Shalom!!! That is Hebrew for, “Hello”! Anyways, I am back with my last blog post before we start hiking up the Annapurna in Nepal(probably)! We have had a very interesting time since my last post as well as some very exciting and new adventures. First, we went with Savta to a restaurant called,” The Old Man and the Sea”, which was actually based off of the novel written many years ago. The book is about an old man called Santiago wanting to redeem himself of his bad luck by capturing a huge marlin to sell for money. I won’t spoil the end because it’s so good, but that was what the restaurant was based off. The food there was very good and I even tried hummus, which I wasn’t a big fan of. It was very fun there and we are with my cousins from my grandmother’s side. They are very fun and we had a good time.
The next day, we went with our other cousins to the Bahai Gardens. The Bahai is a religion that was created in the 1800’s and their principles include pacifism, equality, harmony with all of nature, and acceptance. The gardens are their second holiest place and they gave us an astounding tour. We learned many new things like how they originated in Persia and quickly spread throughout the world. Their first prophet was killed, but the next prophet took over and helped create the religion we know today. There was a video there that explained everything and the sight of the place was absolutely spectacular. Later that night, we also had dinner with family from my grandfather’s side. The people were very nice and I came to know them better since I last saw them. The next day, my family and my cousins drove to the Ramone Crater far from where we lived. While we were there, we went stargazing and saw the individual rings of Saturn! We also saw the giant craters that scarred the moon and Mars through the telescope which was very fun.
We went rappeling the next day on the edge of a cliff! It was my first time and I was a little bit scared, but I did it a second time and it was all better. However, we had to climb down the cliff eventually, so we hiked down the mountain, for three hours, WITH the blazing sun on our backs, back to the car were we later drove to our hostel!
It was tough because the sun turned me into a lobster and I could barely move with all the sunburns! We did get a break later that night though when we went scorpion finding!!! We found many different kinds of cool scorpions and even a few rare ones! We went to the top of a mountain called Masada, which is a mountain that was settled thousands of years ago by Jews escaping from the Romans. They all committed mass suicide up there when the Romans got close so they wouldn’t have to become Romans. The whole trip was very exciting, but we went back to my aunt’s house where we celebrated my birthday and Bar Mitzvah again!
It was so much fun and the strange thing about it was that 6 airplanes that all looked the same flew in the same spot over us constantly, which freaked me out.
You guys will never guess where we had dinner the following night: the same place where I had my Bar Mitzvah! It brought back many memories and the food was absolutely spectacular. The last full day in Israel had my cousins, Troy, Ella, and I put into an escape room! Basically, we arrived at an Istanbul airport and were questioned repeatedly, so we have to escape within the time limit. We made it out 4 minutes past the deadline, but the funniest thing happened! In one of the rooms, there was a mini room with lasers that triggered sound if touched and Troy activated all of them by not reading the instructions and not disabling them before he went inside!!!
The alarm went off and everyone was so scared!!! It was an absolute blast and the next day, we sadly departed from Israel and left to start a new journey in Nepal. The whole family came to see us to because we might not see them in 2 years and Savta cried.
It was very sad and I hope we see them in the future.
To be continued in the future…
Chapter 4 of “The Legendary Sandwich: A Trixie and Bruno Tail”:
Chapter 4
While Pierre was talking to Boris, Trixie and Bruno were studying the map. “Ok Trixie,” Bruno said confidently. “This map says that the first clue is located somewhere in our neighborhood. Since you’re way too lazy to do any real work, search the house while I search the rest of the area.”
“Ok, I’m hungry. Where is the sandwich?” Trixie asked Bruno lazily.
“If I knew, we wouldn’t be out here,” Bruno said as he exited the house. Trixie started to walk around the house, searching for a clue that would lead to her long-awaited snack. Meanwhile, as Bruno began his search for clue #1, Pierre and Boris were spying on him through some bushes.
“Ok Boris, here is how this is going to work. You attack Bruno and take the map while I get Trixie in the house” Pierre said with a calculating smile.
“Ok boss, I’ll get that dumb cat while you take care of Trixie,” Boris said. Pierre nodded and the two comrades split up. It wasn’t going to end well for one of the pet teams.
Trixie was just walking around the house with the front door open. She was looking in bizarre places for the clue: Under the couch, in the refrigerator, the kids’ beds, and even Troy’s underwear drawer. After searching for two minutes, Trixie gave up and fell asleep on the couch. Suddenly, she woke up as a shadow passed over her and before she knew it, Pierre had bounced onto Trixie’s back! She went wild and spun into an orange tornado that made Pierre lose his concentration and he was thrown off Trixie’s back, out the door, over the fence, and crashing into the neighbor’s house, breaking their window. Bruno heard the commotion but was barked at by Boris, Trixie’s nemesis.
“Get over here cat!!” Boris yelled. “I will chew your tiny little bones to dust and use your claws as toothpicks!!” Boris then charged at Bruno, but Bruno climbed to safety on a tree next to him while Boris hit the tree trunk and started to bark. Just then, Trixie ran out of the house complaining about the fact that she didn’t get any food, but then, as Boris saw his nemesis he started to chase her down the road.
“Dogs…” Bruno sighed. As Bruno looked behind him, he saw a yellow sticky note attached to the tree. It was the first clue! The clue said, “Can’t you see? I’m in plain sight!” Bruno was confused but still relieved. “Yes! One clue down” Bruno stated as he took the sticky note and stuck it to his arm. Now, he had to get Trixie and follow the map to the next clue.
Boris had chased Trixie into his own backyard. Cornered in front of Boris’ dog house, Trixie was scared as Boris was now right in front of her. “I’ve got you now! There’s no escape!!” Boris lunged at Trixie, but she dodged and Boris hit the inside of his dog house and caused the wooden dog door to close, trapping Boris inside with only a tiny peephole. Barking at her, Boris was stuck while Trixie ran away laughing. Bruno found Trixie and they headed off to where the second clue was: Summit Middle School.
Pierre woke up with a headache after his tangle with Trixie. He wondered how a fat, stupid, orange dog bested him, especially when he had the element of surprise. Pierre didn’t have time to ponder this because the neighbor came at him with a broom, cursing about the noise and broken glass. Pierre got out of the house in time to see that Trixie, Bruno, and Boris had disappeared. Cursing, Pierre was angry that they got away but heard the familiar bark of Boris in the distance.
Boris eventually gave up barking. His nemesis had gotten away, again, with the cat who still had the map AND a clue. Boris thought the plan was dumb from the beginning but thought that he actually had a chance. When he gave up all hope, he saw a familiar blue eye peeping through the peephole and then the wooden dog door was lifted up. Outside was a banged-up Pierre with a very angry expression. “You dumb dog! You were supposed to catch the cat, not let him run off with the dog, the map, and the first clue! Get up! We have more work to do! Now find the dog’s scent and follow it!” Pierre screeched at a very offended Boris, who eventually found Trixie’s scent and followed it to the second location.
Me rappelling down the mountain. It was kind of scary, but it was fine the second time.
A scorpion we found using UV light. It glowed in a really cool way!
At my aunt Ronit’s house. We celebrated my cousin’s 19th birthday and my Bar Mitzvah again!
Troy at the escape room wearing a traditional Turkish hat. He looks very good in it!