First guests in TLV

So last week our we had our first house guests here in tel aviv.  our friends Alana and Jin arrived from vancouver a week ago today.  they are staying with us here in tel aviv for a week, going to jerusalem, petra and eilat for 5 days, and then back with us for a final week.

its interesting now that i have been here for 5 months, to tour someone around as your home.  they were very excited to stay with us, because you get a different view of a city than when you go to a hotel.  for the first three days, we just took them out to restaurants and the beach, biked around the town, and just showed them fun area’s in tel aviv.  then we decided we would go raft down the mighty jordan river one day, so we did that for one day trip, and another day trip was to Gan HaShlosha, or translated as the three pools.   Noa and i have never been there, and well, we ended up going to the national park next door instead by mistake, which only had TWO pools.  i think we got ripped off.

here is us in front of what i think are a type of mangrove tree

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(photo courtesy of Jin and his sony auto face detecting camera)

noa and I in tiberias, also known as the tackiest resort town in israel

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(photo courtesy of Jin)

and us in one of the pools at Gan HaShlosha

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(photo courtesy of Jin, the sony camera with face detection, and the wall of the pool)

Im finding it really interesting actually to read the lonely planet guide book.  for example, Gan HaShlosha is not in there, and it recommends visiting a store here in the little local mall, which is nice and all, but really, not a must for seeing and experiencing tel aviv.  it also gives you a whole rundown about where to stay if you visit Gaza city, which currently, is not accessible unless you happen to be a foreign aid worker.  not even for reporters.  it also thinks it only takes 30 min to travel from tel aviv to jerusalem, and unless your flying, i dont know how that is possible with the traffic in jerusalem.

dome of the rock from mount of olives

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western wall.  separated men and womens section.

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But anyways, i digress.  we started with the mount of olives scenic view, followed by an action packed day of seeing the old city of jerusalem.  we went to the western wall, then hit some of the other highlights and finally dropped them off at their hostel yesterday.  i will say this though.  its really fun playing tourist in your own city,  as i finally got to the beach to go swimming.  funny how you end up in a daily life routine, and miss out on somethings that are right there.  But on the flip side, im also exhausted.  running around the city, driving to the north, eating out and waking up early every morning has left me pretty tired, especially after only resting 3 days after italy before they arrived.  Im still working through my backlog of photos, and trying to post about italy, all the while touring around.  but i suppose theres worse problems to have.

so thats why i havent posted anything from italy for a few days.  but im going to get back to that this week, while they are away.  i need to get through those posts, as we only have 2 and a half more weeks before we start our travels in North america this summer.  and before we leave we have them still here, and another friend from vancouver will be here for three days.  fun but hectic.

stay tuned.