eastern meat skewers (the last non-peanut butter protein for the rest of the trip).

At five a.m. we caught a cab to the border, which was as quiet as one would expect such a place to be at such an hour (especially since in Egypt it was only 4 a.m.). We walked through Israel's customs and taxes, then across a parking lot and through Egypt's customs and taxes, and were soon met by one of our two guides, Walid. Once in the air conditioned van we promptly fell asleep for most of the five hour trip to Cairo.

In Cairo we were given a short driving tour of some of the monstrously huge city (22 million residents!), highlights of which included the President's house, the Nile river, and many, many mosques (Cairo is known as the city of one thousand minarets). We disembarked at the Egyptian Museum, a massive building that houses artifacts from hundreds of sites covering thousands of years of history. We met up with the second of our two guides, Heba, and began a three hour tour (a three hour tour). According to the Lonely Planet Guide if you spent only 1 minute at each exhibit it would take more than 9 months to see the whole museum. Unlike museums in Israel, that are all glamour and interactivity, or museums in North America, that are assembled in a rational way, with plaques explaining what is behind the glass, touring the Egyptian Museum is like walking through the recently discovered attic of a rich relative - there were thousands of shiny, mysterious objects haphazardly strewn about and impossible to understand without a University degree. Luckily Heba had exactly that, and has been leading tours of the museum for quite some time, and so capably guided us through the basics of ancient Egyptian religion and politics, and pointed out some of the museum's highlights. By far the most impressive section was that containing the treasures found in King Tut's tomb, including his golden sarcophagi and fantastic burial mask. Pictures don't do justice to the beauty of these functional works of art - which is o.k., because photography was prohibited.

After the museum we stopped at the Papyrus Institute, one of many businesses that keeps the art of making papyrus alive primarily in order to sell to visitors. The explanation and demonstration of the paper making was interesting - the art for sale not so much. Very tired, we then made our way to our hotel for the evening, the Meridian, where we found the our hotel room had a view of the pyramids. Awesome. Some strolling and swimming closed out the day.

The next morning we met Heba at the front desk, and then drove to the pyramids of Giza. The heat was excessive (36 celsius) but we spent hours walking around the amazing structures, and even got to descend through the original passageways and into the burial chamber inside one of them, where the King's sarcophagus still sits. The many locals hawking cheap souvenirs and camel rides to nowhere were annoying, but could not detract from the experience of standing so close to the only remaining wonders of the ancient world. The magnitude and mystery of the three (nine if you count the six baby buildings for the womenfolk) pyramids was fantastic. We closed out this part of the trip with a visit to the Sphinx, where once again pictures fail to do the subject justice. To stand in the presence of an artifact so magnificent and so ancient was quite an experience.

We moved from the ancient to the relatively recent with a visit to Coptic Cairo, an area of the city once inhabited by the Christian Arabs who built beautiful churches such as the 'hanging church'. Also in that area we toured the Ben Ezra synagogue (which was converted from a church into a shul), a now-defunct house of worship dating back hundreds of years. Both types of buildings were very interesting in that the designers and artisans clearly worked very hard to marry their disparate faiths to the indigenous Arab culture tastes, with a lot of tile work and mosque-like architecture and coloring.

The last part of this day was a quick look at Cairo's bazaar, very similar in scope, scenery, and smell to those in Morocco. On our way to St. Catherines, our destination for the next day, we got to see more of Cairo. Perhaps the oddest areas seen were the Cities of the Dead, massive cemeteries that also serve as neighborhoods for the city's poorest residents.

A six hour trip got us to our hotel at 10:30pm, where we had two hours to nap before our trip to Mount Sinai (or so they claim). At the base of the mountain we and what seemed like hundreds of other pilgrims made the trek up to the summit past vendors and camels, and after three hours of climbing made it to the summit just in time for sunrise. While the dubious identity of the mountain made it something less than a religious experience, the hike itself was great and the view of the Sinai desert was beautiful. We hiked down the opposite side of the mountain, on a path known as the 3,000 Steps of Repentance, and wound up at the Monastery of St. Catherine, a white walled fortress and series of green gardens nestled in between some of the regions highest peaks. The monastery is still operational, and when we toured it we saw Greek Orthodox pilgrims practicing their faith and worshipping the remains of the Saint's thumb, and at a well claimed to be the site where Moses met his wife, and a bush claimed to be the burning bush (although now safely extinguished).

The trip back took us past the Red Sea, which in Egypt is mostly resorts and beaches, and as we crossed the border in Eilat early we got to relax on the beach with a beer before heading home to Jerusalem. Our tour through Egypt was rushed, but we got to see thousands of years of history and culture, and monuments to religions both long dead and still living. A culture and a place entirely different from any other we've ever seen or experienced, Egypt is a place we're both glad to have taken the time to visit (especially without the slavery, murder of children, and bloody doorposts and Nile).

Happy Pesach!

חופש בחיפה

Tuesday morning Jon ditched school and we made our way to Haifa, a city on Israel's northwestern coast. We began our day at the Bahai Gardens, a massive terraced enclosure that is home to the Bahai religion's headquarters, in addition to being the burial-place of their first prophet (the Bab) and destination for Bahai pilgrims from all over the world. The gardens themselves are set up on eighteen terraces that descend along a hillside toward the city, and include not only beautiful landscaping but fountains, buildings, and sculptures as well. We didn't learn much about the notoriously tight-lipped Bahai or their faith, but very much enjoyed their penchant for gardening. Unfortunately, that the gardens use steps (around 1400 of them) made walking deceptively simple - the rest of Haifa is far hillier, steeper, and altogether more difficult to navigate than even a city as hilly as Jerusalem, whose rises and falls we long ago acclimated to.

We next went to Haifa University and the neighboring Mt. Carmel National Park, where we hiked though surprisingly dense undergrowth and tree cover, as well as along rocky cliffs that looked out over the city below. On top of seeing lots of breathtaking views, we also saw herds of goats, many kinds of birds, and salamanders in every nook and cranny.

Our third stop of the day was the beach. While it was too cold to swim, we did walk along the coast and enjoyed watching others, more brave or more foolish than we, take the plunge. There were also many people surfing and just enjoying the weather and view.

After interrogating our hotel's concierge, we determined that it is far harder to find kosher food in Haifa than in any city we've yet visited this year (outside of Morocco. Maybe). Eventually we discovered a Chinese place in a nearby hotel, and were very glad we did! They had options outside the usual peanut-chicken and won-ton soup, and the service, presentation, and atmosphere were all delightful after a long day on our feet.

Wednesday was an altogether more restful day. After a great brunch at the hotel we did some shopping in nearby stores, and visited a park full of bronze statues. The statues were very lifelike, aside from fact that the artist forgot to give them clothes even though they were playing tennis, catching fish, and roller skating. Or maybe that is lifelike, and we're just not living the right sort of lives.

After the park we went back to the beach to eat a lunch pillaged from breakfast. We then walked to Castra, which our concierge had told us was an artists' market. Jon had foolishly imagined bustling stalls and artists busy as work crafting innovative and different pieces, and so was a little disappointed when we found ourselves at a mall that contained art stores. Still, we did find an exhibit of dioramas that told the history of the Jewish world, from Adam and Eve through to the modern day, using dolls, styrofoam, children's toys. Once done learning about our past via dismembered and disfigured playthings we made our way to the bus station and returned home.

First Day of Nisan Vacation

After sleeping in, we both went about our business during the morning. In the afternoon, we met up with the Cantors for their last day in Jerusalem. The five of us (3C + 2P) went out for a light lunch at Tarantino's, a restaurant specializing in wraps, which is painted full of scenes from "Pulp Fiction". None of us was really sure what connection was between the food and the film, but all agreed our orders tasted good.

At night, the two of us attended the wedding of a classmate of Rina's from Matan. She was marrying one of the sons of the rabbi of Yakar, and the music at the event reflected that. Most of the songs were soulful and wordless, but everyone get into them. The dancing was great, and the location, on a kibbutz near Beit Shemesh, was beautiful, with flowers blooming all around the outdoor chuppah, and the dinner and dancing set up inside of a massive tent. Perhaps the best part of being at a truly Israeli wedding was not being at all embarrassed to ask the waiter for second helpings. Weirdly, everyone cleared out by 10 p.m. I guess when your friends get married every other week you don't feel the need/interest to stick around.

Tel Aviv Weekend

Friday morning we took the bus to Tel Aviv and spent some time in the Palmach museum which we had been told was well-designed and worth a visit. Like other modern museums in Israel, this one is experiential rather than frontal, but unlike others it completely did away with fact and artifact and instead focuses solely on emotion and story. The museum is built in such a way that you "follow" the exploits of a troupe of Palmach fighters through their early lives as trainees into the establishment of the State of Israel and the creation of the IDF. While the underground labyrinth of caves, roadside cafes, and bunkers was impressive, and the movies we very nice, neither of us feels that we came out of the experience knowing anything more about the history of the country or the people who fought for its creation and safety. The entire production seemed centered more on the promotion of Zionism and patriotism than on education.

After the museum we ate lunch in the the beautiful HaYarkon park, and watched rowers, dog-walkers, and roller bladers turn Tel Aviv into Central Park. We then ambled down the pier area, and even discovered a Max Brenner chocolate shop and cafe (if you don't know Max Brenner chocolate, think of Godiva's). After a relaxing afternoon we caught the bus to Givat Shmuel.

We spent Shabbat with the family of a friend of Rina's (herself, her husband, and their adorable and friendly baby). Unlike the villages of our other Shabbat excursions, Givat Shmuel is a practically a city, with high-rise apartments, malls, multiple synagogues, etc. While smaller than the neighboring Benei Brak and Petah Tikvah, the area has far more of a 'city feel' than areas in the Gush. We had a great time with the family and their friends and seeing the area, and closed out the weekend with an all-day breakfast at a local cafe (not that it lasted all day, it was just offered by the cafe all day) then came back to Jerusalem to get ready for the last few days of school before Pesach vacation.

tick tick BOOM!

Tonight's entertainment was the play "tick tick BOOM!", put on in English by an amateur theater troupe in the Merkaz HaMagshmim. Rina knew two of the actors through Pardes, and we both enjoy the songs from RENT (one of us more than the other), so were excited to see this play, written by the same playwright. While none of the actors were professional, they were all talented and the production was more than enjoyable. The songs and the acting were both very well done, and the music was terrific.

Darna

This evening we got together with the Cantors and some of their cousins for dinner. We met up at Darna, a Moroccan restaurant that we have wanted to try since even before our trip. While the service wasn't great (the waitress was pushy and rude, to the extent that she brought us things she recommended even after we'd declined them), the food was delicious and the decor was true to the theme. Colorful mosaics and carpets covered the walls and ceilings, and we shared dishes ranging from tagines of different meats to a variety of couscouses and arabian salads. Both the bread and the tea were very good replications of what we'd had on our trip, and made us excited for our next adventure. It's actually kind of sad that we had to wait until two months after returning from Morocco to try its food, but it was apparently worth the wait.

The Joy of Hebrew

While Hagaddah shopping in town today, Jon passed a burly Russian who asked if he spoke English and wouldn't mind translating for him. Proud of his Hebrew skills, Jon was pleased to help out and so ventured over to where the Russian was standing with an Israeli. The two men would tell Jon the sentence to be translated, and he would relay the information to the other party, leaving out the editorial comments ("Is he cheating me?", "Is he drunk?", "I'm so drunk!", and so on). Jon was very pleased with how well things were going, but after only a few moments of discussing hourly rates and different locations it became clear what transaction he was facilitating - the Russian wanted to procure a prostitute. As it turns out, it's 100 shekels an hour.