Hotel Arches Netanya

... second. What I didn't see was my friend (a girl) take a photo with the groom. This, apparently, is haram, or sinful. We also took our own pictures and videos of the reception. The sister of the groom freaked out; she tried to snatch my friend's camera from her hands, started yelling and arguing with our Gazan group leader (all this in Arabic of course), and causing a huge, Real Housewives of New York-type dramatic scene. It was our impression that this woman ...

... he could to roll the other person from his stomach onto his back. Easier than it sounds. We even had a royal rumble at the end, followed by a sprint up the sand dunes back to the base.



The trainers also gave us a stretching/yoga class, a devastating kickboxing class, a twenty-minute beach run, an hour-long off-road bike ride (where we saw a naked man farming), and a lesson in crav maga hand-to-hand combat. One morning, we learned and then simulated a ground assault ...

... sev**al oth** kind people who made sure that two oth** "tourists" and I got on the right trains in the right direction. It's not a t**ribly us**-friendly system. So I'm h**e at my hotel, ready to crash. I found my group easily and we had a sup**b dinn** and brief meeting. Tomorrow, I get to begin discov**ing this amazing place. Th**e is just a feel about this land. It's amazing. Tomorrow we have visits to the Diaspora Museum in Tel Aviv, to Jaffa, and to Caesarea. Should be fantastic.

... I am missing a little bit of real life on the streets, as the old harbour has been fully renovated and it only houses chick boutiques or art galleries. I do as well a day trip to Akko but it doesn't turn out to be as amazing as I expected may be because I have seen enough arab towns in the last four weeks. The best of my stay in Tel Aviv are the sun sets by the sea and its night life that one shouldn't miss if one happens to visit this city. One of ...

... to, as they used to often visit Yehuda's mother Freda (my great aunt) in Sydney until she recently made aliyah, and his son Ron has lived in Sydney for the last few years while studying and coaching krav maga. Yehuda is the coordinator of the Jerusalem metro currently under construction, running years behind schedule (it doesn't help when major artefacts are found each time there's digging), and with many lanes and streets closing while work's been done. My ...

... hotel right away. This allowed us time to tour Jaffa, the Mediterranean seaport of ancient Israel. Yuval Harat was our tour guide and a sweet gentleman we called "Bambi" was our bus driver. Our first and only stop in Jaffa offered us views of the old port and the place considered to be Simon the Tanner's house where ...

... and I was just unaware, but when you fly to Israel (and maybe other places), you have to go through a second security line at the gate. On the way to the gate, I had bought a bottle of water and a snack, and it was taken away. So annoying. The plane was completely full. It was a huge 777 and I think there were around 2-3 open seats on the entire thing. Luckily I had a window so was able to sleep a little bit. All of the annoucements on ...

... we left.    Lunch was going to be with some of their friends in the spice and nut market so back in the car we went and Eddie found another great parking spot!  The next part was to actually find this restaurant!  It had moved so there was a "tussle" as to where it had moved to but we found it. It was a Persian restaurant that tasted like I was back in Shiraz. There was sabzi, kebab, and the really good saffron rice with tart cherries/pomegranate ...

... this side of the Mediterranean Sea. I have so many sea shells from my youth, that I picked on the tropical beaches of Guadeloupe and later on on the Southern France beaches. These will join the others in one of the Mason jars that I use for display if not for proper canning. The number of shells on the beach is amazing: it's been a while since I saw so many on one single beach. Indeed, sometimes I joke that I must have been busy cleaning up the Narbonne, Gruissan ...

The Jewish nation has survived whilst the Egyptians, Greek, Roman and other great empires rose and fell. They survived through persecution, exile, and although only a fraction of a percentage of the worlds population, their contribution to all manner of fields from science to music is way out of proportion for their size. Many cite this as proof that we are the chosen people by God, and other supernatural ...