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[Jul. 1st, 2006|08:56 pm] |
After trying to sleep at the airport in Prague, we hit the plane to Amsterdam. We arrived after a delay at about 10:30am. We went straight to the hostel we wanted because we didn't reserve and everthing seemed to be booked online. We got to Bob's youth hostel and were one of the last people to secure 3 beds. We had another friend from Otzma join us, Mark. When we first walked into the hostel the cloud of pot smoke hit us like a brick. When we walked down the street Brian and I could have sworn that EVERYONE is stoned in Amsterdam.
After we checked in and had a nap, Brian and I went to the Anne Frank House, we wanted to go to that museam... umm chemicaly unaltered. Since Mark wasn't going to be in town till night we had some time to check things out on our own. Mark is a seasoned veteran of Amsterdam. After Mark arrived at about 11pm we went out. The next few days are somewhat of a blur.
Suffice to say that we went to the Van Gough, Rembrant, Sex, and Cannibis Museums, checked out the park, and the Red light district, and had some REALLY crappy falefels. The beer was ok... we had better in every other country we were in. My birthday came and went and I'm sure I had an awesome time... can't remember details though.
Early Tuesday we traveled back to the airport for our flight back to Budapest to catch our connection to Tel Aviv. The entire day was spent in the airport, didn't get much sleep. Our flight to Tel Aviv left at about 11:35pm and it was full of 16 year old USYers.So i didn't get anymore sleep, and no food, that flight sucked... real bad. But I couldn't wait to get back to Israel. I really love this country and it feels like home to me. I started missing it about 2-3 days into our journey. 12 days and many customs stamps later, I am getting concerned about how I am going to deal with leaving permenantly on Monday.
Now I'm at Aunt Shoshi and Nahum's place and I'm about to go to dinner with Hila (recently married... friggin awesome wedding!) I saw X-men 3 last night with Timna and her sister. It was great! |
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| gotta catch up! |
[Jun. 26th, 2006|11:25 am] |
So today is my birthday... my friends are still sleeping right now so i'll try to catch up on the last few days.
The next day in Prague we took a walking tour of the city. It was very informational and well done. We ended at the top of the Prague castle. Prague is a beautiful... slightly scary city. They have these huge building that look like they are right out of the middle ages and burning witches at the stake (probably because they actually are). After the tour we checked out the Franz Kafka museum, nice... nothing too special though. then we went to the Torture museum. Damn, there were some horrendous ways to hurt people back then, some of them we in use until the end of the 19th century. I still get the shivers just thinking about it.
Then we took a nap and after tried to checkout the city at night. We were surprised that there weren't very many bars that we like. They need, good cheap beer, good music (and no rap, house, and hip-hop don't count), and a selection of eye candy. It's really tough finding a bar like that.
The next day we headed down to southern Czech Republic to a little town called Chesy Krumlov. AWESOME. If you visit the Czech Rep. you must spend a few days here. It's a small nearly fully preserved medieval village (with castle). It was a real change because so far we had been spending all of our time in big cities. The pace was slower here, the beer was cheaper here, the people were nicer here, and the hostel (Hostel 99) had everything we needed. We really relaxed here.
The next day we rafted down the Vltava River. The river was really nicer and we did the whole thing for like 250 crowns (around $12). We had some beer in the raft, actual Budweiser (not the crappy water beer served in America, where American Budwieser stole it name.), and we could even stop on the river to more bars. Lots of fun! took us about 4 hrs or so... really chill.
The next day we traveled back up to Prague and the up to Terezin, the Nazi camp (prisoner/work camp). It was interesting, but we were traveling all day to get there and it just took way too long and we were tired when we got there... interesting and definitely worth a visit though. Ok.. my roommates are
up.. more later |
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| end of Vienna and Prague |
[Jun. 21st, 2006|05:30 pm] |
The concert was really nice. It was chamber music and most of the songs i recognized, even Brian recognized a few! We then went out to get a kielbasa... yum... Great street food... much better than the restaurants i think. After that we had a few beers at a local bar and watched some world cup... we met some new Irish girls... they are worse than Jewish women... yap yap yap... non-stop chatter, it's worse because I couldn't understand everything. But it's hakol beseder.
The next morning we checked out the synagouge in the ring. It was beautiful and completely untouched by the nazi murderers. After that we got some schnitzel and hit the train to Prague.
After the 4 1/2 hrs of train we hit Prague. After a few days of AMAZINGLY hot weather I was in for a shock when about 5 min before we came to the station it started storming... REALLY storming. Of course being an Eagle Scout I am totally prepared for this situation with absolutly no rain gear.... rrrrgggg. We get out after waiting for the storm to die a little and try to follow some random dude's instructions on how to get to our hostel, the Clown and Bard. We make it there amid lightning and thunder but without rain! We get to the hostel and go to our room (on like the 6th floor) by walking up many many stairs. The last person left the windows open and our two beds were soaked. rrrggg. We made it work though. That night we went out to downtown Prague to get some good beer. The hostel was organizing an event at club, so we decided to check it out. Clubs are not Brian or my idea of an ideal drinking spot. so we hung out and rated Check women. then stumbled home. |
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| Second daz in Budapest and Vienna |
[Jun. 18th, 2006|04:39 pm] |
Just know that the keyboard that I'm using switches the Y and the Z... know you know. We spent the second day in Budapest having a great time hiking around the whole city. We first visited the Jewish Ghetto and saw the largest synagogue in Europe. It was very beautiful... kinda looked like a church though. After that we went to the big market place and had some more goulash and beer while standing up. Good cheap goulah... yum!
one thing that has been really great about Budapest is the quality of food... it's great! If you're a vegetarian, you won't do well here.
After eating we hiked across the river to the citadel... and great hike with some awesome views of the city! We then hiked down the mountain to the metro and took it all the way to city park. We still are not completely sure how to pay for it... so it was free. woo hoo! We saw the huge staues and a great castle with a guy playing hard outside... it really set the mood for the long stroll in the park we had ... umm yeah. Basically it was really romantic but useless because we are two straight guys.
After that we took a nap and then got some more grub and beer. I have been feeling a little sick so i made it a semi-early night. The next morning we went to a Turkish Bath with some Australians we met at the hostel. Ben and Anthony were pretty chill guys and spending the day at a spa was relaxing. After meeting a random Israeli family on the street and having a 15 min conversation in Hebrew with them (yeah Ivrit skillz!) we hit the train to Vienna.
We got into Vienna around 7:30 pm. We needed to find a hostel, after a few places that were full we found a pretty chill place call the Ruthinglers Hostel (i think). Excpet they only had one bed... Brian got a matress on the ground for half price. We were staying in a dorm with about 8 girls, including one we met a bar in Budapest two nights ago. It was fun. We met some Irish girls and tried to go out to some bars or clubs... we figured it was Saturday night, there had to be things going on! We were wrong! But it was cool, these girls just entertained us all night long...
Today we got up and traveled to the inner ring area of Vienna. There's soo much history in these places. Buildings are huge and they all have large statues all over them... really beautiful. Vienna's really nice... a little expensive, but beautiful. We checked out the Jewish museam there and had more beer and some shnitzel. It was ok. We just got tickets to see a concert tonight featuring some Mozart and Strauss works. Excited, we haggled a 2 for 1 deal. so it's only 15 euro per person. Should be fun... tomorrow we are heading off to the Prague... this is a great trip so far! |
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| Budapest |
[Jun. 16th, 2006|08:59 pm] |
We got into Budapest at 8am yesterday. after going straight to our hostel (the yellow submarine) we went out to explore the city. We went to the top of St. Stephen's Basilica. Awewsome view of busapest from the top. Budapest surprisingly doesn't have alot of sky scrapers, scratch that... it has none.
After the church we went across the Danube river, which is drab and dreary and up to the top of the castle district in Buda. It was nice up there and we then found the labrynths that go under the district. It was a crock of shit. A total let down. The caves were unexplained and then they we pretty much making fun of us by saying there was a foot print there that is 41 million years old preserved in rock, except that this footprint has treds and I could have sworn I saw a nike swoosh on them. Bull shit
then we went to a place recommended by Let's Go for some food. AWESOME! Hungarians know how to cook. we also had a beer, which was good too... the first of many beers in eastern europe!
After that we took a nap and then went out on the town, it was pretty fun (the more beer we have the more fun it gets). I had some GREAT hungarian goulash. Since this is one of the dishes my mom makes well I was really interested to see how her's differed from the authentic stuff. Mom they both we good... yours was thicker, but theirs had some spice that I don't believe we have in America. (it's paprika, but it's much more potent than anything I have tried in america). Then we went to a bar that played nothing but ABBA at 2am. At that point we had to end our night because our ears were on the verge of bleeding from listening to crappy ABBA. It was a long day... tomorrrow would be cool as well. |
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| End of Otzma and a birthright trip |
[Jun. 13th, 2006|06:53 pm] |
After staying in Tel Aviv for a week, we ended Otzma doing a final tiyul (trip) to the north. It was alot of fun. I went rafting down the Jordan, climbed a few mountians, hiked in a few rivers, and I broke my favorite pair of sandals. =( It was a real BIG bummer. I wore those sandals EVERY day. They were awesome... good thing there was a warranty. so they are getting fixed now, but i didn't have them for my birthright trip and i won't have them for Europe. Totally bummed!
But Otzma ended well. There was some cryin, laughing, and a good time was had overall (by me). Jessica and I ended our relationship because we said we wouldn't do the long distance thing. It was sad. But I think we're both going to be better people now that we have been together.
After Otzma I spent Shavuot with Fievel in Jerusalem. I spent all night studying and I went to the western wall at 4 am to pray. It was pretty intense. The whole place was filled with people. Wow.
After that I started being a madrich for the birthright trip. It was great. I had a 22+ trip so the participants were much more mature. They were mostly from the east coast but there were a few from the west coast that i'll mostly likely see again. I even saw some new things that i hadn't seen in 10 months here. fun fun
That trip ended today and tomorrow I fly to Budapest with Brian and I'll spend a few days with there... then off to Prague and then to Amsterdam then back to Budapest. I'll be updating the trip as i go.
That's it for now. |
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| Left Kibbutz... living in Tel Aviv again |
[May. 18th, 2006|02:11 pm] |
I left the Kibbutz. It's a great decision for me because I really hated it there. Now I'm living for the last week of track 3 in the TA apt. roomming with Larry again... he can't get enough of me... I told him that I was taken and he fanegled Otzma to get me to live with him again... guy's a little desperate ;)
Anyways... I'm visiting some of the volunteer sites that I saw during track two again... doing some good work...
I have my flight back to america. It's on July 3rd, I'll be in the Bay area just before the fourth... anyone have any plans? BBQ? Fireworks? Parade?
I'm going to Europe after I lead a Birthright trip in early june. I'll probably be visiting Prague, Budapest, Amsterdam, and Croatia... any suggestions people?
That's it for now!
Brent |
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| Something else to look forward to... |
[May. 8th, 2006|01:30 pm] |
After Otzma ends on May 30th, I'm gonna be sticking around Israel for a few days on my own. I have a wedding on the 1st, and on the 4th I will be a madrich on a birthright Israel trip. Should be tons of fun, and since I haven't really done a tour of israel in 10 years... it'll be a good refresher... I know I've been here for 10 months, but going back to being a tourist willl be interesting.
After the trip ends om the 14th, I will be traveling around Eastern Europe with Brian and may some other people...
You remember Brian... I spend every break traveling around with him (I think he has a man crush on me) haha. This will be tons of fun, I might spend my 26th bday in Prague or something. We want to go everywhere that doesn't use the Euro yet... so much cheaper!
Very excited about it!
I should be heading back to America in July.
That's it for now |
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| Cinco De Mayo |
[May. 5th, 2006|12:39 pm] |
Cinco de Mayo means NOTHING here.
I was going to write an essay or something similar on why the Kibbutz movement sucks today for the yearbook, but Ellery had a good point. Do I want to be remembered as a negative person or as the positive person that I am. So since the essay would just be a berating of the Kibbutz movement and in particular Kzutzat Shiller, I decided against writing it. Instead I made a list of why Israel kicks ass.
Jessica and I are doing well. Since she and I won't do the long distance thing we're going to part when Otzma is over on very good terms.
I got free tickets to an Idan Rachiel Concert in Petah Tikvah on Saturday night... should be fun... tickets are normally like 200 shekels and up.
My roommate moved out and now I have a room all to myself. It's great. He was really dirty and since i didn't want to clean his side I never cleaned the place... until now. It feels so much better to live in a semi-clean place now. My mom would be proud... even though I didn't clean my room always as a child, she raised a clean son. Thanks mom. Compared to many of the people living at this kibbutz, I'm seeming obsessively clean, but that just in comparison... They are really fucking dirty and smelly.
I might be traveling around Europe and Asia Minor this summer for a little while... should be great fun!
Some of the only things keeping me sane at this Kibbutz are my Ipod (Thanks Uncle Steve), Fantasy Baseball (2nd place so far!), and being able to get out of the kibbutz to visit friends in TA and Jeru as much as possible. |
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