Israel in a glimpse

I didn't take a lot of food pictures while we were there because for the most part, we ate conservatively.   And I completely understand that we have to, since a lot of the tour participants are from an older crowd (middle age, up to my grandma's age).   Plus most of them are used to eating Indonesian traditional food.  It was not cheap to join this pilgrimage tour; for the price we (ie. my parents) paid, it included stay in 4-star hotels or better.    Which means, our breakfast and dinner are typical hotel-buffet dinner.   *sigh*.   I mean, yes, the buffets have some kind of traditional food, like hummus.   But still, I would love to try their regular restaurants, their hole-in-the-wall, their local coffee shops.    Oh well.  I WILL come back to Israel for a culinary trip.

 This is the view from our hotel in Tiberias; it's the Galilee Lake.   It was actually quite beautiful.  

We walked along the pier, and stopped by cafe/restaurant for some hot chocolate & beer.   Then we continued our journey to explore Tiberias before the sun set.   There was a small night market around the area.   On the 2nd night there, we also had dinner at one of the restaurants at the pier.   

There were a lot of houses along the hillside.   And they look like the above picture.   Most of the housing building looks like apartment buildings.  Reminds me of Legos :)  

Correction: This is a date palm tree.  

View of the sea & Port of Jaffa.   I believe this was just outside of Tel Aviv.   

Note:  there were no trees around the area whatsoever, so be prepared to be baked under the sun until your skin is crisp.   

I believe this area is called Caesarea.  And these are ancient aqua ducts, built during the Roman Empire.   It's amazing that these structures still stood strong until present days.   

Note:  same as above.  Even though there were a lot of cool breezes (because it's right by the beach), there were no trees around.   So yeah, either you take cover under one of the structures, or be prepared to come home looking like a burnt toast.   It was flippin' hot.   

I can't remember where this was.   But the view was AMAZING!  I was in awe 

 One day, our tour had scheduled lunch in Jerusalem, at a Japanese restaurant (yes, I know. You're probably wondering:  why would you go to a Japanese restaurant when you're in Israel??  well...because a lot of the tour participants were not accustomed to eating bread and hummus, or kebabs).  The younger participants finished lunch as quickly as we could and we took off to explore the area a little bit.  We were very excited to find coffee shops and restaurants, and a strip where people are chilling out.   *cry*.  I also wanted to chill out.   

Housing structures

This was in Tel-Aviv, right by the site of St. Peter's Church 

And once you're in the city area, you start seeing a lot more modern buildings and skyscrapers, as well as modern boulevards which are very well-maintained

OK, next post, is going to be about a market that we visited during our last minutes in Israel.   We had a couple of hours to kills before we catch our flight, so our tour guide gave us an option of staying in the bus (it was super hot outside, so imagine being inside a bus, with its engine and AC not running. No, thanks), or to walk around the beach.   So while the aunties & uncles were busy looking for a shopping mall (i'm not joking.  shopping mall), we took off and found a sign that says "Market".   Wow-wow-wow-wow.   and we figured it must be a local market.  And off we went, to search for the market.   

I'll be posting some pictures from the market, so stay tuned!