Food! Meals and food in Israel are definitely different than back at home.

Firstly, the largest meal of the day is the noon meal – not the evening meal. This means of course, that people are at work for the main meal. And that’s not all. Just as North Americans negotiate for vacation time or fitness perks for the job, Israelis negotiate for meals. Almost all companies in Israel offer a per diem for eating (somewhere in the range of USD $15-25 per day). At sometime around noon, everyone logs on individually to a website and orders a meal from 1 of 30 restaurants. The meals are then delivered to the company and everyone eats together in the “meal room”. It’s not an opt-in thing. Everyone does it. If you choose to go out, you have a special credit card that allows the daily rate and almost every restaurant accepts it. You have to figure on at least an hour break …

Wait. There’s more. And this one I can’t get used to. People don’t eat breakfast at home. When they get in to work, they head for the kitchen where not only can you find every possible kind of cereal and milk, but fruit and bread and cake and snacks and … While I eat at home every morning with Heidi and Jake, I still find it strange when people pop their head in my office and ask, “Did you eat breakfast yet?” Isn’t breakfast a family meal?

That takes us to the portions. HUGE! I’m guessing that the average size of the portions here is double what it is in America. While I’m used to large portions from Friday’s or the Cheesecake Factory, they pale in comparison. When you order the schnitzel (schnitzel and falafel seem to be very Israeli dishes), you get a plate double the size of the one you’re used to, covered entirely with rice, and then covered again with schnitzel. Wait, you forgot the soup that already came, the basket of rolls and the salad that also came with it. I can’t come close to finishing it. When you order lunch online? It’s never less than four or five separate containers the size of a large cereal bowl. Even at McDonald’s the size of the burger is about 70% larger than the same in North America. Heidi was able to eat about half the burger …

But don’t let that stop the locals. One of the people here at work told me that our portions were so “small” in America. Quote: “I had to eat 4-5 quarter pounders in America to fill up.” I’m not kidding. They wolf it all down, but still are not overweight. I don’t get it. They all laugh at my inability to finish my meal. “Only Americans ask for a container to bring food home.”

Then there is kosher food. I now know what and why we have kosher pickles and kosher food. The basic rule is this, “No dairy with meat, no pork, and no seafood.” For the McDonald’s eaters, that means no cheese on burgers, no cheese in soup. You also have kosher wine (made by the Orthodox and boiled) and other kosher foods but it would take me forever to explain it. If you do happen to have dairy or meat, there is a certain period of time you need to wait before eating the other. Strange. Burgers without cheese are like tuna sandwiches without pickle – they just don’t work as well.

You might think that eating breakfast at work and then eating the most massive mid-day meal mostly on Mondays 🙂 would fill them up, but every hour or so you get people stopping by your office with trays of cookies, cakes and snacks as well as coffee, mochas and cappuccino. Coffee anyone?

It’s enough to fill you up. 🙂

Saturday brought Heidi and I up to the Sea of Galilee. It is a very “vivid” feeling to know that you are crossing the footpaths of your Lord.

Driving up the Sea of Galilee, we passed 10 km north of Nazarath (another trip) and came out to the Sea of Galilee at Tiberias. While the middle of Israel is not dry like the Negev desert, neither is it lush. As one drives north however, the vegetation in the valleys becomes lush and green with palm and eucalyptus, while the hills are tremendously imposing and rocky. If you have ever been to St John’s, it reminded me of Signal Hill. Imagining the Lord walking north from Nazareth to the Sea of Galilee is quite a thought.

Imagine hills as steep as the backside of Green Hill, covered in rocks, for dozens of kilometers. Up and down. I’m sure the footpaths wound around the hills and through the valleys, but it would have been a difficult walk, no matter how you travelled the countryside.

Arriving at the Sea of Galilee, we drove south (counter-clockwise). We stopped first on the eastern side at a kibbutz, Ein Gev, where we had lunch. First and foremost on the menu was St Peter’s fish. The sea of Galilee obviously still yields tremendous amounts of fish as the kibbutz actively ran at least a dozen fishing boats. Cast your nets on the right side …

“And they came over unto the other side of the sea, into the country of the Gadarenes.”

We drove north from here to Kursi – the supposed location where the Lord cast the devils out of Legion (Mark 5). Whether this was the location or not, I’m not sure that anyone knows, but seeing the “steep place”, it wasn’t difficult to imagine the 2000 swine running violently down and into the sea.

You can see the remains of a Byzantine Monastery now in the pictures. Preserved in the mosaic floor of the Monastery are depictions of baskets of bread and fish fins. Mark 8?

Driving north around the northern tip, we crossed the Jordon river. We actually got out here and I walked down through a grove of Eucalyptus trees. The smell is incredible an beautiful.

We missed about three or four places that I wanted to stop at, so the Sea of Galilee is a definite repeat in our books. 🙂

Unfortunately, pictures can not do justice to the city of Jerusalem. Having been in many cities, I would have to say that Jerusalem is the most beautiful and spectacular city I have ever been in. It’s not that everything is clean – because it’s not. In fact, someone at work here said that the Orthodox and the Arabs do not care for cleanliness at all and are happy to drop their garbage anywhere. Instead, it is the fact that the architecture, history and culture is overwhelming – and that is not including the fact that this is the place where our Savior walked.

On Friday last week, we headed in to the old city, with no map, no directions … nothing. (This is typical Danny style.) I mean, how hard can it be to find the Old City.

Having been here for a full week, I was used to the city and buildings in Tel Aviv and Herzliyya. Although I had been down to Jaffa (Joppa), it still did not prepare me. Everything in this area looks so … normal … American. For the first half hour driving towards Jerusalem, it was the same. Then, about 15 minutes outside, you hit the foothills and begin to climb. The whole country changes in just a few miles. From flat farmland to rugged hills. From normal buildings, to architecture that reminds you of thousands of years ago.

Driving into Jerusalem was something else. Remember I said that driving here was normal? Let me quote another site I found afterwards:

“You can rent a car, but driving in Israel is not for the faint of heart. The roads are probably the most dangerous places in Israel and the traffic, especially in and around Jerusalem and Tel Aviv, is terrible. “

I second that. Driving in Herzliyya is for the sane, driving in Jerusalem is not.

Coming into the city, Heidi saw her first soldiers carrying automatic machine guns. It was a novelty … for all of 5 seconds. About 1000 such people later, it didn’t even turn the head. Regardless, I think Heidi would join me in saying that we felt extremely safe all day long.

OK. So roads in Jerusalem are older than roads in America, and they follow the paths of donkeys and camels. Nothing is straight. Stay on Jaffa Road? No problem – except that you can’t tell when you might need to take a right, three lefts and a round-a-bout to stay on the same street.

We parked near the most crowded market on Jaffa street and wandered in. You should see the size of the fruits and vegetables – strawberries, carrots, oranges, grapes. It would take two people to carry a bunch. Being tourists, we walked in with the stroller. Foolish us. It was shoulder room only. Friday before Shabbat means that EVERYONE is out shopping. Escaping with our lives … we headed towards the Old City.

I really can’t describe it. And I’m almost reluctant to put pictures up because they don’t do it justice. Coming in through Jaffa gate, we walked down through the Jewish quarter to the Cardo. We headed south through a section of archeological digging (main street from the time of Christ), through Zion Gate, towards the Armenian quarter and the city walls. Looking over the walls towards the Mount of Olives was breathtaking.

Finally, we headed towards the Western Wall. This was the late afternoon, and very busy because so many Jewish people and rabbis were at the wall. It’s hard to put it in words. You really have to be here. The sadness and grandeur of the city is almost tangible.

We’ll probably go in again next weekend, but this time we will have a personal tour guide. You can see from the map (we walked the path in yellow) that we only touched at the smallest area of the old city.

Saturday brought us up to the Sea of Galilee, but more on that tomorrow. 🙂