OK, I've been slacking off on the blog. I'm trying to focus on research to get as far as I can in the PhD before we leave Israel in August 2010. I was also in Germany for 11 days in April.
On Wednesday, April 15th, I flew to Germany to visit friends, and most importantly, attend an international Stefan Zweig conference co-organized by my PhD advisor along with another Dr. from the university in Potsdam. What followed was an exhausting yet rejuvenating 11 1/2 days. I took the train to Kaiserslautern when I arrived in Frankfurt, and spent 3 relaxing nights (Wednesday, Thursday, Friday) in Rodenbach, the village near Ramstein Air Base where I lived with my family from 1983 to 1986. Peter and Edith, the couple with whose son Marco, I went to kindergarten with, were wonderful hosts as usual. I also saw Heiner and Ilse, another couple who are good friends of my family's. It rained most of the time, but I was able to get a fair amount of Hebrew done and rest for a change.
On Saturday, April 18th, I took the train from Kaiserslautern to Augsburg to visit Sabine and her boyfriend "Sigi" (Sigfried). Sabine and I met during my junior year study abroad in Erlangen in 2000-01. On Sunday, they took me to the cloister of Oberschoenenfeld where some 21 nuns still reside, along with a restuarant, a religious-themed gift shop, and a beutiful 1700s era church. Also on the site is an 18th century recreation of a straw-roofed house. We also visited Sabine's parents nearby on their beautiful old farmhouse in the country.
On Sunday evening, April 19th, I left Augsburg for Erlangen, where I stayed the next 2 nights at Christina Hein's, one of the tutors from our junior year program and now the Director of the Erlangen Kalamazoo College exchange program. On Monday, I had lunch and chatted with "Mutti" Stark, Mom's host mother from her Kalamazoo College days at her retirement community, and had Kaffee und Kuchen with Christina, her friend Julia, and Britta (the other junior year tutor) and her 1 yr. old daughter Nerea in the afternoon. I also found time to visit Kaufland and pick up the requested varieties of chocolate and some Multivitaminsaft (juice) for the train the next day.
Tuesday morning, April 21st, I left on the train for Chemnitz to visit Nadine, her boyfriend Herbert, and Nadine's parents, Karin and Frank, who had invited me. Nadine and I worked together in the German Studies Center at BGU here in Israel, and her parents visited with her in February after the Gaza War ended. Tuesday afternoon, they took me to Miniwelt (Miniworld) in the countryside some 25 km. from Chemnitz. In the evening, we had an amazing variety of grilled meats for dinner and sat by a large fire in their backyard afterwords. Their backyard also had several fruit trees, as well as a sizable garden plot ready and waiting for planting.
Wednesday, April 22nd, after a large, late breakfast, we packed up and Karin drove Nadine and me to Berlin for the Zweig conference, where she also had a work related meeting Thursday afternoon. From 6 pm Wednesday evening until Friday at 4 pm, was one long series of lectures on Stefan Zweig. Thursday evening I took the subway almost an hour to the FU Berlin, where I checked out what resources the library there had on Zweig until the library closed at 22:00.
Friday afternoon, April 24th, I walked to the DDR Muesum (Deutsche Demokratische Republik... the former East Germany) across from the Berliner Dom on the Spree (pronounced Shpray...the "h" is intentional) before heading back to the hostel to get my stuff and walk the "15 minutes" (more like 30) to the Berlin Hauptbahnhof (Central Station) for the ride to Goettingen and Julia and Joerg Meyer's. I met Julia in Bonn in 2002-03 and Joerg and Julia came to our wedding. At the time (2006), Joerg was a finishing his PhD in physics while working at Fermi labs near Chicago. He is now a post-doc at Uni Goettingen.
Saturday, April 25th, after a large, late breakfast, we went downtown and they gave me a brief tour of Goettingen's Innenstadt, including the St. Jacobi Kirche, the Gaenseliesel Fountain, which tradition has that newly minted PhDs must come to bestow a bouqet of flowers to the statue upon successful defense of their dissertation. The weather was beautiful, sunny and in the 70s, as it had been since four days of rain ended Saturday, April 18th. We enjoyed fancy ice cream desserts in an outdoor cafe, before heading back to Julia and Joerg's for another "Grillabend" of delectable steaks and and homemade potato salad.
Sunday, April 26th, I said goodbye to Julia and Joerg at the train station and took the 11:17 ICE (InterCityExpress...Germany's fastest and coolest trains) to Frankfurt/Main Hbf, where I switched to the 13:10 ICE to Koeln/Deutz and the 14:30 RE (Regional Express) to Bonn Hbf, where I arrived on time at 14:56 and met Jan and Wilfried, both current PhD students whom I had met in 2002-03 in Bonn. Jan successfully completed a half-marathon in Bonn's annual marathon earlier in the day, and we settled in to a nearby outdoor cafe to watch the last of the marathoners finish the race. Then, it was 5 minutes back to the Hbf (Hauptbahnhof) for the 17:01 RE to Koeln/Deutz follow by the 17:40 ICE to Frankfurt Flughafen (Airport), where I checked in for my 20:45 Swiss Airlines flight to Zurich and connecting flight to Tel Aviv. (There's a non-stop Lufthansa flight, but my frequent flier ticket made me change planes on the way back rather than fly non-stop both ways, as I did on April 15th from Tel Aviv to Frankfurt.
After perusing the duty-free shops in Frankfurt, both flights went off without a hitch and we arrived on time at 3:30 am Monday morning in Tel Aviv. Swiss Airlines even handed out little swiss chocolates to every passenger on the Frankfurt-Zurich flight. Once I was back in Be'er Sheva, around 8 am, I wrote and prepared 4 pages to give a short presentation that afternoon in our Contemporary Topics in Literature Seminar on Abraham Cahan's The Rise of David Levinsky. Whew, what a trip!
Friday, May 8, 2009
Friday, April 10, 2009
Josh's dissertation
In response to a request for more information on this subject, I am tentatively writing a dissertation which will compare and contrast the Austrian-Jewish author Stefan Zweig's long and short fiction. Much has been written about his novellas, with comparatively little about his novels, which were largely published after his death in February 1942, some of them remaining unfinished. Zweig was the most widely read and translated German-language author during the 1920s, and continued to remain widely popular in exile in England, the U.S., and finally Brazil. Zweig, who suffered from life-long depression, commited suicide along with his second wife in Brazil in 1942, unable to wait and see if Hitler would be defeated, and unwilling to start anew after having lived through World War I, when Austria was also a defeated power.
Pictures from the parents' visit
1st picture: The Dome of the Rock
2nd picture: On the shores of the Sea of Galilee
3rd picture: On approach to Tel Aviv/Ben Gurion International
4th picture: Animals at Ein Gedi Nature Reserve
Dawn's parents visit
A few days after my St. Patrick's Day post, Dawn's parents arrived for an 8 day visit. We had a great time, but we were all thoroughly exhausted by the end. They arrived on Sunday, March 22nd, and Dawn met them at the airport in Tel Aviv.
On Monday, the 23rd, we visited Tel Be'er Sheva National Park, the ancient site of modern Be'er Sheva's predecessor, and one of two sites in the area claiming to be the location of Abraham's Well. Then we showed them around the campus of Ben Gurion University, followed by a "Meet the Parents" party Monday evening at our apartment.
On Tuesday, we headed to Jerusalem, where we were greeted by rainy, windy weather with temps in the low 50s. Boy, did I feel bad about my weather predictions for their week in Israel! We visited the Museum at David's Tower/The Citadel and cozied down in our youth hostel for the evening after an economical but tasty dinner at an Old City restaurant.
Wednesday we headed to the Western (Wailing) Wall, followed by the Dome of the Rock, which was closed to the public for interior viewing, but we got right up to the mosque itself. Jewish law forbids Jews from visiting the site, which is on the Temple Mount. Following the Dome of the Rock, we visited the Church of St. Anne (mother of Mary), and walked over to the Church at the Garden of Gethsemane, taking time to ascend part way up the Mt. of Olives for the view of the Old City. After a lunch of cheese sandwiches, we caught a taxi back to the bus station and returned to Be'er Sheva, arriving back home shortly after 4 pm.
Thursday morning, Dad and I picked up our rental car while Mom and Dawn finished packing our food and provisions for our Galilee adventure. We left about 9:30 in the morning, navigating through Tel Aviv with just a couple wrong turns. We stopped about 1:00 pm at Meggido National Park, where the ruins of the ancient city on the border of Egypt and Assyria stood. According to the Revelations, this site will be the site of Armageddon, the final battle between Good and Evil. It was also the site of the first recorded battle in history. Then we proceeded on to Tiberias, with a stop at Yardenit, the baptismal site of Jesus on the River Jordan, before arriving at our hotel shortly after 6 pm, checking in, and then finding a good, yet not expensive restaurant in downtown Tiberias to have dinner at, where Dad tried the famous St. Peter's fish, freshly caught from the Sea of Galilee.
Friday we stopped along the shore of the Galilee to dip our feet in the water, before continuing on to the Mt. of Beatitudes. Then, we had lunch at the Capernaum Restaurant (there's only one), where our table overlooked the Sea of Galilee and we once again enjoyed St. Peter's fish. (Mom and Dawn had chicken kebabs). Then, we visited Capernaum, followed by a stop at Tabgha, the Church of the Multiplication of the Loaves and Fishes. All along the way, Mom and Dad picked up souvenirs to take home with them.
Saturday morning we checked out of our Tiberias hotel and drove to Nazareth, where we toured Nazareth Village, a living history village that is supposed the re-create Nazareth as it was during the time of Jesus. Then, having used up most of our energy over the previous days, we headed back to Be'er Sheva, arriving around 4:30 in the afternoon.
Sunday, March 29th, we had a leisurely morning at home, before setting out for the Dead Sea and Ein Gedi National Park just after 11:30. After stopping at a pull-out to enjoy Mom and Dad's first glimpse of the Dead Sea, we continued to Ein Gedi, where we enjoyed our picnic lunch of hummus and pitas, and various fruits and snacks, before setting out on our hike through the oasis past flora, fauna, and waterfalls. We emerged from our hike around 5 pm, and returned to Be'er Sheva.
Monday morning, March 30th, was spent packing up for their trip home, followed by lunch at home, before we set out for the Maine Friendship House in Jaffa, Tel Aviv. Yoni, the overseer of the house, which was restored by Americans interested in preserving the history of Jaffa's American Colony (Jaffa is some 4,000 years old, while Tel Aviv was first founded in 1909), took us on a two and a half hour walking tour of Old Jaffa, passing several interesting art galleries along the way, as well as the outdoor/indoor markets. Along the way, he described the history of Jaffa, before bringing us back to the Maine Friendship house for a tour there. Yoni is a young Israeli artist who utilizes the basement of the restored 1860s house as his art studio, where he paints oils on blackened canvases. The American couple who bought and restored the house belong to the same church as Mom and Dad Ashley, whom they had met at a church world conference some years before. After a wonderful tour, Yoni found us an inexpensive place to enjoy Mom and Dad's first Israeli falafel for dinner, before heading to the airport for their return flight to the U.S.
On Monday, the 23rd, we visited Tel Be'er Sheva National Park, the ancient site of modern Be'er Sheva's predecessor, and one of two sites in the area claiming to be the location of Abraham's Well. Then we showed them around the campus of Ben Gurion University, followed by a "Meet the Parents" party Monday evening at our apartment.
On Tuesday, we headed to Jerusalem, where we were greeted by rainy, windy weather with temps in the low 50s. Boy, did I feel bad about my weather predictions for their week in Israel! We visited the Museum at David's Tower/The Citadel and cozied down in our youth hostel for the evening after an economical but tasty dinner at an Old City restaurant.
Wednesday we headed to the Western (Wailing) Wall, followed by the Dome of the Rock, which was closed to the public for interior viewing, but we got right up to the mosque itself. Jewish law forbids Jews from visiting the site, which is on the Temple Mount. Following the Dome of the Rock, we visited the Church of St. Anne (mother of Mary), and walked over to the Church at the Garden of Gethsemane, taking time to ascend part way up the Mt. of Olives for the view of the Old City. After a lunch of cheese sandwiches, we caught a taxi back to the bus station and returned to Be'er Sheva, arriving back home shortly after 4 pm.
Thursday morning, Dad and I picked up our rental car while Mom and Dawn finished packing our food and provisions for our Galilee adventure. We left about 9:30 in the morning, navigating through Tel Aviv with just a couple wrong turns. We stopped about 1:00 pm at Meggido National Park, where the ruins of the ancient city on the border of Egypt and Assyria stood. According to the Revelations, this site will be the site of Armageddon, the final battle between Good and Evil. It was also the site of the first recorded battle in history. Then we proceeded on to Tiberias, with a stop at Yardenit, the baptismal site of Jesus on the River Jordan, before arriving at our hotel shortly after 6 pm, checking in, and then finding a good, yet not expensive restaurant in downtown Tiberias to have dinner at, where Dad tried the famous St. Peter's fish, freshly caught from the Sea of Galilee.
Friday we stopped along the shore of the Galilee to dip our feet in the water, before continuing on to the Mt. of Beatitudes. Then, we had lunch at the Capernaum Restaurant (there's only one), where our table overlooked the Sea of Galilee and we once again enjoyed St. Peter's fish. (Mom and Dawn had chicken kebabs). Then, we visited Capernaum, followed by a stop at Tabgha, the Church of the Multiplication of the Loaves and Fishes. All along the way, Mom and Dad picked up souvenirs to take home with them.
Saturday morning we checked out of our Tiberias hotel and drove to Nazareth, where we toured Nazareth Village, a living history village that is supposed the re-create Nazareth as it was during the time of Jesus. Then, having used up most of our energy over the previous days, we headed back to Be'er Sheva, arriving around 4:30 in the afternoon.
Sunday, March 29th, we had a leisurely morning at home, before setting out for the Dead Sea and Ein Gedi National Park just after 11:30. After stopping at a pull-out to enjoy Mom and Dad's first glimpse of the Dead Sea, we continued to Ein Gedi, where we enjoyed our picnic lunch of hummus and pitas, and various fruits and snacks, before setting out on our hike through the oasis past flora, fauna, and waterfalls. We emerged from our hike around 5 pm, and returned to Be'er Sheva.
Monday morning, March 30th, was spent packing up for their trip home, followed by lunch at home, before we set out for the Maine Friendship House in Jaffa, Tel Aviv. Yoni, the overseer of the house, which was restored by Americans interested in preserving the history of Jaffa's American Colony (Jaffa is some 4,000 years old, while Tel Aviv was first founded in 1909), took us on a two and a half hour walking tour of Old Jaffa, passing several interesting art galleries along the way, as well as the outdoor/indoor markets. Along the way, he described the history of Jaffa, before bringing us back to the Maine Friendship house for a tour there. Yoni is a young Israeli artist who utilizes the basement of the restored 1860s house as his art studio, where he paints oils on blackened canvases. The American couple who bought and restored the house belong to the same church as Mom and Dad Ashley, whom they had met at a church world conference some years before. After a wonderful tour, Yoni found us an inexpensive place to enjoy Mom and Dad's first Israeli falafel for dinner, before heading to the airport for their return flight to the U.S.
Tuesday, March 17, 2009
March 2009 Update
Happy St. Patrick's Day! Strangely enough, we will be having a friend from Ireland and her fiance over for dinner this Thursday, Serena from my Hebrew class, and Vitaly, a mechanical engineering student in his last year of undergraduate studies.
Dawn's parents arrive for a visit in less than a week. We are both looking forward to their coming! No adventures to report as of late, unless you count mattress shopping for the parents, and dental fillings. I did finish the last of my 5 Stefan Zweig books this week, and look forward to meeting with my advisor in the next few days to decide on a thesis topic for my MA thesis/dissertation. I need to get going on Hebrew homework (no surprise there). We are invited to a potluck birthday party this evening at Jacob and Tiffany's, friends from Bible Study. Plans are pretty well set for our adventures next week with Mom and Dad Ashley. The weather is gradually warming up, with some days pleasant, some days a bit too warm, and some days kind of chilly. So the weather can't quite decide what season it is!
Dawn's parents arrive for a visit in less than a week. We are both looking forward to their coming! No adventures to report as of late, unless you count mattress shopping for the parents, and dental fillings. I did finish the last of my 5 Stefan Zweig books this week, and look forward to meeting with my advisor in the next few days to decide on a thesis topic for my MA thesis/dissertation. I need to get going on Hebrew homework (no surprise there). We are invited to a potluck birthday party this evening at Jacob and Tiffany's, friends from Bible Study. Plans are pretty well set for our adventures next week with Mom and Dad Ashley. The weather is gradually warming up, with some days pleasant, some days a bit too warm, and some days kind of chilly. So the weather can't quite decide what season it is!
Wednesday, March 4, 2009
Flying off cliffs in Norway
This has nothing to do with our goings on in Israel, but it's a very neat video of wingsuit jumping off the cliffs of Norway sent to me by a good friend at the Air Zoo. With all of the traveling Dawn and I will be doing this year, we don't plan on using this mode of "transportation"!
wingsuit base jumping from Ali on Vimeo.
wingsuit base jumping from Ali on Vimeo.
Tuesday, March 3, 2009
Reading, writing, and Hebrew surviving
Dawn is now walking again, more or less normally, and without crutches, though not for super long distances.
On Feb. 16th, we enjoyed the musical Guys and Dolls (in English) by the Light Opera Group of the Negev, including our friend Jacob playing the lead character, Sky Masterson, and his wife, Tiffany, in the chorus as part of the "Save a Soul Mission". See
http://www20.brinkster.com/lightopera/index.html
for more info. We also enjoyed meeting Nadine's parents on their recent visit to Israel. Nadine was an intern in the German Studies Center during Fall Semester. She left early for home about a week after the war started, but came back with her parents as originally scheduled at the end of the semester. I recently went to see Slumdog Millionare (English with Hebrew subtitles) at the movie theater downtown in the mall with some friends from Bible Study. Hebrew continues to frustrate me, but I continue to do the homework and learn a few new things each class. I have now read 5 of the 6 Stefan Zweig books I set out to read on my dissertation advisor's instructions. I also recently enrolled on the thesis make-up track for the second semester, which starts April 16th.
Andreas (a friend of Sonja's and a chemistry post-doc) had a birthday dinner at a nice but casual restaurant in the BIG shopping center (yes, that's its name) last Thursday evening. The amount of brainpower among the 20 or so people must have been staggering. From post-docs in chemistry and physics to foreign exchange students from Ohio State and Indiana University, there was quite an array of people. Unfortunately, Dawn stayed home sick with a stomach bug.
Saturday night we had Jenny (a Hebrew classmate and fellow Foreign Lang and Lit PhD student from China), and her husband Max, a chemistry post-doc, over for dinner. Sunday night I saw The Curious Case of Benjamin Button with Andreas and Sonja and some of their friends at the campus movie theater. It is almost half the cost of a regular theater (19 NIS = $4.75 instead of 35 NIS = $9). Sonja, our friend from Austria, recently introduced us to Andreas, a post-doc in chemistry from South Africa whose parents are Austrian born. He attended German-speaking schools in South Africa, so he is fluent in both German and English. Today, we enjoyed our weekly lunch with Sonja, Andreas, and their friends Silke (from Germany, a chemistry PhD student who is here doing lab work for 2 months), and Silvia, from Italy, a post-doc in biotechnology, but by training a physicist. Andreas and I have plans to go see Valkeryie, the new movie with Tom Cruise as Col. von Stauffenberg, who attempted to assasinate Hitler unsuccessfully.
On Feb. 16th, we enjoyed the musical Guys and Dolls (in English) by the Light Opera Group of the Negev, including our friend Jacob playing the lead character, Sky Masterson, and his wife, Tiffany, in the chorus as part of the "Save a Soul Mission". See
http://www20.brinkster.com/lightopera/index.html
for more info. We also enjoyed meeting Nadine's parents on their recent visit to Israel. Nadine was an intern in the German Studies Center during Fall Semester. She left early for home about a week after the war started, but came back with her parents as originally scheduled at the end of the semester. I recently went to see Slumdog Millionare (English with Hebrew subtitles) at the movie theater downtown in the mall with some friends from Bible Study. Hebrew continues to frustrate me, but I continue to do the homework and learn a few new things each class. I have now read 5 of the 6 Stefan Zweig books I set out to read on my dissertation advisor's instructions. I also recently enrolled on the thesis make-up track for the second semester, which starts April 16th.
Andreas (a friend of Sonja's and a chemistry post-doc) had a birthday dinner at a nice but casual restaurant in the BIG shopping center (yes, that's its name) last Thursday evening. The amount of brainpower among the 20 or so people must have been staggering. From post-docs in chemistry and physics to foreign exchange students from Ohio State and Indiana University, there was quite an array of people. Unfortunately, Dawn stayed home sick with a stomach bug.
Saturday night we had Jenny (a Hebrew classmate and fellow Foreign Lang and Lit PhD student from China), and her husband Max, a chemistry post-doc, over for dinner. Sunday night I saw The Curious Case of Benjamin Button with Andreas and Sonja and some of their friends at the campus movie theater. It is almost half the cost of a regular theater (19 NIS = $4.75 instead of 35 NIS = $9). Sonja, our friend from Austria, recently introduced us to Andreas, a post-doc in chemistry from South Africa whose parents are Austrian born. He attended German-speaking schools in South Africa, so he is fluent in both German and English. Today, we enjoyed our weekly lunch with Sonja, Andreas, and their friends Silke (from Germany, a chemistry PhD student who is here doing lab work for 2 months), and Silvia, from Italy, a post-doc in biotechnology, but by training a physicist. Andreas and I have plans to go see Valkeryie, the new movie with Tom Cruise as Col. von Stauffenberg, who attempted to assasinate Hitler unsuccessfully.
Thursday, February 12, 2009
Airfare Searching, travel planning
Recently, both sets of parents decided to make plans to come and see us in Israel. We are excited! But this has meant that is has been hard for me to set aside my penchant for searching for good airfares constantly. My mom hopes to find a more reasonably priced airline ticket to Germany this summer (the Israel portion is already taken care of), but it is proving frustrating, not to mention time consuming. As is my lack of motivation to struggle onwards with my Hebrew homework. Dawn's ankle is slowly improving. She's started physical therapy and has started using one crutch. (Around the house she walks without them). Hopefully by the time our parents come in March, she will be up to trekking (or at least walking) around! I need to start the next Stefan Zweig novel and get to my Hebrew homework. We're looking forward to the opening performance of Guys and Dolls by the Light Opera Group of the Negev (LOGON) Monday night, starring a friend of ours, Jacob. Last week we went to a jazz concert in the auditorium on campus. It was a youth jazz orchestra, with 2 singers alternating as soloists. They were quite impressive. Computers are both a gift and curse. Recently, the latter has been true for me! This marks my staying away from my computer for a few weeks, except for e-mail (I hope)!
Thursday, January 29, 2009
Dissertation prep and ankle sprains
No exciting news or travels to report, but 2 weeks ago Wednesday Dawn fell off a curb on the way to school and badly sprained her ankle. So, she has been taking a taxi to and from campus a couple times a week since then, as well as to our Friday night Bible Study group. She also has crutches. This has meant an increase in the amount of work I've been doing around the house. I've also been reading, reading, reading, in preparation for finalizing a topic for my MA thesis/chapter of my eventual dissertation in Foreign Languages and Literatures (German), and slogging through my Hebrew class after 4 weeks of no class during the war in Gaza. On the urging of my PhD advisor, I'm attending a conference at the Uni Potsdam from April 22nd to 24th, and purchased my airline ticket and rail pass this week. Dawn will stay behind here to focus on her research. I will go to Germany a week early, in order to visit friends and probably do some research while there as well. My dissertation topic will deal with the novels and novellas of Stefan Zweig, an Austrian writer of Jewish heritage during the first 4 decades of the 20th century and avowed pacifist and believer in European integration. He lived from 1881-1942.
Friday, January 16, 2009
Escape to Eilat and tour to Petra, Jordan
When last I wrote, I tried to give a view of things as they are seen by Israelis, as best as I can determine. I realize the current war in Gaza has stirred many emotions, large protests, and the loss of civilian life on both sides is tragic. I won't go into that any more here, except to suggest reading the Jerusalem Post at www.jpost.com for the Israeli perspective, and reading papers from multiple other international sources, and if you can find it, an Arab newspaper.
To get away from the sirens and incoming rockets in Be'er Sheva (pronounced "Bear" Sheva), sometimes written as Be'er Sheba (the Hebrew letter for "b" and "v" is the same), Dawn and I escaped to Eilat, the Israeli resort town on the Red Sea for four nights last week. Eilat is the southernmost city in Israel and Israel's only access to the Red Sea. From Eilat, you can see 4 countries: Israel, Egypt to the south and west, Jordan to the east, and Saudia Arabia to the southeast, some 27 km/15 miles distant. You can view photos from our trip at:
http://picasaweb.google.com/airzoojosh/EilatIsraelAndPetraJordanJanuary2009?authkey=-fp9Pizd1JU#
We arrived on Thursday afternoon and walked along the North Beach, in front of many high rise hotels and vendors selling everything from clothing and toys to ice cream. Eilat enjoys 359 days of sunshine per year, and year-round water temperatures between 70 and 77 degrees Fahrenheit, regardless of the time of year. Eilat is a tourist town extraordinaire. There are 40-50 hotels within the city of 70,000 people. Our hotel was across the street from the Eilat downtown airport, where charter and commercial flights arrive carrying vacationers from Jerusalem and Tel Aviv, a 4-4.5 hour drive north. Larger planes from Europe and Russia must use the larger Eilat airport 25 miles north of town, though I was surprised that a 757 managed to land at the downtown airport. Our hotel room overlooked the runway. Planes must back taxi on the runway to reach the terminal, as there are no taxiways. (Sorry, I'm an avid aviation buff and long-time Air Zoo volunteer!).
On Friday, Dawn and I met up with Jenny and Max (anglicized names), a Chinese couple we know from the university. Jenny is in my Hebrew class and working on her PhD in Russian Jewish Literature, while her husband Max completes a post-doctoral fellowship in the chemistry department. We spent the better part of the day at the Underwater Observatory and Marine Park, where we saw the sharks and sea turtles get fed, enjoyed a movie in the Oceanarium, saw countless fish of all colors and sizes, and (the highlight for me!), the coral reefs and the amazing variety of sea creatures from 6 meters (about 20 ft.) below the surface of the water in the Underwater Observatory.
On Saturday, we went snorkeling at the Coral Reef Marine Reserve, an Israeli National Park one bus stop before you get to the Underwater Observatory (coming from Eilat in the north). I didn't feel strong enough to go out into the deep water, but was able to see a few fish among the corals closer in to the shore. Dawn made two trips out into the deep area, as the current carried her swiftly along the reef from the northern pier to the southern pier. Saturday is Shabbat, the Sabbath day, but buses still run in touristy Eilat, unlike other Israeli cities. Don't let the taxi drivers tell you otherwise. They are best ignored. If you go though, be advised that buses do stop running for the day sometime between 3 and 4 pm on Friday (the Sabbath Eve) and Saturday (the Sabbath).
We were originally going to return to Be'er Sheva on Sunday, but decided to stay one more night so we could take a day-long tour to Petra, Jordan. This involved packing up and leaving our hotel at 7 am, as we could not extend for an extra night without doubling the cost of the room per night. So I found another hotel on the opposite side of the airport and north of the North Beach for the fourth night. We were picked up at 7 am and taken to the Yitzhak Rabin border crossing, where they had to cancel my long-term tourist visa, as I had not thought to get a re-entry visa before leaving Be'er Sheva. A re-entry visa costs $45, and so does the long term tourist visa, so in reality, I didn't lose any money. It's just a hassle. After about an hour, and payment of the border takes of $45 per person to leave Israel, enter Jordan, leave Jordan, and return to Israel, we got on a mini-bus and headed for the ancient Nabotaen city of Petra.
Our guide's name was Ali. His English was quite good, except that he said "governmental" and "economical" when he should have said "government" and "economic". Half of our group fell asleep while he was talking on the way there, as many of us had gotten up very early, or even, in the case of a law school student from D.C., taken the 1 am bus from Tel Aviv to Eilat. After a quick drive through Aquaba, the Jordanian port city opposite Eilat, which is much less developed, we had a 2 hour ride to Petra. Then we walked about 1.5 km (.9 miles) through the Siq (gorge) until we arrived at the Treasury. The Treasury was actually the burial chamber of a Nabotean king, but legend has it that the Naboteans buried their treasure in the rock, so people have shot at the rock, hoping that treasure would spill out. Along the way, one can see other burial caves carved into the rock, the ancient Nabotean water system, which is being studied by researchers today to improve water usage in the desert. The population of the Naboteans at their height was several times that of the current population. They controlled the trade route from Yemen to the Mediterranean on the ancient Spice Route, and were experts at guiding the caravans across vast stretches of desert. No one else at the time (3rd century BCE-2nd century CE) had this knowledge. The Romans did not conquer the Naboteans until 106 AD, due to the many natural fortifications that the surrounding mountains provided. Carved into the stones are images of camels and men heading in both directions.
After leaving the Treasury, we continued for another 1/2 kilometer to see the Roman Amphitheater and a re-created Nabotean market, along with more caves which used to be used as houses, though most caves we saw were used as burial sites. Then, it was an hour walk back uphill to the entrance. You can ride a donkey, horse, or a cart pulled by a donkey or horse, but the Bedouins expect a tip of $5-$10 for this "included" service. (The entrance to Petra National Park is 21 JD (about $30 USD). Our $159 per person ($140 for students) day trip included transportation to and from our Eilat hotel, assistance at the Israeli/Jordanian border, a buffet lunch, the entrance to the park, all taxes and tips, but NOT the $45 per person border entry and exit fees. We had lunch around 2:30 pm, and returned to the border crossing about 5:45 pm. The border closes each night at 7 pm.
What happened to the Naboteans? They continued to exist after the Roman conquest in 106 CE, but the trade routes gradually moved north of Petra, and two earthquakes in the 4th and 6th centuries destroyed what was left of Petra, which had gradually fallen into decline with the decline of Petra's importance on the ancient Spice Route.
To get away from the sirens and incoming rockets in Be'er Sheva (pronounced "Bear" Sheva), sometimes written as Be'er Sheba (the Hebrew letter for "b" and "v" is the same), Dawn and I escaped to Eilat, the Israeli resort town on the Red Sea for four nights last week. Eilat is the southernmost city in Israel and Israel's only access to the Red Sea. From Eilat, you can see 4 countries: Israel, Egypt to the south and west, Jordan to the east, and Saudia Arabia to the southeast, some 27 km/15 miles distant. You can view photos from our trip at:
http://picasaweb.google.com/airzoojosh/EilatIsraelAndPetraJordanJanuary2009?authkey=-fp9Pizd1JU#
We arrived on Thursday afternoon and walked along the North Beach, in front of many high rise hotels and vendors selling everything from clothing and toys to ice cream. Eilat enjoys 359 days of sunshine per year, and year-round water temperatures between 70 and 77 degrees Fahrenheit, regardless of the time of year. Eilat is a tourist town extraordinaire. There are 40-50 hotels within the city of 70,000 people. Our hotel was across the street from the Eilat downtown airport, where charter and commercial flights arrive carrying vacationers from Jerusalem and Tel Aviv, a 4-4.5 hour drive north. Larger planes from Europe and Russia must use the larger Eilat airport 25 miles north of town, though I was surprised that a 757 managed to land at the downtown airport. Our hotel room overlooked the runway. Planes must back taxi on the runway to reach the terminal, as there are no taxiways. (Sorry, I'm an avid aviation buff and long-time Air Zoo volunteer!).
On Friday, Dawn and I met up with Jenny and Max (anglicized names), a Chinese couple we know from the university. Jenny is in my Hebrew class and working on her PhD in Russian Jewish Literature, while her husband Max completes a post-doctoral fellowship in the chemistry department. We spent the better part of the day at the Underwater Observatory and Marine Park, where we saw the sharks and sea turtles get fed, enjoyed a movie in the Oceanarium, saw countless fish of all colors and sizes, and (the highlight for me!), the coral reefs and the amazing variety of sea creatures from 6 meters (about 20 ft.) below the surface of the water in the Underwater Observatory.
On Saturday, we went snorkeling at the Coral Reef Marine Reserve, an Israeli National Park one bus stop before you get to the Underwater Observatory (coming from Eilat in the north). I didn't feel strong enough to go out into the deep water, but was able to see a few fish among the corals closer in to the shore. Dawn made two trips out into the deep area, as the current carried her swiftly along the reef from the northern pier to the southern pier. Saturday is Shabbat, the Sabbath day, but buses still run in touristy Eilat, unlike other Israeli cities. Don't let the taxi drivers tell you otherwise. They are best ignored. If you go though, be advised that buses do stop running for the day sometime between 3 and 4 pm on Friday (the Sabbath Eve) and Saturday (the Sabbath).
We were originally going to return to Be'er Sheva on Sunday, but decided to stay one more night so we could take a day-long tour to Petra, Jordan. This involved packing up and leaving our hotel at 7 am, as we could not extend for an extra night without doubling the cost of the room per night. So I found another hotel on the opposite side of the airport and north of the North Beach for the fourth night. We were picked up at 7 am and taken to the Yitzhak Rabin border crossing, where they had to cancel my long-term tourist visa, as I had not thought to get a re-entry visa before leaving Be'er Sheva. A re-entry visa costs $45, and so does the long term tourist visa, so in reality, I didn't lose any money. It's just a hassle. After about an hour, and payment of the border takes of $45 per person to leave Israel, enter Jordan, leave Jordan, and return to Israel, we got on a mini-bus and headed for the ancient Nabotaen city of Petra.
Our guide's name was Ali. His English was quite good, except that he said "governmental" and "economical" when he should have said "government" and "economic". Half of our group fell asleep while he was talking on the way there, as many of us had gotten up very early, or even, in the case of a law school student from D.C., taken the 1 am bus from Tel Aviv to Eilat. After a quick drive through Aquaba, the Jordanian port city opposite Eilat, which is much less developed, we had a 2 hour ride to Petra. Then we walked about 1.5 km (.9 miles) through the Siq (gorge) until we arrived at the Treasury. The Treasury was actually the burial chamber of a Nabotean king, but legend has it that the Naboteans buried their treasure in the rock, so people have shot at the rock, hoping that treasure would spill out. Along the way, one can see other burial caves carved into the rock, the ancient Nabotean water system, which is being studied by researchers today to improve water usage in the desert. The population of the Naboteans at their height was several times that of the current population. They controlled the trade route from Yemen to the Mediterranean on the ancient Spice Route, and were experts at guiding the caravans across vast stretches of desert. No one else at the time (3rd century BCE-2nd century CE) had this knowledge. The Romans did not conquer the Naboteans until 106 AD, due to the many natural fortifications that the surrounding mountains provided. Carved into the stones are images of camels and men heading in both directions.
After leaving the Treasury, we continued for another 1/2 kilometer to see the Roman Amphitheater and a re-created Nabotean market, along with more caves which used to be used as houses, though most caves we saw were used as burial sites. Then, it was an hour walk back uphill to the entrance. You can ride a donkey, horse, or a cart pulled by a donkey or horse, but the Bedouins expect a tip of $5-$10 for this "included" service. (The entrance to Petra National Park is 21 JD (about $30 USD). Our $159 per person ($140 for students) day trip included transportation to and from our Eilat hotel, assistance at the Israeli/Jordanian border, a buffet lunch, the entrance to the park, all taxes and tips, but NOT the $45 per person border entry and exit fees. We had lunch around 2:30 pm, and returned to the border crossing about 5:45 pm. The border closes each night at 7 pm.
What happened to the Naboteans? They continued to exist after the Roman conquest in 106 CE, but the trade routes gradually moved north of Petra, and two earthquakes in the 4th and 6th centuries destroyed what was left of Petra, which had gradually fallen into decline with the decline of Petra's importance on the ancient Spice Route.
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