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.
