GUEST TRAVELER: Israel

Join friends Cindy and Emily on their adventure in Israel on their blog, Unholy happenings from the Holy Land. Here are a couple excerpts to give you what Cindy might call the "flava" of their trip:

"Cats are EVERYWHERE. I can't deal with it. They're like squirrels. They're in the trees, in the dumpsters, in the shops, all over the streets ... Israel needs a Bob Barker; an advocate for the animals. "


"I had a really interesting convo with Yael on our way out of Tel Aviv. I noticed today that there is a huge absence of synagogues in and around Tel Aviv, and that just strikes me as odd. In our neck of the woods (Metro Detroit), there's like, 1 synagogue for every 9.5 Jews. Seriously. Her answer was pretty straight forward. You're either an Ultra-Jew and pray in an Orthodox temple, or you just don't pray. On high holidays, she told me, if you want to go to worship, look no further than a local gymnasium. Everyone who's not good enough to be in a synagogue will assemble and worship there. Freakin' what???"

"The flights were easy, they served free German beer, and although we slept through one meal, we have to say we were impressed by the two others we did get to eat. Shocking! International flights are great! If you ever have the chance to fly Lufthansa, do it."

"(Some customs of Orthodox Jews:) Women are not allowed to worship with the men. There are serious restrictions on interaction. No eye contact or hand-shakes. No hellos or thank yous to strangers."

Another interesting factoid: The dots next to the Hebrew characters are vowels. However, in Israel, signs in Hebrew are written without the vowels.