Hod HaSharon, Israel, Asia I woke up with a pretty awful sinus cold this morning and didn’t feel up for doing anything. I ended up spending the whole day in bed either napping or watching movies on my laptop. I think it was exactly what I needed. Pnina was nice enough to bring over some cold medication and pita breads for me. That saw me through the day and then I went out for dinner. Mark and Dikla treated Lee…
Hod HaSharon, Israel, Asia Wow! Today was amazing! It started with what felt like a late wake up call at 7:30am. We had a great breakfast at the Park Hotel which consisted of eggs, cheeses, cereals, yogurts and fruits, but no meat. Because we were in Jerusalem, no places can mix dairy and meat. You can only have one or the other at a restaurant. We checked out of our room and ended up waiting in the lobby for almost…
Jerusalem, Israel, Asia Today was by far the busiest day we’ve had so far. It started with a 5:30am wakeup call to get ready for our tour. We were out of the house by 6:15am and Dorita drove us over to Hyrzliya for our pickup. Our bus driver showed up a few minutes late, but nothing drastic. We got to our meeting place in Tel Aviv where we picked up the rest of our group. We took a drive to…
Ra’anana, Israel, Asia Today started with an early rise to get ready for our big day up north. Pnina and Marta picked Lee and I up from Gillad’s house at 7:30am and we hit the road. We first visited the kibbutz where Pnina and Marta grew up, along with the rest of their family. It is quite a small community now (they think there are only about 300 people still there), but you can tell that it used to be…
Hod HaSharon, Israel, Asia I dozed for about an hour on the flight to Tel Aviv, but was a little too excited to actually sleep. Our flight went as planned (except for the worst airplane food I’ve had since about 1994). We arrived on time at Ben Gurion airport and immigration and customs could not have gone smoother. The three of us went to the immigration counter together and the guy did not ask us one question. I made sure…
Beijing, China, Asia Today was my last full day in Beijing, and in Asia. I figured I should get out and see one more sight before going back so I visited the Summer Palace. It’s about 45 minutes outside of the city by metro, but pretty easy to find. I’ve gotten the knack of travelling around these cities now, so finding something this big was no problem. The Palace really is huge! It’s full of gardens and parks, sprinkled with…
Beijing, China, Asia I got to see the Great Wall today, and it has totally saved my trip to China. It was incredible! It started out with a way-too-early wake up call of 5am, and the driver was at the hostel to pick me up at exactly 6am. The whole day trip cost 270 yuan ($42) and that included transportation, entrance to the wall, breakfast and lunch. The breakfast was an underwhelming start with a McDonald’s sausage mcmuffin and a…
Beijing, China, Asia I got to see a bit more of the city today, and had some pretty decent weather to do it in. I woke up at 7am so Aleeda and I could head out to the Forbidden City when it opened at 8:30am. We were among the first people inside, and there was hardly a queue to get tickets. It worked out really well because we could see what we wanted to see without too much hassle of…
Beijing, China, Asia I had a good night sleep last night and got to sleep quite late as well. I got up to watch the Patriots play against the Giants, and lose. It brought back memories of the 2008 Super Bowl, not a great start to the morning. I grabbed some breakfast at the hostel and decided that today I would go see Tiananmen Square. Our hostel is just down the road from the square, so I headed out and…
Beijing, China, Asia I woke up this morning after a pretty decent night’s sleep. What a difference it makes having decent roommates that actually give some consideration to those people around them. I met the four girls I’m sharing a dorm with Aleeda (Estonian), Magda (Swedish), Yen and Nicole (American). The girls invited me along to check out a market in Jinsong, so I decided to tag along. We met up with Yen’s friend Brian who lives here in Beijing…