In September 2011, my father and I took a trip together to Israel, to visit the family and friends he still had there and travel around the country. It was an unexpected opportunity for me; I had been years ago shortly after I’d been bar mitzvah’ed, but hadn’t made it back since and missed out on taking advantage of Birthright thanks to work and school. When my father began talking early in the year about trying to make a trip back to Israel, I sort of snuck in a mention one day to the effect of “maybe I’ll tag along.” He didn’t say no, which I took to be a tacit agreement and, the next thing I knew, plans were being made.
The trip itself was awesome. Travelled around a good bit, visiting a variety of cities and sites throughout the country. Saw a lot of family – more than I actually knew we had still in Israel. Spent a lot of time on our family’s kibbutz. Ate more delicious food than I
can recount. Met simply terrific, generous, lovely people. Most of all, though, it was a rare opportunity to spend a good bit of uninterrupted time with my father; twelve days one-on-one with my father is longer than I can remember having spent consecutively in many years, if not since leaving home for college years ago. It’s something I’m going to remember for a long time to come.
I didn’t set out with the intention of keeping a journal while on the trip, but grabbed a notepad on a whim at the last moment while packing. I figured it couldn’t hurt to take a few notes over the course of the travels, which eventually grew into an entry for each of the twelve days of the trip. With only a few minor edits, these have been recounted here as a blog post each day over the next twelve days. I call them “Twelve Days in Israel… land of my father, hummus, tahina, falafel, beer, cigarettes, crazy scooters, tattoos, manic drivers, pretty women, terrific family, and coffee… lots and lots of very dark coffee.”
Jump to…
- Wed Sep 14 (published Mon Jan 9)
- Thu Sep 15 (published Tue Jan 10)
- Fri Sep 16 (published Wed Jan 11)
- Sat Sep 17 – “Day 4… or, the one in which I earned my wings” (published Thu Jan 12)
- Sun Sep 18 – “Day 5… or, the one in which I’m on my way to being a sabre” (published Fri Jan 13)
- Mon Sep 19 – “Day 6… or, the one in which I finally get used to seeing my face (oh, and am inspired by the generosity of relative strangers)” (published Sat Jan 14)
- Tue Sep 20 – “Day 7… or, the one in which I sort of live-tweet the day” (published Sun Jan 15)
- Wed Sep 21 (published Mon Jan 16)
- Thu Sep 22 (published Tue Jan 17)
- Fri Sep 23 (published Wed Jan 18)
- Sat Sep 24 (published Thu Jan 19)
- Sun Sep 25 – “Day 12… or, the long trip home” (published Fri Jan 20)
