Day 1:
I woke up at 6am and my journey began on the New York subway from Manhattan to the JFK airport. I arrived to JFK around 7:45 and met with my birthright group and checked in. The process to get through passport control was intense-- they asked so many questions about my jewish background, my bat mitzvah, my congregation, and if anyone gave me anything to put in my bag, because they want to make sure there isn't a chance of a bomb threat.
I then got my boarding pass and checked my luggage, and made my way through security. We got to the gate, and some people in the group were actually escorted through security and had their bags searched through and then were escorted onto the flight.
The flight lasted about 10 hours- we took off from JFK a little delayed around 1pm Monday and arrived to Israel at 6am on Tuesday with the time difference. We got our bags and met our tour guide, Asher, and our security gaurd, Noa. Asher is with us on the bus and at our sites telling us all about israel- he is a really awesome tour guide. Noa is always walking behind our group, she has a gun and weapons in case any situation occurs.
We exchanged our US dollars for shekels and then got on our bus for a 3 hour ride north to Tzfat. We first stopped at a beautiful lookout point and mini hike at -------, we learned about some of the history of the north of Israel and saw the Galilee sea.
We then hopped back on the bus and went to the city of tzfat. We were given an hour to go get lunch, and myself and another few girls were craving falafel and we found a spot where we got some excellent falafel wraps. We then had a mini tour through Tzfat and were able to enter a very old and historic synagogue. We learned about Tzfat's holiness and how it is one of the 4 holy cities of Israel. We then did an activity at a center called ascent where we talked about some controversial and debatable topics that Israelis have had to go through. We discussed how one of their soldiers in the IDF was held for ransom for many years, and the Palestinians requested the release of 1,000 of their soldiers for the release of one Israeli solider. It was a big debate what Israel should do, but because the Jewish/ Israeli community is so strong and values each life so much, they decided to let go of 1,000 prisoners for the one soldier, Gilad.
We then had some time to walk around the markets- there is beautiful art made in tzfat so it was fun to look at! I'll be going back to tzfat at the end of my trip, so I'll definitely give everything another look then. Overall, I really liked Tzfat. It is a beautiful town tucked away in the mountains with blue doors and windows and alleys and steps. Adorable. To me, it resembled Chefchouen, Morocco. I loved that city & I love this one too.
We hopped back on the bus and went to our hotel. We had a buffet dinner, discussed our itinerary for the next day, and then had a couple of beers on the patio which offered an amazing view of Galilee sea and the mountains. Too perfect- still can't believe I'm in Israel.
Sending smiles from Tzfat,
Rebecca
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