I have finally downloaded, cleaned up, and sorted over 400 photos from my recent trip to Israel. As you can imagine it was an absolute blast (the trip, not sorting the photos out). Keep on reading to see the album and for more…

There were so many pictures that I had to break it up in 12 sub-albums. See for yourself in The MKX® Photo Central.

The first 10 days of the trip I was staffing (together with hot co-madricha Laura Don and cool Tour Guide/More Derech Eli Nissim) a Birthright (Taglit) group organized by Israel Outdoors. Anyone that’s done any touring in Israel can tell you that 10 days is not nearly enough to see all the musts… we only covered the tip of the iceberg. Since most people on the trip had never been to Israel before (and none of them had been with an organized group) I hope that they go back soon to see more.

The coolest part is that even though I had already been to every single place we visited, I hadn’t done it in a looong time. You see, going up to Masada at 4 AM or floating in the Dead Sea is not the kind of thing you do when you go for your cousin’s Bar Mitzvah with your bobe.

The 40 people in the group ranged from 22 to 26 years old and were a wonderful mix of diverse, very smart, and interesting people. We were also joined for five days by 5 young Israelis. Everyone got along great and made a lot of friends.

The last few days I spent mostly in Tel-Aviv (with a little Jerusalem and Haifa added) hanging out with friends and family. Mostly I spent my time doing a combination of any of the following: eating, drinking, going to the beach, partying, eating, sweating, drinking coffee, eating, and eating.

While I didn’t get to see everyone on my list, I did cover most of them: Amit (thanks for hosting!), Adi and Ruth, Daniela, Ziv, Esther, Itay, Nir, Dalia, most of my family over there, etc. Since this is Israel, I also bumped randomly into people I know. More than once. Sounds crazy but that’s how it works over there.

This is roughly the trip’s itinerary for those interested:

• Thursday, June 26 – Departure
• Friday, June 27 – Arrival, Travel northwards to Galilee, Mt. Arbel
• Saturday, June 28 – Shabbat, Galilee, Kinneret Cruise
• Sunday, June 29 – Golan Heights, Nahal Jilaboun – Canyon hike, Mt. Bental – Observation point & former Syrian bunker. Jordan River rafting. Euro final!
• Monday, June 30 – Nahal Amud – Canyon hike in the Galilee mountains, Tzfat – Jewish mysticism’s birthplace, night out in Tel Aviv
• Tuesday, July 1 –Beit Guvrin archeological seminar, Camel trekking in the Judean desert, Bedouin hafla
• Wednesday, July 2 – Masada, Ein Gedi, Dead Sea
• Thursday, July 3 – Jerusalem, Yad Vashem – Holocaust Memorial & Museum, Har Herzl – National memorial
• Friday, July 4 – Jerusalem Old City walking tour, Kotel, Shuk Mahane Yehuda (market), Haas Promenade
• Saturday, July 5 – Shabbat, Jerusalem walking tour of area
• Sunday, July 6 – Tel Aviv, Independence Hall, Rabin Square, Jaffa
• Monday, July 7 – Departure from Israel (I stayed)

In the following days, expect a culinary tour-de-force (with pictures!) and notes on a very very very cool concert I went to.