David and I met in Zurich and flew together to Tel Aviv. He had flown from Australia and I had flown from New York City. Needless to say, there was some jet lag - especially on David's part. The first few days, we were staying in Tel Aviv for a conference. When we got to the hotel, they didn't have a room for us, even though David was an invited guest speaker. The hotel across the street didn't have a room either. After about 2 hours of a cab ride and some mild shouting, we got a room at the Crown Plaza. It was significantly better than the hotel at the conference.... go on »

My second full day in Israel, I was on my own for the day again, so I signed up for another tour. This one was to Masada and the Dead Sea. There were seven tourists on this trip.... go on »

Jerusalem is more than just the land of religious epiphanies. It is also full of the most cut-throat market owners I've ever seen. The shop keepers will do anything to get you in their store. You are constantly hounded as you walk down the streets of Jerusalem. They will even stand in front of you as your walking so that you can't pass quickly. We knew enough to ignore them, but they had some sneaky tactics. Several times we would ignore them and keep walking, and they would shout "excuse me!" after us as if to say, "how could you be so rude as to ignore me!"... go on »

The morning of our last full day in Israel, I went to Bethlehem. This was a big deal for a few different reasons. First of all, it's the birthplace of Jesus Christ. Secondly, it was the place that I had a dream about several months prior to visitting it. And thirdly, it was in the West Bank under Palestinian control. Israeli tour guides are not allowed to go into the West Bank for security reasons, so if you want to go, you have to figure out how to get there. There are tours that go there, but I couldn't find any.... go on »