Our Trip to the Golan Heights

So last Wednesday and Thursday (the 17th and 18th), we took a group trip to the Golan Heights in the north of Israel. We departed at 6:30 in the morning (yuck), and made the 2 and a half hour trip north. Our first stop was the Gilaboon Stream. This hike lasted about 2 hours. It was very beautiful, along the Gilaboon Stream, crossing it back and forth a few times. It was a pretty strenuous hike, not going to lie. Some points you are climbing down very steep rock ledges, using metal handles that they drilled into the rocks like a ladder. The scenery is verryyyy green up there. A lot of trees, plants, flowers, even bamboo. Finally, at the end of the valley, the stream turns into a waterfall. Very beautiful, and it gathers into a pool at the bottom, very inviting for a swim. We then bussed to the top of one of the mountains over looking the Valley of Tears. Here we learned about the battle for the Golan Heights during the Yom Kippur War. We walked around the underground army bunkers built into the mountain...very interesting stuff. Then back to the hotel for dinner. After dinner, we got to socialize with all of the other Oranim groups from around Israel (since all of the groups do all of the group trips together). Most of the groups are from Tel Aviv. One girl in one of the groups went to Miami, and apparently knows Julie. But I'm happy to report that after talking to abunch of other groups, and conversing w/ my group, it is clear that my group is definitely way better than all the others. Not only are we the biggest, but we have the most fun people with great personalities, sense of humor, a zeal for fun. I am definitely in the wrong group. All of the other groups sucked (sorry to any of you from the other groups who are reading this, but theres 0% chance of that happening). The second day started with a trip to an Israeli army base on the Lebanon border. It was very top secret...sort of. We weren't allowed to take any pictures inside the base, except for in one direction, which was at a tank in a garage. We were allowed to get in the tank and take pictures of us in the tank, which was pretty cool. Real small inside them. Then we got to walk around to certain parts of the base, see certain things that I may or may not be allowed to post on the internet. Trust me, they didn't show us anything cool. Just talked to us about what they do. Basically a lot of patrolling the area. After that we went to the Banias, which is a water reserve. There are snow capped mountains, and all the water runoff forms this river. This was another beautiful hike, albeit it much easier than the first days. I keep saying this, but soon I'll learn how to post pictures on here. This hike lasted about an hour or so, through lush vegetation, catcusesses (or cacti...), trees, flowers, red rocks. At the end was another waterfall, but this one was intense. For the entire hike, the water had huge rapids. You could definitely not raft in them. The guide said this is the fastest he's seen the water in 5 years. This all led to a very impressive waterfall. After this, we were all exhausted, and slept the whole bus ride back to Tel Aviv. Today started another work week, and this week is going to be busy. My roommate Aaron and our other friend Rob both celebrate their birthday this week, so Wednesday night a bunch of us are going out to a club here (good thing I don't work on Thursdays!)...and Purim is this weekend too, so gotta find a costume soon for all of the parties that will be going on! Here's hoping I survive the week!