Journey to the North, Part 1

This one's a multi-parter. Watch out!

I’ve been avoiding writing due to laziness, but now I’m listening to “You Can Call Me Al” and Paul Simon always inspires me. So here goes.

I left Jerusalem last Friday morning (Yom Shishi--the Sixth Day--in Hebrew) traveling by train to Nahariya, which is on the west coast (Mediterranean side) of the country about 20-30 minutes south of the border with Lebanon. Train travel in Israel can be slow (especially going from Jerusalem to Tel Aviv, which you have to do to get anywhere from here), but inexpensive and very comfortable, if you can get a seat.

I used as much Hebrew as I could during my trip and by the end of that first train ride I had a pretty good sense of exactly what I do know and what I don’t know. For instance, I’m getting very good at numbers. For anything where the relevant part of the answer is a number, I’m in good shape. Otherwise, I’m pretty much out of luck. I have gotten really good at letting people know I don’t understand them, which usually works out, since a lot of people (but definitely not most people) speak English.

I went to Nahariya to see my dad’s cousins Norman and Beth, who are fantastic. They made aliyah in 1980 and have basically been living in or near Nahariya since then. I’ve seen them many times before, but never got to spend multiple days together with them. It was really interesting to hear their thoughts on about making aliyah, religion and politics in Jerusalem and elsewhere, and living in Nahariya during wartime. It was also a lovely and relaxing Shabbat with family.




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