Our journey starts off on a bus ride to Kiryat Shmona to see Jeremy, my roommate from Part I in Ashkelon. On Egged (the main bus company in Israel), that trip takes a little over 2 hours and 60.6 miles. By the way, I decided to be dumb and go for one of the last buses before Shabbat, so I had to sit and wait at the junction for about 40 minutes before a bus finally showed up. Upon reaching KShmo (as we OTZMAniks lovingly call it), Jeremy and I went to have dinner with his adoptive family. Now, I’ve been to families that speak nothing but Hebrew. And I’ve been to families that serve insane amounts of food for meals. And I’ve even been to families that have both of those traits (they tend to go together). But this family… on top of the massive amounts of food, and on top of nothing but Hebrew, they were just REALLY, REALLY LOUD. 3 teenage daughters. Oh dear. Actually, it was a lot of fun – the family was really nice, and it was a good chance to practice my Hebrew. The best part was the grandpa, who basically sat there bundled up in a blanket, randomly spouting off in Hebrew about how the girls should show more respect to their parents.
The next day, Jeremy’s roommate Yael joined us for what KShmoers do best – a hike! Sadly, my camera’s battery died about 30 seconds in, so no pictures. But during our Shabbat jaunt, I decided that KShmo has to be one of the most gorgeous places in all of Israel. For starters, you have a perfect view of Mt. Hermon, which is currently covered in snow. (Sidebar: I miss snow. Everyone in the midst of a gigantic blizzard, feel free to throw snowballs at me and curse my name.) Then, the scenery of the place just can’t be described… here’s a random picture I found online to give you an idea.
(Presented without comment.)I’ll admit I’m not the biggest fan of hiking in the world, but we had a great time. Something I learned – Americans don’t know how to picnic. When we go on picnics, we pretty much stick to sandwiches and maybe some cole slaw. For our picnic here, we had schnitzel, salad, potatoes… an actual meal. We should all get on that one back home, k?
Anyway, the hike was the highlight of the trip – the rest of it was fun, but nothing particularly bloggable. (Sidebar: Is that a word? It is now!) So, on Sunday, I jumped on a bus back (60.6 miles, 121.2 miles total) and really started in on my trip. After heading to baseball practice back in Yokne’am, it was time to head down to Kiryat Gat for the OTZMA Super Bowl party. If you don’t know (and why would you?), Kiryat Gat is Chicago’s sister city and is down south, near Ashkelon. So, I took a bus to nearby Haifa (12.5 miles, 133.7 miles total), and then started my 2 and a half hour train ride down south (about 102.5 miles, bringing us to 236.2 miles). Man, that was really fun and not at all boring!
When I finally arrived as the only northerner at the party, I was amazed at how big the Kiryat Gat house was. Seriously, they have one more person than us, and their kitchen has more cabinet space than most of us have for our clothes! But anyway… there was a pretty good crowd there, and it was a lot of fun. When I got there at 11:15 PM, we still had about 2 hours until game time! Despite the late start, we kept ourselves entertained, and it was good as always being back with everyone.
Sadly, no commercials, but we got to see the whole game on ESPN. I thought it was a good game with one of the best coaching jobs ever – Sean Payton clearly realized they weren’t going to win without taking some chances, and he made some of the gutsiest calls you’ll ever see in a football game. Plus, I don’t get how any neutral fan wouldn’t root for the Saints in this game. Did you see any of the footage of New Orleans after the game? Easily one of your most feel-good Super Bowl champions ever. And the ’01 Patriots don’t count. Screw them.
(Some tired OTZMA football fans.)So once the game ended at 4:30 AM, we had about an hour to kill before buses started running. There was no way I was making it back to Yokne’am in time to volunteer (I worked last Friday to make up for it), so I figured I might as well go with Allie to Netivot for a few hours. After a detour through Ashkelon, we made it to Netivot (37.7 miles, 273.9 miles total), where I crashed the second my head hit a pillow. You try watching a football game at 1:30 AM. After a power nap and lunch with Allie, I boarded a bus back home. Now, the bus to Tel Aviv from Netivot goes in a bizarre route, so I really don’t know how far we went, but a direct trip would have been 52.2 miles, with a total of 326.1 miles. Finally, I jumped on a bus ride from Tel Aviv back to Yokne’am, a 53.3 mile bus ride. So to recap…
Yokne’am to Kiryat Shmona: 60.6 miles
Kiryat Shmona to Yokne’am: 60.6 miles
Yokne’am to Haifa: 12.5 miles
Haifa to Kiryat Gat: 102.5 miles
Kiryat Gat to Netivot via Ashkelon: 37.7 miles
Netivot to Tel Aviv: 52.2 miles
Tel Aviv to Yokne’am: 53.3 miles
Bringing us to a grand total of 379.4 miles and a very tired OTZMAnik. Ah, the prices we pay to see our friends.
No comments:
Post a Comment