Arrival : Israel Part I

Tel Aviv, IL
November 3-10, 2012

I arrived to Israel at about 5 in the morning anxiously a waiting customs and what hoops I'd have to jump through there as well. As it turned out, customs wasn't anything to worry about, I just got my passport stamped and I was on my way. I retrieved my suitcases and searched for the exit, and the icon depicting a train. I found an ATM to take out some cash and I bought a train ticket to the location my girlfriend gave me, which was 'Tel Aviv Hahaganah'. I got to my stop, and stumbled my way through some broken conversations to find out the next trains number was and where it was going. I was getting off at the first stop in Be'er Sheva, North University Station, where the school dorms were. I dropped off some of my belongings and we took the train back to Port Haifa. Port Haifa was the city where we were going to meet up with my girlfriends parents. 

This picture is fromm our first lunch together in Israel in Port Haifa. I got a Veal Shawarma Fattoush with  Limonana. It was the Winter months in Israel and I was still in a T-Shirt. I arrived to Israel in the midst of some serious tension between Israel and a Palestinian terrorist organization operating in Gaza. We tried to stay up North during our travels, because Gaza is closer to Southern Israel, which is where the majority of the rockets hit.

This is a picture of me with my camera at a beach on the coast in Haifa. This beach was one of the first places we visited in Israel, the water was so clear, the rocks were porous and textured, and the sun felt great! I left London in the fall when it was freezing and came to Israel in the Winter and the weather is phenomenal.

This is a picture of my girlfriend and I in Bet She'an. My girlfriend is studying abroad in Israel. We hiked up a historical plateau in Bet She'an that was the place where of a plethora of civilizations have been built.

This is a pictures of my girlfriend, her family, and I in on the highest point of Bet She'an.

This is a passage into a chamber in Herod's Palace in Caesarea Maritima.

Herod also known as Herod the Great was a Roman client king of Judea. His epithet of "the Great" is widely disputed as he is described as "a madman who murdered his own family and a great many rabbis."The Romans made Herod's son Herod Archelaus ethnarch of Judea, Samaria, and Idumea from 4 BCE to 6 CE. He is also known for his colossal building projects in Jerusalem and elsewhere, including his expansion of the Second Temple in Jerusalem (sometimes referred to as Herod's Temple) and the construction of the port at Caesarea Maritima.

 Here is another chamber weaving through the chambers at Herod's Palace in  Caesarea Maritima.

 This is an archway within the chariot grounds in Herod's Palace in  Caesarea Maritima.

This picture is from a jeep ride along the Golan Heights, which is on the border of Syria.

Map of the Israeli border in relation to Syria.

This is my girlfriend and me at The Western Wall, or The Wailing Wall, in Jerusalem.

Israel is such a beautiful and exciting place. It is no wonder the people of Israel put their lives on the line everyday and stand up for their freedom.