As you have probably realized by now, my recent trip to Israel had a very big effect on me. One of the places that I think had the most effect on me was the Western Wall – the Kotel. 

The first time we saw it was from the rooftop terrace at the Aish World Center.  We walked there from our hotel and were instructed to go right to the top of the building for our group pictures. We were told “do not take your own pictures, there will be time for that”. The view is spectacular and it was hard not to start snapping away when you first see the amazing site of the Kotel in front of you below.

After our group photos we had to go back inside for our first class of the day. not before everyone went picture happy taking photos of the Kotel, personal photos with the Kotel behind you, beside you, etc.

Later that morning, we finally got the chance to go to the Kotel. At the ground level of the Aish building, it actually has a walk out right into the Western Wall Plaza.

I had only been in Israel one other time in my life, and it was through work and with a group of travel professionals and it was an ‘overview’ tour of the country, not an organized Jewish tour. The experience at the Kotel was different from the experience I had this time.

This time I went with 170 other women from my trip. You can’t really see from the attached photos, but the women’s ‘side’ of the wall is much smaller than the men’s section. For obvious reasons of course, but when you are so many amazing women in such a small place, everyone wants their time to touch, feel, pray and connect with the history of this holy place, it was hard to get to have your moment in the space.

I had a talk with my nieces about writing special messages to Hashem and I would put them in the crevices in the wall. They each drew a picture and signed it, and I made sure that the messages were put there for them.
 
This past weekend we had Tisha B’av, which is a day of mourning the destruction of both temples and many other sad events of the Jewish people that happened on that day.

I was at a class on the weekend and we were talking about the fact that the Kotel is such a sacred place for the world and the Jewish people, and the truth is that is a wall of the courtyard where the temples once stood. It isn’t even the wall of the temple, but it is the closest place to the temple that we will ever have a piece of.

That is good enough for me. I found the time I was able to view the wall from the Aish World Center and the time I was able to spend close it, something I will never forget.

I have had a lot of opportunities to travel to amazing places, and being a “foodie”, I always want to try local specialities and new things. In Greece I ate calamari, fresh feta cheese, freshly caught and grilled fish and authentic Greek salad (no lettuce). In New Orleans I tried gumbo, etitoufee, jambalaya and of course beignets and cafe Au lait. In Hawaii….I named it my “Hawaiian seafood fiesta” (you can read about that in my travel blog).

And now…dining in Israel. What can you say about the food in Israel? Once again, full of amazing dining experiences and tastes, flavours and options. Being in Israel, when you have to choose your food options you have to choose milk or meat because the restaurants are separate (we ate a lot of dairy options) and they were GOOD!

On the first day in Tiberias we walked to a very nice dairy restaurant close to the beach. They had a lot of very nice salad options. I chose one that had haloumi cheese. it is very similar to Saginaki in Greek restaurants, but they don’t set it on fire with ouzo. It is salty, and tests best when served right from the oven. Here are pictures of the salad with the haloumi.

The opening program of the trip was dinner at Decks Restaurant. It is an open air restaurant overlooking the Galilee (the Kinneret). We sat in long tables by our city. The food is served family style across the table.

The opening was of course falafel balls, hummus and tahini, following up by an amazing fried onion loaf, salad, shoe string potatoes, and then the most amazing salmon you have ever tried. It came out on these ‘hot plates’ that had bbq’d sweet potato, grilled mushrooms and grilled lemons.

Here is what it looked like: (Pictures do not do the meal justice)

After the meal they started to play music and the party really started. It was the first night, and the coming together of 170 amazing women for the next 9 days of growth, self discovery and touring of our beautiful Eretz Israel. (the land of Israel)

As I was clapping, singing and dancing, the music changed and a song I have heard hundreds of times came on. I was standing there, and tears were streaming down my face. I realized that I was in Israel. We had already been there a full day, but it wasn’t until that moment that I had really arrived, and my feet were planted firmly on the ground. A lot of people were emotional.

Here is that song: