Tel Aviv and Tiberius trip with Garam!

Another trip and another 6:30am bus to Eshkol or so it should have been. Me and Garam got lucky and one of the kibbutzniks saw us standing at the bus stop and was going there anyway so we got a lift. A good start to Monday morning.

First stop was Tel Aviv. We arrived around 9 well prepared with pita, hummus and  boiled eggs for breakfast on the beach. The sun was shining there was no wind to put sand  in our food it was perfect. Garam insisted on buying a beer for breakfast too. Crazy girl but hey its our holiday so why not.

Next we needed to do some shopping. I hate shopping but it was necessary. My one pair of

Before too much cycling

shoes that aren't flip flops had holes in them and it has been raining. I was a little fed up of getting wet feet.  We headed for Tel Aviv's massive shopping centre. By this point we needed coffee. One large cappuccino and a large latte enjoyed, it was time for the shoe hunt to begin.  We hadn't been wandering the corridors of shops long when we got distracted by Top Ten an accessories store that had a sale on where everything was 20 shekels (about £4) or had 30% off so I came out with a hat, a scarf and some socks. The socks were needed and were only one size turns out the one size is small! They were a bit of a squeeze for my big feet.

After this I thing the coffee wore off. The shoe search became a pain in the ass and we ended up going back pretty to were we started in the first place before we were successful. We were both desperate to get on the bus to Tiberius and get some sleep by

Checking out the hot springs

1pm!

Arriving in Tiberius in the evening wasn't very exciting. It's low season and it was ultra quiet along the promenade and the Sea of Galilee wasn't very impressive under the night sky. But we had a few beers and a chat before bed, as there was another early start in-store for a super long day of bike riding.

It's 58km around the whole of the Sea of Galilee..Garam wanted to go all the way. I knew I would never make it that far without my legs falling off, so  I managed to get her to agree just to do part of it. Thankfully! We set off at 9am after a delicious all you can eat buffet breakfast for 40 shekels.

We headed in the direction of the national park to check out the hot springs. It was the smallest national park we have both ever been to. I did point out that Israel is a small country but still took us about 5mins to see everything. We carried on in the same direction if was pretty flat and easy but not much to see as it was just beach after beach. So after an hour or so we decide to head back towards the hostel get some lunch in town then head for the other side of the Sea (or giant lake). 

After too much cycling

On the other side there are famous churches to check out like the place where Jesus was meant feed the thousands with his fish and bread trick. There are also a lot of hills!!

I apologise to Garam as I did a hell of a lot of complaining on this trip. My new shoes hurt my feet, my bum hurt and my legs couldn't pedal any longer. Turns out we cycled about 30km in total so it was understandable. I practically

How are we going to get home?!

cried with happiness when we saw this stone outside for the church..before collapsing on it.

It was about half 4 when we put down the bikes to check out the church so we needed to be getting back pronto, before it got dark. 

Cycling was not an option. 

Tabgha church

After I'd had an ice cream and Garam a beer and took some photos of the place we set about getting home. We started walking to the bus stop about a half a mile away up a hill with our bikes. Just hoping that the bus driver would be nice and let us on with our bikes. 

Luckily we got lucky! There are mini bus taxis here and they are usually pretty cheap. One saw us lagging at the bottom of the hill and pulled over offering us a lift back to Tiberius for 40 shekels to take both of us.  Not surprisingly we jumped in that taxi pretty damn quick. 

Our last morning in town was a lot more chilled. We spent the day with most of Tiberius' pensioner population at the hot springs spa. It was bliss! I shall let the pictures speak for themselves.

Grumpy Isreali makes me look pale.

Kibbutz Laundry: A missing clothes appeal.

The volunteer house doesn't have a washing machine so we all use the kibbutz laundry

service. Basically you put a number, each house has different number ours is 258, on all your clothes before you hand them over so when you go to collect it you don't pick up someone else's clothes and no one picks up yours. Sounds simple huh?

Not when there are 18 people in your house. That's a lot of clothes. Especially when In addition to everyone's personal collection of clothes we also have 'public clothes' jeans, t shirts, shorts etc. For wearing to work or when your own clothes go missing..but we'll get to that in a second. They all say 258 on the label or collar.

I guess you should also know that I have very short legs, to the point that petite trousers aren't even short enough. I buy new jeans and have to cut a 4 inches off (not the petite ones the standard length) before sowing a new hem on them. So you'd have to be equally short to want to steal them, right?

Okay, here we go:

Me wearing said jeans
 before the disappearance

Dear clothes monster, fellow volunteers, laundry ladies or whom ever else might have some info on these missing items. I write this in desperation. I doubt anything will come of it but what the heck it's worth a try.

I am very much missing a pair of jeans and some jogging pants that I sent to the laundry a fair while ago. I am pretty sure I put the 258 number on them so they would come back to the volunteer house but I haven't seen them in over a month. I packed light coming hereand as much as I can kit myself out for work with public clothes that never really fit, having a nice comfy (second) pair of Jeans and some comfy jogging pants to chill in would be nice.

I have been patient cos sometimes people's clothes get mixed in with the public clothes and you see someone else in the house wearing your stuff but no such luck.

I am aware there is like a ' lost and found' section at the laundry where all the stuff without a number ends up and have already rummaged through it in search of my belongings. Thus I am about to give up on the idea of ever seeing my clothes again.

Please get in contact if you have any information on their where about.

If they suddenly appeared on my doorstep after this post, that would make me very happy but I realise that is unlikely so dear trousers I hope you are being treated well where ever you have ended up.

Shalom 2014!

2013 has been a crazy year. I started the year working in a call centre in North Shields, then went to China to teach English for 6 months, discovered I couldn't stand how much the Chinese education system hates creativity (among other things) and came home, enjoyed much generosity from my friends in Whitley Bay and my mum (thank you!), allowing me to live on next to nothing for 3 months and now I am on at kibbutz Ein Hashlosha in Israel!

I've learned a lot this year. Here's just a few things that spring to mind:

• How to open a wine bottle using only a shoe and a wall
• How to open a beer bottle using a lighter..they're not all alcohol related I promise
• How to play chess
• The English education system is actually pretty damn good!
• Not enough Chinese but I am trying hard to learn Hebrew and picking up  some Korean too!
• To feel confident and comfortable in who I am

I don't want to bore you with too much self reflection but I am excited for what lies ahead in 2014 and I have a lot I'd like to achieve. Things won't go exactly  to plan, they never do but that's the exciting part. 

I hope you all have a fantastic year and make the most of what ever life throws at you. Thank you for reading this blog! I've had over 1300 hits since I started so Happy New year to you all! X