Day Seven:
Tuesday morning began on a solemn and upsetting note after
we spent the first few hours of the day at the Mount Herzel military
cemetery. We visited a few
specific plots, and heard the soldier’s stories; the whole experience was very
moving. We then went to the Jewish
Quarter in the Old City of Jerusalem, where we got some free time to wander
around and have lunch on our own.
Of course we managed to find the Hopdoddy’s of Israel, also known as
Burgers Bar. Although the food was
good, the whole experience was very American. I then got to try Israeli frozen yogurt for the first time,
which was absolutely amazing. From
here, we all went to the Kotel (Western Wall) where we had time to pray and put
our special notes in the wall. At
the end of our evening, we were given more free time to explore Ben Yehuda
street. After dinner and a little
shopping, we all made our way to a little bar that was blasting electronic
music and handing out free drinks.
Strangely enough, one of the bar tenders was from Memphis, Tennessee and
had a connection with one of the girls on our trip.
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| Mount Herzl |
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| Grave of Michael Levin, a very brave American who came to Israel to serve in the IDF |
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| Burgers Bar (aka Israeli Hopdoddy) |
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| The Western Wall |
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| The Western Wall |
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| UT at the Western Wall |
Day Eight:
Today I was diagnosed with the flu- yay. Needless to say, I felt terrible the
entire day despite Ron’s sweet efforts to cheer me up. While the whole group was volunteering
at the Spivak Center, a sports rehabilitation center for individuals with
physical handicaps, I was in the corner trying to sleep off my fever. When we left the Spivak Center, we went
on a nice walk through Tel Aviv to visit Independence Hall. Independence Hall is the site of David
Ben Gurion’s monumental proclamation of the State of Israel in 1948. From here we made our way to the Jaffa
Overlook where we were taken aback by the amazing view. Not only were we on the water, but the
sun was just beginning to set. We
walked around Jaffa, took a ton of pictures, and had some free time to explore
the shops and eat dinner.
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| Sunset in Jaffa |
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| Jaffa |
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| Marina in Jaffa |
Day Nine:
Thursday was a very outdoorsy kind of day. We began our morning with a hike in the
Jerusalem Forest to the Sataf Spring.
Unfortunately it was very foggy, but by the end of the hike we could
finally enjoy the amazing scenery.
Next we went to visit Neot Kedumim, a large interactive nature reserve
dedicated to the flora and fauna of the Bible. It was pretty cool because we got to use a mortar and pestle
to make our own za’atar. After, we
got on the bus and went to take part in an active dig at the Beit Guvrin
Caves. We participated in an archaeological
dig and found pieces of pottery from over 2,300 years ago. When we finished digging, sifting and
discovering, we went on a crawl through one of the excavated caves. This was thrilling but scary, as we had
to climb through holes that were barely big enough for us to wiggle through on our stomachs. After a long day outdoors we came back to
the hotel to hang out for the rest of the night.
Day Ten:
Friday morning we had a serious morning at Yad Vashem, the
Jewish National Memorial to the six million Jews who perished in the
Holocaust. We visited the amazing
Children’s Memorial and the newly renovated historical museum. After spending the morning there, we
went to Machaneh Yehuda Market in Jerusalem. The market was packed with locals, tourists and what seemed
like every other Birthright group that was in Israel. We had lunch at an amazing falafel stand, ate candy from a
small candy shop, and were filmed by a few British students for a
documentary. All the stores
started to close around 2:30 for Shabbat, and we headed back to the hotel
for our Shabbat. After a candle
lighting ceremony, I went to the reform service, and enjoyed dinner (well,
attempted to…) at the hotel.
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| Yad Vashem |
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| Memorial for the 1.5 million children that perished in the Holocaust |
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| Shook in Jerusalem |
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| Candy shop at the shook in Jerusalem |
Day Eleven:
On Saturday we had the morning to ourselves to relax and
pack. After Shabbat lunch at the
hotel, we walked a few miles to the hotel where the other Texas Birthright group
was staying. There we all came
together for the Bar/Bat Mitzvah ceremony of the people who chose to have a
Bar/Bat Mitzvah in Israel. We then
had a few group conversations at the hotel, went to dinner at the mall, and made
our way to the airport. At the airport,
Ron and I said our goodbyes as we parted ways with the rest of the group. We took a train to Haifa, where we are
now!
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