Safed, Zippori, Nazareth and Bet She'an

• Kristenmckersie's Profile
• About this blog
• Entry from Safed

Trip Start Jun 09, 2006 Previous
Entry Trip End Jul 28, 2006 Next
Entry

  Safed, Israel
Sunday, July 2, 2006

Shalom!

This weekend (mainly Friday), I had the most fun I have ever had since I have been here! We didn't do a whole lot, but I think I haven't laughed so hard in a long time. On Friday, Julye (my prof) took me, Evan, Matt and James to Safed, Zippori and Nazareth.

Safed was really cool because my grandma had lived in a part of the city for a little bit when she was younger. Grandma- the area was soooo beautiful! I could definitely see you being there. I was trying to get a whiff of the lemon trees, but, unfortunately, I didn't smell any. We walked through the Old City and got some amazing pizza.  I am so glad I was able to go there so I could see the place you have been talking about for so long, grandma.

Next, we drove to Zippori. However, this was after we took about 2 hours to get there because the car we were following (we went with another car of people) were nuts. To protect the identities of these people, I will call the driver The Lawyer, Boy #1 who mispronounces Arab and Arabic, Girl that carries her Water Bottle on her Head, and Camera Boy. FYI, the Israelis drive about 100 mph anywhere, cut you off and honk if you don't start moving when the red light is a few seconds away from turning green. So with The Lawyer driving, we had a lot of people honking and swerving around us. It's like the quote from the movie, The Body (yeah, that movie that I have asked about everyone to watch with me). "All you have to do is give Israelis cars and wait for the inevitable." In addition to the endless supply of sexual jokes I learned, Matt informed me of the true meaning of the letters in KFC (yes folks, they have KFCs in Israel). Apparently it means Kristen Farts Constantly. I don't know where he got that, but he sure doesn't know me well enough to be speaking from first hand experience. 

So, once we got to Zippori, we only had a half an hour before it closed to see as much of the site as we could. Zippori is a Tel, like Megiddo, and is famous for its mosaic tile floors. I have never seen so many! They can't even cover them all up to protect them because the whole park would have to be under some kind of covering. Also, in the pamphlet that I had seen before going to this site, there was a picture of what looked to be a huge Roman theater! Um....yeah. It wasn't. I would compare it to the Playhouse in the Park theater. No biggie though because the next day at Bet She'an made up for it (more to come about that later!).

For dinner, we drove into Nazareth. We weren't too far from the only major tourist attraction there (a church....I bet you could have guessed), but we couldn't go in anyway because it was too late. Interesting fact: Nazareth is mostly Christian and Arab. Sometimes Arab Christian. We found a good place to eat outside for din din, but James and I weren't hungry, so we got the ice cream. And it was Perfect! Scrumtralessent! By the way, the word "ice cream" does not transliterate well into a different language. I saw it spelled "ice craem," "ice creem" and "ice crem." And "crêpe" was spelled "crip" in one place. Giggle giggle.

Saturday, we went to Bet She'an and Bet Alpha REALLY early. Well, no, not REALLY early considering we were leaving at 7am and during the week we leave for the Tel at quarter to 5am. Bet She'an could have been one of the most amazing archaeological sites I have seen. It is an amazingly preserved Roman city. It has earlier cities under the Roman one, but the Roman one is too cool to dig underneath it. It has fully intact pillars lining two main streets that could have been built yesterday. Parts of the site show the destruction from the earthquake in 745 C.E. (or some date around that....maybe 769 or 768...I'll look it up later for you if you are really interested). The road is buckled and columns are toppled over in these sections of the city. They have bath houses and lavatoriums (potty rooms...and yes, they still have the seats....and yes, I sat on one for a picture). The theater is huge! And has great acoustics. Evan sang in it and got a round of applause for the tourist group. The one bad thing about Bet She'an was that it was extremely hot and humid. It's in a valley, so that's how it goes I guess. I'm not trying to be vulgar here, but my butt cheeks were even sweating. WOWEE. We spend about four hours at that one site. If you ever come to Israel, this place is a must see for shizzle.

Finally, we went to Bet Alpha. Not much here, but the one thing that is is amazing. This site has an almost perfectly preserved mosaic floor with depictions of the Ark of the Covenant, the (almost) sacrifice of Isaac and a Zodiac. The fact that there is a Zodiac is strange because this tile floor is in a synagogue.

So that was my weekend! Only 4 more weeks to go and 3 more weekends. Time flies for sure. Next weekend we are going back down to Jerusalem to see a few things and then to Qumran, the Dead Sea and En Gedi. I'm going to float in the Dead Sea like those sumo wrestlers that were in the Cinci Enquire. Hey Yo! I love and miss you all like an American in Israel loves and misses cheeseburgers and porkchops.

Ciao (that's not Hebrew),
Kristen

Slideshow Share

Post your own travel photos for friends and family More Pictures

04- Roman Temple in Bet She'an	05- James, Me and Evan overlooking Bet She'an	06- Me and my buddy Bet She'an	07- On the Roman toilet
08- Evan and I in the Roman Bath at Bet She'an	09- Me on the stage of the Theater in Bet She'an	10- Me dumping wheelbarrows on the edge of the Tel

Previous Entry Next Entry