On to Northern Israel

Holland is a beautiful country and I had a fantastic time exploring and catching up with friends in Amsterdam and getting to know my family in Nijmegen.  A detailed recap of my week in the Netherlands will have to wait, along with my forthcoming look back on Tel Aviv.  I returned to Tel Aviv Monday morning, leaving only Monday night and Tuesday to both plan my trip to the north and to set in motion the process of getting an Indian tourist visa.

Getting a visa for myself in Israel to visit India is cheaper and faster than for most Americans because I have an Israeli passport.  That said, the process is  still longer and more expensive than I assumed it would be and is further complicated by the fact that my passport is too new. The Indian Embassy outsourced the application process to a travel agency down the street from where I'm currently staying.  Because my Israeli passport was issued only this year, and I didn't bring the old one with me, I have to get some paperwork from the Ministery of the Interior first.  Getting there took longer than I thought (notice a trend here) and I didn't get there until 12:10 today, 10 minutes after they had closed for the day.  I'm hoping to get it all taken care of before I leave tomorrow.

The plan is to pick up the rental car at noon, drive to the city of Tiberius along Lake Kinneret (Sea of Galilee) tomorrow and spend a couple of days seeing the sights.  I'll spend Wednesday and Thursday night there with family and then drive up to Rosh Pina for lunch Friday with my Aunt Rashel.  After lunch I'll go to Tzfat to spend Shabbat with the Ascent of Safed.  Tzfat is the world center of Jewish Mysticism and Kabala and I've heard some good things about the Ascent organization so it should be a pretty interesting and spiritual experience.  I'll also get to see the town my dad grew up in and might bump into some older locals who knew him. 

On Sunday morning I'll leave Tzfat and head up to the north east of Israel to visit the Banias Springs by Mount Hermon and the country's largest waterfall.  I'll spend Sunday hiking the Nahal Hermon Reserve and will head back to Rosh Pina afterwards to spend Sunday night with one of my cousins there.  Monday morning I'll drive to Carmiel, have lunch with another cousin, then continue west towards Nahariya.

I'll stay with family in Nahariya and will spend Monday afternoon checking out the cave formations at Rosh Hanikra as well as exploring the city and its beaches and visiting more family in the area.  

Tuesday morning I'll drive south to Haifa to see the Baha'i Gardens, stay overnight in a hostel, then head back to Tel Aviv Wednesday morning to return the car.

I'll have my brother's laptop with me most of the time which gets Internet everywhere so at some point in all of this I should get the chance to upload my pictures and share some stories from the Netherlands.  

First things first, though.  I'm now off to see what Saint Patrick's Day is like in Tel Aviv...