Trip Up North and an Israeli Wino

This weekend we had a nice touristy trip up north, witty dry tour guide and everything. It felt a lot like Seminar for the 2 days I was there. The trip was Friday morning-Sunday night but I had to leave Saturday night along with a bunch of other students in the BA program because of our Sunday classes. We left Friday morning, kinda early for students (7:30 am). We got on the bus, hoping to go back to sleep, it would be a long drive to our first stop, however sleep was not on the itinerary. Only lots of loud wakening music, including one of my favorites, and some not so pleasing, so much so, that I cant remember what they were. I love my brain's defense mechanisms, repress! repress! repress!... We had a little stop in a mall on the way, for bathrooms and breakfast (aka, aroma). I got very jealous when I saw their bread oven full of loaves at different stages of baking. It took all my self control not to buy a giant loaf of bread for myself. I got a chocolate croissant instead. I found a bookstore with a very limited english book section, full of mostly classics like Wizard of Oz, Jane Austen, Huckleberry Fin and 50 Shades of Grey...

We got to the Arbel Mountain soon after, the bus took us straight to the top and then it started raining. Foreshadowing? Perhaps. Our bus (two buses, two groups) sat in a circle, the older you get the harder it is to do, and did a quick ice breaker, your name and the story behind a scar. I had a hard time choosing which scar to use, the giant color changing one on my knee? the various oven burns from bread baking? oil burns from chicken frying? forehead scar from falling into the edge of my mom's falling cabinet when I was 5? None of those, they were old and overused, I wanted something a bit fresher, the scar on my eyelid from my bike crash, solid scar, fun story. Dodododo transition... We started hiking a bit around the tip, soaking in the view of the Kineret and the little towns nearby while simultaneously trying not to slip on the wet rocks beneath us. But its okay, we were totally safe as long as we had our hats and two liters of water. We started hiking down, now also watching out not to step in cow pies or goat crumbs (poop). It was a beautiful winding path, lots of rock scrambling and fun maneuvers and an even better constantly changing view. To add to the atmosphere, the Muslim town below us starts one of their daily prayers, blasted all over the tiny town via loudspeakers, even reaching us near the top of the mountain. As we get a quarter of the way down out of almost nowhere it essentially starts hailing. The rain is coming down hard and fast soaking everyone and everything while the winds are picking up and blowing peoples hats all over the place, always fun to race after your hat on a hike. This continues for at least half the hike downwards, maybe 5 minutes. It felt like one of those I can't believe this is happening so I'm just gonna smile moments. Most people were getting miserable but I found it exhilarating and I honestly didn't want it to stop. Unfortunately for me it did as we reached the bottom, just in time for a nice drenched lunch. Plenty of sandwiches, all labeled with stickers, I opted for the cheese and vegetable sandwich, what I got, both times, was just cheese and cucumber. The odds were not in my favor.
Will finish with another post when I get back later.