Market day in Jerusalem

Jerusalem, Friday January 8

An amazing day to tour Jerusalem "Mahne Yehuda" market.

I have a very good friend. She and I decided to fly for few days to Italy and celebrate our birthdays.
Unfortunately this splendid idea could not come to life (at least not this year) and as a substituted idea we decided to have a weekend full of fun and characters in Israel.
Our immediate location was Jerusalem marketplace - "Mahne Yehuda" which provided a colorful decoration for a day filled with many flavors, smells and of course - new faces.
We started our tour few streets from the market and followed the trail of people with trolleys walking in the opposite direction of us, to find our way to the market.

As we got there, it hit us.
The place is loaded with people... heaven for photographers mmmmmmmmmm
We went slowely in the market alleys looking for.... Everything. Anything. Nothing
And it was found.
Small boutique shops of very expensive and delicious cheese, Chocolate, Jewelries, Ceramic works.
We were introduced to a giant bread loaf, huge olive oil bottles, fish of all kinds, funny fishmongers, vegetables, green leaves, oh god, the smell and size, amazing !
I took pictures of everything I could.
Each picture has its story, one of thousands that could have been.
I found in most pictures linked into this blog something unique and yet all together are the TRUE nature and market essence.

Enjoy your tour with us...

Life, no minute like the other. Enjoy it

Yours,

Eti

Ramat Hagolan

Last week in Israel was a very unique one.
On one hand, it was Hanuka, the celebration of light and miracles.
On the other hand, there were too many lights, or actually one great fire in "Hacarmel Forest" and no miracle to stop it.
It was a hot weekend in every aspect.

But, as life goes on and people do continue their personal plans, we met our friends from Eilat for a weekend of touring Golan Heights (see link).
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Golan_Heights#

It was a lovely family trip for both our families.
We started the morning with a bi g breakfast in a resturant called "Tata" which is great grand mother or auntie in many languages.
Service was less than OK, and my friend complained a little to the owner of the resurant. Later on we learnt that one of the weitresses was fired :-( Maybe we shouldn't say anything???)

Anyway, as our stomacks were full, we could continue our way to the heights. We visited the Arbel mountain but as we turned there 1 hour before closing time there was not much to do.... Kids were very happy.
We then stopped for a coffee break (what, we did not eat anything in 2 hours!) next to a monument for soldiers who fought in Yom Kipur war and lost their life there.
If you look at photo number 3, you can see a spirit of one of them, driving in circles trying to break free...

From there we went to the guest house where we spent the night.

Next morning was a lovely trip to Zavitan river (actually, river is dry!). Was an amazing experience, to convince the little kids (6 years old), that soon we will finish the track and get a rest, when we had at least an hour of walking left!
My friend Nurit who is the best story teller I have ever met took the task to distract the kids mind off the long walk, and started telling mythology stories.
I was so fascinated in her stories, that the track was too short for me...

For dessert we visited "Aniam" an artists village, which was a very nice time spending (luckily not money spending :-) )

By the finish said goodbye to our friends that stayed there for another night, and we headed home. Even though we drove safely, we managed to do the way in 2 h 15 min (45 min early than expected)
Go figure

So, as I usualy say -
Life, enjoy them, as you'll never know what will happen next... and if the fire that you are looking at is to keep you warm on a cold night, or burn your house...

Yours,
Eti

Desert Eilat Nov 2010

My husband and I went on a vacation to Eilat.
It had been long since we have done that, only us, kids free.
It tasted differently, I must say.
Finaly, we could focus and talk to each other, we could get drunk, we could even... get naked in the desert...
OK, we didn't - but we could, if we really wanted to...!!!

Here are some photos from our amazing trip to Tim'na, and the red see.

Enjoy life while you still can

Yours, Eti

Yakum

Finally, I bought a new lens for my camera.
It is a 18-200 mm and I can take pictures from distance.
It is time to go out and take some pictures.
I woke up really early today (the only day in a week I can actually sleep).
My husband who is very keen on riding his bikes on Saturday's early mornings woke me up.
I cursed, but went to turn the kettle on.
He left and I had a major decision point. Go back to bed or go out.
Out was the crowed's favorite (I smsed my friends to vote at 7 am)...
So I got dressed up, put on my back my new sling bag and off I went to start my day.
It is funny. When I take photos, I feel like the time is flying. When I loot at the watch I see that time was not flying that fast. However, each minute was complete. Full. There. So it made me think, that on everyday life we actualy do not use the entire time that stands for us, but only 1/3rd, or even less.
Shame.

People - we need to seas our time here better.

Results of today's photo session are in this link

Yours, Eti

Camping on hot Israeli summer

So my family and I decided to go camping for the first time in our lives as a family.
Immediately as this decision was taken I went to look for a tent. Do I know anyone who may have one that is big enough for all 5 of us? It is best not to buy it for the first time, cause what if we do not like it???
SO after a lot of looking with no one to lend us a solution, we bought a tent. Not the cheapest one of course - if it is our tent then we should live in style.
My husband should not work very hard to build it, he only has to open it like a huge ambrella.
Done.
Next step is to find a location.
On Israeli summer - nothing else but the sea shore. Humidity is high, but cool water just two steps from our door.
Done
Date? well, we decided to go last week, however, it was too hot outside.
Will this break us??? NOT at all!!
Kids were waiting to sleep in a tent.... so we stayed home, turned on our AC and opened the tent. Kids slept 2 days in a tent in the living room.
I think our camping trip was a success. Don't you?


Anyway, a week after we did go out, photos attached. (Press the headline)
Enjoy - like we did!

Do not think - just do,
Eti

"Adam" http://www.foxsearchlight.com/adam/

A wonderful movie

Touching, making you think of relationship and how we get most things for granted.
Also, how we want things to be the way we want them, unable to see what's hiding under the obvious...

A good movie, great music

Duck tails