We spent our morning hiking in the Golan Heights, swimming in a freshwater spring, and taking in the beautiful views of the vast desert.
Our hike in the Zavitan was strenous yet breathtaking and the swimming hole at the end made it all worth it.
The highlight of the day was when we were surprised with a trip to the home of an Israeli participant who lives on a Kibbutz nearby. It was so special to learn about this aspect of Israeli life and get the inside scoop of what it's like to live on a Kibbutz up North.
We shabbated really hard, learning the prayers for wine, challah, and washing of the hands. We were told that we would be at the kibbutz for the next 25 hours relaxing and enjoying each other's company and the simpler things in life.
After wrapping up surf lessons, history lessons and conversations about faith on Sunday, we began one of our most active and enriching days of the trip on Monday morning with a hike through the historic Golan Heights. Driving from Kibbutz Gadot through winding roads along the Jordan and Syrian borders, we received a history lesson on the Yom Kippur war and saw the signs warning passerbys of the 100 million anti-tank land mines dotting the historic landscape.
It was a great day and another opportunity to get to know the other participants on the trip.
It was an extremely successful first day on Bus 221. Waking up at the Kibbutz was an unforgettable experience in itself. We quickly discovered that we shared the space with families, our Israeli peers and to our surprise, tons of cats and dogs. Before we got the chance to see the whole place, we left for our morning hike.
We ended the day with the most fun activity, kayaking on the Jordan River. Now we are about to celebrate our first Shabbat in Israel and we could not be more excited to experience it.
I'm learning so much about Israeli culture from the Israelis on our trip.
The hike had some amazing views, but was also very rocky. There was no way we could miss the beautiful wildflowers, impressive cliffs, and adorable turtle that we saw on our hike!