I know this will never fully compare to home in Corning, but it is incredibly nice to feel at home here in Jerusalem! The Sarriots have been kind enough to allow Brent and I to crash at their home for a few days as we finish up our week of free travel. It's more than I could have dreamed of! I would have been content with a bed, food, and a shower, but they piled on a computer, TV, plenty of books and movies, excellent homecooked food, laundry, and great company with a full load of laughs! I couldn't ask for anything more!
Free travel technically started on the 1st, but I, and most of the other EMU students, stayed at JUC so it hardly counts. The first day of real free travel was the 2nd. On that day 16 of us found ourselves in Istanbul! Now, it was a bit more planned than that, but we were all still a bit shocked when we finally got there! Exiting Israel was a tad bit difficult, but entering Turkey was no problem.
We stayed at the Golden Age Hotel near Taksim Square in Istanbul, about a 45 minute walk (once we learned the way) to the old city sites. Besides walking a whole lot, I didn't really do too much in the city. This week was more for relaxation than for tourism. Still, I made sure to go to the Hagia Sophia, Blue Mosque, Topkapi Palace, Archeological Museum, Grand Bazaar, and Spice Market.
Our first night in Istanbul provided a surprise! We could hear the sound for quite a distance, but no one could quite grasp what exactly we were hearing. Then we saw it! It was a gigantic football stadium, pounding as the fans cheered on their Basiktas team! We walked around 3/4 of the fence outside the stadium trying to get a peak in at the action, but were constantly pushed on by the hundreds of police officers lining the fence. (Funny thing: although we and dozens of other people couldn't watch the game through the fence, a lot of officers were ignoring the spectators and just watching the game through the fence. That must be a nice shift to have!)
On our second night 8 of us set out from our hotel to walk to Asia. After walking for 2 hours we had gone far enough to learn that walking across the bridge of the 2 contintents was actually illegal! Where's the fun in that? It wasn't a worthless trip though. We had a blast exploring the city and talking! The next day we took a ferry to Asia and had dinner there satisfying our bicontinental asperations.
Yesterday, we got up around 5:00am to catch our bus to the airport to fly back to Tel Aviv. Getting into Israel came with some difficulties, but in the end we all must have passed our short interrogations because we all made it in! It took a little work to find our hostel and it wasn't a real nice one, but it was right on the beach so the complaints were cut short. An afternoon on the beach for me meant the finishing of "Shadow of the Hegemon" for me. Overall, I'm not a huge fan of Tel Aviv. 10 of the EMU students are staying 2 more nights, but I feel much better in Jerusalem with Brent and the Sarriots.
So today was a day of travel. Bus to the Central Bus Station. Then bus to Jerusalem. Then taxi to the Aroma Cafe where Mrs. Sarriot picked us up to drive us to their home. After all that it was amazing to relax! I started reading "Eleven Minutes" by Paulo Coelho and watched 2 episodes of "Fawlty Towers" and "Gladiator" for the first time all the way through. I've also unlocked all the songs on my mp3 player that have been unplayable for the last 2 months because they were in a different format! Everything is going well here!!
How about some Spring break updates from home? Any good stories to tell?
Just came in from shoveling an inch of snow-slush off the sidewalks. Need to go to bed (mail route in 7 hrs), but had to check if there was anything from Daniel yet! There was! And since he might have some computer access for a bit, I'll email him some more pics (did the other day too) -- this time of his sis's early b-day celebration this evening (ham braid, presents, and a Netflix movie).
ReplyDeleteIt's been really good to have Rachel here for the week. I enjoy the company a lot. She even got to do a bit of subbing at Carter yesterday and today. We seem to get a snow/ice storm every couple of days with a melting day or so in between. Having Shane staying here has been good too - he's actually at PYC for the weekend. Good to hear from you. Love you lots.
ReplyDeleteI hear you actually got to talk to mom and dad and Rachel. I'm really jealous. I also hear that you plan on bringing me back to Israel with you sometime. Sounds like a good time. I have a few good stories from my Spring Break trip that I'll have to tell you eventually.
ReplyDeletehey not much is happening. just getting settled at your house. working, sleeping, hanging out with kevin, the usual normal stuff. I am excited about going to Louisana in April so I guess my update for you dude. Take care man.
ReplyDeleteI'm glad you could relax and get to meet my parents. They're pretty awesome. I must commend you on your music, movie and book choices although i have to say i was suprised to hear you're reading 11 mintues. I really liked it but it didn't strike me as your style.
ReplyDeleteSpring break was good- I went on a Ytrip to Delaware and then DC most of the time working with kids at an after school camp which gave me a far greater respect for teachers and made me realize i actually really like kids, who knew?