habaita - home

time flies and it is time to fly...
it was great after ten years to meet my family and friends, 'regain' my citizenship, visit three and swim in two seas, walk streets of Jerusalem - 'city that always calls'...will i ever forget silent cry of the Western Wall of the Temple Mount?
will i remember the sealed Golden Gate?
- i thought you were dead...
- i thought i was dead...
home - is it a place or time?
three in one will be tel-aviv/prague/montreal in my smiling face at the trudeau airport
- what's up?
- everything... everything
(photo: israeli flag over the red sea)

red sea - blue water

five days... five days!
from the mediterranean via dead to the red sea in six hours - what a ride!

we just passed the dead sea dropping off a group of tourists, but it was enough to realize how really dead this place is - salt and heat is a bad combination... trust me on this one : )
eilat wasn't all that refreshing either - +42°C would be impossible to take if not the fresh sea breeze. i have enjoyed diving, snorkeling and swimming to the full extend...
eilat has wonderful coral reefs, with lots of exotic fishes that you can literally feed of your hand - real fun!
we had a tour to the egyptian boarder near the king solomon montain, where we were able to see territories of saudi arabia, jordan, israel and egypt at once.
we also had a tour to the timna park (30 km. from eilat), place of unique geological formations, antiquities and archaeological finds dating back to early pharaonic dynasties
most of all i enjoyed the water - true escape in the heat of the day...
eilat is flooded with refuges from the north of israel... however, no sign of panic
this time i've got some real sunburn - not sure you will be able to recognize me : )
my dad,sister, nephew and i got much closer... in the way we understand each other
you know - listening is not my strongest part, but i had to excersise it a lot
there is still some division between ashkenazim, sefardim and temanim - jewish emigrants from europe, spain/marocco and iran/iraq... apparently, cultural roots are still very strong, and 'neighbours' (like everywhere else) never go away : )
all the perceptions i had about the believers in this land, problems they have - all this started making much more sense to me now
tomorrow is my last day in israel... some visits, shopping
israel, how did you find me? i found you much younger
(photo: eilat from the sea, dad and i near the king solomon's pillars)

jerusalem-at last

i know...
6:30/bus to tel-aviv/tour bus,guide...all aboard/+28ºC/full ahead!!!
theme of the tour - 'jerusalem - the city of three religions'... so many questions, will i get any answers? half an hour later stop at the gaz station/rest area turn into elvis presley museum. lots of statues, pictures, t-shirts, mugs and non-stop music - 'you can do anything, but lay off of my blue suede shoes...'
joel, that's the place to be dude : )
aight, only twenty minutes more of ride and we are in jerusalem - am i dreaming?
here history comes reality... how about the future?
'three ways to know god' - this is how our guide sasha(amazing dude) rephrased the theme of our tour i am afraid to start retelling very professional, highly informative story that sasha prepared for us - i will keep it maybe for 'reflections' to be published on our website...
one of the world oldest cities on the face of the earth.... being near places where abraham was about to sacrifice isaac, the tomb and trone of king David, remains of the great Temple, Golgotha, The Stone of Unction... learning about mohammad and islam (islam means submission)... and more and more and much more

so much to say...
few things to note: while muslims lay their hands on the rock from which mohammad ascended to the heaven, jews lay their hands on the western wall (remains of the great Temple), christians (some of them) lay their hands on The Stone of Unction...
it is definitely an amazing in every way place...
i am thrilled - wish you were here!



while i was preparing this post i had one more tour - 'the christian jerusalem'...
overwhelmed... according to a legend mary's(mother of the Lord) tomb was found empty ... allegedly she was taken to heaven - we have visited the place...
tomorrow we are leaving for eilat - five days on the red sea... WOW!
(photo: western wall(remains of the Temple mount), Dome of the Rock, garden of Gethsemane, the stone of unction, dove)

some visits

i am enjoying swimming very much...
seeing a lot of fish close to the shore inspired me to buy a scoop net... i was hoping to catch some - well, ain't that easy : )
visited sonya, friend of my sister in tel-aviv... ex-german language professor, passionate traveller working as a waitress in one of the bohemian tel-aviv cafes
she collects paintings of moshe bernshtein, popular israelian painter, i have met him probably three times too...
more memories/stories/...
moshe is a Holocaust survivor - most of his paintings are sad streets/faces/eyes... though, i remember him being very sociable and 'happy' looking... we watched a documentary about sonya made by one of the cinematography students... nine minutes of an honest look on emigrant's live... sonya was telling us how they were shooting it(six months!), first screening at the festival... she promised me a copy, but you know in israel tomorrow is not necessarily the next day : )
(photo: sonya with some of the pictures from her collection)

ashdod - growing fast

it's my third day in israel...
we've booked our trip to eilat - it's five days on the red sea, starting next monday... i have been to eilat many times, visiting marsel while he was living there with his mom... hope it'd changed : )
i remember some pretty tiring winds up and down the near montain and luck of green
sad to see how my dad is 'slowing down' : (
he can't walk far even though i see how hard he is trying...
i've also booked two tours to jerusalem(get ready): 'jeruslem - the capital of three religions' and 'the christian jerusalem'. unfortunately, even highly desired i won't be able to visit the grave of abraham, sarah, jacob etc. in hevron (cave of machpelah) - it is governed by palestinian authorities, there is no even transportation.
at last i had a chance to see how fast ashdod is growing beautiful...
wide, spacious streets... modern architecture masterfully blended into the mid-east cultural tradition... some sculptures remind me of montreal very much
it is still pretty hot, i'd just stay in the water... waves are getting higher day by day, but it only means even more fun - jumping and diving... kids on the beach go nuts of excitement and i share their feelings : )
we've watched the movie 'constantine' - keanu... boy, what happened to you, not to mention the plot - mishmash of bible and sorcery performed by the 'young and beautiful'... très triste
apparently, one good truth for us is not enough... we just need to imagine something is being hidden, some going on conspiracy, feel urgency to do something to uncover it... ufff 'you talking to me?...to me?'
i should have stayed on the beach...
(photo, from the top: ashdod - cultural center building, new square, beach)

sunday - yom rishon

yom rishon(first day), or sunday - is the first day of jewish week
my sister lives just by the beach that stays crowded all week long
shopping... ashdod flooded mostly with russian emigrants - russian speech is everywhere, it makes difficult for me to practice my hebrew : (
lots of scraggy stray cats mostly around the waste containers - so sad... in mtl i think we have more homeless people then stray cats
the sea is pretty rough, stormy winter season is coming
beach... this time i took a longer swim and got pretty tired - should practice more
while on the beach passing a group of hasidim (orthodox jews) noticed that women wear socks even while in the water...
had an interesting discussion with my dad regarding his understanding what testament in bible terms means... in russian it rather means precept/law/heritage - very different/interesting isn't it?
met my old roommate and friend mikhail(30) - didn't change, same nice guy i knew ten years(!) ago... he has a beautiful wife and son jonathan(11 months), going to visit them in rishon-lezion maybe next weekend
was watching on the national geographic channel a documentary about gnosticism... never realized how dangerous it is.. i should really learn more about it
my sister's pc was polluted with ie + computer illiteracy inspired viruses, it took all last night for me fix it... so, i missed the morning run (wow)
yeah, my dad bought me a digital video camera (alex and janey, you're getting a competition here) i don't know how to find time for all these gadgets
like i expected, people don't(rather choose not to) talk about the war - like it have always been, never happened, never ended... so, what is this thing called time?
sleeeeeeeep

shalom

i am in israel - tired and happy
extremely hot and humid, AC and beach are the only escapes
i am chosing the latter... it's not an ocean, the water is not as bright and clear
family reunion feels great, like all these years never happened. starting making plans. first our trip probably will be eilat - red sea resort
today is the end of sabbath - families, friends, everyone in the evening are out for ice cream.