Through my travels around the Holy Land, I have pretty much done it all. In 15 days. So here are some things that you should make sure you get around to in your trip to the Holy Land. The order is the recommended sequence of events.
1. Meet a Timbuk2-toting, liberal-bashing, myspace.com-commenting boy on the sherut on your ride from the airport.
2. Visit Neve Shalom Peace Village. This place is the largest source of hope I saw in all of Israel/Palestine.
3. Do some yoga at the Y. No yoga pants? No problem! Pair some painting capris with leg warmers!
4. Go on a day trip with a van-full of kids from one of your prospective colleges. And make sure they sing you all of the songs that one simply must know before attending.
5. Scrabble in the Judean Desert. Just make it happen.
6. Go to the Turkish Baths in Ramallah (Yallah, yallah, lets go to Ramallah!). Make sure you drink water, because it is possible to blackout in the sauna. Apparently.
7. Visit Vered Haglil, a bit north of Tiberias. Try the hot chocolate cake. I kind of liked it.
8. Aroma Café (supposedly branching out to NYC, so watch out!) and hook yourself up with some of the almond croissants while chilling with a health code-breaking cat.
Fat cat lookin’ at the camera.
9. Bike the circumference of the Sea of Galilee in its entirety. It’s even better if you do it on a Lil’Honey kiddie bike, like my bike pro sister, Margit.
10. Visit Ayda refugee camp in Bethlehem, and let yourself be shown around by some teenage boys. I highly recommend the recently released convicts as tour guides; they will move parked cars, if not mountains, to make sure you enjoy your stay.
Two thumbs up for convicted tour guides.
To see what Karin thought about the rest of Israel/Palestine, check out the Karin Rates the Holy Land photo set. Thumbs up and down, she rates it like it is.
http://www.flickr.com/photos/margit/sets/72157594487958372/
