It didn't hit me that today was my Last Day in Israel. I have grown so much in the past several weeks. We are still in the Hotel in Tel Aviv and it is much cooler here than many other places because it is on the Mediterranean Sea. I woke up this morning and our room was a chilly 69 degrees. I was cold under the covers! I have become so used to the climate. In the morning we walked along the beach to Jaffa (commonly known as Jaffa) an ancient Port city about 2 miles out of Tel Aviv. In recent years they have combine the two cities because Jaffa is so small and has decreased in significance. After walking there and back in the hot sun, I was toasty and red. My legs had clearly defined burn marks from where my shorts dropped to and the blisters on my feet were throbbing and growing with every step. As adventurous as the walk was, I am glad it's over and I can rest. We stopped at a beachside restaurant and ate Schwarmas. I was offered many things to add and I felt very adventurous with my mystery chicken meat being stuffed into a Pita. It was good and inexpensive! Steven and I wandered around the city for the rest of the day, others went swimming again although I didn't want to get my swim suit wet. We went souvenir shopping and yes, walked a lot!
Night fell and after eating dinner we all wanted to get a little bit of rest. We needed to leave in the morning at 1:30am. I was not at rest! I was scared and intimidated by the massive amount of security that we would have to go through and the strict policies. Everyone was in the lobby at 1:15 where we were to meet our bus to drive us to the Airport. He was a half an hour late getting to the Hotel. With a late start, the group was not sure if we were going to make the plane. On the Freeway to the airport, we came to a standstill. Construction workers had condensed 4 lanes down to 1. We sat in traffic for about an hour before passing the construction and arriving at the airport. With only 2 hours to get 13 people through an incredibly difficult security process, JR and the group were nervous about the flight. We walk up to the first security checkpoint. This is where they question every passenger, check passports for stamps, run your checked luggage through an X-Ray machine and peer through all of your stuff on a table.
Our drivers bag had been taken off the bus on accident. We couldn't leave it sitting somewhere or people would think it was a bomb, so we gave it to the security officers. They were unhappy that we had an unknown bag. They asked several times, "Who's bag is this?...Why do you have this bag?...Where did the bag come from?...Why did you take the bag?...Who unloaded the bag?...Why did YOU unload the bag?" After waiting in line for several minutes they took the bag away and proceeded with the security measures. They only questioned one person from our group to speed up the process although I overheard the questions they were asking other people. "What Languages to you speak? Where did you visit? Do you know anyone in Israel? What is your relationship with them? Did you receive any gifts from anyone? Who gave you the gifts? Can I see the gifts? Where are you traveling? What kinds of thing did you see when you were here?" There were many questions that I didn't understand why? I was asked to present them with a gift from St. Georges College, a ceramic tile. I couldn't find it and rummage through my bad. The scanned my checked luggage and while I was fine, others were asked to move to an additional line to have their bags hand checked. My bag was destroyed when I looked for the tile and now that I was through security, I was not able to re arrange my baggage. Still in a rush we checked our luggage at the Lufthansa counter. This is when we found our plane was delayed by an hour. Good, but also not so good...we only had an hour and a half to catch our connecting flight in Frankfurt.
After being processed through outgoing immigration, we proceeded to the plane. This is where we were boarded an additional 25 minutes late. When we got on the plane, we lost our place in line for take off. We sat waiting to get clearance to leave the gate for about an hour. We finally made it to Frankfurt and only had 30 minutes to make it to our plane. People on the plane would not sit down when the aircraft was moving. I have never in my life seen flight attendants get so aggravated at passengers before. The threatened to stop moving which was not a good thing for us being in such a rush. Our gate was also being occupied by another airline at the time, so we were forced to be de boarded on the Tarmac an bussed to the international terminal. We had missed our connecting flight to Seattle. JR, the group leader, was amazing at working with Lufthansa airline to get food voucher and a Hotel for the night. We opted to take the flight the next morning instead of connecting our way through Newark.
Our hotel was about 15 minutes from the airport although I was extremely excited to be able to ride on the Autobaun! We didn't see any sites this time because we were all so tired and spent most of the afternoon relaxing and the night sleeping before the flight in the morning. At our gate, the group from Minnesota that was taking the youth coarse was there as well. We said our final goodbyes and took off to Seattle, a relieving moment once the plane took off. This Pilgrimage was an incredible experience! I have learned so much about my faith, myself and the area where it all happened. I have connected with so many people and want to learn so much more. Thanks for keeping up with my travel journal, if you have questions, please write a comment and I will answer it to the best of my abilities.
My favorite part of the trip:
Climbing Up and Down Masada along with the incredible view of the Dead Sea and the former river line. I also felt a real connection with God while I was at the Sea of Galilee (Lake Tiberius). It was such a calming location and the refreshing nature of the water was needed at that point in the trip.
http://mr.germanis.org
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