The Holiest Place On Earth

The 12 day vacation, 5 of which were just spent getting out of morocco.

Oh man, where do I even begin with explaining my life-changing vacation to the Holy Land. This vacation started as a whirl-wind, even in the planning phases, and it did not disappoint. I have heard from many people about the "magic" of Israel and how lucky people feel when they are there, and Israel did not disappoint. It may have just been the 6 luckiest days of my life. Just when things seemed like they COULD NOT possibly work out, they did.

Lets start at the beginning. In the very beginning of August, my class was at our post training session (3 months after moving to our final homes) in Azrou. After a week and half of sitting in sessions, talking about technical strategies for project implementation and meeting with fellow volunteers my friend Jancy mentioned in passing her upcoming trip to Israel to meet her best friend's boyfriends family. Jessie and I didn't really think anything of it until Jancy suggested that we book some tickets and go. I think it was the combination of feeling a need to escape Morocco for a while and the spontaneity we had perfected since moving to Morocco 5 months earlier, whatever the reason, we booked our plane tickets that same day.

As it turns out, our friend Jancy went back to America for a little while to deal with some medical stuff and was unable to attend our little Israeli adventure. With Jancy went most of our solidified plans. No worries though, were Peace Corps volunteers and the lack of plans didn't scare us at all. Jessie booked a hostel in Tel Aviv and then before we knew it we were on the flight. We had managed to put together an extremely tentative schedule and fate took us the rest of the way.

The most ironic part of this journey was that I was technically on vacation for 12 days, but only 6 of them were actually spent out of country. I am sure I have posted this in the past but transportation in Morocco is difficult, to say the least. I also live about as far south as volunteers go, just north of the Sahara desert, which complicates things.

To make this easier, I have organized it into day long sections. Here is the rundown. The whole adventure started on September 2nd, 2010.

Day One: Tiffany, my closest volunteer (50 km away) came and visited to pick up some DVDs to keep her busy for a while and visit. About 2 p.m. I headed up to my "unofficial" city bus stop (so I don't have to sit in the market while men stare). I figured the bus would come around 2:30 but of course, I was wrong. Around 4 p.m. I was starting to get impatient because I was catching a 5 p.m. bus out of Tiznit. Thankfully (luckily) a cab showed up with an extra seat for me! When I got to Tiznit I caught the 5 p.m. bus towards Tafraoute. I took the 2+ hour unbelievably beautiful journey to get to my friend Sami and Dave's place. Thankfully they greeted me with delicious cookies, a good dinner and nice company. I also picked up their spare digital camera, the reason for me to make this journey.

Day Two: I woke up to a good cup of coffee and Dave making breakfast and then headed to the 9 am bus to Agadir. I got into good ole Agadir in time to catch a cab to the Marjane (Target-like store) and pick up some last minute supplies. From there I headed to Inezgane, the town next to Agadir, and caught the city bus to stay with my friend Trina. Trina graciously hosts me every time I am headed up north and need a place to crash for the night. I am eternally grateful for that 50dh she saves me :)

Day Three: I got up early and caught the city bus to the coach bus to Marrakech, just in time to catch the 1pm train from Marrakech to Rabat. The train is a great luxury the volunteers of the north get to use to travel. It is efficient, clean and most importantly ALWAYS on time. If the train is scheduled to leave at 1, it is pulling out of the station as the second hand moves from 12:59:59 to 1pm. I sincerely appreciate this fact. After 4.5 hours on the train I finally made it into Rabat and checked into the hotel. Jessie and I then started our search for food. Since it was Ramadan and most of the restaurants in Rabat had crazy hours, we went the one place we knew would be open, TGI Fridays. I was just as shocked as you when I found out Morocco had one. TGI fridays wasn't a place that I was particularly in love with back home, but here it is like a breath of fresh air. They have things like fountain soda, bacon and quesadillas. It is not the most delicious food ever but they have nice tables, free refills and lots of English speakers. Jessie and I enjoyed a nice meal and then headed back to the hotel to get some rest before our long adventure.




Day Four: We awoke early in the morning, paid our hotel bill and headed to the train station. Luckily the Rabat train station is about 50 steps from the front door of the hotel. We caught an early train (quite expensive, too) and headed to the airport. Many of you may be asking why we didn't stay in Casablanca, since that's where the airport is. Turns out Casablanca is quite a sketchy city and volunteers don't like to stay there, I trust them, so we didn't take the chance. We got to the airport in plenty of time, walked around for a while looking for the Air France check-in counter and then finally checked in. Little did we know that this Air France flight would set the mood for the whole trip. We grabbed our carry ons and headed to customs to get our passports stamped and get out of Morocco for a little while. The most ironic part of the rest of this story is that I was less than 10 feet from freedom the entire time. Jessie got her passport stamped quickly and was off behind security. I, on the other hand, had much more difficulty. There is something about me (at first I thought it was the blonde hair, but now its brown and nothing has changed) that Moroccan men find so inthralling that they must constantly ask for my hand in marriage. The man who was looking at my passport and Moroccan national identity card was asking me a bunch of questions about where I lived and what I did. The customs man who shared the booth with the man looking at my passport overheard that I was from the Souss region. Instantly the questions I expect before a marriage proposal started. Before I knew it, he was telling me how he had a great job and how I should marry him and come live with him in Casablanca. I was trying to be polite, but finally I was like "my Moroccan fiance would not be happy to hear you saying such things to me." He instantly backed off and away I went, finally. It figures that my last interaction with a Moroccan man ended in a marriage proposal. So is life, I guess. We got to our gate, enjoyed a way overpriced coffee and then boarded our flight to Paris. I don't even know where to begin with Air France. I think if more American's flew Air France, they would stop flying the rest of our terrible domestic carriers. Air France has nice seats, pleasant stewardesses, free meals and to top it all off, free booze. Yes, I drank a free Heineken on my flight to Paris. it was great and set the tone for the rest of the flight. We got to Paris, had a slight layover, enjoyed the airport and then boarded our evening flight to Tel Aviv. This flight was equally as great as the first with free blankets and pillows, another delicious meal, another couple of Heineken's and a few Friend's episodes. Great.

Late Night Day Four/ Early Morning Day Five: We arrived into Tel Aviv at 2 am. The airport was still busy and we headed straight to customs to grab our stuff and try and find transport to our hostel. Customs here was another adventure. Jessie, as usual, flew through, got her passport stamped and was off. I, on the other hand, was asked about 1,000 questions about my motives, travel plans, known contacts in Israel and then more questions on my life in Morocco. After about 10 minutes of questioning by the woman, she stamped my book and we were off. We got our bags and headed to the information counter where a nice Jewish boy gave us directions, maps and helped us with transport to our hostel. He told us to take the train, so we did. We bought our tickets from a machine, with the help of a woman who knew Hebrew, and waited about an hour for the train. We had a heck of a time reading the maps, but eventually got on a train and headed to downtown Tel Aviv. When we got off the train, it was almost 3:30 in the morning and we just started looking for a cab. At the little taxi stand no one could understand our American accent for the district we needed to be in. Finally a very heavily Hebrew accented lady decided to take us, as a charity case. After pronouncing the name of the street every way we knew how, she thought she had an idea of where the street was and we were off. She told us about how she used to be a police officer, told us about her family and her life in Tel Aviv. At the end of this somewhat exhausting journey we ended up in the right place. Thanks be to God. (As a side note, the name of the street was Elifilet. The Hebrew pronunciation takes out the "f" and adds a "p". Good thing to know for future reference). We got into the Hostel, headed to our bunks and hit the sack. After a hot shower, Jessie and I managed a solid 4 hours of sleep, not too bad at all.


Outside Yad Vashem (the Holocaust Museum)

Day Five: Not wanting to waste any of our very limited time in Israel, Jessie and I headed to the bus station to catch a bus to Jerusalem. This is where we got a real taste of Israeli life. Bagels everywhere, lots of security, 18 year old boys with automatic rifles and an organized transport system. This was WORLDS away from the place we had just come from and for those of you fellow PCV's out there, you will be shocked to know that when it was time to get on a bus, we formed a line and everyone got on one by one. It blew my mind after months of fighting tooth and nail as soon as the doors opened. The ride to Jerusalem was short, only an hour or so and quite beautiful.

Northern Israel was not at all like I expected in more ways than one, but especially in scenery. It is actually quite green, not the desert type I expected. Seeing trees was a welcome relief after my summer in the Sahara. When we arrived we got to the bus station and started the journey to find this Bed and Breakfast we wanted to stay at. We walked around for a little bit, got in a cab, got out of a cab and just as Jessie was about to call it quits, I walked the extra 50 feet and there it was, waiting for us, just around the block from the place we started the journey at. This little Bed and Breakfast was awesome and well worth the extra money, compared to a hostel in the Old City. We had homemade breakfast every morning, coffee and tea at all hours of the day, the cutest little rooms and the most helpful Israeli brother and sister to give us guidance on what to see and do. Jessie and I got to our room and then decided to check out Yad Vashem (the Holocaust Museum) before the free 2pm tour.


Outside Vad Vashem

We hopped on the nice clean city bus and we were on our way. Our luck was really on the up and up at this point. About 10 minutes into the ride, we see a girl sitting across from us on the bus, she looks like an American tourist, and then she asks us where we from. This was the start of a week long friendship that we made with Emily, which I would argue, defined our whole trip. Emily is the same age as Jessie and I but just graduated in May from Cal-poly with a degree in Biomedical Engineering. She was taking a 3 week long tour of the region starting in Greece, going to Turkey, then Israel and finally back to Greece. She just started her new job in San Francisco (congrats, by the way) and wanted one last adventure before settling into the working world. We hopped off the bus with our new friend and then walked to the museum. The museum is really difficult to put into words. I have visited a lot of Holocaust Museums and each one is different and special in their own way, this one had amazing scenery. It was located on a lot of acres, with different memorials all over the grounds. The museum itself is designed like a triangle and you zig zag your way through the information, displays and television screens. The basic information I knew, I have studied a lot of history and visited a lot of museums but I was particulary moved by two things in Yad Vashem, the multitude of personal testimonials on television screens throughout the museum and the final room, the books of all the names. The very last room in the building is a cylindrical room where you are standing elevated in the middle of it. The room has hundreds of black binders/ books with the names of every known Holocaust victim written in them. The shear volume of books is astonishing. I was really moved by that room.

After taking a walk around the grounds and snapping some photos, we headed back to the street to catch the bus to the Old City to check out this free tour we had heard so much about. When we got to Jaffa gate, we were not disappointed. Our tour guide was an American turned Israeli who knew just about every obscure fact about the Old City and its history as humanly possible, exactly perfect for a tour guide.

We started the 3 hour tour in the Armenian quarter, moved to the Jewish Quarter, visited the Western Wall (yes, I put my prayer in the wall), then moved into the Muslim Quarter (which looked shocking like the markets in Morocco) and we ended in the Christian Quarter. The greatest thing about the quarters is that they pretty accurately define what I would expect from each one. The Armenian quarter is walled and separated out, the Jewish quarter is mostly new buildings (because of the bombings) with clearly named streets and a certain "nice" feel to it, the Muslim quarter looked like most markets in Morocco; chaotic, full of energy and life, lots of little fruit juice vendors and everything was negotiable. The Christian Quarter had a certain pretentious feel to it, not too much going on, but lots of beautiful architecture and many little Christian shops.


In the old city, in front of the Dome of The Rock.

The tour ended at this little internet cafe. We sat down, grabbed some drinks and started talking about our plans for the rest of the week. There was only one other person there who hadn't been on the tour with us. As I walked past his computer, I noticed the Peace Corps Facebook "sticker" on his Facebook stage. I didn't know whether or not it was creepy to ask him if he was a PCV so I went over and asked Jessie. She confirmed it was creepy, but what the heck, I asked him anyway. Turns out his name is Jerry and he is a returned Peace Corps Volunteer from Macedonia. He was taking a little vacation before starting business school at Northwestern. This was just another lucky encounter. Then Emily, Jessie and I headed with Jerry to find his friends and grab some dinner. We got to explore a little of Jaffa Street and got some delicious beers at this little bar. From there we headed up Yafo and found this little falafel shop where we indulged in some delicious Israeli food! From there Jessie, Jerry and I headed to a hooka bar right on Yafo street, enjoyed some more drinks and then called it a night.


Day Six: We awoke, ate some delicious homemade breakfast and then waited for Emily to come over so we could catch a bus to the Dead Sea. Before hand I headed to the Central Bus station and explored a little bit. It was just like a mall. I was in total awe. I spent about 40 minutes at the pharmacy shop just looking at all of the cool things I could buy. Trips to Walgreens were never really a high point during my time in America but I was absolutely enthralled by this SuperPharm in Jerusalem. Most importantly, I found a hair clip that I have needed for quite some time. Both clips I brought from America broke and when when I went to find one in Morocco, they were terrible quality and expensive, a bad combination.

From the bus station we caught our bus to the Dead Sea. The second we stepped of the bus I knew we were at the lowest place in the world. The heat was staggering. It gets hot in my village, very hot, making the heat at the Dead Sea much more bearable than some of my fellow tourists making the visit. We headed to the bathrooms, threw on some sunscreen and the headed down to the water. I am glad that we made the visit for sure, but lets just say the salts in the Dead Sea burn. They burn just about everything on your body. We took a lot of photos, played around a little bit and then it was time to get out. The salts are just unbearable at times. It was cool to visit and even cooler to float, on top of water, but it was hot and burning. Two things that if gone, would have made the whole experience more enjoyable. From there we got an ice cream to celebrate and walked the 2km to Ein Getti national park. At first I was resistant to walk there in the heat but boy, the experience was worth it. Ein Getti is a paradise in the middle of the desert. We got our "student" discount and headed to the waterfalls. The crowning jewel of the park is the series of waterfalls within these huge cliffs. We didn't have to walk far at all to find them. The water was so clear and fresh, it felt so great compared the the salty heat of the Dead Sea. We played in the waterfalls for a couple of hours at least, each time making the hike a little bit higher up in elevation and finding another great pool of cold, refreshing water. After a few hours, we decided to head back to the entrance and find the bus. The entrance had a great little shop where we got a sandwich and another ice cream and then headed to find the bus. Thats the one thing about traveling, we were having so much fun during the day that eating slipped our minds until our bodies couldn't handle it anymore. Then it was time for ice cream.




Floating in the Dead Sea.


The road leading from the Dead Sea back to Jerusalem.


The waterfalls at Ein Getti National Park.

A little while later we got back into Jerusalem, headed back to our Bed and Breakfast, showered and ventured to the Old City, in search of some good food. On the way, we found a GAP, yes a regular old Gap, it was great. We met Emily at Jaffa Gate and then decided to do Armenian food for dinner. Prior to this trip, I had no idea what Armenian food was, but I was pleasantly surprised. It was pretty meat heavy with lots of flavors. It was such a change from the Moroccan food I am used to. The restaurant itself was decorated with lots of photos/ embelms of the Madonna. It was a neat place with a neat atmosphere and we even met an American couple from Florida at the table next to us. From there we headed back to the Gap, this time with Emily. I debated for a long time about purchasing a new sweatshirt, one which would have cost about 1/2 my monthly salary in Morocco. In the end, I walked away empty handed, but in the end it was okay.

From Gap we walked to the Coffee Bean and Tea Leaf we had seen on Jaffa street the day before. This was just one of the hundreds of awesome things that happened while we were in Israel. The Chai lattes we got were in big glass mugs and tasted amazing. Actually, I am not sure I have ever drank anything so delicious. This bloated review is probably stemming from my complete longing for all things Starbucks. Nescafe coffee just isn't cutting it these days, thankfully this Chai latte was amazing. After the delicious Chais we sat outside and enjoyed the Jerusalem night then headed back to the bed and breakfast, enjoyed a hot shower and some good sleep.




Enjoying Chai at the Coffee Bean in downtown Jerusalem.

Day Seven: I woke up early in the morning and caught the bus to the old city. Since it was Ramadan, the Dome of the Rock was only open from 8-10am and I wanted to make sure I got to see it while I was there. I visited the wailing wall again and then headed to the separate security entrance to get onto the Dome. I listened to some tour guide ahead of my provide some incorrect information about the celebration practices of Ramadan and got through the security fine. Listening to this tour guide gave me a lot of perspective about how much I have learned about Islam and the practice of it over the last months. It was kind of cool to feel "in the know". From there we walked up the old wooden ramp and onto the actual mount. It was cool to see all of the men coming in and out of the mosque and to get a perspective of the rest of Jerusalem from the hill. The actual temple was cool and shiny but sort of anti-climactic. While walking around I noticed a sign that was mostly worn out but stated some simple rules to follow to show respect while on the mount, none of which were being followed. One of the rules asked for decency in intimate acts, i.e. no hand holding, kissing, ect but the floods of European tourists were breaking all of the codes without even recognizing it. From the mount you could see the Jewish Cemetary and the Mount of Olives. The grounds of the temple were decorated with lots of trees and benches, it felt like a park. After about an hour of wandering around, I went to leave and found the Morocco gate which was cool and unexpected. I headed out and into the Muslim quarter. This is where I got lost.


The Dome of the Rock.


The Western (Wailing) Wall.

I had extraordinary plans to visit the Church of the Holy Seplecure and be able to spend some time walking around but frankly, its really hard to find. Pretty much every other item of interest in the old city has 100 signs leading you to it, not the Christian Quarter. They want you to find it yourself. After walking past the same shop like 5 times, I finally bought some little boy a juice and he walked me there. I spent about 2 hours walking around the church, listening to tour guides and taking pictures. It is a really hodge podge church built and controlled by a bunch of different sects of Christianity that can't decide on who really controls it. The church itself is quite gothic and dark but also full of some great sculptures and murals. Most of the people were concentrated around the center of this giant dome where they believe that Jesus actually died. I wandered around outside of that and found some great rooms with great architecture. It was pretty cool just to walk on ground that Jesus and his disciples walked on 2,100 years ago. After walking around, saying a few prayers and taking a lot of pictures, I headed to one of the shops to get some souvenirs I could take back with me.


Inside of the Church of the Holy Seplecure.

I found this great little Greek Orthodox shop run by this nice family and bought some crucifixes to send home. I also got some candles to go back and burn in the church but most of them crumbled and got all over my luggage, not a wise choice on my part. Sorry to my grandma, I was going to mail her the candles but they just didn't make the trip.

From there I headed to the Muslim Quarter to find the other main gate, Damascus Gate, to catch a bus to Bethlehem. Immediately as I started walking towards the gate I felt like I was back in Morocco right into the chaos of any old medina/ market area. People yelling, products everywhere, lots of God phrases blessing their mother and father and general chaos I expected. I found it a little bit reassuring. I finally found the gate and headed to find the bus. Unlike the Israeli run busses, there was no "bus stand" or even "bus times", just like in Morocco. I asked some guy and he told me bus 22 would take me to Bethlehem so I flagged down bus 22 in the middle of the road, thankfully the driver let me on and we were off. I knew it wasn't far to Bethlehem, after all people used to walk back and forth from there to Jerusalem but I didn't realize it would take 30+ minutes to go only 8km. The girl next me on the bus was an Arab girl whoswho's family lived in the Muslim Quarter of the Old City and she was studying Spanish at a University in Bethlehem. Thankfully she helped me get off at the right place. What I didn't realize was that the bus doesn't drop you off anywhere close to where you actually need to be. After haggling with a cab driver (I am getting good at this) and impressing him with my knowledge of God Phrases and arabic numbers, I got a fair price and a ride into Manger Square.

To be honest, Bethlehem is an anti-climactic place. I really wanted it to feel like a 2,000 year old small town with no room at the Inn. In reality its a Palestinian controlled terrority that is extremely developed and a little bit insane. The most redeeming quality is that the area where the Church of the Nativity is located is called Manger Square. When I got there I checked out the Bethlehem Peace Center, got some help and a map from a nice Christian lady and headed to Mary's Milk Grotto. It is a little chapel located near the church where Mary and Joseph hid out right after having baby Jesus. The rocks are all white because supposedly Mary spilled some of her milk there. It was a beautiful little place and worth the walk. I then stopped at a little shop and bought some post cards from this nice Palestinian Christian lady whom is stuck in the middle of the politics. She isn't Arab but still cannot leave Palestinian controlled terrorities, meaning she ha never visited Jerusalem, which is only 8km away from her home. Crazy.

Next I headed to quite possibly the ugliest church I have ever been too. I am usually not biased in this aspect and see redeeming qualities in all places of worship but this church was ugly. You walk through a little 1/2 door to get in and enter this dark dungeon type place with lots of gaudy lamps hanging from the ceiling. It doesn't look like a place you would want to attend mass in. I walked around, took some photos and then headed out. Next I visited the recommended tourist shop where they use real olive wood and hand carve a lot of different types of souvenirs. I watched a man hand carving ornaments so I knew it was legitimate. I got some ornaments for my family and friends and chatted with the owner about my life in Morocco. I thought a Christmas ornament from Bethlehem was only fitting :)

Then I decided to mail my post cards. I thought it would be cool to have some post cards mailed from the Palestenian Post Office so thats exactly what I did. Ironically enough, the post cards were also 1/2 the price of the ones I sent from Jerusalem. I sent one to myself and one to Claire and then headed back to find my way to Jerusalem.

What I didn't realize was just how difficult this was going to be. After asking about 20 people, I stumbled upon a new souvenir shop that had just opened. Thankfully, maybe luckily, the men who owned it were European Christians and extremely nice and helpful. After some cold water and a tour around their shop, I bought a cross and the owner arranged a cab for me from the shop to the border. Apparently most people take one of these shared cabs to some point and then walk to the border, I could not find these shared cabs. I can only image what a little family visiting Bethlehem would have done because I am at least a pretty resourceful traveler. Bethlehem was definitely not the most organized tourist city I have ever been too. It was awesome to go to though.


Manger Square.

The cab drove me to the border crossing which was quite an intimidating place. The wall is quite something. I imagine its a lot like the wall dividing East and West Germany during the Cold War but its quite an imposing object. An Israeli soldier did tell me that they haven't had a single suicide bomber since the completion of the wall near Jerusalem but the wall serves as a striking reminder that certain people are just not welcome on the other side. I walked through the Palestinian side of security and then made my way through the carnival ride style barriers to get into the Israeli side. I had my bag searched, they checked my passport, asked me a few questions and then I headed through the gates. I was the only person going through security, which was quite a strange feeling.


The wall.


The border crossing, on the Bethlehem side.

On the other side I caught a shared van back to Jerusalem. Once back I walked to this Chinease restaurant I had seen the other day, grabbed a delicious lunch and then met up with Emily and Jessie after their tour in the Old City. From there we headed to our Bed and Breakfast on the city bus. This particular day was the start of Rosh Hosanna so everyone was particulary on edge. These two older Israeli women sitting across from us on the bus got in fight over one ladies groceries occupying a seat the other woman wanted. Jessie and I just watched in shock as these ladies pushed and shoved each other over a seat. It was quite entertaining.

By this time it was around 3 pm and the busses had quit running so we caught a shared cab/ van back to Tel Aviv. When we got there we showered, got dressed up and met up with our friend Jerry and his friends. We grabbed souvenirs at this nice restaurant right on the water in northern Tel Aviv and then went out for a night on the town. We choose a bar close to our hostel and drank delicious beers and shots all night. I don't know if a beer has ever tasted so good. It felt great to be in a place that felt so "normal". I spend a lot of my last few years of college in situations just like that and I enjoyed the sense of familiarity. We had maybe just a little bit too much fun and then headed back to the hostel for a few hours of sleep before our next day of adventures.

Day Eight: After recovering from the night before, our friend Jerry, Jessie and I headed in Jerry's rental car to the most delicious breakfast I have ever had. It was at this little bagel place in Tel Aviv and boy was it yummy. We waited for Jerry's friends and then headed north to visit Affo and Haifa, about an hour and half north of Tel Aviv. The first place we visited was Affo. We visited the Bah'ai gardens which were beautiful and then headed to this old medina part of the city. We walked around and then grabbed lunch at this little Arab run place enjoying Hummus and lemonade. From there we drove south to Haifa and visited more Bah'ai gardens which were also beautiful. The further we climbed up the mountains of Haifa, the more beautiful it got. We got a great view of the Mediterrian sea and Haifa.

From there Jerry and Jessie wanted to visit the beach so we dropped them off and then Jerry's friend Ben, his sister Lily and I headed to find this colony of drewes people. They are Islamic people who serve in the Israeli military and have 2 main colonies in Israel, one of which is outside Haifa. It ended up taking us a while to find them but frankly it felt nice to just to ride around in a car for a while. I forgot how much I enjoy that. We got some traditional drewes snacks and some filaffel and headed back to the beach to get Jessie and Jerry.

Ben had a dinner set up with a TA he had in America and his wife at this place just north of Tel Aviv and invited us along. This was one of the coolest experiences we had in Tel Aviv. The man and his wife were so welcoming and informative. They answered all of our hundreds of questions about Israel so graciously. The little Italian place we ate at also had delicious food and one of those Dyson hand dryers that dries your hand with jets of air, it was quite cool and quite a change from Moroccan life. We didn't end dinner until quite late and then headed back to the hostel for a few hours of sleep.

Day nine (friday): Emily and I woke up early and headed to Nazareth. We weren't sure what the transportation situation would be like since everything was still closed for Rosh Hosanna and it was the last day of Ramadan. Luckily we found a shared cab/ van that was headed that way. We got in an out of 2 different vans a couple of times while the cab drivers fought over who would get to drive us. It was starting to get pretty ugly with lots of Arabic name calling then thankfully our nice cab driver just closed the door and we headed out.

Nazareth is a cool city that is technically Israeli but lots of Arabs live there. To prevent conflict the Jews built another city next to Nazareth called Nazareth Elite where they live and the Arabs live in Nazareth. Emily and I did some walking around to find some key things we wanted to see while we were there. Luckily in our adventure we found this restaurant that was highly recommended by all of the guide books. The food was amazing. That is not an understatement. Emily and I split a goat cheese, mint leaf, tomato and pine nut salad, some homemade whole grain bread and this amazing stuffed mushroom dish. To top it all off we had fresh squeezed lemonade. I still have dreams about how amazing that meal was. We contemplated ordering other dishes to go. I sort of wish we would have.

Luckily next door to the restaurant was the Sisters of St. Joseph Convent, one of the places I wanted to see. My great aunt, Sister Ruth, is a Sister of St. Joseph of Nazareth and I thought seeing the convent would be awesome. I knocked on the door for a while but no one answered. I did get a photo though so I guess that's good enough, after all I tried.

From there we walked the 20 feet to the Church of the Immaculate Conception towering over Nazareth. It is located on the exact spot where Catholic's believe that the Angel Gabriel came to Mary to announce her pregnancy with Jesus. Unlike Bethlehem, the church is unbelievably beautiful. There is a great statue of Mary, a beautiful chapel and many countries representation of Mary and Jesus all over the outside. I enjoyed walking around this place a great deal.

Directly next door is St. Joseph's church. This church is located on the site where Joseph's workshop was located. This quaint little church was also beautiful and there was a small service going on while we were there. These grounds were extremely well done and definitely worth the trip, even if we saw nothing else.

Outside the Sisters of St. Joseph Convent.


With Mary, outside the church.

From there we walked down the hill and grabbed some baklava from this great little sweets shop and then caught a cab to Nazareth Village. Nazareth Village is a place located directly next to the YMCA where a village was recreated to look like what it did during Jesus's time in Nazareth. This was a lucky visit for sure. When we got there, the ticket seller told us that they weren't expecting many tourists that day so the only tour was in Hebrew but if we wanted to, we could go on the tour for 1/2 price. Emily and I thought about it and then agreed, what the heck. Right as the tour starts, in walks some more people speaking English. As it turns out, in the tour of 20, 8 of us only spoke English. The ticket seller man was so nice and gave us an English tour, despite the fact that we paid half price. It was awesome.

The village was done really well and is built using methods and materials available 2,000 years ago. They even have period dressed actors to explain some facets of life B.C. The most ironic part of this entire visit was the relative closeness to my life in Morocco. The extensive use of donkeys, the herding of sheep and goats, the pressing of olive oil, the hand weaving of rugs and even the methods used to create houses are shocking similar to what is in use in modern day Morocco. Not a whole lot has changed in the last 2,000 years except the addition of electricity and satellite dishes. It was funny to be on a tour where petting a donkey and sheep were novelties. I enjoyed it a great deal.

This was again where the Israeli luck kicked in. There was a newly wed couple on our tour from D.C. who had mentioned that they too were going back to Tel Aviv tonight. Since it was Eid, I knew that we would have a hard time finding a shared taxi back and we would probably have to get one for ourselves. In the little gift shop area I asked them if they wanted to go in on a cab with us and is it turns out, they had a rental car and offered to take us back to Tel Aviv. This was great. We piled in their car and headed back to Tel Aviv talking the entire way about Morocco, Islam and life in Israel. It was great to talk to well-educated American Christians about their experiences in Israel and compare them to my experiences with Muslims in Morocco. I really enjoyed time with them. When they dropped us off at the hostel, we forced them to take some gas money and headed back to the hostel.

Emily really wanted to check out this impromptu drumming that happened on the beach in Tel Aviv so we got dressed and headed out. It was awesome to walk along the beach at night and feel the cool ocean air while seeing the lights of Tel Aviv. It was such a change of pace from Morocco. There was even a street vendor selling corn near the beach, so I got some and it was amazing. We checked out the drummers and then headed back to the district near our hostel and grabbed dinner at this great little restaurant with a DJ. Emily and I split a burger and Jessie, Emily and I split a delicious salad. From there we walked down the street and found a coffee bar and got one last Chai latte. Delicious.

Day ten (saturday): This was our last day in Israel and even though it was the sabbath and everything was going to be closed, I wanted to walk around downtown Tel Aviv and look for a grocery store to pick up some food I cannot get in Morocco. I ended up walking for about an hour until I found this great little cafe that was open and serving food. I ordered this mexican chicken tortilla and it was delicious. Oh how I miss food with such vibrant flavors. In reality I was headed back to that place we had visited before Haifa but it was another 20 minutes of walking, at least, and after an hour of walking, I was ready for some food.

After breakfast sitting outside at that great cafe I headed to the AM:PM, a city market in downtown Tel Aviv. This is where I hit the jackpot. I bought all kinds of food I cannot get in Morocco and then lugged it the hour walk back to my hostel. I got organic oats, whole wheat pasta, regular yellow mustard, licorice, Craisins and maple syrup. I will get judged for this later on, just wait.

When I got back to the hostel, Jessie and I packed our things, paid and then headed out to catch a cab with a French girl who was leaving on the same Air France flight as us back to Paris. We knew to get to the airport with lots of time to get through security, but I had no idea it would take as long as it did.

At the airport we found our check-in point and started the security process, which you go through before you even check in. The man who checked Jessie and I's passports was suspicious to begin with but it would get much worse. He asked us a lot of questions about Morocco, our jobs there and where we lived. After about 15 minutes of questions he let us through where our bags were scanned by a huge machine. From there we had to take our bags to this little stand where security opened our bags and looked through them, swabbing for bomb residue, ect. Jessie's process for this took about 15 minutes. Mine took like 2 hours.

For whatever reason, my passport was flagged and I was chosen to be completely searched. When I say completely, that is exactly what I mean. Every single thing in my pack was taken out, sorted and scanned, a couple of times. This included my earrings, bobby pins and the rest of the tiny items in my bag. Anything that was in another bag was dumped, thus defeating the purpose of putting in in a smaller bag to begin with. My organizational system was shot.

After they removed everything from my pack they took me to a back room and searched me. From there I got 20 questions about Morocco, again. I explained all about Peace Corps, my village, my job, my friends in the village, ect. After 15-20 minutes of searching and questioning, I got back to my pack's things spread ALL OVER the place. By this point, I had about 40 minutes before my flight so one of the security ladies checked me in while I finished putting everything back into my pack. This is where the food questioning started. The people at security couldn't understand why I had bought spaghetti and oats. I explained and they just laughed. I don't think they appreciated how good maple syrup is for the soul.

After I miraculously got everything back into my pack, they told me I had to carry all of my electronics on with me, meaning that my light purse became extremely heavy, extremely fast.

After I was done getting everything checked we took my bag to this special elevator and headed through the employee security check just in time to catch the boarding call for our flight. I was pretty frazzled from having all my stuff searched and being questioned so many times, so I gabbed a coffee to calm my nerves.

The Air France flight was as great as the first time and before we knew it, we were landing in Paris.

The way our flight was scheduled, we had a 10 hour layover in Paris and Jessie and I decided to try and get into downtown during those hours before heading back to Morocco. I had never been to Paris, so I was really excited. Luckily, again, as we were asking Air France about the logistics of leaving the airport, we met 3 fellow Americans from San Fransciso who had a similar situation and wanted to head into downtown too. We grabbed a cab and headed in. It was extremely nice to have them to grab a cab instead of fighting public transit at 10 pm and as company for the next few hours. The cab dropped us off at the Eiffel tower which was awesome. We caught the last tram up to the middle level and got an awesome view of Paris at night. Lots of couples in love, which I really enjoyed. They also do an hourly light flash show which we got to see from up high and from on the ground, it was awesome. I just loved being up in the tower at night in Paris, it was really unreal.

From there we walked around, grabbed some food, checked out the Arc de Triumph, walked the Champs De Elysee and enjoyed Paris at night, which is much different than Morocco at night. Much less scary. I really enjoyed walking around Paris and the people we were with were extremely interesting to talk to. Around 2am, Jessie was exhausted and we went into this 800 euro a night hotel to ask them to call a cab. I am sure they could see through my "dirty bled kid" facade, but the lady graciously did it for us. When we got back to the airport we realized that security didn't open until 6am, meaning we were sleeping the lobby. One of the guys we were with grabbed a cardboard box and divided it up so we didn't have to sleep on the cold floor.

Jessie and I are Peace Corps volunteers after all, so sleeping on the floor was no big deal, but it was funny to watch these professional adults crashing on the floor of the Paris airport. We got about 4 hours of sleep and then woke up just in time to get through security and grab a soda before our flight. The flight to Morocco is fast, only a couple of hours so before we even realized it, we were back in Morocco.

Day Eleven: We got into Morocco around 9:00am and then caught our respective trains back towards home. The train to Marrakech was extremely enjoyable because no one was on it and it was cool, since it was still morning. I got to sleep a good deal which was nice. From Kech I grabbed some chicken at KFC, one of the few dining options at the train station and then caught the bus to Agadir. These nice ladies from Scotland were headed to Agadir for vacation so I gave them some tips and caught a few more hours of sleep. By the time we got to Agadir it was dark so instead of heading to Trina's site outside Agadir, I just caught a cab to a hotel in Agadir and crashed.

Day Twelve: After about 12 hours of sleep, I got up and grabbed breakfast at my favorite cafe in Agadir and then cabbed it back to Tiznit and back to my village.

All-in-all it was an amazing and surreal trip. There are not many times in my life where I will get an opportunity to travel to places like Israel so I am extremely grateful that I got to go. It was a great chance to escape life in Morocco and enter a reality to feels more familiar and comfortable. It was reassuring to my self-confidence and self-esteem to be in a place where English is spoken and understood, where I could ask for help and express my thoughts clearly and completely, where I could enjoy a beer or a chai latte at my leisure and where it was normal to blend in. The week of escaping life in a fish-bowl was much needed and deserved after many months of being the weird kid. It was nice to feel anonymous. I also enjoyed the fact that we got to meet so many people and have so many great conversations.

On my trip there I learned a lot about life in the region as well as the human perspective of both. If the Peace Corps has taught me anything, it has taught me to look at the human element when traveling, to be able to see past the tourist sector and into what life is like.

I am also extremely grateful to be able to put a picture with the name of a place. Now when i hear of Jerusalem, I do not have to think of it in the abstract but rather as a place.

I apologize that this took a month to write down and post, but there was a lot to cover :) Thanks for letting me share my story with all of you!