Thursday - Shephela

So on Thursday we drove through the hills of western Israel that are between the plains areas and the mountains, also known as the shephela (which means lowlands). First we stopped near Aijalon, at a place called the Corinne of the Knights. I think it was a crusader fort. It is near the famous fort of Latrun where three battles were fought during Israel's war for independence. This area of the Shephela is important because it is the "front door" to Jerusalem. Once you take this strategic point, you can move right up into the mountains and straight on to Jerusalem.

After that we went to a Tel (which just means man-made hill because a city or fortification was destroyed and rebuilt so many times) near the Sorek Valley which overlooks Timnah and read Judges 14, the early years of Samson. It was cool to see the places that Samson went and killed a bunch of Philistines and totally destroyed their crops like in Judges 15. It was really cool because the actual wheat harvest had just been taken and so it made that passage that much more real.

After that we went to Tel Azekah, which overlooks the Elah Valley, and read through the David and Goliath story in 1 Samuel 17 and imagined the battle unfolding and thinking about where the people were and everything. Cool to see the actual places where these things happened.

Going back to Jerusalem that evening we ran into so much traffic and we also had a bunch of wrong turns. Craziness of Israeli drivers, case in point: we went into a parking lot that was very full with only one entrance and some cars parked along the way in/out, so there was space for only one car. The only problem? We couldn't get out because other cars kept trying to come in but nobody could turn around because all of the spaces were blocked. I felt like I was in that game Gridlock where you have to move the cars around to get the one out. And THEN, the car just behind us pulls over and PARKS in the traffic lane and the guy just gets out of his car to sit there and wait. You're not doing the rest of us any favors, buddy! So finally one of our guys got out and had to try and direct cars I back out and move all around until we could finally get out. 20+ minutes gone because of one wrong turn and a buildup of cars.

So we finally get back and want to have dinner but by this time the only places that are open are in West Jerusalem (much more liberal than the Old City). So we walk a half hour to get there and go to a restaurant Aaron recommends. I got this dish called shakshouqa which was really delicious - eggs poached in stewed tomatoes and sauce with some onions and cheese and stuff on top. Yum.

After that we went off to find the hot chocolate place that also sold Belgian waffles. I had a hot chocolate and a Belgian waffle with butterscotch on it. The waffle was really good and at first I thought the hot chocolate was just ok but then I realized as it was cooling down that it was a lot better than I originally thought. It didn't have a much mouth coating chocolate and wasn't nauseatingly rich like Burdick's but it went down smooth and still was awesomely chocolatey. Also, the people at that place seemed really nice.

Unfortunately, by the time all this happened it was like 10.15 and the convent/hostel where we are staying has an 11pm curfew. So we high tailed it back to the Old City and our hostel and got there around 10.45. But then nobody answered the doorbell for a little while so I was kinda scared that we had been locked out. But then the door opened for us and we were fine. But then because it was such a long day we had to have a discussion about what to cut from the next day that was supposed to have been another long day. Man, that made it even longer of a day and I was pretty exhausted already. We decided to try and get an early start and finish the discussion in the morning.