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View
My Guestbook
INTRODUCTIONOur family vacation for the millennial year 2000 was to go to the most eventful and important place that I could think of. the eternal city of Jerusalem and the country of Israel. The land of the Old and New Testament and Book of Mormon and future location of the great final events of this earth, including the triumphal return of the Lord Jesus Christ.As I sit on the plane flight home, I am grateful. First that I finally have the time to write this all down before I forget it. Second, that we were all able to get on the flight home and not have to worry about separating or being stuck. And third, most of all, for the opportunity to take this trip with all of my children. Shannon has the opportunity to say that her first international trip was in the millennial year 2000 to the country of Israel. CREDITSThe credit goes first to my Heavenly Father and Jesus, whose help and peace I felt palpably throughout all parts of this trip. Knowing without doubt that we were always in their hands. This is not normal for me. It was something very different and special.Second to mom, dad, Kathy and Connie for believing in my idea and for all their financial, emotional and spiritual support. Especially to you Kathy for pulling down the powers of heaven for us and being a special beacon of support, because you knew, having been there, that this would be a special experience for us. Thank you Brian for letting us go and for being there so helpful and nice when we returned. Thanks Continental Airlines for the great blessing of flight benefits. Special thanks to Margaret of Skyland Travel in Roswell Georgia, who went well beyond the call of duty as a travel agent to help me in every way she possibly could to help plan this trip and loan me books. Special thanks as well to our wonderful rescuer Jeff C. from BYU Jerusalem who took me as a basket case and all my children and made a difficult day into a wonderful day. Thanks to Jeff we were able to see the Garden Tomb. In Jeff also, we had the privilege of having one of the most knowledgeable guides possible because of his education and experience. Thank you to our dear friends and hosts, Sinai, Varda and family who truly welcomed us as family and without whose help we would not have had the ease and comfort and natural Jewish experience that we had. And thank you to Tony, our guide who made possible our excursion to Masada/Dead Sea and navigated the maze of the Old City to take us to the major sites. God always sends the best it seems, at least he did for us in the support system of people that we had for the trip. PREPARATIONOur trip really started several months ago as a preparation stage. Hours and hours spent to glean information and find a good place to stay. I hope with this report to make things a lot easier for others, who like us, might want to do it on their own, without a group, as we did. A group has the advantage of making everything easy and all set up and without a doubt you would be more educated about the details of the places visited and would probably even see more places than we did. But also with a group it is more expensive, the time is more fixed, you don't have the spontaneity that we had to just up and do whatever we wanted all the time. And you don't get the natural, local experience of living amongst the people, which always is one of my travel/educational goals. We came away from Israel completely satisfied with our experience.I found our apartment on the internet through Jerusalem Home Accommodations. I contacted almost all of them until I chose YomYom when they offered me the best rate. You can contact Varda here . Tell her Susan Golden sent you. I want her to know that I liked it well enough to send all my friends. The rest of our preparation was to watch as many Israel videos as I could find. Except for the Masada movie, this bored the kids but I liked them. In addition, I had a type of spiritual preparation as daily I looked at the picture of Jesus and the picture of Jesus overlooking Jerusalem and asked Him to please help us to be able to see His land.Lots of prayers from several people, including the children, went in to this trip. SAFETYThe first question everyone (almost everyone, some friends really wanted to go with us),asked before our trip was. Aren't you scared to go to Israel, especially alone with kids?Before the trip I never was scared, but expected the need to be very cautious and felt a little lack of self confidence because so many people said it was too hard to do. I just realized Heavenly Father would be helping me. After going, I can say that we felt no need to be afraid. There were guards with, what looked like M16 guns, posted at strategic or important sites. Security at these borders or religious sites was obviously an issue. But Israeli citizens live a normal life and are disturbed that the media plays up bad events so big, that people are afraid to come to their country. From what they told me, even the wars don't seem to have much affect on the normal citizens. There may be more to this issue than I know, but except for normal safety precautions, one would use, we saw and lived a life of normalcy while there. WEATHERI was prewarned that summer is a very hot, unpleasant time to visit Israel. Our trip dates were June 20-26. The reality we found- the sun always shone. In the sun, it was hot, but not humid like Georgia and not oven hot like Las Vegas. In the shade it was fine. Evenings, nights and mornings were very cool and pleasant. Day and evening I loved the breeze that often blew. Summer weather in Israel wasn't that big of an issue to us. Our apartment was fine without air conditioning. We usually kept the windows open and we had a fan.We were told that there usually isn't any rain from May-Oct. The sky was always blue, without clouds, while we were there. Also, for the first time in a long, long time, I had no allergy problems. GEOGRAPHY AND VEGETATIONFrom the moment that I saw Israel, it reminded me of southern California, both the arid deserts and vegetation and hills of the Los Angeles area. We didn't see the coast or northern Israel. From Tel Aviv to Jerusalem there were fields growing several different crops. Then we entered a forested area, not lush forest, but a forest of tall trees nonetheless.The land of Jerusalem was all hills. Neighborhoods and terraces ascending and descending on the slopes. Except for the intervention of man, Jerusalem would have been a barren place. But when watered and cultivated, the vegetation is beautiful and diverse. We saw fruit trees growing apples, oranges, bananas and dates and healthy vines full of grapes. Flowers, like bougainvillea, geraniums, roses and others, provided color in an otherwise white blanket of buildings on the hills. All buildings are built of Jerusalem stone, a white limestone type rock, quarried from the area. They are not painted or colored in any way, probably because of the heat. Some buildings had red tile roofs. The land south of Jerusalem toward Masada and the Dead Sea was desert so barren, I wondered how the few bedouin sheep could find enough grass growing to survive on. The hills, desert and especially the beautiful blue Dead Sea, reminded me of the desert around Las Vegas and Lake Mead. I am not a desert person and found this large area of desert to be totally uninviting. It was to this hot, barren area that Jesus went for 40 days, without food or water, alone with the snakes and whatever else can live out there. ANIMALSWe saw cats in our neighborhood that Kelli and Shannon got excited about. We rode with a pit bull on the bus and saw a rat in the old city jumping along at the wall trying to find a hole out. It finally found one. (I'm surprised we saw no other rats there). We saw little lizards and big lizards. We were very surprised to see a donkey and a horse entering the old city. We saw chickens, pigeons and rabbits for sale in the market. But our greatest delight were the camels. Looking down from King David's citadel, we saw a camel and rider running down the sidewalk alongside a busy highway. We were astonished. Our second camel experience was on our field trip to Masada. We stopped along the road where a Bedouin man stood with his camel, by a sign that said we were at sea level. He was waiting for tourists like us. Kelli and Shannon rode first and then Erik and I. To my great later regret, when I ran out of film, we decided to come back later for Michael and Tara's ride. Unfortunately, that chance never came , because the camel was gone when we returned. The kids were very disappointed.That camel ride was a highlight of the trip. Camels seem to be very docile and gentle creatures. I petted its head and scratched its neck. We climbed onto the saddle and were told to lean back. As the camel got to its feet, we rose higher and higher into the air. It was scary and felt wobbly up that high, but our guide told us that camels ride more smoothly than horses. The other interesting thing about camels is that they have a short 5th foot on their stomachs, on which they sit to rest. TRANSPORTATIONWe took a sherut van from Tel Aviv airport to Jerusalem. The usual cost is $10 per person. But they gave the 6 of us a special rate of $40 total, one way and then $50 for the return trip.Bus route maps would have been very helpful as we were pretty helpless on our own without them. Fortunately for us, bus 19 stopped just down the hill from us and its final stop was the Jaffa gate at the old city. We did this trip several times. We bought a bus card for 47 NIS (approx. $12.00) good for 10 adult trips and the same price for a child card good for 20 trips . It was a lot easier than paying each time. Buses take shekels, not dollars. They are modern and air conditioned and make quick stops so get on and off quick. We felt like local people on the buses. On our first bus ride, we got on the bus on our side of the street instead of crossing to the other side. When we arrived at Hadassah Hospital, the driver turned and smiled at us, and we sat there and smiled back. Finally he said, this is the end of the line. After understanding our mistake, he kept us with him and drove to the Other end of the line, our correct destination. Buses work fine in the city, but to do sights outside the city, a car would be the best choice. The major highways and many city roads are very modern. The city streets are very narrow and parking is scarce. When crossing streets as a pedestrian, watch carefully . We found a lot of the car drivers to be very impatient. They were often honking their horns. MONEYNIS (New Israeli Sheqel) is the standard money, though most tourist areas take dollars and often, credit cards. The exchange rate for us was 4 NIS per dollar.We had changed no money into shekels, but it turns out we needed shekels and Varda came down on the first day and handed us 1000 shekels and told us we could pay her back later. This was very helpful for us. LANGUAGEI'm embarrassed to say that before the trip, I thought Hebrew was only an ancient or religious language, like Latin. But is is very much alive in Israel. We learned several Hebrew words, like Ken-yes, low-no, mah-what, lyla tov- good night, and of course shalom-a greeting, a farewell, peace. They say hallo instead of hello. Signs are written in Hebrew, English and often Arabic. We also saw posters in Russian. I think that Hebrew is a beautiful language . The words are fairly easy to distinguish. It has some of the smoothness of French, a lot of the guttural German and several English words thrown in. Hebrew is read and written from right to left instead of our left to right and the Hebrew alphabet has 22 characters.HOUSINGNew neighborhoods are springing up all over. There is rapid growth and high immigration in Israel. Housing costs, at least in Jerusalem are enormous. We were told that an apartment in the Jewish quarter of the old city (which is very old looking), runs 1-6 million dollars. Varda and Sinai live in a nice, modern, spacious, but not huge, two story apartment and had to pay $500,000. I can't even imagine how the people can pay these high prices plus pay 50% of their salary to the government in taxes. We saw no private homes in the city, only apartments.OUR APARTMENTOur apartment was a small one bedroom, one bathroom, kitchen/living room. But I liked the simplicity of the plaster stone walls, and marble floors and high ceilings with just the basic furniture that one needs. It had a fridge, cook top, toaster oven and microwave, radio/cassette player and cable tv. We were comfortable there.I was too busy or tired to watch the tv but the kids watched it a lot, laughing at seeing Pokemon in Hebrew. The variety was a great thing! There were channels with shows in Hebrew, Russian, French, German, Spanish and English. Our apartment cost $100 a night. It was clean, had no bugs, was quiet and private and best of all, we had Varda, Sinai and their family above us. We looked at the Petra Hostel in the old city, which was one of the places we had considered. I wanted to check it out to be able to report another option. It has its place, especially for young single travelers wanting to be in all the action and have a cheap price. But it was very old, chipped paint, cracks in floor, thin mattresses, you get the picture. Every night as we left the rat race of downtown and the old city, we always thankfully climbed the flower lined stairs to our quiet, peaceful apartment. It felt so safe there that two of the trip days, Tara, Erik and Shannon stayed home alone for hours while Michael, Kelli and I went into town. The apartment location is by the Hadassah Hospital of Ein Karem in the neighborhood of Ramat Denya at building 6, apartment 8 on Kobovi St. The bus ride to the old city takes about 30 minutes. This was the only problem with the location. We loved this place and will stay there again if we come back. FOODWe brought and ate most of our own food, to save on costs. We brought gummi worms, macaroni and cheese, rice, spaghetti and spaghetti sauce, tuna fish, spam, dry milk, pudding mix, cookies, peanut butter and jelly, ramen, power bars, powdered gatorade, canned vegetables and fruit and pancake mix and syrup.The only food we bought were two american style loaves of bread at the corner gas station/convenience store and three glasses of fresh squeezed orange juice in the old city. Varda had two bags of hom/pas milk in the fridge for us, as well as coffee, tea, salt and pepper, sugar, butter, ketchup, jelly etc. A delicious chocolate cake was on the table for us when we arrived. On Friday night, which is the beginning of the Shabbat (Sabbath), I felt honored to be invited by Varda and Sinai to their traditional Friday night Shabbat meal. They are not a religious Jewish family, but on this night, they follow the traditions. Sinai dons his small cap and reads prayers from a prayer book/Bible. They served a mediterranean type spaghetti, eggplant cooked in a tomato sauce, sliced potatoes cooked with hamburger, rice stuffed in fried pepper and zucchini shells, special Shabbat bread, liver and four different juices. I thought it was all very nutritious and delicious. Varda said that they don't eat leftovers and gave us all the remaining food. It fed us for two days. So I gave her all my food that I wasn't going to need and didn't want to drag home. They gave us ice cream for dessert and then asked if we wanted to have peanut butter in it. We were shocked. We thought we were the only family in the world who ate peanut butter in their ice cream. One night they had a big fruit bowl that we got to eat from. Another night I came in to see Sinai making pancakes with maple syrup- another big surprise, not expected in Israel. Every day I thought about trying the traditional Israeli food that Kathy had told me about, called falafel. Finally, the last day, when it was on our agenda, we got down to only $1.00 and were tired and decided to skip this opportunity. Our other food experience was on Saturday. Our friend Jeff C., concerned about the children being hungry after church, took us to an Arab pizza restaurant. We drank fruit nectar and ate two large, wonderful cheese pizzas. I don't know the name or location of this place, but maybe can get it from Jeff. VARDA AND SINAISinai is pronounced Seenai. V and S have four children. Teen girls Ellie and Dafna and 6 and 7 year old boys Alon and Itimal. We saw a lot of the boys because they played well with our children. They spoke no English and we spoke no Hebrew, but the kids played games on the carpet and soccer on the patio. When the ball would go over the balcony , they would just climb over and get it from the roof below.Varda and Sinai when home, were always there for us, willing to be our friends, to assist us, to let us use their email and free access to visit them in their home. I liked to come spend evenings talking to them. Sinai works in insurance. Varda is a high school math teacher, tutor, and runs her apartment business. They are well educated and similar in many ways to our family. People make large strides toward brotherly love and world peace when they have the chance to get to know and love each other. We certainly loved their family MODERNMaybe because so much of it is new, but Israel seemed very modern to me. Americans as well as Europeans can feel very comfortable there. It was totally different than how antiquated I perceived Spain to be when I was on my mission twenty years ago.HISTORYIsrael is certainly an historic land. Because I know and love history, it was far more significant for me to visit there and be in this country so saturated with important events from world and religious history. The tower of David museum by the Jaffa gate has a film and exhibits depicting the history of Jerusalem. Several times during the movie, Michael, Kelli and I burst out laughing because it was so funny how the cartoons were.Structures exist in this land from many epochs of time. Jericho city has a sign claiming to be the oldest inhabited city in the world. There is a lot to see in Israel for the history lover. There is so much visual history even in the people and some of the residential areas. You feel like it could be a scene from 2,000 years ago. The old exists alongside the new. CLOTHESLight colored, comfortable clothes and 1 pr sandals, 1 pr tennis shoes and church shoes if needed , is what we chose to bring. We all brought shorts, but seldom saw anyone, especially local people wearing them. It is a very conservative and modest country. The muslim women wore the long traditional dresses and head coverings, though not veils (thank goodness). The Jewish men were often seen in black hats and black suits that looked to us like they would have been terribly hot and uncomfortable. These men usually wore beards and had hair curled on the sides of their faces. I have yet to know exactly who these people are, but I believe that they are a more orthodox Jewish group. Lots of other Jewish men wore a little cap. I was told that it is a sign of respect to God, to show that He is higher than man. The average woman on the streets wore knee length to long dresses or pants.There are dresses made and worn by the Palestinians. They are colorful and beautiful and Tara chose to spend allowance money over her souvenir allotment to buy one. She looks like a princess in it. It cost her $40 for hers which I am told, was a good price. Sandals worked great. |
