Galilee, Capernaum, Dead Sea - Day 5

After breakfast, we took a boat ride on Lake Galilee to Ginosar. It was really nice and people danced. First, they played the US National Anthem, then the Canadian one, and then the Israeli one (Hatikva). After the anthems, they played Hava Nagila and other songs so people danced. Even our tour guide got into it with one of the members of the group.

As we drive on our way to Church of Multiplication, we see lots of bananas being grown. The interesting thing to note is that most of the actual bananas are inside blue plastic bags. This is to protect them from birds as well as to make sure they all ripen at the same time.

The church had some incredible mosaics. However, we were not able to go to the altar to see the mosaic that's become synonymous with this church. It's two fish with bread (I think) in the middle. But the mosaics we did see were pretty neat. One was pretty cute, it had a bird (a stork maybe) that was trying to eat a little animal. The guide said the animal was a frog, but it looks more like a little rabbit or a field mouse to me. You don't expect a mosaic with a sense of humor in an ancient church.

After the Church of Multiplication, we were on our way to Capernaum. There, we saw lots of interesting things like an ancient Sephardic synagogue, the new church that seems to be hanging in mid-air over the ruins of an ancient church, and the ancient implements of daily life (the olive oil press, wine press, and wheat grinder). The ancient white synagogue was built atop an even older one which was built in black stone (basalt?)

This new church is built in a style of a Sephardic synagogue, where all are in a circle.
It is amazing how this one was built. I couldn't see any way that it was supported, but it obviously is. But you can see in the picture that it's floating above the ancient ruins. The floor around this area inside is made of glass so you can see the ruins below.


Then, we were on our way to take a peak at the River Jordan, site of many a baptism. Where people get baptized, it looks like a really wide ditch, maybe 20 feet across. In other places, it looks like you can quite easily step over this “river” if you take a regular stride. (Can you see the actual river in the first photo? You might need to click on the image to see it larger.) Aside from being rather tiny in most places we saw it, it’s also incredibly dirty looking. Mostly shades of brown, but in the baptismal area, it’s a strange shade of milky green. Ewww. Oh, and it’s really cold.

Our tour guide indicated that this is the only place we can try (and purchase) date honey. Normally, I detest honey. Nothing wrong with it, it’s just too sweet for me. But this, it wasn’t bad. But it’s not actual honey, since no bees are involved (and maybe why I liked it). It’s really a syrup made from squeezing dates. It’s really yummy so I got a jar of that as well as this date honey mixed with other things.
At this stop, we also saw some Russians purchasing baptismal gowns. The cold water must be OK for them, but we’re all in fleeces or jackets, and some in the group even had heavy sweaters and/or warm jackets on. These Russians were also quite loud and argumentative.

After the Baptismal site, we drove to Beit Shean in the Jordan Valley to see excavations and a Roman amphitheater. The one we saw in Caesarea technically wasn't an amphitheater, but just an open air theater. It was interesting to see the ancient public bathroom, the ancient road with appropriate grating to prevent flooding (the road sloaps gently away from the center, but you can see the "spine" in the road).
We also had lunch here. We actually had lunch before we went exploring. I had a schnitzel.

After the Beit Shean, we drove through the West Bank to the Dead Sea. Absolutely gorgeous scenery in the desert. Saw many wadis and were able to see the Jordan border past the barbed wire of the DMZ. The mountains in the picture are on the Jordan side. We stopped at a gas station to user restrooms and saw a guy selling camel rides. Ewww. Smelly scary animal.

We finally get to the hotel and we’re all exhausted. It’s been a long day and I’m ready to relax. But no. Once I got my room assignment, I went to the room and the electronic key didn’t work. So I went to the front desk to ask them to fix it. They said they did, but when I got back up to the room, there was someone else in it. Crap. Back downstairs. Now realize that each time up and down takes about 10 minutes because of the elevator (a long wait, pushy people, largest hotel in the area, etc.). So while I’m at the reception desk, and I’m royally pissed off now, I inquire about my luggage which I didn’t see. They looked at me rather funny and said “Did you load it on the bus?” to which I answered “yes” with a raised eyebrow and a very irritated manner. Hey, after 12 hours on my feet, I was in no mood for nicey-nice. While the receptionist is trying to find me a room she calls the bell-boy to help me with the luggage issue. This guy was so rude! “Did you load it on the bus?” was his question also, but with much more attitude. I gave it right back. Then, he informs me there are still suitcases outside and I should check there. I did and found the luggage. “Why wasn’t it brought in?” was my question to this obnoxious punk and he started telling me about putting on some sticker on my suitcase. I told him that I didn’t know what he was talking about and he was still giving me lip about “how did I know where to take all the other suitcases?” and didn’t my tour guide tell us about stickers. No, she didn’t.
So after finally having gotten a room, I went outside and slapped the sticker on the luggage. I had to call the front desk and ask twice if he was actually bringing it up, since he wasn’t quick enough to my liking. But he finally brought it in.

Actually, I found many members of staff to be rude at this hotel. Other members of our tour group had the same sentiment.
Not only was the staff rude, but so were the other guests. There were Russians staying there. Oy! Need I say more? (they were loud, obnoxious, rude, and pushy, just to name a few behaviors.)

Dinner was OK. They had great selection, but it wasn’t as tasty as at other hotels. I found some beef tongue that was stewed and some other things. Desert was OK, but the yellow thing wasn’t good. Salads were OK too. Nothing special.

The room itself was very big, a suite really. A large bathroom, a nice bedroom, and a sitting room. The view sucked.

Tiberias, Tsefat (Safed), Golan Heights, Kibbutz - Day 4 (Continued)

*Ok, I'm back from dinner. The nourishment has enabled me to continue with this post. I'll have more on the actual dinner later.

So where was I? Oh, right, on my way to a Kibbutz. I think it was called Kfar Giladi. The actual geographical area is absolutely gorgeous. Lots of things are in bloom; acacia, wild irises, poppies, and a variety of other flowers. The grass is green and the trees are full of lively leaves. A Kibbutz guide took us on a tour (we were driven through it on the bus) and she'd point out a few things. One of the things she pointed to were trenches. Another was bomb shelters and the border with Syria. I also noticed the miles of barbed wire all around. All this was interspersed while talking about growing mangoes and bananas and raising chickens. She was explaining to us the "advantages" of living in a kibbutz as well as problems they're facing. The major problem is that they're loosing population. This particular kibbutz has about 80 families and is considered small, to the point that they have to get additional workers during peak times.

She mentioned that when kibbutzes were first started, the children lived in what's called a children's house. This house is always in the middle of the kibbutz, to provide more security to the children. This particular kibbutz also had a bomb shelter right next to the chilren's house. In the picture, if you look right between the second and third tree, you can see a few rows of what looks like river rock. That's the shelter.
There were two things I found to be interesting. One was that they hardly eat the food they grow, though they grow enough to be self sufficient. They sell it and then buy it back from whoever they sell it to. Sounds silly to me. The other thing I found interesting is that this kibbutz is going "capitalist". HA! I've always believed that you can't convince a country-full of people to go communist (which kibbutzes in essence are), but I also thought that you can convince a small handful (say, 80 families). Turns out that in order to attract younger people, they need to change things and become more "capitalist".
All I know is that a kibbutznik I am not. Can you imagine having to have people VOTE on whether or not you can buy a TV or a car?! Absurd!
One of her quotes was "Each according to his capability for each according to his need". Anyone read Atlas Shrugged (or anything else by Ayn Rand)?
Ok, I'm not going to rant. I promise.

We ate lunch at this kibbutz. It was rather spartan compared to what we're used to, but it was tasty.
After this lunch all I really wanted to do was nap since I only got about 5 and a half hours of sleep. But we continued onto a winery. It is called "Golan Heights Winery". The tour was absolutely boring, but that could be because I've been on other winery tours. They take you to show you the barrels, then show you a movie, and this one was exceptionally silly so I fell asleep, and then they tried showing us the bottling process. But it was around lunch time so nothing was being bottled. Then we had the actual tasting. We were given 3 different wines, and I asked to sample another one. I like 2 of them: Yarden Muscat and Golan Moscato. I didn't like the dry wine (it was way too sour for me) and the Gamla White Reisling which was a semi-dry was OK. I wanted to purchase the 2 wines I liked, but they don't ship. However, they do have a distributor in the US, so I hope to find these wines at home. They were light and refreshing and a little bubbly.

At this point I'm looking at the clock wanting to go back to the hotel, but we had yet another stop on the tour. The Diamond Exchange. Sounds more glamorous than it is. The highlight of this stop for me was the bathroom. We were led into a few rooms with very old-looking displays (maybe from the 70s, so they're all faded) about diamonds, where they come from, how they're cut & polished, and that they close the deal with a handshake and a "Mazal &Bracha" (congratulations and blessings). Then we were lead into a show room with lots of jewelry and very eager (read aggressive to the point of obnoxiousness) Russian salespeople. OY! I couldn't get out of there soon enough, especially after realizing that the ONLY thing I liked in the store was over $6,000. Yeah. I've lived all my life without this particular bracelet, and will continue to do so.
So now it really was time to go back to the hotel. At this point I really did fall asleep on the bus. But got up to my room and started the blog before dinner. Speaking of dinner...
It was all the same "meze" (appetizers) as yesterday, but different main course. I really liked the potatoes (they had paprika, salt, pepper, cumin, and chicken soup flavoring). The meat slab turned out to be rather tasty and I suppose was a meat loaf. Dessert was really good, despite being ice cream. Now some of you might wonder how is it that a kosher dining room (and I'd be hard pressed to find one that isn't) would serve dairy and meat in the same meal. Well, the ice cream wasn't made from milk, it was soy milk. The only reason I tried was because of the abundance of strawberries. They're absolutely YUMMY! The little cake I also tried wasn't good (I don't know what it was, but I dind't like anything about it).

Well, I suppose I should get some sleep tonight, considering it's another 6AM wake-up call tomorrow. Pictures will be added later on too, when I can find another cheap internet hookup.

Tiberias, Tsefat (Safed), Golan Heights, Kibbutz - Day 4

Today was a completely exhausting day. Partially, this was a result of not enough sleep but mainly the result of walking all day.
Breakfast at this restaurant was just as lovely as at the Sheraton in Tel-Aviv; just as many choices except for the omelets, but they had scrambled eggs instead. Their tea baggies were nearly intolerable, but I suppose I expected loose leaf tea in a middle-eastern country.

Our first stop this morning was Safed (Tzefat). It has an artist colony but is known as the home of Kaballah. This town reminded me of a town in Portugal that I visited a few years ago (but I can't remember the name of the town, just that it's a UNESCO World Heritage Site). Safed has narrow winding streets, cobblestone walkways, multi-layered houses, courtyards in some houses, and general charm (if you can ignore the dirt).

This town is high in the hills and you can really feel your ears "pop" when getting there. It was also colder there than in Tiberias because of the altitude difference. Driving up the hill (mountain) we got amazing views of Sea of Galilee and Hula Valley. It's breathtaking. We could also see the snow-capped peaks of Mount Hermon. Apparently, there is even a ski resort there! This little postage stamp sized country continues to amaze me.

There are lots of artists and lots of galleries. Safed is also known for microcalligraphy and some of the pieces are really pretty. Painting galleries, sculpture galleries, wieving galleries as well as jewelry shops were aplenty. Some painting were absolutely gorgeous, but there's no way I'm shlepping a painting, no matter how small, in my suitcase. Some were really small, and I even considered it, but none were of the design that I really wanted in the size I wanted. Oh well.
Aside from the galleries, we visited two synagogues. One was an Ashkinazi and one was a Sephardic synagogue. Both were beautiful but you can clearly see the differences. The Sephardic one also had numerous Torahs that were hundreds of years old. Some were even older than 400 years.

After the visit in Safed, we were on our way to a Kibbutz for lunch via Golan Heights. We really did see quite a lot of the Hula Valley.

*Well, I'm off to dinner. Will continue this post later.

Tel-Aviv, Caesaria, Haifa, Nazareth - Day 3

Today, there were hot things for breakfast. So I decided to try the omelets (I had one with mushrooms, tomatoes, and cheese) and some of the same things as the day before. And nobody sneezed on my food, so I find that breakfast was great overall.

After breakfast we headed to Carmel Market near our hotel. It was still very early so most of the shop stalls were still closed, but there were some that were open. The spices were so fragrant, the strawberries superb, the bread amazingly fresh-baked, and the flowers glowed. I was glad that it wasn't busy so I could take pictures, though I do wish we had gotten the full sense of the market. There were also plenty of fruit, vegetable, and souvenir vendors.

As you can see, I was quite taken with this market. I just love open-air markets, and this is nothing like a farmers' market back home.

After a short time at the market (only 30 minutes!) we were on our way to Caesarea. I loved the view through the aqueduct. The weather was lovely; it was sunny and breezy but not cold. Just enough to be warm and be able to run around taking pictures and get all icky.
Not too far from this Aqueduct, there is an open air theater and a hippodrome that were build by Herod. The theater was discovered about 40 years ago, if I remember correctly, and it still holds performances. We spent probably an hour or so in total exploring these sites. There were also nuns who were having fun, enjoying themselves, and being goofy (how often do you see a giddy nun running?).
Next, our destination was the Baha'i Gardens in Haifa. Unfortunately, we didn't spend nearly as much time there as I would have liked. But the views of Haifa from the top of the hill where the gardens start is unparalleled. Simply breathtaking. You can see how manicured the gardens are, but also the sparkling dome at the bottom of the walkway. At the foot of the hill you see Haifa and then the Mediterranean Sea. Haifa is a very busy port.

Having seen this spectacular view, it was time for lunch and we stopped at a Druze village. When I heard that it was a village, I expected something rural, maybe like a farm community. This was nothing of the sort. It was very busy, lots of cars, people, souvenir shops, etc.
We had two options for lunch: a falafel or shawarma with a drink. It was decent. Definitely not worth $10 (40 shekels).
After lunch we continued with our trip and were on our way to Nazareth to see the Church of the Annunciation. The church itself is fairly new and made of concrete. It's very modern and I didn't care too much for the design. The one thing that I found interesting is that many countries had tableaus of Mary. If a tableau was from China, Mary looked Chinese, if it was from Guatemala, she looked Guatemalan, etc. It was great to see the different interpretations/depictions. This church is also built on the cite of a previous (ancient) church and you can still see some ruins.
The church was out last sight-seeing stop for the day. Now we're at hotels in Tiberias and had dinner at the hotel. It was OK.

Tel-Aviv - Day 2

This was the first morning at the hotel. It was a lovely breakfast, even though nothing was hot. No omelet station and no toaster for bread. The reason for that is Shabbat. There is even a "Shabbat" elevator, but more on that later. I tried a little of almost everything, but I was staying away from unknown dairy products (is it yogurt? milk? cottage cheese? I just didn't want to waste it). But a few pieces of bread with apricot jam and hot tea, some smoked salmon, fruits comprised my breakfast.
As I was getting a plate of fruit and coming back to my table, a kid from the table next to mine sneezed all over my table and the food already on it. The little snot! Literally. I gave him and his family decidedly the most unpleasant of looks and picked a new table.

After breakfast we had a walking tour of the city. It sounds more difficult than it was. Really, it was just a walk around the few neighborhoods not too far from the hotel. It was really windy at the hotel, but it's right on the beach, and the wind wasn't anything but a pleasant breeze when we got away from the sea. The Mediterranean one.
On our tour we walked by David Ben Gurion's house, which is quite modest. The tour guide told us that there is a library in that house consisting of about 20,000 books (yes, that's twenty thousand!). It sits on a quiet residential street, which is actually a boulevard. I haven't seen a boulevard in ages. To me, a boulevard is a very wide road that is separated by a narrow strip of "park". It's lined with trees, benches, people playing cards or board games, and little play grounds.
There were also kiosks. But these aren't your typical kiosks where you buy a pack of cigarettes, these were places where you can grab a quick bite to eat. In fact, we saw quite a few people enjoying the weather and eating their breakfast outside in the boulevard.

We crossed a few major thoroughfares and walked south to Rabin Square (dedicated to Yitzhak Rabin). On the way there we stopped for a while at the Rabin Memorial which is in the exact spot he was assassinated. Raya (our guide) indicated to the Israelis this assassination is what JFK's assassination is to Americans. Though this one is still quite fresh in their minds and people still get choked up talking about it.

After the tour ended a few people from the tour decided to go to the Tel-Aviv Museum of Art and I joined them. WOW. There's so much modern art and not being a huge fan of it, I was expecting disappointment. I was so wrong. It was great. There were quite a bit of French artists represented, as well as a few Picassos, Gaugins, Degas, Lichtensteins, Jackson Pollocks, a large collection of Archipenko and even a Monet.
What was funny to me was that most of the guards in the museum spoke Russian. It's so startling to me. 42 shekels well spent.

After the museum we went to grab some lunch and then go to Jaffa. We stopped at a cafe and ordered our food. It wasn't great, but it wasn't bad. It was interesting to see nobody paying any attention to the enormous dog of one of the patrons. The dog just lay there by the table, not bothering anyone, being very calm.

On our way to Jaffa, I petered out and decided to go back to the hotel. I was exhausted after a day of walking (9 am to 3 pm) and I was still a little jet lagged. It turned out to be absolutely the right decision to go to the hotel since I fell asleep as soon as my head hit the pillow. Had I not gotten this much-needed nap, I would have ended up with my face in the dinner plate. Speaking of dinner...

It was at a restaurant called Benjamin Segal, but surprisingly no visible mafia theme. It was very nicely decorated and the food was delicious. We had a very strong assortment of salads the names and contents of which I don't really know, a main course, and a dessert.
What I found interesting is that people who ordered a coffee for dessert also got a shot of carbonated water. I don't know why that is, so I'll try to find out.

Oh, back to Shabbat Elevator. This is the elevator that's designated for those who observe Shabbat and it stops on EVERY floor automatically. This way, they don't have to press the button. I don't know why that's a prohibition on Shabbat, but it is.

Israel - Day 1

We were picked up at the airport by family we have in town and spend most of the day together. It was wonderful. I got to meet people I've only seen in photos and see others I haven't seen in a long time. This being family means we had a LOT of yummy food. And as you read in the previous post, I even got a new recipe. Yay! But because things having to do with family are private, I will not go into any more detail about that.

In the evening, the family went with me to the hotel and essentially handed me over to the tour guide. It was really cute. After I got to the hotel and checked out the room, I decided to change it because it was smelling of smoke too much and I didn’t really like the view. Not enough ocean. So we all went downstairs (this first room was on the 4th floor) and I asked (again) for a non-smoking room. This time, I got a room on the 14th floor with an AMAZING view and it didn’t wreak of smoke.

Then it was time to go find the tour guide (her name is Raya and she speaks Russian) and the rest of the group. She said there are about 35 people in the group and I’m completely not surprised that I’m the youngest one.

She (Raya) gave us the usual spiel about what’s what and where and we were on our way. This was about 6:30-7 PM local time and I was about to fall asleep. I finally went up to my room and decided to capture some of the stunning view. It is incredibly windy today, but overall the weather is nice. There is sun, so it’s much warmer than what I'm used to at this time of the year, but I still have my jacket and fleece and long-sleeved things to wear.

After finishing the few shots, I decided it was time for shower. Has it been 2 days since I brushed my teeth? Ewww. The shower was very invigorating and relaxing at the same time after which I finally fell asleep (around 9 pm local time). But of course, I woke up to the phone ringing. Lenny gave me his wife’s other cell phone and programmed his and their phone numbers into it, so I can call them. But they called me first and the phone was in my bag and I was asleep. With an unfamiliar ring, it was fun to try to figure out what the noise was and what I needed to do about it, especially with about 2 days of no real sleep. Ella said my dad was gonna call, but for some reason he wasn’t able to. I wonder if the hotel gave him my correct room number.

I fell asleep again but woke up around 1 AM ‘cause of the noise neighbors. It sounded like the entire Israeli population of children was next door and was yelling loudly. So after much (not really) debating, I decided to go knock on their door and politely explain that it’s 1 am and I'm trying to sleep and they’re too loud. Seemed to have worked out OK. But now it’s nearly 3 am (nearly 7 pm Milwaukee time) and I can’t sleep. Sure, I took a few more night-time pics. IT'S SO WINDY! I was afraid of the camera being snatched out of my hands by the wind.

I should try to sleep more.

T 0 - Traveling Continued

Ok, now that I've taken a few pics of food and the recipe, I can get back to writing about our traveling.
When we got to Newark, we had a few hours for the layover and I grabbed something to eat. Not really sure what I ate, but it had rice and chicken.

I was really surprised by yet another security checkpoint when we got to our gate. See, the gate wasn't open, there was an actual movable wall in front and people weren't allowed into the departure gate area until a certain time. So when they opened the gate for people to go there and wait the flight, there was another checkpoint. Not only was my luggage checked at the home airport (I had a vase in there that looked funny so they had to check what it was), but everyone gets checked at this gate in Newark. They did the wand scan and a light pat-down, as well as opening the suitcases and checked that as well.

The airplane was enormous (Boeing 777). We were sitting near the wing area, so in the middle, and there were 9 seats across. It was 3 seats, isle, 3 seats, isle, 3 seats. The plane was comfortable enough, and they offered I think over 200 movies to choose from for entertainment. Each person had his/her own TV monitor and headphones, so each person could watch something different.
I watched (sorta, with only one earphone in 'cause the other one broke) Four Christmases but then decided to sleep.

Sitting in the middle, we worried who would sit next to us. The woman sitting next to us was very nice and quiet. She was thin so didn't lean into grandma's seat and spoke English well to wish us a good visit and thank us for being good company. Grandma also wishes that we'll have a person as nice on our way back.

We had 2 meals on the flight. A dinner and a breakfast. For dinner, there was an option of a beef lasagna or rice with chicken, then a dinner roll with butter and some cookies.
For breakfast, there was a cold cereal option and hot eggs. I think one of the egg things was a broccoli fritatta and then there was a mushroom (canned) omelet. They also had fruits (7 grapes and about 5 squares of melon, a croissant, a pad of butter and some jam.
I'm still here to write about it, so the food wasn't all that bad. But I can't call it "good" either.

Since we didn't check our luggage, I had to wait for the plane to essentially empty and then we went the wheelchair route, though no actual wheelchair was produced. But we were lead to the right area for passport checks and such and when we exited, we had family waiting for us.

When we were leaving the airport, what struck me was that there was signage in Russian! The radio and TV have plenty of Russian speaking options too.

T 0 - Traveling

So, after grabbing a few hours of sleep, I was close to being ready. But of course, I forgot stuff and realized it when we got to the airport. It wasn't anything serious, just inflatable neck pillows and a nail file. I went to a store at the airport and got 2 new neck pillows (I have 2 at home, waiting to be returned). These though turned out to be a better deal at 2 for $15.

We left Milwaukee for Newark on time (I think we pulled away from the gate on time, but then just sat there for a bit and waited). But we weren't too late for our connecting flight in Newark. I'm so glad I asked for a motorized golf-cart thing to take us from one terminal to the other. If I hadn't, we would have had to walk for probably an hour. Having 2 suitcases, a laptop, a camera backpack case, and another large bag as carry-ons, I was in no mood for that, nor would I have been able to drag all those bags.

* Oooh. Gotta run. My great aunt just told me that her daughter-in-law is making yummy things and I'm gonna go watch. So I'll continue this original post later.

T -1 of "Big Trip"

I've been quite exhausted lately. Especially in the morning. When my alarm rang this morning, through the haze of sleep I thought "I don't know how to turn it off - it's a Mac alarm clock." See, I got a new computer last year and it's a Mac and I'm not completely comfortable with it yet and don't know all its capabilities.
Oy.
Well, I gotta go finish packing, which involves a few more loads of laundry and some ironing.

Oh, and I find this site to be immensely helpful: http://www.ricksteves.com/home.htm Great information, tips, and even packing techniques. Though, despite his suggestion of taking only 1-2 pairs of underwear, I'm taking more. Sorry, cotton all the way. Don't like synthetics. And since I'm not backpacking through Europe (which seems what Rick's tours are) I'm perfectly happy bringing more of the necessities.

* It's about 1AM here and I'm almost all packed. Just wanted to add one more blog entry for now and make sure I got everything set for the morning.

T -2 of "Big Trip"

I'm finishing up a few errands and lots of projects before my vacation departure. Running around town getting things here and there is quite tiring. And I haven't even started packing yet.

I've also spent a lot of time of thinking about how to pack for several weeks of travel but only taking a carry-on suitcase. See, I don't want to check my luggage for many reasons, one of which is I don't want to miss my connecting flight waiting for luggage from one flight.
Did you know that you can get sun screen in a solid form? Yep, it comes in all sorts of sticks. For me the biggest problem is getting all the necessities like shampoo/conditioner, toothpaste, lotions, etc. all into a little baggie.
Yes, of course, you can buy all that stuff at your final destination, but that's not how I want to start off my vacation. I want to relax after a long flight, not start running errands.

I'm also packing lots of photo equipment for my trip. Well, it's "a lot" of equipment for me. Once I test out the set-up, I'll blog about how it's working out.