Fields37's Blog

Day 1: Saturday, October 16

fields37 — Sat, 01 Jan 2011 21:09:58 +0000

It feels like we got on the plane this morning, not last night. I am completely wiped out. Yesterday, we had a bar mitzvah to go to in the morning, which we rushed home from to pack, not know what to pack, jump in the car, pick up our awesome cousin Samantha (who amazes me with her ability to tolerate our crazyness), jump on the plane, and go to Israel(woohoo!).It is crucial to travel with only the bare necessities.

Sunday, 10/17

fields37 — Fri, 31 Dec 2010 06:45:03 +0000

Today I woke up just in time to scarf down a box of Froot Loops and a banana before the plane landed. This billboard was my first sign of Jewish civilization. We walked past the giant mezuzah, and right into an equally humongous customs line. (2 hours later) We arrived at the hotel, the Leonardo Plaza, by which time we realized it was 6 o’clock in the evening. We decided to go walk around the city and get some dinner. We passed a restaurant named after the subject of my bar mitzvah torah portion, and sat down to eat some awesome falafel and schwarma. We walked by a bakery, ate some cookies, and started walking in the direction of the old city. I got a picture of the Jaffa Gate, the entrance to the Old City, in a really spooky lighting. We walked through a market area starting to close up all of their shops, but I still got to see some cool stores, like this one.We ended up at the Western Wall at dusk, and it looked stunning in the low light, illuminated by a few spotlights. The shining Dome of the Rock.

The excavation behind the Western Wall

My dad in front of the Western Wall

A group of Jewish women at the wall

A cool view

We exited the Western Wall area, jumped into a taxi, and went back to the hotel. A perfect end to a perfect day.

Gabe

Monday, 10/18

fields37 — Thu, 30 Dec 2010 05:42:09 +0000

Today my mom went out and got us some delicious pastries for breakfast at a corner store that advertises the fact that it is open “24/6″ . People in this country really take shabbat seriously. Another interesting thing is that people are much more used to soldiers with machine guns, just walking around on the streets. Also, there are much more beggars here than in New York. We met our insanely awesome(and also slightly insane) tour guide for Jerusalem, Gil. After a slight hotel mishap, we met up with our other cousins, Michelle and Amy, and let our grandparents, Aaron and Thelma, sleep in. So far, thats me my dad, my mom, Rebecca, Samantha, Michelle, Amy, Aaron, and Thelma(I’ll be quizzing you on this next week(sorry Ben)).Gil, who seems to know everybody in Jerusalem, took us on a walking tour of the ramparts around the Old City of Jerusalem.

Part of the Wall From Around the Corner

We passed through the Christian quarter, then the Muslim.

A view of the Muslim Quarter, with the Dome of the Rock in the Background

The Mt. of Olives, a huge cemetery that is said to be where the messiah will first come from, and resurrect everybody in it first. As you can see, it's a popular spot to be buried because of it.

The holes in the wall that Muslim women have to look through because they are not usually allowed to have any interactions.

The stunning church next to Mt. of Olives.

A photo I took from the wall of an olive tree.

At least twice, we heard Muslim prayer time, and a voice on a loudspeaker began singing. Then,we got into our van and picked up Aaron and Thelma. We drove to Mt. Hertzl, a vast military cemetery, and Gil spoke for a while. Then we went to Yad Vashem, the Holocaust museum. It was pretty intense. The way they designed the museum was really cool, because at the end, they’re talking about how people wanted to give the Jewish people a homeland, and then the museum ends on a balcony overlooking the entire city of Jerusalem and the 6 million trees they planted in memory of the Jews who died. Then we drove to the King David Hotel to have a drink and enjoy the view over the Old City.

Our extended family at the King David Hotel

We ended with a tour through the tunnels under the Western Walls(which I decided wasn’t respectful to take pictures during), and had a pleasant dinner before we ate some tasty gelato and went to sleep.

Tuesday, 10/19, Part 1

fields37 — Wed, 29 Dec 2010 03:16:57 +0000

Our guide, Gil

A boy we saw making pita bread

Our bikes this morning, not yet put together

Today was a big day. We toured the Old City, and the sights and sounds around the different quarters and districts were fascinating. We started in the Christian Quarter, and worked our way through the Jewish Quarter, and last, the Muslim Quarter. They were all different and similar in many ways. For example, in the markets in the Jewish Quarter, there is usually one set price, but in the Muslim Quarter, you can haggle to get a good deal, however in both markets they are usually selling the same things. In the Christian Quarter, we walked on the 2000 year-old cobblestones that Jesus walked on when carrying the cross. We then walked into the Church of the Holy Sepulcher, a church built on the spot where many believe Jesus was crucified and buried. The church was incredibly beautiful in the art on the walls and ceiling, but for me it was unsettling to watch the intensity and urgency with which they rubbed their souvenirs on and kissed the rock that Jesus’ body was supposedly washed on, however it may be like that for a Christian to see people at the Western Wall. The power that religion has on people, whether or not there is validity in its stories and teachings(I’m not saying there isn’t some, this is just general), is very strong, and I know I felt uncomfortable. We next walked into the Arab markets. My favorite part of that was the spices. The smell of them wafting through the market definitely added to the experience of being in such a cool place.

A store where they just sold pots and lamps

After the Arab market, we walked to a local place to have lunch. It was traditional Israeli food, with a lot of pita bread and hummus.

Tuesday, 10/19 Part 2

fields37 — Tue, 28 Dec 2010 14:09:38 +0000

After our awesome lunch, my father and I went with my three cousins, Samantha, Michelle, and Amy, to the Mahane Yehuda food market. I was in heaven. The unique aromas coming from each storefront were so entrancing that I pretty much bought out the whole market. Here is a sample of what it looks like.

A man selling dried fruit and nuts

Just calm down and keep your head on your neck!

: COOKIES

Here are some of the things I bought: a pomegranate, a bag of rice crackers, tea, chocolate bars, pistachios, and halava. If your mouth isn’t watering by now, you’re as crazy as me. After that, we went to a long Israel Ride orientation, where we met the 100 or so other people participating in the Ride. A really very incredible end to a really very incredible day(oh and my cousins got me a genie lamp thing in the Shuk!).

Gabe

Wednesday, 10/20

fields37 — Mon, 27 Dec 2010 14:49:36 +0000

Today was the first day of riding! We rode from Jerusalem to Ashkelon. At about 5:30 in the morning, the other Bar Mitzvah boy on the ride and I led the traveler’s prayer, and then the rabbi blew the shofar to officially begin the ride. A key piece of information: at the orientation last night, they announced that the big hill getting out of Jerusalem would be taken out of the route. Jerusalem is at a high elevation, so the ride out of it involves climbing a long hill at the beginning, and then a huge downhill. The police, for whatever reason, decided this wasn’t the day to have 100 plus people biking down that road. I didn’t mind this much, except for the fact that it would cut down our mileage. My father and I had our new bike accessory: a light speaker that strapped on to my handlebars and connected to my iPod. It makes riding much less boring, and nobody has any idea where that awesome music is coming from. It was approximately 104 degrees farenheit, and in the middle of the desert it wasn’t easy to find shade, so after only 23 miles out of a potential 60, I gave in to heat exhaustion and got into the bus (which was practically full by the time we got on). The headwind didn’t help. It was brutally strong. According to the forecast, it will hopefully start to get cooler tomorrow, but I don’t know how I’ll manage if it doesn’t. However, after all that, it was a beautiful ride, but I wasn’t able to get off of my bike and photograph the stunning valleys, deserts, vineyards, olive groves, and orange trees most of the time.

A pretty view we saw as we were descending from Jerusalem

A photo I took of the road ahead while we were waiting for the van to come

All of the riders gathered together for the sendoff

The long rows of bikes waiting to be loaded onto the trailer so we could get driven over the big hill

Even with all of the obstacles we encountered, I think we had a great first day of riding.

Gabe

Dad’s Report — First three days of riding

fields37 — Sun, 26 Dec 2010 22:36:44 +0000

Day 1 — As Gabe reported, Wednesday was an incredibly tough day. Many veterans of the ride said that it was the most challenging day in the history of the ride. We had been warned at the orientation that with all of the event planning, the two things the organizers could not control were the weather and the police. Both hit us hard on Wednesday. Israel has been experiencing a heat wave which peaked on Wednesday, the hottest day ever reported in October here. The temperature where we were riding was above 105 degrees for three hours, and peaked at 113. This was combined with a fierce headwind of around 30 mph (a planned visit later that day to a water treatment plant was cancelled due to a sandstorm). Given the oppresive heat, the blowing wind didn’t cool at all, but rather worked like a convection oven. And the sun was beating down without any shade or cloud cover . . . make that a convection oven with the broiler on. It was hot.

On the police/security forces front, with less than 24 hours notice the ride was told that it could not go through a key section of the route leaving Jerusalem. The organizers improvised a complicated and lengthy alternate plan whereby we rode a mere 7 miles, got off of our bikes, put them on trucks, got on buses, moved down the road, unpacked the bikes and then proceeded. Even when we got going again, the police kept stopping us and holding the group of 120 riders (this while we were traveling through the valley where David was said to have battled Goliath). So even though we had started at 6:00am, when I looked at my watch at 10:30 we had gone all of 14 miles (riding uninterrupted we could already have finished the shortened 46 mile route). By then the heat of the day was fully upon us. Gabe struggled against the heat and wind with everything he had, but at the half-way point of the day’s ride he decided to finish his day. He was not alone; the buses were moving down the road picking up riders all along. I know that this was a very disappointing decision for him given all of the training he has done for the ride, the build-up and the support from everyone. Given the conditions and the many days of riding ahead of us, I believe it was the right decision.

Day 2 — Having worked our way across the country to the coast at Ashkelon on day 1, on day 2 our route headed south, past a corner of the Gaza strip, and down into the northern part of the Negev desert. The planned ride was for 70 miles. The heat had let up some, temperatures were in the 90′s (relatively cool, I guess) and the wind was not a problem. In spite of our proximity to Gaza the police allowed us to ride unimpeded.

Gabe put the first day behind him and attacked the day with a vengeance. The ride is organized into three levels of speed and distance. We had been planning to ride with the middle group, the largest. Gabe went out with the fastest riders and kept at it all day, riding the strongest I have ever seen him ride. They moved the lunch stop for the group 25 miles down the road because the group was moving so fast we would have had lunch at 10am. At a point around mile 50 he double flatted and we lost the group while we fixed his tires (I think he ran over a piece of a shell casing). You should have seen the look on his face when we started up again and got to the next rest stop and 30 or so gung-ho riders were waiting for him to get going again. At mile 65 he started to completely fade, having ridden at a pace way above anything he has sustained before, let alone his third longest ride ever. We pulled over and he scarfed down a package of energy shots and started right up. He gutted through the last few miles on empty. I have never been more proud of him.

Day 3 — We continued to work through the Negev today. We rode with the middle group, because we would have needed to make an earlier decision to stay at a different location. The day’s distance didn’t sound too bad, 45 miles. Turned out to be a fun and interesting day of riding. We rode 15 miles at a more leisurely pace to Sde Boker, where we switched to mountain bikes. We then went off-road into a deep canyon where there is a natural spring, swam, then rode out again. The two of us had never done any challenging mountain biking, and the 9 mile round trip seemed like a full day’s ride. Although difficult and exhausting for us soft roadies, both of us started to feel like we were developing some basic competency as the day went on and had a lot of fun trying something new. Gabe even rode up the final portion of the climb out of the canyon, at a point where there was a bus to take the rest of us up.

We then finished the day with another twenty or so miles where the road climbed a few thousand feet to the edge of the Makhtesh Ramon, a huge natural crater in the middle of the Negev highlands. A challenging and satisfying end to the day. Although I am not a religious person, I am looking forward to the Shabbot day of rest tomorrow, as is Gabe.

Thursday, 10/21

fields37 — Sat, 25 Dec 2010 10:32:49 +0000

Everybody getting ready for the second day of riding

This morning we started at about 6 o’clock again, the sound of the shofar piercing the silence like a starting gun.

Rabbi Marc Soloway blowing the shofar to signal the beginning of another day of riding

We rode in the direction of the rising sun, which was situated over a misty desert image that looked more like a forest because the mist only let the trees show. It was a very cool day compared to wednesday, and there was a wind that refreshed us and the other riders but wasn’t a headwind. My father and I decided to join the faster group for the 70 mile ride from Ashkelot to kibbutz Mashabei Sade, in the Northern Negev. We had breakfast and optional prayer at a post overlooking the Gaza strip.

Morning prayer

A panorama shot I took from the observation point

At one point we rode passed a cactus farm, and later even an ostriche farm (sadly we didn’t stop for pictures)! Some of the time the road we were on was in an Israeli army firing zone. At one point I ran over a piece of metal(my dad thinks it was a piece of shell casing) and flatted out both tires at once!

Me being sad about my flats

While we were sitting there with the mechanic fixing the flats, my dad said, “Well, at least we didn’t get stuck in a firing zone.” The mechanic proceeded to tell us that we actually were in a firing zone. We were going at a fast pace, so they moved lunch to Golda Meir Park, which was about 25 miles ahead of where we were originally planning to eat lunch.

The park where we ate lunch

At dinner that night, I discovered a new species of fruitations: tangergreens(duh duh duuh)!

The results of the biopsy I performed on the specimen

Gabe

Friday, 10/22

fields37 — Fri, 24 Dec 2010 11:53:50 +0000

Today we started our ride, from kibbutz Mashabei Sade to Mitzpe Ramon, without a shofar. We rode out of the kibbutz with American Pie blaring from my bike speakers, and got on the first road in the direction of our destination. My father and I rode with the middle group, because the highest group was off somewhere else doing a much harder ride, and we felt kind of bored because the made us stay at a slow pace for the whole beginning part of the ride. After that beginning part, which was about 15 miles of fairly flat road, we stopped for breakfast at Sde Boker, overlooking a huge canyon.

My father and I in front of the canyon

We saw two ibex roaming around on the mountain, and we basked in the glory of the huge plateus and mountains making up the scenery. After breakfast we went on a 9 mile off-road out-and-back route. We got mountain bikes to use instead of our flimsy road bikes, and were on our way. I enjoyed the rolling ups and downs of the trail, but when we were just on flats, the rugged trail made the riding bumpy and uncomfortable. When we got out 4.5 miles, we got off of our mountain bikes and walked to a natural spring situated in the middle of the rocky canyon to swim.

My dad's finger, with the spring in the background

It was very very cold, but I stayed in because it was so refreshing after the dry oven-like heat. After that, we changed and walked back to our mountain bikes. I stuck my wet bathing suit on top of my helmet for a little extra shade and cold, but I only succeeded in looking like a complete idiot (refer to P.S. at the end).

Some complete idiot that I don't know with a bathing suit on his head

Yitzhak Goldstein (the other bar mitzvah boy) and I were one of the few people who went back up the huge looming (at least paved) hill that brought us back up to Sde Boker (not to mention on our mountain bikes), but sadly my father chickened out after about ten feet of hill, and snuck back down the hill to get on the air-conditioned bus taking people back up while we weren’t looking. When we got back up to Sde boker again we ate lunch, and got ready to continue on our way. There was about another 20 miles of riding to get to Mitzpe Ramon. I put my iPod on shuffle, turned the speaker all the way up, and rode. You probably don’t know this, but my dad and I(just me) always sing Bohemian Rhapsody when we are going up big hills, and just as we were starting the big hill that everybody said was 5 miles long(it wasn’t), that song came on(it was awesome). My iPod was on shuffle, and it chose that out of like 800 songs(it was awesome)!?!?!? WHAT(it was awesome)?! I thought it was awesome. We arrived at our hotel in Mitzpe Ramon at about three(it was awesome), and met up with the rest of our family: my mom, sister, cousins Sam, Amy, and Michelle, and grandparents Aaron and Thelma(it was awesome). Tomorrow we will celebrate Shabbat with a lot of not-riding with our family, and a lot of not-being-awake with our beds, but most importantly, taking a lot of pictures and notes so I can share my experience with you.

Gabe

P.S. Because I am a complete idiot (refer to my reference to this), I managed to leave my camera on my bike on Friday, and I won’t get it back until Sunday, so expect more pictures from today on Sunday. Peace(shalom).

Day of Rest: Saturday, 10/23

fields37 — Thu, 23 Dec 2010 04:50:31 +0000

On Shabbat, I got to sleep late(I got up at about 7 in the morning). My family and my three cousins went to a 7:45 AM tour of the makhtesh(NOT THE CRATER!!!!!!!). A makhtesh looks a lot like a crater, but it is formed by water erosion, and is unique to this part of the world. While on the tour I spotted a herd of ibex in a school playground and went to take pictures of them. The eventually moved towards the makhtesh and started jumping down the rocks. I got some awesome pictures of them jumping down and also headbutting. When we got back from the tour, we ate breakfast with all of our family together. When breakfast was over, my mom, sister, cousins, and grandparents went on a camel ride, while my father and I stayed at the hotel and did homework. When everybody got back, we went to eat a late lunch, and then went to another building to hear former students of the Arava Institute for Environmental Studies talk about their experiences. They talked about how most programs to bring people together like that don’t work because of the amount of time they spend. At the Institute, they come for at least a semester, so if they’re having a conflict, they will eventually have to settle it because they live together every day. They said that earlier this year, during the Flotilla Crisis, all of the different people were pointing fingers at each other, but they eventually sat down one night, all together, and had a meeting all night, not necessarily a friendly meeting, but by the next day they had settled all of their differences. If you would like to learn more about the Institute, you can go to their website, or send me an email. The meeting made me feel like all of the money I have raised is going to a very worthy cause, and I hope you feel the same way. After that, we went to a havdalah service at the edge of the makhtesh to mark the end of shabbat. But it wasn’t the end of our riding (duh duh duuuh). More pictures later!

Gabe