My Israeli adventure, Part 4: Saying Goodbye (But hopefully not forever!)

Unfortunately, each journey comes to an end one day. I've been on some trips in my life, which felt too long or exhausting, but usually it's been the other way - I felt like I'd like to see an experience more. This time wasn't an exception. The 5 days passed by very quickly and I didn't even notice how the day of my flight back to Budapest came. Some part of me felt slightly disappointed about not having seen everything that I wanted (especially the Dead Sea), but on the other hand, isn't that good to have a serious reason to come back? Now that the flights aren't really expensive anymore, traveling to Israel doesn't feel like a "once in a lifetime" experience. In fact, that would be quite sad to leave a country with the feeling that I've seen everything and there's nothing new to explore. I've had this feeling after my last trip to Moldova in October, because I've indeed been to almost all the places which could be of any interest to a tourist there. Still, if I want to find a reason to come back, I will do it. :) And so I believe, I'm actually convinced, that I'll come to Israel again. And who knows, maybe it would even happen this year? But I'm terrible at planning more than a month in advance, so I'll think of it when the autumn is closer. :)

The last day of my stay in Israel was really sunny (finally!) and so we decided to go to Netanya, which is a town closest to my friend's village and which has some nice beaches.

Netanya also has some palm trees!

It's quite a modern town and, according to my friend, has a bad reputation, but I found it nice nevertheless. And eventually I was able to swim in the Mediterranean Sea without the risk of drowning in huge waves! I think from the perspective of Israeli people swimming in January must look weird or extreme, but it's all relative. I might find it slightly amusing how Israelis think it's cold when the temperature falls under +10 degrees, but I bet they'd have even more fun watching me not being able to go outside during the Israeli summer, because to me +30 degrees are already too much! ;) Anyway, the temperature of water in Netanya in January is just a couple of degrees lower than it usually is in the Baltic Sea in Poland during the summer season. So no, I'm not going to claim that I've done ice-swimming this year, but I might still do it when I come back to Ukraine! ;)

Swimming in January is so extreme! :P

After having a walk in the center on Netanya, drinking a yummy coffee in the local mall and buying some souvenirs, it was time to go back to the village and get ready for my flight. In fact, that day I also found time to steal a lemon from my friend's garden (and she was watching me while I was committing this terrible crime!) and to take a photo of myself with an orange tree! :D

Look! Real oranges! :D

I've also tried to learn some Hebrew during my stay in Israel. I actually started revising everything that I had forgotten since taking some Hebrew classes in 2005 a few weeks before my journey, but of course it wasn't enough to learn a difficult language like this one. Or maybe I shouldn't say it's difficult? According to my friend, it's very logical and I can believe her, because Hebrew is a language that was revived after many centuries of being used only for prayers. Therefore it shouldn't have as many exceptions from the grammar rules as some languages have, if they've gone through all the stages of natural development. I still think that the hardest thing about Hebrew is the writing system. Just learning the Hebrew alphabet is not a problem at all, you can do it in one day (and then spend another day learning the cursive version)! :) The thing is that in Hebrew they don't write the vowels (there are diacritic signs called niqqud used to indicate them, but you won't find them in normal books and newspapers), so if I see a new word and try to guess its pronunciation, in most cases my guess will be wrong. You can also have two different letters, which stand for the same sound, for example both ת and ט stand for [t] sound. Then one letter can stand for two different sounds, for example ב can be both [b] and [v]. It makes the whole thing quite complicated, but I still want to learn. Of course, I feel guilty of starting to learn too many languages at once, because I realize it's not exactly what you'd call a productive learning process, but as long as I'm doing it for pleasure it can't be a totally wasted time. I didn't dare to buy a "serious" Hebrew book for foreigners, because I don't know how far I'll actually go in learning this language and I want to finish the one I have from Poland first. Still, my friend's brother has made a really funny small book with all the words that I've learnt in Israel, that was so cute! :)

I always start with learning the most important words! ;)

Speaking of books in Hebrew, I had a bit of a culture shock! :D I obviously knew that Hebrew is written from right to left. But somehow I didn't realize that you start reading a book from what seems to be the end to me! ;) First I thought that my friend and her brother were making fun of me, but later it turned out that all the books in Hebrew actually start from the other side. Yes, I'm a bit stupid! :D

Unfortunately, I haven't written a lot of letters this month, but I've managed to send one from Israel. It was to Theodore in the USA, who's my partner in the random letter swap. It was the first time I took part in such event and, to be honest, I found it quite hard to write a random intro without asking too many questions. But I hope he'll like this letter nevertheless.

Letter for Theodore in the USA

I've also sent quite a few postcards from Israel, which was a wonderful chance to practise writing the names of countries in Hebrew! :) I hope my penpals will receive them soon!

Some of the postcards I've sent from Israel.

I've also received a lovely letter from my dear Stav, but I wasn't allowed to read it until I boarded my plane back to Budapest. The temptation was high, especially while I was waiting at the airport, but I promised, so I waited! ;) Her letter really helped me to go through another flight without experiencing a strong fear. As you may have noticed, even on the envelope she's mentioned me having stolen her lemon... ;) So think twice before inviting me to come to any "exotic" country - your lemons, oranges and palm trees won't be safe anymore! ;)

A lovely letter from Stav.

We landed in Budapest about 1 am, because the flight was delayed, but it didn't matter much, as I had to sleep at the airport anyway. It was as uncomfortable as you may imagine, I managed to sleep until the morning and there were many more people doing the same thing. :) The bad thing is that I've caught some virus and felt really sick, but I'm not even surprised, because it often happens to me while I'm traveling. ;)

Early morning at Budapest airport.

The next day I went to visit my Hungarian friend Brigitta, who lives some 70 km away from Budapest and we played some game, which was very similar to Scrabble. In Hungarian. Yeah, it's very funny to play it in a language that you barely can speak! :D But we had a lovely time and I was happy to meet her again. On 14th January I flew to Belgium and that's where I still am, but that'll be the topic of the next boring blog entries. ;) 

I still find it hard to believe that I've actually been to Israel, although the photos of me and the palm trees show that it must be true! :) It was a really special experience for me, I think it's the furthest out of my comfort zone that I've ever been! But I hope this year, as well as the next years to come, will be full of such lovely adventures! :)