Day 31

One-eyed sun, lady legs, and a swim in the Sea of Galilee.

A fly buzzed persistently about my nose, but I refused to open my eyes. I waved a slow, sleepy hand over my face now and again, but the fly refused to leave. The morning sun poured full blast on the ragged old sofa on Ron's patio. It was useless to try to sleep any more, so I sat up reluctantly.

I was greeted by a smiling sun with one eye, painted brightly on the side of patio wall. Nearby sat a pair of red upside-down lady legs. For a moment, all of this was bewildering, but then I remembered that I was staying at Ron's place.

One-eyed sun

Lady legs

I wandered around for a little while, waiting for the others to wake up. Looking out across the other rooftops, I noticed that most of the apartment buildings had solar hot water heaters on top. Eventually Angie, Missy, and Ron woke up and we began to discuss what we should do today.

We decided to go to the Sea of Galilee. Ron would drive us all in his car.

Our first stop was breakfast. We pulled in to a pancake restaurant on the side of the road, which was much like a truck stop or diner in America. I ordered the peach pancakes. The waiter seemed to recognize Ron, and was quite friendly.

We continued onward toward the city of Tiberias, located on the shore of the Sea of Galilee, about 100 miles from Tel Aviv.

Tel Aviv to the Sea of Galilee

On the way, I learned a little more about Missy. Missy is what you might call a military stewardess. She works as a stewardess for an airline, but her typical passengers are soldiers, instead of civilians. Military stewardesses are specially trained to deal with terrorist situations, and assume that the passengers can take care of themselves in such cases. I learned that for some flights, the seats are configured back to back, to give the soldiers more freedom of movement in an emergency. She also explained that it is possible to disable an airplane using just ice and human excrement -- but I won't bother with the details.

The road carved back and forth down the hill as we descended towards the lake valley. The Sea of Galilee is really a lake. In fact, it's also known as Kemerit Lake. Rows and rows of palm trees loaded with dates sprouted along the southern part of the lake. There were lots of flowers, too.

We continued along the western shore, north to Tiberias. Entering the city I saw signs for hot mineral baths, ,a couple of large hotels, and resort areas with artificial turf and beach umbrellas. We drove a little farther, parked, and walked down to a boardwalk that paralleled the beach. After a stop at an ice cream stand, we went into a video arcade to waste a couple of shekels. Ron especially likes flight simulator games. Afterwards we went back to the car.

We drove back south a little ways and stopped at a beach area. The place was fenced off, and we had to pay a little bit to get in. There were lots of places like this along the shore. There were camping spots, but we hadn't brought supplies to stay the night. Everyone changed into swimsuits in the bathrooms nearby, and we all made our way gingerly over the gravel parking lot in our bare feet. Concrete stairs led down into the water, which was perfect temperature -- a little bit cool at first, but just right after a few minutes.

Angie and I swam back and forth from the shore to a buoy floating about 100 yards offshore. As a child, Angie used to swim on the local swim team in Guntersville, Alabama. It's been several years since then, but she's still hard to keep up with. Ron and Missy played around closer to shore.

Eventually came sunset, and we dried off on a concrete picnic table that was still warm from the hot day.

Drying off on a warm picnic table after a swim in the Sea of Galilee

We drove back to Tiberias, and found a restaurant by the water, where we had fish with lots of different kinds of salads.

Ron drove us all home that night.

Upon arriving at Ron's apartment, we heard a loud party on the roof the of the adjoining building. It was a children's party of some sort, and there were about 20 10-year-olds dancing and singing at the top of their lungs to the music put on by a DJ. The DJ called out the words and all the kids were doing the same dance in unison. As we watched from Ron's patio nearby, some of the children saw Ron and began to yell for him. Ron, slightly embarrassed, waved and went back inside.

I was very tired and fell asleep on the couch in Ron's apartment while the others were still awake.