Belgium & Germany pt. 1

With Tomorrowland over, both Federico and I were scheduled to check out of our hostel the next morning. Federico had a train to London, where we would spend a few days before going Mallorca. I, on the other hand, had no idea what I was doing or where I was going.

For reasons that I'll never be able to explain, I managed to wake up the morning of our checkout day at around 7:00am, even after the long day/night at Tomorrowland. While confused about how the hell I woke up, I used the extra few hours to plan the next part of my trip. I knew that I was eventually heading east, into Germany, but I wanted to spend a day or two more in Belgium, as I had actually really enjoyed Brussels for the little time I spent there.

I ended up finding a small city called Genk in Belgium, which is a few kilometers away from the German border. It was also next to a national park, so I decided is was as good of a place as any to spend two days. I booked an AirBnB for that night, and then used the rest of the morning to shower and pack my stuff.

Once Federico was ready to go, we headed to the train station to say our goodbyes. We hugged, got a random stranger to take our picture, and that was that. I had all day to spend in Brussels before heading to Genk, so I dropped by bags off at the hostel for the day, and began to roam around. I went to the Grand Place square, and sat there for a while enjoying the amazing architecture around me. It is one of the most remarkable squares I have ever seen, and I could have literally spent all day there if I had had a more comfortable place to sit.

Instead, once my butt had fallen asleep, I got up and decided to walk around a little more. I explored some of the smaller streets, kind of getting lost in the process, before finding a small bar to sit at. I ordered a random beer off the tap (Belgium has very good beer), and waited for my drink to arrive. The menu had called the beer a "cherry" beer, which I had presumed was a bad translation for an amber beer. 

But no, it was cherry.

Known as a Kriek beer, the beer I ordered was probably the sweetest drink I have ever had. Unlike a normal beer, Kriek beers are very fizzy which basically makes you think you are drinking soda. I would compare the taste to a carbonated version of the cherries they put on top of sundaes. I could only take tiny sips at a time, so it took me about an hour to finish the drink.

From there, I decided I had gotten my fill of Brussels, so I picked up my bags and headed to the train station to go to Genk. The train took about two hours, and while the train was close to full when I got on, I was basically the only person left on the the train when it reached Genk (which gives you a bit of an idea of how boring of a place Genk was). I hopped off the train, and immediately onto a bus that would take me to my AirBnB.

Once I arrived, I was greeted by my host Ilse and her four Whippets (mini greyhounds) and two Sphinx (hairless) cats. Needless to say Ilse was a little odd, but incredibly nice. After throwing a load of laundry into the wash, I settled into my room and started doing some research of what I wanted to do for the next few days.

I unfortunately discovered that the national park that I wanted to go to in Genk would take about 6 busses and several hours of commute, since the airBnB and national park were on opposite sides of Genk. Instead, I found a nearby lake with a public beach, and decided that is where I would go the following day. I then planned out where I would be going in Germany, and booked a two night stay in a hostel in Cologne, which would be my first stop.

The next morning, after a good nights rest, I headed out on the two mile walk to the lake. After thinking that I had gotten lost, I basically stumbled upon the lake, and found a nice shady spot to put my stuff down on and relax. I popped in my headphones, laid down, and watched the clouds go by. I must have laid there for several hours, because by the time I got up to go, I didn't recognize any of the other people sitting around me.

On my way back I went in search of a supermarket to buy some food, as my daily supply of bread and cheese had run out. I found  a few different stores, but since it was Sunday, there were all closed. I cut my losses and stopped at a local fast food place, got a quick bite to eat, then headed back to the house.

As I was getting ready for bed, I got a message from Toby, Leo's younger brother. I had contacted him earlier, since I knew he would be in Europe/Belgium around the same time as I would. He mentioned that he would be getting into Brussels around 3:00pm tomorrow, and wanted to know if I wanted to get lunch with him and his friend. I was in no rush to get to Cologne the next day, so I was happy to go back to Brussels for the day.

The next morning my AirBnB host offered to give me a ride to the train station at around 9:00am. We quickly stopped at the supermarket (which was now open), I bought some more bread and cheese, and then we were on our way. I got on the first train to Brussels, which got me to the city at around 11:30am. I had a few hours before Toby got there, so I headed back to the Grand Place square, and sat for a while. I got a little restless, so I headed up to a local park near the train station, which had some nice quiet benches to sit on and relax. I stayed there for a while until Toby arrived, and I met him and his friend Gilles at the train station. We walked around the city for a bit, before heading to Delirium for a beer.

This time, I avoided the Kriek beers, and instead opted for a dark beer. If I recall it was called a Kasteel Donkel, and it was delicious. It had this amazing chocolatey aftertaste that just made me want to keep drinking. Once we finished our beers, I figured it was probably best to head to Cologne (which was about a 3 hour train ride away), so we headed back to the train station to say our goodbyes.

After parting ways, I bought a ticket for the last train to Cologne, which was leaving about 45 minutes later. It was leaving from a different station in Brussels, but the person who sold me the ticket said I could take any train not on line 4, and it would stop at the station where I needed to go. I must have misheard, because when I got onto the first train I saw, it most certainly did not stop at the station I needed to go to. By the time I realizedI was going in the wrong direction, I was about 20 minutes outside of the city.

I quickly hopped off the train and got on another one that was heading back in the right direction. This one did stop at the correct station, and I got there with about five minutes before my train to Cologne was set to leave. I frantically looked for a sign to show me which line my train was on, but by the time I finally found my train it was too late. I stood on the platform, stunned that I had managed to miss my train, and was approached by one of the attendants. He directed me to a desk that would help me figure out what to do. After determining that the train I missed was literally the last train going to Germany, they rescheduled my ticket for the next morning, and told me to try to find a hostel nearby. I quickly found a super cheap hostel about 5 minutes from the train station, and headed over there.

While there, I contacted the hostel I was supposed to be staying in that night in Cologne, and they were kind enough to cancel one of my two nights there for free. All in all, I ended up saving a few Euros by missing my train, since the hostel I stayed in that night was cheaper than the one in Cologne. Cool.

The next morning I headed back to the train station, this time making sure that I had plenty of time to find my train. I quickly found the right platform, and hung out for a few minutes while I waited for my train to arrive. Once it got there, I hopped on and found a seat, where I almost immediately fell asleep. For the next couple hours I was in and out of consciousness, nearly causing me to miss my stop. Luckily I didn't, so I had finally made it to Cologne.

The first thing you see when stepping out of the train station is a massive cathedral called Kolner Dom. While usually I get pretty bored with cathedrals, as they are all over the place in Europe, this one was definitely something special. I walked around inside for a while, and after dropping my bags off at my hostel, I headed back to the cathedral to climb up the tower.

The top of the tower is 100 meters tall, or about 330 feet. It takes 537 steps up a narrow spiral staircase to get to the top. Once at the top you are greeted with a fantastic 360 degree view of the city, and I spent a little while just walking around the top of the tower enjoying the view.

Afterwards, I headed to a local crepe place, and ordered a random crepe off the menu. It ended up having salami, salmon, and mushrooms in it, and it was delicious. From there, I walked around for a little bit, bought some pasta and sauce from a supermarket, and then headed back to my hostel. After making a nice dinner, I found a campsite that was known for stargazing just outside of Frankfurt. I decided that if I could figure out a way to get down there (it was about 80km, 50 miles, from Cologne), I would spend a night there to enjoy some stargazing. I looked at a few option for transportation, and decided to look into them more the next day.

The next morning I headed to my first option: a scooter rental place. I talked with the clerk, and quickly found out that renting a scooter was probably way too easy. Within 20 minutes, papers were signed, a deposit was given, and I was handed key to a scooter that had a top speed of around 100kph, or 65mph. After literally having to ask the guy how to work the thing, I hopped on my new ride, and drove around some back streets for a little to get a hang of how the bike handled. It was incredibly easy, so after a few minutes I headed back to my hostel to prepare for my trip to the campsite.

I packed a few clothes into my backpack, bought a couple things to eat, and plugged in the directions to the campsite on my phone. I realized that I wouldn't exactly be able to look at my phone as I was driving, so it presented a decent challenge in figuring out where the hell I needed to be going. I ended up having to just pull over every couple miles and check to make sure I was still going in the right direction.

After several wrong turns and probably an extra 20 minutes to my drive, I finally made it to the campsite. I got a cabin, dropped off my stuff, and headed to the nearby lake to scope out the surroundings so I could find a good place to stargaze that night. I found a nice spot, relaxed there for a while, before heading back to my cabin to take a nap so I would be awake that night. When I woke up around 11:00pm, I was dismayed to see that it was an overcast night, so there were no stars in sight.

So that's where I am now. Sitting in my cabin at 1:00am writing this blog post, disappointed that I can't go look at some stars. I am only here for the night, since I have to go back to Cologne to return the scooter tomorrow. While I haven't actually booked anything yet, I plan to head north after this, and stay a few nights in Hamburg. From there I might do a day excursion to Copenhagen, depending on how long the ferry ride would take. Afterwards I'll head to Berlin for a few days, before ultimately going to Wroclaw to meet up with Goda, Dora, and Dora's cousin to watch the World Junior Ultimate Championship (WJUC).

If anyone has any suggestions of activities to do, or things to see while I'm in Germany, I'm all ears.

Thanks for reading,

Ben

 

Tomorrowland

Let me start off with saying: that was awesome. I only went to one day of Tomorrowland, but it was more than enough time to know that I'll definitely be going back some day. The atmosphere of the festival was downright intoxicating, the people, the music, the venue--all of it was great.

My Tomorrowland experience actually started the day before the actual festival, on Thursday the 21st. My friend Federico and I had just arrived in Brussels at around 1:00pm and were walking into our hostel to check in when we ran into a group of Argentinians who were just about to leave for a walking tour of the city. We quickly dropped off our bags, and then went to join them to get a bit of tourism in before Tomorrowland.

As we walked to the start of the tour, which was located in the Grand Place Square, we noticed that there was basically no one out and about. No cars, no people, nothing. Apparently we had arrived on Belgium's day of independence, so almost everything was closed. But, as we got closer to the square, we started seeing more and more people, and a lot o them were wearing flags from countries all over the world--a trend created by Tomorrowland.

Once in the square, we were greeted by a spectacular view of Tomorrowland decorations covering the Maison du Roi (House of the King), which is a gothic palace built in 1895. The whole square is surrounded in these gothic buildings, and it was a super cool contrast to the decorations that Tomorrowland had put up. We were told that there would be a pre-party concert hosted in the square in a few hours, and in the meantime our tour began.

I'm not a big fan of walking tours, so for a decent portion of the time I was kind of zoned out, thinking about what I needed to do to prepare for the festivities the next day. Once the tour ended, I beelined back to the square where the concert had already started, so I could get a taste of what the next day had in store.

I wasn't entirely sure of where I was going, but it wasn't too hard to find my way back simply by following the sound of the music, which I could hear from several blocks away. As I arrived I immediately noticed that there were a lot more people there than there was when the tour had started, and the square was now packed, with people dancing and singing along to the music. I hung around for a while, bought a delicious Belgian beer, and sat in the shade, enjoying the music.

A little later I met back up with the Argentinians (there were five in total, now) who I had split up with during the tour (they had gone on a Spanish speaking one, I had gone on and English speaking one), and we made our way into the crowd to dance. We ran into some more Argentinians (they seem to attract one another), and partied with them for a while.

After an hour or two, the concert ended, and we headed out to a local bar, Delerium, which holds the world record for most variety of beers offered: 3,000+. We ordered two pitchers basically at random, and drank them while socializing with the surrounding people who had come to bar after the concert as well. Afterwards, we got a quick bite to eat, before heading back to the hostel for the end of the night.

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As soon as I woke up the next morning, I could feel the excitement in the air. Brussels was packed with people who were attending the festival, so the city was bubbling with energy that Friday morning. The plan to get to the festival was to try to get a ticket for one of the shuttles that went directly to the Tomorrowland venue, which left every hour. Since we were only going for the one day, we wanted to get there as soon at the venue opened at noon. It was about an hour long bus ride, so we aimed to catch the 11:00am bus.

Unfortunately, as most Latinos tend to be, the Argentinians were late. 11:00 came and went and the Argentinians were not even out of their rooms. At around 11:30, after taking a painfully long time to make and eat breakfast, we were ready to head out. About ten feet out the door, one of them proclaimed we had to go meet up with a friend he made the day before, who just so happened to be in the completely wrong direction from the bus stop. We make our way in the direction of the friend, who was also Argentinian, and also late.

Finally, by 11:50, we had found the friend, and tried to make our way to the bus station. In hopes of getting there faster we hopped into a taxi, but after realizing that getting on the 12:00 bus was hopeless, we haggled the taxi driver down to a reasonable price, and headed straight for Tomorrowland.

Once there, we headed through security, which separated those with and without backpacks. I was in the longer and slower backpack line with two of the Argentinians, and we slowly made our way through the surprisingly light security (they didn't even open my backpack). Once through, we found the rest of our friends, exchanged our tickets for the bracelets, and headed into the venue.

We walked around the festival for a while, figuring out the general layout of the massive venue. We ended up checking out the main stage, where we danced for a little while before heading to a rest area to get food and drinks. Up until then I was with the Argentinians, and the whole time I felt like I was waiting. First they got in a long line to buy some merch, then we waited for one of them go try to find a friend, then they wanted to buy drinks...it felt like I was never going to be able to get going at a pace I wanted. So, when they decided to go for lunch, I told them I was splitting paths, and I'd meet back up with them at 8:30pm. I assumed they would have motivation to find me, since I was carrying some of their stuff in my bag (including a passport), so with that in mind I headed on my way.

I walked around for a while, discovering new stages and areas with every turn, before heading in the direction of the stage where the deadmau5 vs. Eric Prydz show was set to take place later that night. I found the stage, figured out where/when I wanted to be for the show, and then headed back out to find a smaller stage to enjoy for a while. I stumbled into a stage called the Rose Garden, across the street from the mau5 vs. Prydz stage was. I was treated to some throwback hip hop mixes by a DJ who went by the name Blackout boy (who I can't seem to find anywhere on the Internet). I stayed for a while, doing a mix of dancing and sitting in the shade, before heading back to the main stage area to catch Galantis at 6:00pm.

I got to the main stage at around 5:15pm, and worked my way into the crowd, trying to get a spot for Galantis. After a few minutes, content with where I was at, I settled in and enjoyed the end of a show by R3hab. With about 30 minutes left of R3hab, there was a sudden commotion as a bunch of people in front of me started running backwards, away from the stage. Initially, I thought it was due to a fight, which is usually what causes a stampede like that, but after I noticed people holding their shirts to their noses and running, I realized that it might be more serious than that, so I ran too. Apparently, someone had sprayed the crowd with pepper-spray which caused a mass stampede of panicked people, who were fearing the worst due to the recent terror attacks in Belgium and surrounding countries.

The whole commotion lasted all of five minutes, and people soon realized that there was no real danger--just some asshole spraying pepper spray. With the music not even stopping, people quickly made their way back to the stage to regain their spots. I decided to find a spot on the opposite side of the stage, just in case of another stampede.

Galantis soon started, and while I was a little disappointed in the show, it was hard not to have fun in the crowd, dancing with random people and offering water from my CamelBak to those that seemed in need. Near the end of the show, I decided to head out of the pit, and walk up the hill to get a better view of the stage and crowd. I sat for a little to catch my breath, took a few pictures, then headed out to explore again for about an hour before I had to meet back up with the Argentinians.

I continued to find more stages as I explored, and I tried to spend a little time at all of them, getting a feel for the different genres that each offered, and the vibes that came with them. At around 8:00, I made my way back to the previously agreed meeting point with the Argentinians. I got there at about 8:15 and waited impatiently--and as usual, the Argentinians were late. At around 9:15, after an hour of waiting, I gave up and headed back out as to not miss anything else.

The mau5 vs. Prydz show was scheduled to start at 11:25, so at around 10:15, after refilling water and getting a bite to eat, I headed to the stage in hopes of getting as good of a spot as possible for the show. I slowly weaseled my way through the crowd, all the while enjoying the music from the artists playing at the time. By the time their set had ended up and mau5 vs. Prydz was about to start, I had managed to get within 10-20 feet from the front, right in the middle. Surprisingly, even so close to the front, I still had a reasonable amount of room to move around and dance in.

The show itself was incredible. Deadmau5 has been one of my favorite artists since I rediscovered him at Bonnaroo last year, and when paired up with Eric Prydz--another one of my favorite artists over the past year--it made for a magical show. The music was a fantastic mix of both of their best works, but what really made the show come together was the lights and the crowd. The light show was highlighted (haha get it? HighLIGHTed? ...Guys?) by the use of several hundred (thousand maybe?) lasers that created a cube around the stage. That, combined with the other unique light fixtures, created a show unlike anything I had ever experienced before. The crowd seemed to feel the same way I did, and everyone I was surrounded by was as happy and friendly as could be, creating the perfect concert atmosphere.

When the show ended around 1:00, it was time to head home. Due to the fact that I still had some of the Argentinians' stuff, I made my way to the nearby wifi zone to try to check in with them. After no luck, I walked to the bathroom before leaving. On my way there, I literally bumped into them (which is insane given that there are around 180,000 people at the festival), and we happily headed home together.

Tomorrowland was simply incredible. I saw flags from more countries that I could count, and everyone was just so happy and excited to be there. The one day that I got to spend there was amazing, but it left me wanting more. Even after the several hours of walking around and exploring, I know that there were still a few stages that I never saw. If I had more time, I would have spent more of it at some of the smaller stages, listening to some of the lesser known artists. My one regret of the day though was not being at the main stage for any of the shows once it got dark (which wasn't until almost 10:00). While the stage was enormous and incredible during the day, some pictures I saw of it at night were surreal. There were so many hidden lights and features that couldn't be seen during the day, and I wish I had gotten to experience the sight while I was there.

I guess it'll have to wait until next time.

Thanks for reading,

Ben

Switzerland/Amsterdam

In order to be able to dedicate a whole post just to TomorrowLand (the music festival I'm going to in Belgium tomorrow), I wanted to get out a shorter recap of the last few days.

Switzerland

7/17/2016

After parting ways with my dad, I was scheduled for a 2:00am train ride from Florence to Zurich. I arrived to Zurich after a couple delays at around 1:00pm, where I was instantly greeted by the smiling faces of Barb and Markus Unger, old friends of my dad that he knew in college. I had met them twice before, when I was 5 and living in Spain, so I had basically no recollection of me meeting them, much less what they looked like. Luckily, with my orange hair I stick out like a sore thumb in most places, so they recognized me instantly.
After handing me a very much appreciated soft pretzel and water, we headed to the Rhine Falls, a beautiful waterfall just a couple miles outside of Zurich. We walked along the Rhine (the river which feeds the falls) for about half a mile before actually getting to the main attraction. While walking, Barb and Markus pointed out how unusually high the river was, due to the massive amounts of rain Switzerland has gotten this year.

After soaking in the sights, and eating a delicious bratwurst, we headed to the nearby town of Schaffhausen. There we met up with one of Barb and Markus' sons, Bryan, who is a few years older than me. Unfortunately, Bryan's twin brother Jeffery was out of town while I was there, so I didn't get to say hello to him as well.While I don't remember much from my visit to Switzerland when I was 5, the two memories that have stayed with me was being excited about the chocolate (naturally), and the blonde twins that we got to hang out with.

Schaffhausen was a cute little town that borders Germany, and is actually the only Swiss territory that is north of the Rhine, the rest being Germany. Due to this, Schaffhausen was actually bombed by the Americans during WWII when it was confused for a German city. We walked through basically the entire town in about 30 minutes, before getting some beers at a restaurant next to the Rhine. From there, Bryan and I made our way up to the town's castle, which sits on top of a hill in the center of the city. The castle was actually built as a safe haven for the townspeople when barbarians came from around the Rhine to raid the city. Unfortunately, by the time they had finished building the castle, the barbarians had stopped raiding the city, so it ended up being relatively useless other than for the nice view from the top.

At around 4:30, we headed to the Unger's home just a few miles outside of Schaffhausen. We actually had to drive through Germany for all of 5 minutes on the commute back,which was very exciting since the speed limit was 100 kilometers an hour, as opposed to the Swiss 80 kilometers and hour. When we arrived at their house, I quickly threw a load of laundry into the wash before taking a much needed shower. Afterwards, I was treated to a traditional Swiss dinner which translated to "table grill" in English.

Table grill is an assortment of raw meats and veggies that you put  on a small electric grill that is in the middle of the table. You can season them as you like, and there is a little drawer underneath the grill for you to put slices of cheese to let them melt. Once your food is done cooking, you take the cheese and mix it with some potatoes, and then you begin to feast. It is common for a dinner like this to last a few hours, as you take you time making your food, and go back for several servings. Afterwards they brought out the chocolate and schnapps (which was nothing like the sugary vodka you buy in the States), which was a perfect way to top off an amazing dinner. Afterwards, Bryan's girlfriend, Lisa, stopped by to say hello, and we hung around for a while talking about our upcoming travels (Bryan and Lisa are going to a little island south of Spain in a few days) before retiring for the night.

7/18/2016

The next morning I was given a ride by Markus to the Zurich airport, where I took a short metro ride into the city. I had a bus booked to leave for Amsterdam at 7:30pm, so I spent the day walking around the town, relaxing by the lake and enjoying the majestic view of the alps in the distance. I bought a small lunch and a snack for the bus ride (Switzerland is EXPENSIVE), and then headed to the bus stop.

Switzerland, although small, holds plenty of things to do and places to see. In the short 30 hours that I were there, I just got a small peek of what the country had to offer, and I wish I could have stayed longer. But, adventure called me elsewhere, so exploring the rest of that country will have to wait for another time.

Amsterdam

7/19/2016

After a brutal 13 hour bus ride in which the wifi and outlets did not work, I arrived to Amsterdam at around 8:30am. I got directions to my hostel, and made quickly made my way there. I soon discovered that I had managed to book a hostel which was literally in the Red Light District. Whoops. Since check in didn't start until 2:00pm, I was only able to drop off my bags before heading back out to explore the city.

I ended up just roaming around for a while, with no real destination. I was amazed at how many people were out and about, every street I turned on to was filled with people of all shapes and sizes. The countless bikers and stoned tourists made for quite the entertaining show, as people were getting nearly run over left and right since they weren't paying attention.

After indulging in some of what Amsterdam has to offer, I decided I needed to take a nap, so I headed back to the hostel. When I got to my room, I immediately realized that I would not be able to sleep well, if at all, due to the blazing heat of the room. There was no air conditioning, and only one small fan that did next to nothing. Still, I climbed onto my bunk, and tried to get some shuteye to catch up on the hours of sleep I missed on the bus.

An hour or so later, I woke up and headed back out to do some more exploring. I made my way to Vondelpark, the famous park at the edge of the city. The park was FILLED with people, so it took me a while to find a shady spot with enough room to sit in. Once I did, I settled in for a while, snacking on some bread and cheese while I enjoyed the great people watching. After that had run its course, I headed back to the hostel in hopes of meeting some people to go out with that night.

I ended up meeting an Argentinian guy named Federico, who was sharing a bunk with me. As it turned out, Freddy had basically the exact same itinerary as me over the next few days, including going to the same one day of TomorrowLand. We decided it was best to become good friends, and I have basically spent all of my time with him up until now.

We went to get a quick dinner before meeting up with another guy from our room named Aaron, who was from Australia. As it got dark around 10:30 (which threw me off a ton), we headed out to some bars. Of course, we strolled through the red light district, taking in the incredible strangeness of the place. Afterwards we found a bar, but after ordering a beer Aaron and I realized that we were super tired, so we decided to head back and call it a night. Freddy wanted to go find a club, so we parted ways for the night.

7/20/2016

After a bad night's sleep (the red light district is very loud at night...), Freddy and I headed back to Vondelpark for the day. We brought a blanket and some food, and found a nice place to relax for several hours. Afterwards, at around 3:00pm, we slowly made our way back towards the hostel, strolling through the markets and going into a few stores on our way. Once back, we sat in the slightly cooler lobby area as we booked our bus tickets to Brussels. While we were doing that, we met a couple of Swiss guys who were checking in, and decided to hang out with them for the night. We showed them around the little bit of Amsterdam that we knew, got a quick dinner, and then went back to the hostel to get ready for the night's festivities. Unfortunately, we forgot to get their contact information, so by the time we went back down to the lobby, they were nowhere to be found.

So instead, Freddy and I headed to a club across the town. After getting a little lost, we finally made it to the club around midnight. Much like the club in Tel Aviv, the music featured in the club was this very funky electronic music. I had never really heard this genre of music before, so it must be a Middle Eastern/European thing. We danced for a few hours, before heading home for the night in hopes of getting a few hours of sleep before are morning bus ride to Brussels.

Amsterdam was a crazy place.While I enjoyed my 2 day stay there, I don't think I could have stayed there much longer. There were so many tourists, and so much commotion, it was a pretty overwhelming experience. If I had to describe Amsterdam in one sentence, I'd say it is the one place on earth that humans just decided anything goes. From the open prostitution to the countless pot shops, Amsterdam really is just a place where people go to experience their wild side.

These few days in Amsterdam marked the first few days of the next 3 weeks that I will be traveling alone. For the first day, I was worried that I might end up getting pretty lonely, given that the day seemed to be so long. But after making friends with Freddy and a handful of other people, those worries soon went away. Up next is TomorrowLand and Germany.

Thanks for reading,
Ben

Italy

With the first leg of my trip completed, I shipped off to Italy to meet up with my dad. Before I could get to Italy though, I had to sit through a 10 hour, overnight layover in Athens. Initially, I had planned on going out and trying to find a bar to pass the time in, but I soon realized that the airport was kind of in the middle of nowhere, and it would be too much effort to schlep my bags around for a few hours before inevitably heading back to the airport. So instead I found a cozy little corner and settled in for the long haul. I tried to sleep a few times, but a mixture of noise, lights, and paranoia of getting my stuff stolen prevented me from dozing off for more than a couple minutes at a time. To pass the time I decided to write for my blog, read my book, and generally dick around.

After my long wait, I hopped on a plane for a quick flight to Rome. From the Rome airport I took a taxi to the AirBnB my dad and I had booked before I left, and decided to take a much needed nap as I waited for my dad to get there. Several hours later, my dad showed up, and after dropping off his bags, our Italy adventure officially began.

Side note: we walked A LOT while in Italy. I am going to put the total miles walked (according to my phone) at the end of each day, and then add them all up at the end of the post.

Day 1 (7/11/16):

From the apartment we were staying in, we decided to skip the bus and walk to the two miles to the metro station, which would lead us directly to the city center. The metro exit that we got out at was literally 100 feet from the colosseum, so it was a nice welcoming view to validate the fact that we had made it to Italy. After taking a few pictures, we went in search of food, as neither of us had eaten a proper meal all day. We found a nice sit down restaurant, and treated ourself to the typical pasta/pizza/wine dinner. 

From there we decided to walk around and explore the sights of Rome. We ran into the Altare della Patrai (Altar of the Fatherland), some cool ruins, the Pantheon, a couple castles, and the river which lead to the Vatican. Since it was getting late, we thought it'd be good to leave the Vatican sight-seeing for the next day. We hopped back on the metro to head home, and got off a few stops early so we could catch the last bus which would drop us off at the apartment. Unfortunately, after about an hour wait, the bus never showed up, so we made the 3 mile walk back home.

Miles walked: 7.82

Day 2 (7/12/16):

Our first stop of the day was Vatican City. We went into St. Peter's Basilica, and marveled at the intricate decorations that covered the building, inside and out. From the endless paintings, to innate carvings and statues, it truly was a sight to see. After a couple hours, we decided we had seen enough of Rome, so we caught a bus to take us a few miles outside of the city to visit Christian catacombs, in which around 500,000 people were buried. Due to some delays and a longer-than-anticipated walk, we arrived at the catacombs just as the last tour was starting. We managed to buy tickets for the tour, and we got to see a little portion of the 40 acre burial grounds, all the while learning about the history of the catacombs.

Afterwards, we walked a few miles to a little bar to have a quick drink before hopping on a bus to take us back into the city. While waiting for the bus, we met a few fellow Americans who had also been touring the catacombs. We discovered that one of them had been living in Prague for the last year for a teaching job. I mentioned I would be visiting Prague for a few days at the beginning of August, and she ended up offering me and Goda (who I will be meeting up with in a few weeks) a place to crash while we were there!

Once we were back in the city, we walked to the local university to try to get a taste of youth life. We found a bar which was overrun with old people, decided it was what we were looking for, and partook in a few drinks and happy hour snacks. We ended up staying for a couple hours before ultimately heading to the metro to go home for the night.

This time, we decided not to trust the bus, so we got off at the closest exit (about 2 miles from the apartment), and began to walk home. We tried to take a shortcut on our way back, but ended up getting horribly lost, and turned the 2 mile walk into a 5-6 mile one. When we finally got back, we basically collapsed onto the bed and didn't move until we woke up the next morning.

Miles walked: 15.8

Day 3 (7/13/16):

Our stay in Rome had run its course, so inspired by the suggestion of our AirBnB host, we headed to Siena for a few days. We bought the proper bus tickets, and settled in for the 3 hour drive out of the city. As we got into a more rural part of Italy, we were treated to some great views of rolling plains and small villages settled on top of some hills. We got to the Siena bus station in the early afternoon, and made the couple mile walk to our new AirBnB.

Siena is a beautiful little town, full of small winding cobble roads surrounded by cute vintage apartment buildings. After dropping our bags off at the apartment, we had a short conversation with our new host about what we should do while in Siena. A few minutes later, we were out the door with a decent plan for the night. Siena is known for a cathedral in the center of the city, so we headed over there to admire the artwork and architecture. Afterwards, we walked a few blocks to the center plaza, where we decided to relax and people watch for a few hours.

For dinner, we headed in the direction of a bar which was supposed to be a popular hangout area for the locals. Unfortunately, due to some rain, we were practically alone there besides the bartender and DJ. We hung out for a little, enjoying some wine and snacks before heading back to the apartment to call it an early night.

We were welcomed back by the 3 residents of the apartment we were staying in, who treated us to a nice little fish and salad dinner. We stayed up a while talking to them about life in Italy, and ended the night by getting some help figuring out how to go about our planned excursion for the next day.

Miles walked: 8.64

Day 4 (7/14/16):

Our plan for the day was to catch a bus to a little area about 30 minutes out of town that was home to some natural hot springs. We had found the place through the help of our hosts, and it sounded like a nice way to relax for a day. We packed up some food, a change of clothes, and plenty of water, and headed on our way.

After getting off the bus, we start making our way in the direction that the street signs were pointing. There were two different options of where to go, and according to Google, one of the options was more of a spa than hot springs. So we headed for the other option.

We had to walk about two miles down a little street, passing a couple farms and vineyards. After finally getting to where our GPS was pointing us to, we were sad to discover that our destination was just another spa/hotel. Disappointed, we explored the area for a little bit in hopes of finding some hot springs, but after a few minutes we realized that it was hopeless, so we started our walk back.

Once back in town, we decided to walk to the other option, in hopes that Google had lied to us. This option was less than a mile away, so it was a quick trip. Unfortunately, Google had told us the truth, and it was just another spa area. We decided to go in though, as there was a large pool area that we could relax by for a few hours before the bus came. We found a nice shady spot, and snacked and read for before jumping in the pool for a little bit to cool off. After a little more time spent hanging out, we headed back to the bus stop.

We got on the 4:00pm bus, the last one on the route we needed until 9:30pm. While on the bus, I started dozing off while my dad read his book. At one point, I woke up as the bus was stopping, and thought I recognized our stop. Since neither of us had really been paying attention to the ride, we assumed I was right. We quickly got off the bus, and only to realize it was not our stop as the bus was driving away. We were 11 miles off target. We looked at the bus stops in hopes that we could catch anything back into town earlier than the 9:30 bus, but we were shit out of luck.

Still hoping that we wouldn't have to wait 5 hours for the next bus, we went into a local bar to ask if they had any suggestions on how to get back. It turns out, the next town over had a bus to Siena every 30 minutes. Awesome! Unfortunately, we also discovered the next town over was 5 miles away.

After deciding making the 5 mile walk was better than waiting for 5 hours, we filled up our water bottles, and headed on our way. While the walk was long, it was mostly down a scenic winding road. We passed countless farms full of grapevines and olive trees. It was actually a pretty enjoyable walk since it was a cooler day. We finally made it to the other town just as a bus had pulled up, and while I enjoyed our walked, I have never been more grateful of public transportation. We got home, exhausted, and spent an hour or two lying in bed catching our breath.

After a shower and more resting, we headed back out to get some much deserved pizza. The restaurant we had found was supposedly the best pizza in town, so we were excited as can be to dig in to our food. Unluckily for us, the restaurant was packed, so it took close to an hour for us to be able to order and get our food. The pizza was great, but it was probably the best meal I had while in Italy, simply because I was so hungry. We finally made our way back to our apartment, and quickly fell asleep.

Miles walked: 15.14

Day 5 (7/15/16):

That morning we packed up our stuff, and headed to Pisa. Once there, our new AirBnB was a little over a mile from the train station, so we headed over there to drop off our bags. After that, we decided we would head back to the train station and catch a quick train to a town on the coast called Livorno. We walked from the train station in Livorno to a supposed plaza, but when it turned out to basically just be a bus stop, we turned around and headed back towards the beach. We found a large dock (large enough for a couple cruise ships), and we walked through it in hopes of finding a shoreline to sit on and eat some bread. After walking a mile or so, we didn't find anything, so we headed south to the boardwalk. Although the boardwalk was only a mile away, it took us about twice that distance to get there, since we had snaked our way through the dock in search of a shore.

It was an incredibly hot day, so when we finally made it to the boardwalk we quickly found a bench to sit on and eat some food and drink some wine. After about an hour, we walked down the boardwalk, enjoying the view. We decided to catch a bus from there to some cliffs that you could climb down and enjoy a secluded little beach area. The waves were pretty rough, and the shoreline was very rocky, so we ended up not swimming at all, and just relaxed on the rocks. I took a short nap, and once I woke up, we caught a bus to go to the train station to head back to Pisa.

Once back in Pisa, we walked around the town for a while to see the sights. We saw the leaning tower (which is really fucking leaning), had some good beer and food, and finally headed back to the apartment to call it a night.

Miles walked: 17.3

Day 6 (7/16/16):

I had a 2:00am bus ride from Florence planned that night, so we decided to spend the day there as to not be rushed to get there later. With bags in hand, we caught a train into the city as our last day together began.

As soon as we arrived at the Florence train station we realized how crowded the city was going to be. There were tourists everywhere, and it was hard to just walk down the street, so we quickly made our way to an amazingly unpopulated gardens. A short but steep walk up a hill later, we were treated to an amazing panoramic view of Florence. After a while, we left the gardens to visit a slightly more popular gardens area called Boboli Gardens. By this time I was getting pretty tired from lugging my heavy bag around, so we went in search of a place to eat.

We found a nice little restaurant slightly off the beaten path, and we indulged in a delicious 3 course meal, including a nice bottle of wine. We stayed for a while to recover from all of the walking, and eventually to grabbed our things, paid for the meal, and headed back towards the center of the city. On our way we stopped to look at some art and browse the markets, but nothing really caught our eye so we didn't buy anything past a couple posters.

Finally, it was time to say goodbye. Dad had to catch a train back to Pisa where is flight was leaving from early the next morning, so we found a gelato shop with tables and wifi, put down my bags, and said goodbye. I stayed in the shop for a while, figuring out where I needed to go to catch my 2:00am bus, and sending a couple emails to my future hosts in Switzerland. At around 9:00pm, I grabbed my stuff, and set off at a leisurely pace back towards the train station where my bus was supposed to pick me up. I found a few nice places to sit and watch people walk by, but as it got darker and cooler, I headed into the train station to find a corner to sit in until my bus came.

Miles walked: 12.25

Italy is a beautiful country. It was my first time visiting, and while I enjoyed the touristy sights (and feel like I needed to see them at least once in my life), if I ever visit again I definitely want to explore the southern part more. According to several people that we chatted with, the south is much cheaper, and much less laden with tourist groups. I've always preferred living like a local when I travel, so southern Italy seemed much more inviting. 

The 6 days I spent were wonderful all the same. I spent some quality time with my dad, and it was a nice transition into the next 6 weeks which I'll be spending on my own. From Italy, I took a bus to Switzerland (which is where I am as of writing this post), where I spent a day with some family friends, before leaving the next night (now this night) for Amsterdam! The next three weeks I'll be all by myself, and I couldn't be more excited.

Total miles walked: 76.95

I haven't been able to get any planned workouts in, but I'm not too worried about staying in shape so far.

Thanks for reading,

Ben

Taliaglit

Day 1:

The first 10 days I spent in Israel were under the supervision of Taglit, the name that Israeli's have for Birthright trips. Over the next 4 days, I spent time with a close friend (and prom date!) Talia. Talia, who moved to Israel a year and a half ago, made Aliyah (joined the army) in the early months of 2016. Currently, she is on a 3 month "summer break" due to the timing of a certain course she is taking. This gave her the time to give me a personal tour of local life in Israel, which I so aptly named "Taliaglit". Here is a recap of what those days consisted of.

After parting ways with the group (which was much more difficult than I expected it to be), Jenna, Emily, and I made our way to the nearest coffee shop to get some wifi so we could contact Benji, a friend from Pitt who is living in Tel Aviv for 5 months for an internship. After a few minutes of confusion, we were able to communicate our whereabouts to him, and he showed up soon after to walk us back to his apartment.

Once there, Jenna and Emily got to repacking all of their stuff in preparation for their 5 week hike across France and Spain which they were leaving for early the next morning. Since we had so recently said our goodbyes to everyone on our Birthright trip, I wasn't prepared to do it again so soon. I told them to wake me up when they were going to leave (around 4:30am) so I could give them a proper goodbye. When I woke up I decided I would walk with them to the train station so that I could spend a few more minutes with them before parting ways. It was fun to walk through Tel Aviv that early in the morning, as the streets were practically empty. We arrived at what we thought was the train station and we finally said our goodbyes. I later discovered that I actually left them at the BUS station, and the train station was a few more minutes down the road, but I'm pretty sure they managed to figure everything out so I think we're OK.

A little side note before I continue the recap: I invited Jenna and Emily to write about their travels and send it to me. I don't know if they actually will, but if they do expect a guest post!

After walking back to Benji's, I decided to do a little writing before going back to bed since I was already awake. Afterwards, I slept for another hour or so, and then went to a nearby coffee shop while I waited for Talia to arrive. Once she got there around noon, we embarked on a bit of a walking tour of Tel Aviv while she ran a few errands.

Our first stop was at a bar about 15 minutes away to buy tickets for a club we would be going to that night. Usually there was free entry to the club, but there was a big show that night (Richie Hawtin was playing...neither of us had ever heard of him, but we had heard good reviews), so we had to buy tickets if we wanted to get in before 4:00am.  From there, we went in search of a camping store about 15 minutes away that Talia had found online. It ended up taking us an extra 10-15 minutes to find the damn store, as it was hidden in the middle of this weird warehouse/apartment building thing. I still have no idea how that place manages to get any business, as it literally could not have been any harder to find. Anyways, Talia bought a tent for her upcoming stay at an ashram, so we then headed back to Benji's to drop off some stuff and grab some much needed water.

By the time we got back, it was a little before 2:00pm (so we had been walking for about 2 hours). After a short rest, we went to go meet one of the staff from Taglit, Avinoam, for lunch. We had told Avinoam to meet us at a restaurant called Benedict, which was about two miles away from us according to our phone. The phone also mentioned that it would take an hour to walk there, but we shrugged that off, assuming that there would be no way that a 2-mile walk could take an hour.

Well, it did.

When we finally arrived at the restaurant, dripping in sweat and breathing heavily, Avinoam had already been there for about half an hour. We apologized for keeping him waiting, and he was forgiving enough, saying that he had just read his book in the meantime. We went on to order some delicious food and mimosas. At one point we did a cute little love triangle of mimosa tasting, which I think really sealed the deal on a great overall lunch experience.

After parting ways with Avinoam, we caught a bus to the nearby mall to finish the last few errands that Talia needed to run. She bought a charging cable and a memory card for her new camera, both of which were used plenty for the rest of the trip. From the mall, we decided we could muster up the energy to make the 30 minute walk back to Benji's. We got back, took a short rest (I think I showered?), and then headed over near the train station to meet some of Talia's army friends. We hung out there for an hour or two before heading back one last time to Benji's to eat dinner and prepare for the club that night. In total, according to Talia's phone, we walked 14 miles that day. This was all on about 7 hours of cumulative sleep over the last two days, and we were still planning on leaving for the club at around 1:00am. After a nice dinner on the roof, we took a quick 45 minute power nap (which was not nearly enough) before heading out to the club.

The club we were going to was called "The Block", and the event of the night was supposed to until 7:00am, with the headliner coming on at 3:00. It was a cool little venue on the side of a building. As soon as you walk in, you get the feeling that you are in this secret underground club. We weren't allowed to take our phones out as to "respect the vibe", and it actually made the environment a lot better without all the annoying LED screens shining in your eyes. There were two main rooms, both playing some great techno-y/trance-y music. We danced until around 5:00 before deciding it was time to call it a night. When we got back to Benji's we decided to go to his roof to watch the sunrise, where we ended up talking for a while. We finally went to bed around 7:30, knowing that we had to wake up at 9:00 in order to go to a birthday brunch for a friend.

Day 2:

After sleeping through several alarms, we were woken up by one of the friends we had met the day before, Jaren. We were supposed to meet Jaren at the train station at 9:30, but we had woken up at 9:20 so it wasn't looking good. We quickly grabbed our stuff and ran out the door to jump in a taxi. We managed to get to the train station by 9:45, and got on the train just as it was about to leave.

From the train station we took a short bus ride, followed by a short walk to the friend's, Gal's (I think I'm spelling that right), house. We were treated to an amazing array of breads, cheeses, salads, and other random dishes that I'm not sure what they were. We hung around for a while talking to the other people that were there, all of whom were in the army. For a large portion of the time they were all just speaking in Hebrew, so I found myself smiling like an idiot sto show that I was still having a good time, even though I couldn't really verbally communicate with a lot of them. It was an interesting experience to be surrounded by so many people all around the same age as me, that lead such different lives. While lots of them had many of the same hobbies and interests as I do, the majority of their conversations revolved around the army. There were people who had moved to Israel from all over the world to make Aliyah, and it was eye opening to see the different paths that people take.

After leaving Gal's house, we took a bus to a grocery store near Talia's aunt's house, which is wear Talia lives while she is in the army. We bought a few ingredients for dinner, and then were picked up by her aunt Hela, who was on her way back from a swimming lesson with 1 of her 4 kids. We got to their house and started making dinner as Talia's family got ready to go out for a separate dinner. We made a delicious vegan meal (Talia is mostly vegan) which consisted of rice, sweet potatoes, lentils, some veggies, and tahini. After dinner I took a quick nap (I was still exhausted from the day/night before) while Talia prepared some stuff for the upcoming night.

After her family came back, we got a ride to the kibbutz that Talia lived on for 5 months to learn Hebrew in preparation for the army. The kibbutz was huge, with around 2000 people living there. We brought the tent that she had just bought, and set it up on the beach. While we were unpacking some of our stuff, we were met up with one of Talia's friends Rachel, who was on the kibbutz the same time as Talia.

After putting everything we needed in the tent, we headed to a mutual friend's house to drink a bit before going to the local pub. We made makeshift mojitos using rum, mint lemonade, and pineapple flavored seltzer. They were delicious and we probably drank a little more than we should have...oh well.

Finally, we headed out to the pub, which was practically a club. There was a big dance floor, a light show, and a DJ who was live mixing popular music. We stayed for a while, dancing and talking to people that Rachel and Talia knew, before deciding to head back to the tent at around 4:30.

Day 3:

Our last full day together was fittingly on Shabbat. We took the day of rest to our advantage, catching up on some much needed at the beach. The next several hours we spent sitting on some couches under the shade, listening to the waves roll in. We were picked up by Talia's aunt in the afternoon, and headed back to their house for a few minutes, before leaving again with 2 of the kids for the local pool. We spent a couple hours there, reading and relaxing, before heading back for dinner.

Dinner consisted of an amazing cabbage salad, as well as some eggs and toast. Afterwards, the kids were put to bed, and we stayed up for a while talking to Talia's aunt and uncle about my travels, school, and whatever else. At around midnight Talia and I decided to watch a movie, but I almost immediately fell asleep once the movie started.

Day 4:

Still recovering from the last few days, we slept in again on Sunday morning. Originally we had planned on getting breakfast at a local store, but due to our late start we decided to do breakfast at the house. Afterwards, I packed up all my stuff, and it was time for our final voyage together. We took a bus towards the train station, stopping along the way to get a smoothie. We ran into another one of Talia's many army friends when we got to train station, so they started chatting as we sat on the train. Talia, who had a dentist appointment in the north part of Tel Aviv, got off a few stops before the airport. We took a quick picture of the two of us (almost forgot to!), and said our goodbyes. About 20 minutes later, I arrived at the airport where I would spend the next several hours before my flight left that night.

The few days that I got to spend with Talia were incredible. It was a nice change to go from ultra tourist mode to getting to live a life more similar to a local. Talia was as good of a tour guide as anyone could have asked for, and I wish her all the best in her travels and next few years in the army. She is spending the next month or so on an ashram in the middle of the desert, and I can only imagine how awesome that will be.

Stay safe Talia!

Thanks for reading,

Ben

Spirituality

For the first 10 days of my trip, I took part in a Birthright program. Birthright is a free trip to Israel that anyone under the age of 26 (I think there might be special programs for people older than that too) who has any Jewish heritage can take. During those 10 days you travel as a group with 30-40 people and see the sights Israel has to offer. You are joined part way through the trip by Israeli soldiers around your age, and they become part of the group for 5 days.

Many people that go on this trip go for religious reasons. Some want to rekindle their religion after having lost it over the years, and some want to spark something within them that they may not have known they had beforehand. For me, I wasn't really sure what I wanted to get out of this trip. To be frank, I mostly went into it as a way to get a free flight over here, which cuts down the costs of my travels a lot. After seeing everyone else's experience, I still do not find much interest in religion, but I did find some interest in spirituality.

My parents raised me as both Jewish and Christian. My dad occasionally took me to synagogues and we celebrated the high holidays, while my mom took me to church and again we celebrated the high holidays. They wanted me to be exposed to both religions, so that I could make my own choice of which I identified more with. What ended up happening was that the two seemed to cancel each other out, and I ended up leading a very non-religious life.

Religion has never made much sense to me. Why do people put so much trust and faith into something so abstract? Why do they believe that a book written thousands of years ago would explain life better than we can today? To me, most of the miracles that are described in the bible seem like desperate explanations of something that people at the time didn't understand. Over time, the stories get more and more exaggerated, and like a game of telephone, whatever the story was at the beginning, it is wildly different now.

When we visited the Western Wall, many of the people on our trip described being very emotional. They said they felt connected to their ancestors, their family, and their religion. I, on the other hand, felt nothing. What I saw was a bunch of people praying at a wall. To me, they almost looked like they were begging for answers, and that didn't seem right.

That night, I had a conversation with Jenna and Emily about religion. We talked about what we felt at the wall, and I described my experience. I said that I didn't see the sense in looking outwards into the unknown in search of answers for your problems. In my opinion, it makes much more sense to look inwards, and find the answers within yourself. I described it as the difference between religion and spirituality. While with religion you look to a god for answers, with spirituality you look at yourself. To truly find happiness, you have to be able to find inner peace, and if you are constantly asking for that from anyone but yourself, I don't think you'll ever find it.

I had similar conversations with a few other people during my trip, including my friend Talia after the Birthright program was over. While I was staying with Talia, who is very spiritual herself, I was noticing a lot of similarities between her and my mother, who recently had a spiritual awakening. Both seem to be incredibly happy and lead a life full of smiles and laughter. They find joy in the little things in life, be it the color of some mangos in a market, or a picture a friend took of a rainbow. They seem to have found peace within themselves, and they are now two of the happiest people I know.

So I guess I'm coming away from my Birthright experience with a little more appreciation for the spiritual side of life. I probably won't start meditating and exclusively doing yoga, but I do think I'll start down a path of self discovery. I don't exactly know where I'll end up, but if it can make me and the people around me happier, then I can only see it as a benefit.

Thanks for reading,

Ben

Israel

First off, let me apologize for not posting earlier, so some of the memories might be a little stale. I tried a couple of times during the Birthright program to write a post, but there was too many things happening for me to ever have time to really sit down and write.

It's been about two hours since the Birthright trip officially ended. What I originally expected to be a kind of cheesy trip with a bunch of random ass people ended up being an amazing experience. I met some incredible people that I will absolutely stay in contact with, had some great adventures, and made some lifelong memories.

The last 10 days flew by, and so many things happened, so I plan on giving a quick-ish recap of the general activities we did in this post, and then having some follow up posts over the next few days which I'll voice more of my personal experiences and opinions.

Part 1: Kibbutz Gadot

My trip started out with a slow start. My 7 hour MegaBus ride turned into a 9.5 ride, due to hitting traffic in Manhattan that was generated from the Pride Parade. After finally getting off the bus, I had to run to the train station to catch a couple trains to get to JFK. I ended up having to get a homeless guy to direct me in the right direction as I got super confused. From there, everything got better. I slept incredibly well on the flight, and once we got our first resting point at Kibbutz Gadot in the northern-most part of Israel, I had barely any trouble at all falling back asleep.

Our first day was highlighted by a rafting trip down the Jordan River. No one really knew what to expect, and people were still getting acquainted with each other, so I my raft consisted of mostly friendly faces. Accompanied by Jenna, Emily, and a North Carolinian named Jacob, we slowly started floating down the river. It took us a while to get going, as the river was very low, and we seemed to be able to get stuck on every rock we passed. Eventually, the river deepened a little bit, and we were shortly thereafter met by a barricade of IDF soldiers who were on a day off to get some relaxation. They seemed to get a lot of joy out of bombarding the silly Americans, so as we struggled to get through them, we got absolutely drenched. By the time we broke through the lines, we had picked up a couple soldiers who had had their raft stolen by their sergeant.

For the next while, we kept encountering more and more groups of IDF soldiers. Every time we passed another group, the two that were on our raft would start wrestling with whoever they recognized. At one point, one of the soldiers on our raft was leaning over the side, and Emily thought it was a good idea to try to push him over the edge. Instead, he was able to save himself, and he turned around to get revenge. Unfortunately for me, the soldier was under the impression that I was the one that pushed him, which awarded me with a quick shove into the water.

The next few days have kind of melted together for me, so in hopes of keeping this post shorter than the Odyssey, I'll keep the recap short.

For the nights that we stayed on Kibbutz Gadot, we went on a few short and easy hikes (too easy in my opinion), got to visit a winery and did some wine tasting, and visited Tzfat, one of the holiest cities in Israel.

Tzfat was a beautiful little town that rested on the side of a mountain. We spent some time walking through the streets there, visiting the synagogues and walking through the small market. The last activity we did there consisted of meeting with an Orthodox Rabbi who gave us a talk about the meaning of Judaism, as well as teaching us about Kabala, a spiritual branch of Judaism. He was a great speaker, and I learned a lot more than I expected from that talk. Expect a future blog post about those talks.

Part 2: Jerusalem

After parting ways with Kibbutz Gadot, we headed south towards Jerusalem. We stopped at a viewing point to take some nice pictures, and then headed to our hotel. I would like to blame that hotel in particular for the absence of posts, since they made you pay for wifi. Fuck that.

While we were in Jerusalem, our group of 39 Americans grew to 47 as we were joined by 8 IDF soldiers. We quickly integrated them as part of the group, and over the 5 days that they were with us, we got to learn a lot of the cultural differences and similarities between people around the same age as us.

Anyways, over the next four days in Jerusalem we visited basically everything you need to see while you're there. We went into the old city and saw the Western Wall, visited the holocaust museum Yad Vashem, went out to experience local night life at a market, and finally went to the National Museum of Israel. Shabbat was also during our stay in Jerusalem, which meant a full day hanging out at the hotel swimming pool. It was a nice way to get to really meet the soldiers that had joined us, as well as a good time to become closer with the other Americans on the trip.

Part 3: Bedouin Tents

The next stop on our trip was a 1 night stay in the middle of the desert. The Bedouins were locals to Israel before Israel existed. They live in tents in the desert, and move wherever they find water. They have an agreement with the Israeli government now, so they will always have access to water. Our one night stay there was probably my favorite night of the program, as we spent about an hour stargazing. I absolutely love stars and space, and I very rarely get to see the stars like I did that night. It was a new moon, meaning it was dark as shit out, and we could see the Milky Way. As we sat in a circle gazing upwards, a lot of people opened up about their thoughts and feelings of the trip. It was really a special moment, and it brought all of us even closer together.

The morning after stargazing we had to get up bright and early to beat the heat as we hiked up Masada. We took the short but steep trail up, and had an amazing view of the Dead Sea and its surroundings. We then took the Snake Path down, which was much longer, and I was happy to finally get a decent workout in.

From there, we went to the Dead Sea, which was as unpleasant as it was when I was there last, 9 years ago. The sea itself was boiling hot, and while it was fun to float for all of 30 seconds, the 30 minutes of burning down under made it not worth it at all.

Part 4: Tel Aviv

The final stopping place was in Tel Aviv. We got to the hotel around 6:30pm, where we were happy to find the first stable wifi of the whole trip. I spend the next hour contacting Talia and Benji (the friends I am currently with before I leave for Italy), as well as my dad so I could send him my flight info for Rome. After that we had a little time to shower before dinner, and then we went to the local flea market for some drinks. While we were out we met up with Benji, who lives nearby, and we got to catch up and figure out the tentative plan once the Birthright program was over. After heading back to the hotel, I decided to stay up for a while with a new friend named Sophie. We explored the area around the hotel for a little, and when we finally decided it was time to go to bed at 2:30am, we discovered we had been locked out of our rooms. Luckily we managed to get into her room after a few minutes of knocking, and we had to share a tiny little twin sized bed for the night. The result of about 4 hours of not great sleep led to a delirious final day of the tour, as we spent the whole day walking around Tel Aviv. We went to a giant outdoor market, and I immediately found a coffee shop to sit in for the next few hours until we got back on the bus to go to the final dinner.

After dinner was over, it was time to say our goodbyes. What started as a basically just a free ticket in the general direction of Europe ended as a lifelong memories with people that I'm sure I will see in the not so distant future. While up until this point I hadn't been nervous at all about my travels through Europe, after feeling so comfortable surrounded by friendly faces, it feels really weird to be on my own. I would like to give a quick thanks to the country of Israel for making a trip like that available. It is something that everyone should have the opportunity to do.

I am now staying at Benji's place for two nights, where we will be meeting up with Talia in a few hours. I walked Jenna and Emily to the train station at 5:00 this morning, and said my goodbyes with them. I really enjoyed their company throughout this trip, and I'm going to miss them a lot as they backpack across France and Spain. If you two are reading this, I hope I mentioned you enough, I'm sure I'll mention you plenty more in some of the follow up posts.

For now, I'm signing off. I have 3 more days in Israel that I will be spending with Benji and Talia. We are going clubbing tonight, to the beach (I think?) tomorrow, and staying at Talia's kibbutz that night. Honestly, I'm only 50% sure on half the stuff we're doing, since I'm letting the locals take the reins on the scheduling.

Expect a few more posts in the near future.

Thanks for reading,

Ben