HAPPY NEW YEAR!!!
We woke up [this morning] to learn that Ari had scored - again - with Aya the Israeli girl. He told me yesterday that he'd "****ed Aya", but I didn't believe him. Well, now he's shagged her twice [and everyone knows]. Everyone was hung over and tired from the big night last night.
We had the usual "bokkeh tov" song, and the "word of the day" on the bus. "Bokkeh tov" has become our official group anthem: we sing it absolutely all the time, even at night!
We stopped in Tel Aviv, and visitied Rabin Square. We saw the spot where Rabin was assassinated, and then went to a big paved plaza where we said our farewells to the soldiers, who had been with us for five days and were unfortunately leaving.
Me and Uri: two total nobsWe all sat in a circle and said what we'd learnt about each other. Ari said: "the girls were good fun" (a gross understatement); and Uri said: "you guys drink a lot, and you're ****ing crazy, but I'm gonna miss you all". Uri's a real champ.
Emm, how you say, soldiersThen came the final farewells: the photos, the emails, etc. I'm really gonna miss the soldiers.
We left Tel Aviv, and made our way to the Druze village of Sofia. By the afternoon, we had reached Sofia on the high top of Mt Carmel.
A Druze dude gave us a talk on the Druze religion, an offshoot of Islam that began 1,000 years ago. The Druze were a 'secret religion', because they fled from the Muslims on many occasions. No one can convert to Druze now: both your parents must be Druze for you to be.
The Druze put on an enormous spread of pita, rice, hommus, eggplant, tabouli: you name it, they served it. I began to wonder, what with the gigantic meal, if these Druze weren't really Jewish. The food was delicious, and was followed by sweet Baclava and equally sweet tea.
After the Druze hospitality, we began our bus ride through the stunning Galilee (for the first time), on our way to Tsfat. On the bus, we had stunning views of the countryside in this gorgeous region. It was dark by the time we reached the crappy 'Hotel Ron' in Tsfat.