Berlin rocks

I spent the past four days in Berlin, and I can honestly say I love this city. With the possible exception of London, it is by far the most diverse city I've visited in Europe. It also has an amazing subculture that developed during the Cold War in West Berlin, and spread to the rest of the city after the fall of the Berlin Wall.

On my first day I did a free tour which was amazing for multiple reasons. First, the tour itself was very informative and I had an amazing tour guide (from a small town in Missouri!) who was hilarious and charming. Second, the tour was free...can't beat that! And third, I met some really cool people in my tour group who I hung out with for the next three days. The tour covered the most important Berlin sights including the Brandenberg Gate, checkpoint Charlie, the holocaust memorial, the Berlin Dome, Museum Island, and Alexanderplatz.  After the tour, our guide took a bunch of us to a bar to watch the first game of the World Cup while eating schnitzel and drinking beer  - you can't get more German than that!

I'll continue this post soon...

Nazareth

Yesterday I was in Nazareth - the largest Arabic city in Israel. Because it's an Arabic city I kept thinking that all the locals were Muslim, even though I knew better. Most locals are actually Christian, and I had to keep reminding myself to stop stereotyping so much.  The historic part of Nazareth is tiny and can be seen in a few hours, especially if you're not a religious Christian making a pilgrimage to all the sites related to Jesus and Mary. I covered all the important churches, the old spice mill, and the market in three hours. It's a cute town, and it attracts uber-religious Christians from all over - I saw Greek Orthodox, Russian Orthodox, Catholics, Protestants, Maronites, and Mennonites. They were all staying at my hostel, and they were all discussing the Bible. They also all assumed I was a religious Christian, and seemed very surprised to find out I was Jewish. At least I wasn't the only one stereotyping! That says a lot about the typical tourist to Nazareth - along with Bethlehem, it's probably one of the only places that sees more Christians than Jews.

Nazareth

Basilica of the Anunciation

inside the Greek Orthodox church - looking towards Mary's well

El-Babour spice mill

Fauzi Azur Inn - great place to stay, located in a 200 year old mansion

Haifa and Akko

Haifa is a nice city with gorgeous views of the Mediterranean, the most important Baha'i Temple in the world, and a huge port.  There wasn't much else to do, but that I had a great time anyway largely due to where I stayed.  I stayed at a hostel/hotel called the Port Inn which was cheap and in a great location. But the best part was the people I met. On my second day I was hanging out in the lobby, and within minutes I'd met about seven other Americans; we were all young, and all traveling on our own (which is fairly unusual). That afternoon we all bonded watching - get this - the Scripps Nationals Spelling Bee. I don't even know how or why we started watching, but soon we were all sucked in and trying to out-spell one another while the middle schoolers out-spelled us all.  I spent the next few days on and off hanging out with this group and had a blast.

 Baha'i Gardens

Haifa

While staying in Haifa, I went to Akko for a day. It's an ancient port town (today it's overshadowed by Haifa) that was attacked in turn by the Crusaders, Napoleon Bonaparte, and the British. Considering all the battles Akko has endured it's a wonder anything remains, but the old city is still largely intact and ready for tourists who flock there by the bus load.  I loved wandering around the Old City, getting lost in small alleys and exploring ancient buildings. Two of my favorite things were the British Prison Museum and the Crusader's Tunnel (it was only discovered in 1994 after someone complained their toilet was backed up). They were both many hundred years old (awesome) but unfortunately a lot of it looked quite new. That's the problem with restoration - Israel is obviously investing a lot of time and energy into restoring historic places, but sometimes they restore things so well that they look new.  This was particularly true of the prison - they were in the process of covering the old, authentic stone cells (cool!) with white cardboard walls (boring).  I also happened upon a group of local kids jumping off the city wall into the sea. It looked so fun, and the kids were clearly enjoying themselves.

old Akko

kids waiting to jump off the wall

jumping!

looks so fun

Crusaders Tunnel

British Prison

location of Napoleon's final assault on Akko 

Clean, Chop, Drink Coffee, Fix Stuff, Repeat.

That just about sums up my volunteer duties at the Hai Bar Wildlife Reserve. Seriously though, over the past month I've learned tons of new things: the eating habits and food preparation for 25 different animals, how to build habitats for mice, that roosters are quick little suckers that are almost impossible to catch, and the proper water temperature for bathing turtles, to name just a few.  While I doubt any of these new skills will help me find a job (since I don't want to work with animals), volunteering at the Hai Bar has been a truly unique experience.

A typical day for the volunteers started early (arriving at 7:30 AM), and right away we got to work cleaning all the animals' cages.  Once the animals were taken care of, we went back to the work area to prepare their food for the following day. Around 10 or 11 AM we had a coffee break where everyone would gather in the kitchen and chill for a while.  After the coffee break we were usually split up and assigned random tasks for the remainder of the day.  The work varied a lot but usually involved some sort of cleaning or repair work.  One of the more interesting things I got to do was observe the caracals (a member of the cat family) to see if they would mate.  The Hai Bar has one male and one female who are usually kept in separate cages, but apparently May is mating season so the staff would combine them for a few hours at a time to encourage procreation. They never got down to business while I was on watching duty, but apparently it did happen a few times.  Around 3:30 the volunteers were driven to the bus stop, and we'd arrive back at the kibbutz at 4 PM.   I generally spent the rest of the day lounging around the pool, working out, eating at the dining hall, and hanging around the kibbutz with the other volunteers. Some nights we were completely bored, other nights we found ways to entertain ourselves (making bonfires, playing soccer, drinking...). The weekends were spent travelling to other cities or relaxing and partying at the kibbutz bar.

In a few days I'll be continuing my travel adventures, leaving the Hai Bar and Kibbutz Grofit behind.  I know that working with animals isn't the type of work I want to do, nor is a kibbutz the type of place I want to live, but I'm thankful that I pushed myself to do something completely outside of my normal interests and I think I'm better for it.

Yalla! Let's go to Petra!

A few weeks ago I went to Petra with some of the other Hai Bar volunteers and had an awesome time. Petra is an incredible place; pictures just don't do it justice. The sheer scale of the buildings is stunning, and the fact that this was built over 1,000 years ago makes it even more impressive. We stayed in Wadi Musa, the town closest to Petra, which was geared towards tourists yet charming all the same. The first night I saw a sign for a turkish bath which everyone thought was a great idea...it turned into a very memorable group experience. All I can say is, if you have the chance to go to a turkish bath, do it. Just be prepared to be scrubbed by a nearly naked man and have water thrown unsuspectingly at you from all angles. We liked it so much that 3 out of the 4 of us went back the second night. I also had some of the best lamb kebab I've ever tasted, and great falafel too! 

on the road to Petra...Wadi Rum in the background

a few hours at the Turkish bath turned us into arabs

in Petra, walking through the Siq

Siq

Al Khazneh...amazing

donkey cooling off in one of the tombs along the Street of Facades

Urn Tomb

me in the Great Temple

the Monastery...climbed over 800 steps to see this

view from the highest point in Petra

Israel so far - in pictures

Tel Aviv

wandering around Old Jaffa

Old Jaffa at night

in the middle of the desert...waiting by the highway to get picked up by the Hai Bar staff

moving into our new apartment

view from the kibbutz

Pulau Tioman

I spent two amazing days  on Pulau Tioman (it was supposed to be three days but the tides screwed up my plans). The first day we went snorkeling in a bunch of different areas near the island. I got extremely burned, but only on my backside since I was face down the entire time. I couldn't figure out why I got so burned when I was reapplying sunscreen so often, and then I realized my sunscreen wasn't waterproof. Oops. Let the peeling begin!

paradise

snorkeling!

on the boat

The second day we hiked across the island to Juara Beach. It was a good five miles through the jungle, and I can honestly say that was the sweatiest I've ever been in my life. My clothes were completely soaked through, and I was still dripping sweat.  The jungle was so dense that the heat was completely trapped and there was no breeze at all (and very little light). Still, the hike was worth it. Juara is a beautiful beach, and we saw lots of animals along the way. 

view while hiking to Juara beach (this was after emerging from five miles of dense jungle terrain)

monitor lizard...these guys are all over the island

Juara Beach...South Pacific was filmed here. I can see why.

the requisite sunset photo

Pulau Tioman in the (very) early morning light