Postponing posts is not a great idea, lots of steam and details are lost when I do. :/ So we finished hiking down Arbel and were soaked. Tried to dry up during lunch, tried. We finish lunch and get back onto the bus one by one. The bus driver puts a towel for us to wipe our feet, after the first 5 people it wasn't exactly helping anymore, but hey, its the thought that counts. We had a short drive to the Kinneret Cemetery during which I spent the whole time trying to dry my feet and socks. Luckily I had all my clothing in my bagpack and was able to switch to a pair of dry socks. Probably a mistake because my shoes were still soaked. Oops. Our guide showed us a few gravestones and told us about the stories behind their respective owners. I've been there the other two times I was in Israel and in general, cemeteries are not at the top of my sight-seeing list; but I get it, it's one of the mandatory tourist destinations.
After that we go back to the hotel to nap and dry off before dinner. The layout of the hotel was more like a hedge maze, we needed to take two elevators and go through a few winding hallways before actually finding our rooms. We got into random groups of 3 per room. I got my lucky number, 117. I have to say, it felt very weird to be in a hotel as a guest after a whole summer of cleaning rooms. I couldn't even bring myself to mess up the neatly made sheets. Also, I knew that for Israeli taxis you don't tip, wasn't sure if it was the same for hotels and it seemed like nobody else was sure. There was no doubt in my mind that none of the other students would tip so I felt even more obligated and left 20 nis ($~6) tucked into a little note. I hope the housekeepers can read english... I eventually got over my housekeeper conditioning and crashed right to bed and slept for a couple hours. I wake up, look at the little hotel pamphlet to see if there is anything to do within the next couple hours before dinner. I notice they have a "fitness center" so I go but apparently I only have 10 minutes left to try every piece of antique fitness equipment. As I'm leaving the attendant is just sitting outside the "fitness center" smoking a cigarette, indoors by the way. At this point, it doesn't surprise me anymore. I continue walking around and find the "Breeze Terrace", one of the few places in the hotel without a misleading name. The view of the Kineret is great, as you can see yourself, albeit secondhand. I continue wandering around the hotel and find a different terrace from which to watch the sun set. An older Israeli woman came out while I was leaning over the terrace's railing and made some quip about me falling off. I told her I was just out there to watch the sky (this whole exchange was in hebrew by the way.) When I entered back into the building a little later, there she was struggling with her husband to lock the door, they asked for my help and we realized you can't use the key to lock the door, only to unlock it and that you have to lock it from the inside by pressing the little button, like bathroom doors in the states.
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| Breeze Terrace View #1 |
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| Breeze Terrace View #2 |
Dinner time comes around, everyone is showered and entering the dining room. I end up sitting next to a group of Polish exchange students and talk to the guy next to me about the usual stuff. It turns out he is a graduate student doing his thesis on the portrayal of war in Israeli cinema. This turns out to be perfect as I recently saw The Shining for the first time and couldn't stop talking about how good it was. Amazing. The dinner was great, lots of different entrees and tons of side dishes, three tables worth of side dishes to be exact. After dinner we loaded up on our buses for a twenty minute drive to a "Pub". Quotations are very useful when it comes to names of things in Israel as they (the names) must always be taken with a large grain of salt. A staggeringly large grain of salt. That's not to say this "pub" was a huge letdown, but other things which I will mention later are. I had a pretty good time, finally got my hands on some good whiskey, albeit at NYC prices, still worth it. I was kinda surprised at the amount of people outside smoking. It was a good time nonetheless, got to meet a lot of people.
This is getting lengthy. A three parter it is.
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| A Different Terrace View #1 |
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