Trip Up North and an Israeli Wino Part 3

Oooohhh Agriculture

The next day we had a nice and early breakfast, as a means to make sure nobody would drink too much. I would say it was successful for most people, but for those it wasn't, you could tell. Made for a fun game at breakfast. I love Israeli breakfasts because there is always such a wide range of options to choose from. I even tried cottage cheese for the first time. I didn't feel as if I was missing out my whole life. As good as the breakfast was, the view of the sunrise over the Kineret was even better. No pictures, so you'll just have to trust me. We start our day with a nice hike by the El Al stream, "so clean you could drink it". But none of us do. We have 2 liters of water each, more than enough to get us through the day. Oh, and a hat. Two liters of water and a hat. Can't travel without them, but apparently we don't need a towel... We get back on the bus and then go to Bantal Mountain, very high up, luckily I had all my clothes in my backpack so I wasn't freezing. There was a vendor selling fruit and honey between the parking lot and the summit. There is also a ton of scrap metal artwork, including this giant dinosaur. However, I have to admit I took this picture about 5 years ago when I was on Seminar. The above picture was taken this year though.

Aaah 5 year old dinosaur picture

There was also a cafe at the top that felt a lot like a ski lodge, cold weather outside, wooden walls and warmth inside. It was just another reminder that Fall is happening back home and that I'm going to completely miss it and go straight to winter when I leave to travel in December. To compensate, I got a bottle of hard cider and a potato bureka. Perfect. We got back to the hotel where there was a shuttle van waiting for those who needed to get back Saturday night in time for Sunday class. Only one problem. There weren't enough seats. Some people decided they wanted to leave early and some forgot to register for the shuttle. The van is full and I'm waiting with one other person for another taxi because we don't want to sit on the tiny floor of this van for 3 hours. The taxi driver then says there is room for one more and he nudges me on. I get on, he closes the door and just starts driving. There are still two people standing putting their luggage and two seats, they tell me to sit. I do but it turns out there was no other seat, so one of the guys ends up sitting on the floor. I am so pissed at the taxi driver but he's not gonna turn around. We agree to take shifts sitting on the floor but we all actually end up falling asleep. I feel like I got off too easy this time, totally not foreshadowing right now... All in all it was a good trip. Now for the wino.

The Ramat Aviv mall is a fairly high end mall, very clean, lots of pricey clothing stores, cafes and an underground garage!!! But there are really a lot of high end clothing stores, some unisex, some not. I'm walking to my little bread stand and out of nowhere I see this rather big Israeli woman, looks like she's in her 60s if not older, wearing a ton of makeup and fairly fancy clothing, walking by a men's clothing store that had a little table in the doorway with a bottle of wine, two full wine glasses and a pamphlet. She has a slow approach, I can see her eyeing the wine and as she passes she casually lifts a glass and just accelerates the hell away from there. She knew exactly what she was doing and that she shouldn't be doing it but also she could care less. One of the workers walks out of the store and just has this I-can't-believe-she-just-did-that-face. He doesn't chase her but just stands there staring in disbelief. I assumed the wine was an incentive to hear some kind of pitch about who knows what. I realize now I should have seized the opportunity and taken the other glass. Too late, this happened about a week ago. I was truly in the perfect place at the perfect time seeing this unfold in a matter of seconds and catching the best little details.