Summer 2008
As has been the case since we got back from our travels over a year ago, we have not been great at updating our blog. Next week, Benny is beginning his first year of law school at Northeastern, and Ali will be returning to BC to continue her graduate studies in social work.
We have spent most of the summer in Boston, but back in the spring we took an amazing two and a half week trip to Israel with Benny’s parents, who are both from Tel Aviv and immigrated to the United States in 1970.
Israel was truly a special trip for us and Benny’s family. Much of Benny’s family still lives in Israel, and this trip was an opportunity for us to visit many of them, see where his parents grew up, and visit many of the sites across the country. It was Alison’s first trip there, and the first time in a long time that the Meshoulams had taken the time to tour the country.
Upon first arriving in Tel Aviv we hopped on the train and headed to Tivon. Tivon is a suburb of Haifa, where we stayed with Benny’s aunt and uncle (the same aunt and uncle who we visited in Paris at the end of our FrugalMoon). From there we did day trips to Haifa where we saw the Bahai gardens and to Akko, which is famous for its historic Old City. We also went to Nazareth, a largely Arab town which is was supposedly the childhood home of Jesus, and to Rosh Hanikrah, in the far north on the border with Lebanon, which provides spectacular views of the Mediterranean. Evenings were spent back in Tivon, where we had an opportunity to meet many of Uri's cousins who happened to be in town, including cousins who now live in London.
After Haifa, we headed to the Galilee, in northern Israel, which provides some of the greenest landscapes in the country. We spent an afternoon in the picturesque village of Rosh Pinah, and also visited Agamon Hahulah, a wetlands wildlife reserve with beautiful birds and other animal life, including wild donkeys. We hiked alongside the Dan River (a major tributary to the Jordan River) at the Dan Nature Preserve, and also visited Tzfat, a hilltop town that generates much of its tourism from the its connections with kabbalah.
Next, we went for the Dead Sea, which for Alison was a highlight of the trip. Floating in the water there is unlike anything you’ve ever experienced before. It feels like your entire body is made of buoys, and every time you try to force a limb under the water it pops back toward the surface. Near the Dead Sea, we also visited the Ein Gedi Nature Preserve, which contains an amazing amount of wildlife in the midst of the dry, harsh desert. After the Dead Sea we visited Metzada, which was a site of a major Jewish resistance during Roman times, and Mitzpeh Ramon, a giant canyon in the Negev, which is the desert which covers approximately the southern third of Israel. From there, we visited Sdeh Boker, the desert home of Ben Gurion, who was the first Prime Minister of the State of Israel.
Then we headed to Jerusalem to stay with Daniel, Alison's friend from college. On the first evening, Daniel prepared a delicious shabbat dinner and we talked with him and his friend until late in the evening. We spent the next two days wandering around in the old city visiting the Wailing Wall, the Dome of the Rock, and many famous and beautiful churches, including the Church of the Holy Sepulchre, which stands on the site where, according to the New Testament, Jesus was crucified. One of the most memorable moments was sitting in an old church that had tall Gothic ceilings, and listening to a trio of singers come in and sing a hymn to test out the amazing acoustics of the space. We also took a trip to the Israel museum which had a great display of modern Israeli art, and in the evenings we hung out with Daniel.
We finished our travels in Israel with five days in Tel Aviv. Several weeks ago, the New York Times travel section ran an article on Tel Aviv which does an excellent job of describing both the energy and contradictions of Tel Aviv, and modern Israel more broadly. Tel Aviv is beautifully situated on the Mediterranean, and it is extraordinarily vibrant, with endless strips of cafes, restaurants, and shops. Every nook and cranny has an outdoor cafe where people sit with friends until the early morning hours. While we were there we spent a lot of time with friends and family. We also explored the city from top to bottom, spent one day at the beach, took another day to explore the fantastic contemporary art museum there, and, of course, continued to enjoy the delicious Israeli food.
As anyone who reads this blog knows, we spend a lot of time sharing stories of the amazing foods we’ve eaten around the world. Israeli food was fantastic. Every meal started off with several small dishes of fresh, flavorful, excellently prepared salads. The hummus is so smooth and rich it’s really unlike anything you can find in the U.S., and the tahina just seems to melt in your mouth. And of course we managed to find some unbelievable ice cream, where they had flavors like halva (which is a sweet sesame based dessert) and chocolate orange.
Unfortunately we don't have any pictures to post yet from Israel, as Benny accidentally erased all of them off of his computer (whoops!) As soon as we have a chance we will get some from Benny's parents and post them here.
Home sweet home
In other exciting news, we bought a condo at the end of June. For those of you who know Cambridge, the condo is right near Fresh Pond about a mile and a half from Harvard Square and less than half a mile from Huron Village. We really loved the place from our first viewing and are excited to now call it home.
Since we closed on the place, it has been a whirlwind of activity—packing up our old place and fixing up the new place. A few weeks ago we spent a weekend with and Alison’s mom painting the entire place and removing the old wall to wall carpeting that was in two of the bedrooms. We also had some help from friends. A huge thank you to Donna, Patricia, Rachel, Carrie, and Jessica! It was pretty crazy how intensively we worked through that weekend, but it was well worth it.
