Sea of Galilee--Day One

After a full week of intense planning, my fellow summer pals and I made it to the Sea of Galilee! On Thursday night, we met in the dorm lobby to organize the event and decided to leave promptly at 8:00am the next morning. As most of us stayed up till about 1:30 playing The Settlers of Catan (woohoo!), it was kind've amazing that we all managed to scramble out of bed on time. Of course, the fact that we were all ready to go at 8:00am suddenly became rather insignificant as our neatly packed schedule gradually unraveled. Our original plan had been to rent one car and then borrow another from Ari's relatives. But…the car rental company refused to sign a rental agreement with anyone under the age of 24! After contemplating for a good half hour, we decided that half of us would split up and take the bus; we would meet up north. Frankly, this may have turned out to be the better option…a weekend trip is always so much more riveting when your plans are suddenly dashed and you're left to explore freely without the confines of a timetable!

As the self-elected bus-takers, Tanmay, Daniela, Martin, and I found ourselves in Nazareth roughly two hours later, quite pleased with ourselves for managing the rigorous expedition which involved getting off at two bus-stops. Daniela is a summer student from Austria who hopes to study virology and Martin is her friend who works for Dell Computers nearby. The four of us made a good team! In Nazareth, we went first to the Basilica of the Annunciation, a fairly modern church that commemorates the angel Gabriel appearing to Mary and telling her that she would give birth to Jesus. The church was quite remarkable inside: completely silent and rather dark, with light streaming through ornate stained-glass windows. On the lower floor of the church we found the Grotto of Annunciation, a cold cave-like dwelling which is thought to be the early childhood home of the Virgin Mary. The upper floor houses an impressive domed roof. On the walls hang ornate paintings and mosaics which depict Mary from various cultural standpoints. My favorite mosaic was the one designed by Spanish artists, but I must say it was really interesting to see the mosaic from Japan which showed Mary with distinctly oriental features, wearing a kimono, and holding baby Jesus.

Artwork outiside of church

The Basilica of Annunciation

Crucifix inside Basilica of Annunciation

Mary's childhood home

Stained-glass

After walking through the Basilica of Annunciation, the four of us explored the nearby Church of St. Joseph which commemorates the house of Mary and Joseph. Though its architecture is humble compare to the Basilica of Annunciation, it is built over the ruins of ancient Nazarene homes. One can look through a grating in the floor and see cave-like outcroppings below which served as storage rooms for grain and wine. It's a bit strange to think that Jesus and his family walked amongst these dwellings two thousand years ago! Imagine Jesus as a child running through the streets of Nazareth. I wonder if Mary ever sent little Jesus to these storage rooms to grab some grain for her to make bread with. I suppose not much has changed in the mother-child relationship since then, except unlike Mary, Mom only asks me to refill her Diet Coke and not a burlap sack of wheat.

Inisde Church of St. Joseph

Mary inside Church of St. Joseph

When we left the Church of St. Joseph, we got a phone call from the other half of our group and decided to meet up for lunch somewhere nearby. As we trekked through the noticeably Arab streets we kept our eyes open for a restaurant which (1) served meat, (2) was reasonably priced, and (3) had air-conditioning! The midday heat had certainly gotten to all of us! We found a nice restaurant and all sat down for a leisurely lunch of shawarma and refreshing cold soda-pop. Besides my fellow bus-buddies and I, the other five people on the trip were Becca, Ari, Ari's brother Roni, Iris, and Lisa. Departing our separate ways after lunch, the bus-team waited around to catch the next bus to Tiberias. Though this entailed about an hour-long wait, it was fun to sit and chat, and watch the locals go about their weekend shopping. There was one guy in a car who kept driving up and down the streets blaring outrageous Arab music. I think he would've been an excellent DJ at my high-school prom. He certainly knew his beats!

When we arrived in Tiberias around 3:30pm, we settled into our rooms at the hostel, put on our swimsuits, and then headed down to the beach (of course we were all compelled to get an Israeli iced-coffee on our trek down to the shore). The Sea of Galilee was stunning. The water ripples with small waves; the fresh-water lake is surrounded by sloping hills and mountain cliffs. I couldn't help but think about how it was at this very site which the Bible says Jesus walked on water and calmed the seas, where he fished with his disciples and gave some of his most profound teachings. It indeed a humbling experience and I once again found myself thinking "I'm in Israel!! How on earth did I end up here!?"

On the shore of the Sea of Galilee (left to right: Lisa, Becca, Iris)

Once we had all swam in the water till our fingers shriveled up like raisins, we walked back towards the hostel and stopped for dinner at a nearby restaurant. The food was okay, but the atmosphere was really quite nice. We sat outside on a porch and could feel the breeze coming in from the sea. I was really quite proud of my meal choice…I ate St. Peter's fish, a local fish which was most likely caught that very same morning! I didn't even shy away at the fact that the fish was served to me head and all. I must admit, however, that I wasn't brave enough to eat the eyeballs though I did enjoy skewering them with my fork.

St. Peter's fish for dinner

Back at the hostel, we enjoyed an evening of Settlers of Catan, beer, and cookies-and-cream ice-cream. With nine people in our group, we played Settlers in teams which made for a rather exciting and competitive experience. When we all went to bed at 2:00 we begrudgingly set our alarms to 7:15am with the plan to do a hike around Galilee before the sun became too unbearable.