ELEVEN days in Galilee!!! This was an amazing trip :) It was different from Egypt because not only did we go to a bunch of sites, but we also had our classes. Plus we stayed at the same place every night...a kibbutz on the Eastern beach of the Sea of Galilee, Ein Gev. We would switch off every day- one class go out on a field trip, while the other stayed at the kibbutz for classes in the morning and a free afternoon on the beach. The next day, it flipped. (P.S. This was our first view of the Galilee from Mt. Arbel)
SUNDAY: Instead of driving straight up to the Galilee, we made a few stops along way. One of them was Caesarea (Maritima) which was the great city built up by Herod the Great and became the main headquarters (instead of Jerusalem) for the Roman governor in control of Judea during the first few centuries CE. After walking through the presumed palace of the governor where Paul was held on 'house arrest' and where Peter was condemned and killed (if I remember correctly), we got to play in the Mediterranean Sea by the Roman Aqueduct. I saw this rock and immediately thought of the Little Mermaid...hence this personal rendition :)
Next stop was Nazareth, the home of Mary and Joseph and where Jesus grew up! We got to see some churches, most notably the Church of the Annunciation which commemorates the Angel telling Mary she would conceive the Messiah. It is actually the largest Christian church in ALL of the Middle East so that was pretty cool. We got some time to walk around the city and after passing the 3rd juice stand, I finally gave in. This juice was soooo fresh-- all they do is cut a pomegranate (or orange) in half, squeeze it through a press and out comes the juice, straight into your cup! So delicious and nutritious.
After seeing the ancient 1st cent boat in Ginosaur, we spent the rest of the morning at the Mt. of Beatitudes.
The 1st century town of Caperaum. Out of all the miracles recorded, Jesus performed 2/3 of them in and around this city! This is also where he met Matthew the apostle. It specifically says that Jesus preached in this synagogue very often so it was cool to stand there and know for a certainty, Christ walked here.
TUESDAY: After our three hours of New Testament class in the morning, we had a free day to play in the Sea of Galilee!! Because of the unnatural heat wave that has hit Israel, we had the warmest November in remembered history...that made it really nice for us beach bums :)
So while our class was on our first field trip, the other class had their free day and built a very detailed sand replica of Herod's temple and the temple mount. Of course our class had to build something equally impressive so we built a geographically accurate model of Egypt...complete with the pyramids of Giza, the Karnak temple and the Nile (filled with Sea of Galilee water ha).
Fun beach pictures....ninja Nataly!
WEDNESDAY: Synagogue at Gamla. This ancient city is technically part of the Golan Heights but according to my professors, it is almost for certain that Jesus taught at this synagogue at least once in his ministry around the Galilee. What made this really different is that is has not become a pilgrimage site so nothing has been built up on top of the 1st cent stones. So cool.
This is the famous St. Peter's fish (Talapia) which actually wasn't that bad! I am NOT a seafood person, but this fish wasn't that fishy tasting. It's interesting because Talapia was definitely not the type of fish that would have had the gold coin for Peter's tax (it was most likely a bottom-feeder, probably a carp) but this fish is the traditional one to eat....probably because it tastes the best.
THURSDAY: Our second free day we took the afternoon to go rafting down the Jordan River! Actually, it was more like floating with a few little dips here and there, but it was still delightful.
Just another night watching the sunset over the Sea of Galilee.... :)
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