חופש חנוכה | Chanukkah Vacation

We had a week off from volunteering (schools were closed) for Chanukkah, and a bunch of us decided to take a road trip! We rented a car (a minivan so we could fit baggage for five people) and drove down to the Dead Sea, then on to Jerusalem and then Tel Aviv and Yafo (Jaffa). It was a bit stressful and we were all glad to be home at the end of the week, but it was a decent trip.

Day 1 (Dec. 13)
Emily and I took the train to Lev haMifratz to pick up the rental car from Budget. We drove back up to Yechiam to pick up Sara, Talia, and Jackie, and headed out for a long drive. We stopped in Tiberias (טבריה) for lunch before heading down Highway 90 to the Dead Sea. At 480 km, Highway 90 is Israel's longest road, running along the eastern border of Israel, from Metula in the north to Eilat in the south. (Yes, I know that's only interesting to nerds like me.) We got to Ein Gedi at 2:58, just in time to get in before they closed the entrance at 3, but the group decided to wait until the next day to explore the park, so we would have more than the hour left before it closed. After that, we went across the street to Ein Gedi Beach to go swimming (or more accurately, floating) in the Dead Sea. Then we drove further south to Ein Bokek, where all the Dead Sea hotels are located, and we had our first of many meals at an Aroma. For that night, we stayed in a Bedouin tent at Metzoke Dragot, actually located on the Palestinian side of the Green Line, but in "Area C," meaning full Israeli control. Metzoke Dragot is located on the side of a mountain, which made for some amazing views in the morning. (When we got there it was already dark out.)

Day 2 (Dec. 14)
We left Metzoke Dragot early in the morning to beat the crowds to Ein Gedi. (They told us that a group of 1000 students would be coming in the morning too.) We got there right when it opened at 8, and it turned out that we only needed an hour anyway, so we could have done it the previous afternoon and gone directly to Jerusalem in the morning, which was the original plan. But anyway, since we got there so early, it was quiet and we got to see a bunch of ibex and rock hyrax before people scared them away. After Ein Gedi, we drove to Jerusalem. The original plan was to drive to Yad Vashem and then drop off the car later, but I realized that we were nearing the maximum mileage (kilometer-age?) on the rental, so we had to drop it off first and then go to Yad Vashem by bus. Major fiasco. On the way to Jerusalem, we stopped to get gas and there was a guy offering camel rides at the gas station! By the way, gas here is ridiculously expensive: I paid ₪6.63 per liter, which works out to about $6.59 per gallon. Holy crap. So we got to Jerusalem, and although the car rental place sucked at giving directions over the phone, we found it. We checked into our hostel, the New Swedish Hostel in the Old City, and then I returned the car. After a little while, we tried to make our way to Yad Vashem, but we got as far as the Central Bus Station (the first of many visits) before realizing that we didn't have time to get there before it closed.

Day 3 (Dec. 15)
On Tuesday, we went to Yad Vashem, the Israeli Holocaust memorial museum. I won't go into detail, but I think it suffices to say that we spend over four hours there. The exhibits there are amazing, much more meaningful than the U.S. Holocaust Museum in Washington, in my opinion. That night, we went to Kikar Tzion (Zion Square) and explored the famous Ben Yehuda Street, and met up some other friends from our program at a pub that played an odd mix of 70s, 80s, and 90s music. Have you ever heard the Macarena played at a bar? Me neither, until that night!

Day 4 (Dec. 16)
We spent a fair portion of the next day exploring the Old City. We made the obligatory visit to the Kotel and wandered around the Jewish Quarter for a while. That afternoon, we went to the Mahane Yehuda Shuq (שוק מחנה יהודה) for a little while, and then Sara, Emily, and I went to see Where the Wild Things Are. Later, we got ice cream to celebrate Emily's birthday.

Day 5 (Dec. 17)
On Thursday, we made our way to Tel Aviv by bus, and then to Yafo to check into our hostel. We stayed at the Old Jaffa Hostel, which I highly recommend. The room was huge and it had a balcony with a nice view of the streets below. We wandered around the shuq in Yafo for a little while, and then walked to Allenby, one of the main streets in Tel Aviv. We met up with a bunch of other people from our program and went out for dinner to celebrate Sara's birthday, and then out for drinks to celebrate both Sara and Emily's birthdays. At the club, we met up with almost our entire group.

Day 6 (Dec. 18)
The next day, we had planned to visit the Carmel Shuq (שוק הכרמל) in Tel Aviv, but it was pouring rain, so we went directly to the train station and went back early to Nahariya, all of us getting soaked in the process.

I have lots of pictures from the trip posted here.