Blogs from North District, Israel, Middle East

My buddy Alex Kolonaty and I visited Israel's most Northern cities located near the border of Lebanon. I am a new immigrant to Haifa,Israel from Western Colorado. Travel is wonderful in Israel. Many places of interest are within a two hour bus trip from my home. I can tour Nazareth, Jerusalem, and Acre in the same day! Public transportation is more than adequate and fairly low cost. It took us two hours to reach the nation's most Northern towns of Mettula and Kiryat Shmona which are a two hour trip from our homes in Haifa. The trip was along winding mountain highways. The view was grand, but I was surprised at the relative lack of vegetation. M... read more

I normally consider myself a hippy. I wear flowing, brightly colored clothing; I rarely shower or brush my hair; I give free hugs, and preach peace and love. But, when I’m in the presence of true hippies, it’s easy to see that I’m a different sort of hippy – one that shaves my armpits (even if it’s only once a week). This week, I joined a group of hairy-pitted, bare-footed, patchouli-scented hippies in a trek across northern Israel. I heard about Wander Gatherers through a CS host and the idea instantly appealed to me. As I understood it, we were to wander through the wilderness for four days with nothing more than water and a sleeping bag, in search of whatever food Mother Nature had to offer. Cameras, phones, watches, and technological advances beyond a butter ... read more

The run up to the January 12thTiberius Marathon began a couple of weeks earlier during our Hanukah road trip while camel riding near Shacharut in Israel’s southern deserts. At that time I learned an important and painful lesson about camel behavior: camels stand up back end first, then front end, such that if you don’t hold tight to the handlebar at the front of the saddle as the camel rises you’ll be thrown violently forward off the saddle and over the head and neck of the camel. The camel sits down in reverse order – front legs first, then hind legs – but the affect is the same. You are catapulted forward as the camel folds its front legs under its body. At the midway point of our camel trek, we stopped for a tea break. ... read more

After leaving the protest camp I got the train up north to meet my best Israeli brother 'Pheonix' who I met in Israel in 2009 but later also met him again in Morrocco and also hosted him in the spring/early summer of 2011 in England. I had for him some wire supplies I got in England special ones he couldnt find in Israel, for making jewllery, he makes amazing stuff. The train from tel aviv to Nahariyaa was 43 shequels, about 9 pound, not that bad a price I think to get to tel aviv to the north, (not sure on distance) so from nahariyya got a taxi to another small place and was from there picked up by pheonix and his friend (forgot his name) they were staying at a community called 'Adama' which is ... read more

Christianity is the world's most popular religion, with an estimate of 2.2 billion adherents. This religion has followers in virtually every country in the world, and its strongest growth is in developing nations. Christianity, Judaism, and Islam are the three major monotheistic faiths in the world. Christianity started about 2,000 years ago in the country of Judea, which is presently known as Israel. Israel had become a melting pot of various cultures, with many cities and farms. During that period, Rome had control over Israel and the Jewish people were subjugated and felt the need to seek freedom and independence. The Jews refused to accept the pagan ways of the Roman Empire. Many Jews believed the coming of the Messiah was their best hope for deliverance from Roman oppression and of course for spiritual salvation. Jesus ... read more

On Monday we took a trip to Tiberius on the sea of Galilee. The first place we went to was Ein Hod, a community of artists. This little village was built on a hill and was filled with galleries and museums of art, such as a special museum we went to that featured a style of art called DADA. We went to the Dada museum were we saw the works of Marcel Jenko one of the creators of this type of art, as well as several different artist's work. Then we went to a music box museum! The man who owns the museum is a really kind guy and showed us his enormous collection of old musical devises. He showed us his many Victrolas, player pianos and lots of old music boxes. He even let me ... read more