HOO BOY THIS ONE WILL PROBABLY BE A MESS. There are so many things we did in Galilee and I don't know whether I will be able to keep them all straight but I will try valiantly to let all of you know all of what we did. This will probably be so quick and dirty
First: Pre-Galilee
On Sunday our free day before we left a bunch of us celebrated our friend Claire's birthday! We went to a fun restaurant, but we also went to
Lifta, an abandoned Palestinian village outside West Jerusalem. It was abandoned in
the Nakba and nowadays is a nature preserve. There were a bunch of kids swimming in the nastiest smallest puddle ever and we explored some of the abandoned buildings. Fun, but also sobering.
GALILEE JOURNEYS
DAY ONE
Beit Shean a.k.a. Assassin's Creed: Decapolis Edition
Our first stop on our way up to Gal was
Beit Shean which is a place much like
Jerash. It's where they hung Saul's body after he died. Like Jerash, it was one of the Decapolis cities (where the gentiles lived) of Jesus' day. It has one of the best preserved bathhouses or something so we know they partied hard. Also in the Decapolis day it was called Scythopolis because that was where the Scythians who were a bunch of mercenaries lived.
ALSO ARE YOU READY FOR THIS BEIT SHEAN
THE ANCIENT RUIN HAS A SISTER CITY AND IT'S I'M NOT EVEN JOKING
CLEVELAND OHIO
Mount Tabor a.k.a. Grand Theft Auto: Israel Edition
Mount Tabor is the traditional site of the Mount of Transfiguration and all of us nearly died getting up there. You can't just drive up there you have to take a special shuttle service to the top and our drivers were going BBBBBUCK WHILED driving so fast up those curves and we all prepared to meet God. Luckily there was no need for that and we got to check out a cool church instead.
Mt. Arbel Overlook
We got our first view of Galilee from that place. Pretty sick. What a great lake 10/10
Kibbutz time
The place we stayed, Ein Gev, is a kibbutz and also a resort!!! The best kind of socialism another 10/10 We stayed in little bungalos! Ours was right by the shore so it was a quick watch to the beach which is great. We had a little tour that night of the Kibbutz and it was awesome. Our tour guide, Eric, was so salty and from New Jersey and I loved it. This kibbutz in particular specializes in being a resort and growing bananas! Which are a KIND OF GRASS AND DEFINITELY NOT A TREE AT ALL.
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| best tour guide |
DAY TWO
Catholic Capernaum
We checked out a rad statue, talked about what Jesus did in his HQ of Capernaum and I found a cool rock that I don't have a picture of
Greek Orthodox Capernaum
kitties! and, you know, icons
Also as we were walking up to the place we heard what sounded like a car backing up noise but actually it was an air raid siren, nice! Our prof had a heart attack I feel so bad for him. Turns out it was just a drill/test of the system. but yeah sometimes Lebanon/Hezbollah throws rockets at northern Israel. Later in the week we saw a shooting star that was a really cool and I deeeeefinitely had a split second thought that it was not a shooting star (it was a shooting star)
Tabgha
fishies! and you know, mosaics. also check this window it was madE FROM STONE so rad.
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| yo why don't any of our churches have fish ponds I FEEL SO PERSECUTED RIGHT NOW |
oh anyway this church was about Christ multiplying loaves and fishes (thus the koi pond)
St. Pete's Primacy
found some cool shells! Oh annnd also this little basalt church commemorating Peter's redemption after the resurrection where Christ commands him to feed his sheep and all that. pretty cute (but verryryryyyyy warm so I was only in there like 15 seconds tops)
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that bedrock is said to be the place where they are eating the meal at the end of John, you know, the farmer? the one with the honey and fish? |
Chorazin!
Shannon gets got by herself because she thought that was where the 1st century synagogue was. NNNNNAAAAAAHHHHH there was a synagogue there but it was from a later period. Everything in Chorazin was made from basalt which is a pretty good aesthetic
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| THIS SYNAGOGUE LIED TO ME I FEEL SO PERSECUTED |
Magdala
Where the real 1st century synagogue was lol. A 1st century synagogue is significant because if it's around the Galilee and from the time period it means that Jesus deffo was there at one point or another, which is pretty cool.
Also check out this great church dedicated to women!
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| wow this photo is horrible anyway I just like how the altar area is a boat and the sails and... whatever else that boat stuff is called is a cross with the like linen of Christ's burial |
Cool gross boat
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| smelled very strongly of lacquer |
this is a boat the dug out of the mud that dates to the 1st century (remember that time when Jesus was alive as a mortal)
Cool Not Gross boat!
We road a boat across the galilee back to the Kibbutz and sang Master the Tempest Is Raging also arm wrestling was involved.
St. Peter's fish and Tiberias
GUESS WHO'S READY TO PUKE TRYING TO EAT AN ENTIRE FISH
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| this is why I would have died of starvation if I'd been born before 1973 I ate maybe three bites |
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| anyway this disgusting morsel is called a St. Peter's fish in reference to the story about Peter getting the money from the fish's guts to pay the temple tax |
DAY THREE DAY OFF
ya girl got BURNNNTTTTT but I played in the sea of Galilee so maybe it was worth it. The water was VERY WARM but the waves were really fun.
DAY FOUR
ARMAGEDDON
for my grade at least! haha no I actually did just fine on my hw. Anyway we went to Megiddo which is the place it talks about in Rev 16 or whatever about the end of the world also it has a lot of interesting history which
I would love to tell you all about
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fun fact all the date palms on top of the Tel are from archaeologists eating dates and spitting the nuts(seeds??) PITS just wherever the heck. So much for leave no trace |
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| Jace and me rocking the double hats on this great chariot |
Nazareth
Church of the Anunciation
this church is a BIG!!! BOY!!!!!!! lots of interesting art from all over the world celebrating Mary having a very important convo with Gabriel
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| the church was so large this was the only picture I was able to got |
We also checked out some other churches I don't even remember ok
DAY FIVE DAY OFF
yeah I think I took a phat nap
DAY SIX: The house that Benito Mussolini built
It was sabbath so we did the Sacrament thing and then we went to the traditional site of the Sermon on the Mount. There's a catholic church there built by the OG fascist.
After that we went to Yardenit which is an alternative baptism in the River Jordan Site for people who
aren't committed to historical fact who don't want to get weird boils want to get baptized in Jordan River somewhere else. It had some nice scripture in all sort of languages including YOU GUESSED IT
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| also languages that my friends at home speak!!! |
DAY SEVEN
Gamla, Kursi and Hippos
DAY EIGHT DAY OFF
jk we also went canoeing in the jordan and it wasssss pretty gross.
DAY NINE: We came, we saw, we stormed the castle
Golan! We saw a CASTLE!!!! and explored it. It's from the crusader times. Also Tels Hazor and Dan are places but I was sweating so much it was hard to focus. Our last stop of the day was to a lookout point that is near Syria. It was very sobering to be able to see Syria and occasionally (throughout the day) hear various blasts and bangs in the distance that were most likely coming from the active war front there. A very grounding experience tbh.
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| I have no memory of the context of this but I like that that's what this little weasel is named |
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| this was a pretty water fall or something I was so sweaty and hot I think I was only like 15% present mentally at that point |
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| some place I think Caesarea Philippi |
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| CASTLE CASTLE CASTLE!!!! Crusaders lived here |
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| where the green ends is where Syria begins |
DAY TEN: DEUS VOLT *dabs*
so close!!!! Our first stop of the Sephorris that had a mosiac of a weird dinosaur and a beautiful lady (I'll let you decide which is which). I also sang
a beautiful song for my classmates in the theatre there.
We went to Akko the port used by the Crusaders when they came to the promised land seeking booty and like...God probably.
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| HOW IS THE MED SEA SO PRETTY |
Akko is a neat place and we checked out some crusader sites and explored a tunnel which was cool
DAY ELEVEN: home again
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| first stop of the day was where Elijah chopped off so many heads |
We are home now. Before that though! We went to Haifa and saw some stuff. The coolest place ever we went to the
Bahai Gardens!
Bahai is a really cool religion and I was very impressed with their beliefs and actions. Also their gardens were beautiful and we had a chance to go inside the Shrine of the Bab. I know I've made many recommendations for places to visit if one ever comes to the Holy Land, but this one I mean with so much sincerity, If you are in Haifa CHECK THIS OUT!!!! It was so cool
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| this is the place where they keep the originals of all their scriptures |
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| the gold dome is The Shrine of The Bab which has nine terraces of gardens above it and nine below it |
We also went to a graveyard where two early LDS missionaries and members are buried. the broken pillars represent lives cut short.
GALILEE OVERALL
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| this was my snap story for like a week straight |
such a great experience. So hot so humid. you can sweat everywhere especially your knees and be only semi conscious during field trips. But in spite of all that, it was amazing. More than any place we've visited I have felt that this was a place where the Saviour lived. It was also such an incredible experience to be able to spend time with my friends, sing awesome covers of Radiohead songs and watch shooting stars. I'm sorry that sentence was way too ickily sincere and genuine for this trash blog so like... farts.
Friday and Sabbath
Chill things! A lot of what happened with us other than class relates to the tensions related to Al-Aqsa Mosque/Dome of the Rock/Temple Mount which it (fingers crossed) seems are settling down.
Here is a great article that explains everything that's happened related to that in the last two weeks, most of which we were fortunate to miss. We would have been safe and we are safe now, but I'm glad if things can be a little more peaceful here. Today being Sabbath I sure did sing a lot which is always fun!
OK WOW IT IS SOMEHOW DONE THANK GOODNESSSSSSSSSSS I'm out of here
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