LeTallecWiz said:
We were only in Israel for about 10 days (so expensive compared to what we were living on in Egypt) and only spent about five days in the Galilee based out of Tiberias. But God, LTW, it was the most serene place I have ever been to on earth. Truly, the energy of the place is just incredible. It's a place I miss. Having made Egypt our home after falling in love with Cairo and the Sinai, Soph and I were both in agreement that Tiberias and the Galilee was our favorite place, far and away, of anywhere we had been to in our travels throughout the area (Egypt, Jordan, Israel). We would both love to live there one day, that is our ultimate dream.
As for hikes, we did some, but our greatest adventure/debacle was renting bikes in Tiberias to ride to Capernaum and back (stopping at Migdal, Tabghe, and the Mount of Olives). Now I had climbed Mount Sinai, I had climbed mountains in Petra, but I hadn't been on a bike since I ditched my BMX for a car when I was 16. Fuck man, ten minutes in I pulled over at a lookout wondering what the hell I had got myself into. Trying to be the man, I was not going to let on that my entire lower body was screaming in protest against this punishment, so I asked my wife how she was doing. Laboriously she said "I'm ok". I couldn't take it so I said "I'm dying. We've only been going 10 minutes and my legs are killing me, it's 8:30 in the morning, and we've just started. We can ride back into town, try and get our 80 shekels back, have a nice breakfast and some coffee and catch a fucking bus or taxi out to the Mount of Olives, never to speak of this bike fiasco to anyone ever." Needless to say, we rode on. Which was fine, I'm glad I did it (you know all that "what an accomplishment"-type shit), all the while in my head I was thinkin' "If Jesus can carry a fucking cross through Jerusalem, you can ride a fucking bike for 20 k". Problem with this bike I got from the Hotel Aviv was the fact that it was so shitty I had to pedal going down hill or the thing would come to a stop. And the fact that the seat post was so fucked up it would not stay extended so I was riding the hills of Galilee looking like I'm on some low rider bike with my knees up to my chest. My wife, who thought I was making a meal of it all, got on my bike accidentally after we had stopped ten minutes out of Tiberias on the way back from Capernaum. She started to pedal and was like "what the hell is wrong with my bike?" "Nothing sweetheart, your bike's fine, that bike your sitting on is the hell I have been dealing with for the last 8 hours". But goodtime overall. Incredible place.
Where you at, LTW, Jerusalem? I loved it there too. We're hoping to get back to Israel sometime this year and spend some more time. Gotta see Tel Aviv, and spend more time in the Galilee.
