Day 2: Hiking In The Golan Heights

Our breakfast this morning was incredibly delicious with many options, buffet style. There were omelets, eggs (all types), pastries (all types), salads with lots of options and much much more. The main attraction of the day was our hike in the Golan Heights. It is virtually impossible to explain how incredible it was without showing you videos and pictures. We all had balloons attached to our backpacks as we hiked and told embarrassing stories if our balloons popped. We also visited the eastern and western borders of the Golan Heights and discussed the Israeli conflict with Syria particularly in this region. It was an amazing day of hiking and learning with beautiful scenes/photos of the Golan Heights. We gained a lot of knowledge from the Israeli perspective, mainly talking about the six-day war and its aftermath (when we gained this territory). Jobee, our bus driver, fought in the six-day war and told us how he helped capture the Golan Heights. We got back to the kibbutz, had dinner, learned more about each other until 10 pm and then had free time. Several of the Israeli soldiers brought their guitars (Chen and Elia) and we had a little “sing-a-long” hang-out session outside of bunk 5. Others were too tired and went to bed. It was a long, long day and everyone was tired and wanted to sleep. Some people wanted to stay up until there was nothing to do though because “I don’t want to miss anything while I’m in Israel, not even for sleep.”