An Authentic Two-Fer

(Guest post by Mary Jo Meixell)
Some look for the comfortable and the familiar when on holiday. Some look for adventure – which I thought I might find traveling in Israel with a college-aged daughter. But this has been something else again; my daughter has supplied me with an authentic Israeli experience. Not to say there wasn’t adventure this trip. I was challenged with the borders, the bathrooms, the driving, and the parking – not to mention the time change and difficulty of getting a good night’s sleep. But it has been worth the angst; we have seen interesting places and had novel experiences. In one week, I drank the best coffee anywhere at the flea market in Old Jaffa; experienced a nun yelling at me at the Church of Saint Mary Magdalene for my inappropriate attire (well, maybe that is not so novel, it does seem familiar); drank Turkish coffee with the old Arab men in the souq in Old Jerusalem; shopped for souvenirs in the souq and sharpened my negotiation skills; slept at a convent guest house; swam in the Dead Sea and then slathered myself with its beneficial mud; listened to “Tick Tock” by Dana International (this year’s Eurovision award winner) along with other Hebrew and Arabic music on the radio while traveling to Tiberias; survived an unplanned security stop provided by the Israeli military who pulled our luggage out of our car and searched it (I guess my story that we were on holiday wasn’t plausible, we did have an awful lot of luggage); traveled the two hair-raising miles up the switchbacks of Mt. Tabor to the site of the Transfiguration; ate falafel at a lavish swarma shop in Nazareth; circled the Sea of Galilee by car at sunset, then ate St. Peter’s Fish for dinner (why didn’t anyone warn me it was a whole fish with scary looking spikes?); and had some of the best food anywhere at a little restaurant in the Yemenite section of Tel Aviv, a book store café in Zion Square in Jerusalem, the Ticho house museum restaurant, and an Ein Karem roof top restaurant. - Yes, it has been quite a week, a two-fer, both spending time with my grown up little girl and experiencing Israel. Thank you Faith!