Hair Raising Drive through the Mountains & Valley
Trip Start
Oct 26, 2010
1
13
21
Trip End
Nov 11, 2010
Where I stayed
Uncle Aria on Kibbutz Degania B
Akko (Acre), Northern District, Israel
Thursday, November 4, 2010
Akko was a fortress built in Medevil times by the Crusaders (Templars??).
It's a walled city modeled after Jerusalem. A fortress, a citadel, El-Jezzera Mosque, a shouk. It is an amazing old city discovered by the Phoenicians. Hey, it was Akko or Caesarea.
To get to the Kinneret, you have to drive through the mountains. I have never experienced such a scary drive in my life. I prayed, " please brakes don't fail me now!" I looked into my rear view mirror and I was astonished to see ten cars behind me and not one in front of me, and yet they are tailgating on this road. This is a two-way road but not big enough for buses. Yet they are coming the other way. Don't it make my blond hair grey?
We were very high up and your ears are popping as you descend and yes those ten cars are still behind me. Finally we hit a high way. A normal two lane highway. Poof. The ten cars dispersed.
We arrived in Tiberias at about two and we were famished. There was this cute little Chinese restaurant on the water that also served Thai and Sushi. You can't help but grin we you read their menus. I love the typos but at this point my battery was dead in my camera. I try to photograph them.
Under the drinks, they had Slashs. I asked the waiter "Yoni" what a Slash was. You know a Slashi. We all said you mean a slushi. A slushi?? We said in English to slash is to cut ex. knife. A slushi is when the ice melts, it becomes slush. Hence, the word slushi. Correct me if my explanation is wrong. I guess you had to have been there.
We sat right by the waters of the Kinneret (Sea of Gallilee) and were surrounded by the Golan Heights. The views were spectacular. To think, Jesus supposedly walked on these waters.
The night before Joelle blowdryed my hair and she blew the box. The adapter blew up and my computer was no more. It seemed to have killed my adapter and I wasn't using a converter. Yoni directed me to a computer store and he found me an adapter that would work on my garbage LG.
As you can see, we are up and running .
It's about four and now it's beginning to get dark. It gets dark by five here. We have to drive around the Kinneret to get to the Kibbutz. The street was extremely well lit. The fellow at the computer store set the GPS for us because I couldn't find our destination.
We call Uncle Aria (mom's bro) to meet us at the front gate. He arrives in a golf cart. He is adorable. The cutest thing. Just love him to pieces. He takes us to our room and by kibbutz standards, wow. Full kitchen, two bedrooms, livingroom, satellite, huge bathroom. Now their bathrooms. Everything is tiled because it is cool and easy to clean. The showers do not have anything to contain them. The shower has a curtain and a drain and the whole floor in that area gets wet. Then, they squeegy them down. It works.
We went to meet Auntie Yona. More food but I'm walking alot. (yeah right) Uncle Aria is this most amazing artist. He is 82 years old. He looks fabulous and he does everything from woodwork, to mosaics, stained glass, mirrors, clocks and menorahs, oh my!! His home is covered in all his work. The wood furniture all carved out (like they do in India). Now we know where Hagit and Ofra get it from. They too are artists. An amazing family.
We are finally in our room charging up ipods, computers and camera batteries for tomorrow. Plans are Lenie does Shabbot at Marcel's and I'm going back to Hagit since they are about 1/2 hour away from each other. There is a birthday party for my cousin's granddaughter who will be 8 years old. Then Saturday night, we are going to Avroms for a complete cousin get together.
By the way, what day is it?
