Much to Joy’s dismay, babies have pretty much always terrified me. They’re so delicate and I’m so clumsy. “He was dropped as a baby” seemed a very real possibility when I was entrusted with the precious cargo that is Liam Saxon. Plus they poop A LOT. What comes out seems to be disproportionate to what goes in. You’ll see what I mean in the video. Anyways, imagine my surprise at actually having a wonderful five days with a five month old baby. The little trooper didn’t seem to slow his mom and dad down one bit. I even got to use my “What You Talkin’ About Willis” line that I learned from hanging out with my two year old niece in Ireland. And it was a huge hit, a guaranteed giggle every time. Maybe I’m cut out for this baby thing after all!

If you’re going to schlep all the way out to Interlaken, Switzerland, you’re pretty much obliged to take the lengthy and pricey journey up to the Top of Europe. Jungfrau - the highest point accessible by train in all of Europe and standing just shy of 12,000 feet. All you need is a few hundred dollars, six separate trains, the better part of an entire day, and some warm clothes. That clearly did not deter the masses, however, as we were far from the only ones to make the trek. But what a stunningly beautiful and amazing trek it was – perhaps even voted by The Wandering Walkers as the most amazing scenery of the entire trip. Thus far anyway – I guess we still have like 5 months to go or whatever.

The day began by taking the first of the trains from Interlaken to Kleine Scheidegg, which acts as a stopping point for the train switch to get to Eigergletscher. Here we went for a quick hike up into the hills where Joy impressively popped-a-squat (seriously – click on that link) with some of the local cows. Giddy with nature, we ran back down the hill and threw down a quick Braut and side of potatoes. The Swiss, by the way, are not known for embracing the whole healthy cuisine movement. I have never seen a more fat and cholesterol laden food culture, yet somehow they manage to not drop dead in their teens like one would think.

Finally, the train that takes you all the way to the top. There’s a couple stops along the way at viewing platforms, but the real party starts when you pull into the Jungfraujoch. The first thing that makes an impact on you after stepping off isn’t so much the view as the fact that one of the options for getting some food is an all-you-can-eat Indian restaurant called Bollywood. For real. I couldn’t make that up if I tried. We somehow managed to elude its temptations (hey, Indian food is good whether you’re at sea level or on top of one of the highest peaks in the world), and made our way through the ice caves and onto the observation platforms, and then onto the glacier itself.

It’s really hard to describe what a view from that high is like. It’s not like being in a plane at all, especially since the top of a mountain isn’t pressurized. It was another one of those sad times of being so out of breath (in this case because the air is so thin) that you’re dizzy and about to pass out. And then getting pushed out of the way by some 80 year old lady who’s trying to get around you. The most striking thing is just how bright the sun’s reflection on the snow is. For the most part you’re actually above the clouds, so there’s nothing stopping the glare. It’s tons of fun to slip and slide around on the ice – which was a little different than when we did this in New Zealand since here we were just in regular shoes. Am I a bad husband for secretly wanting Joy to take a little tumble while she was showing off? Guess that’s not a secret anymore…

Sadly, there was no magical way to get down from the top. A helicopter would have been handy, but instead it was three more trains and about three hours to the bottom. As luck would have it – and it always does – we managed to get sandwiched in between an Italian family with an impossible amount of children. No problem since we had our headphones, but it got a little awkward trying to look out the windows since it appeared like we were staring at their children. When we did finally make it down we had a nice ten minute break before dinner with Debs, Ethan and Liam. Just another day in the life of a Wandering Walker! How much longer did I say we have again..?

With the constant running around the past couple months, we were ready to be in a culture that was slower paced and low stress. Madrid was a pretty good place to be in such a laid back atmosphere without the pressures of having to do and see it all, especially since both Jason and I had been to this city in our pasts.

Upon arriving to the city our first night, we were reminded of what a late night culture it was. In fact, sitting down to dinner at 11pm was completely the norm. Plaza Santa Ana, the square a half block from our hotel that is filled with tons of restaurants, was absolutely jammed with hundreds of people all dining at that late hour. We were amazed to see entire families out with young children, frolicking into all hours of the night. I was actually kind of embarrassed that these little kids had more late night stamina than us!

Since we were up much later in the evenings while in Madrid, we ended up sleeping in so much later then we normally do. By the time we ate breakfast and did our morning routines, our average day wouldn’t begin until about 1pm. Most afternoons basically consisted of choosing a different area to wander around and exploring it. We managed to check out and get lost in a good chunk of the town, spending 5-6 hours a day just walking aimlessly.

My favorite afternoon was spent in El Retiro Park, aka the “Central Park” of Madrid (it actually reminded me more of Golden Gate Park in SF). Our Sunday afternoon was so lovely, minus the botched picnic where bees attacked our bocadillos. It was wonderful to stroll through this massive park, taking in all the great sites as the Crystal Palace, the row boats in the Estanque Grande, and all the ornate fountains. We even brought our books so we could read in the shade of a tree. This perfect afternoon was followed up by a coffee in the Plaza Mayor, a great place to sit and watch the frenzy of the masses.

Overall, Madrid was a pretty uneventful city for us – not bad, but also not great. The food was very average, something I remember about Spanish cuisine -- we were however suckers for the churros con chocolate and sangria, and of course Jason loves all the pork! The siesta hour from 2-5pm became a complete nuisance, seeing as everything shuts down and leaves one with limited options of places to eat or shop. AND, the people weren’t as friendly as I remember, especially considering Jason was doing his best to communicate in Spanish. The strange thing is, my memory of the city from when I was here 10 years ago was so much more positive then my experience this time around – maybe age has jaded me!

We have however just arrived to Seville, and already from our afternoon of exploring the maze-like alleyways that criss-cross the city, like the vibe here! Hope that feeling continues. . .

There are some things that I have few issues with. Here are the main ones:

The Work Ethic – Or should I say lack of. Here’s what I’m going to say about The Siesta: If it was a good idea, every country would do it. Sure, we would all like to take a big ‘ol nap in the middle of the afternoon from 2 to 5. But it’s just not conducive to business. Which is, I’m sure, a large reason why Spain is falling so far behind the rest of the European Union. What you end up with are retail stores and businesses that are only open for about 25 – 30 hours a week. They stroll in at 10, take off from 2 – 5ish, and then come back and work for a few more hours. IF they work on Saturday it's from 10 – 2.  The whole country shuts down on Sunday. And they take off the entire month of August.

Bread – It ain’t free. And nobody tells you that until it’s too late. We sat down at a place in Toledo, ordered, and the waiter promptly brought out a basket of bread. Naturally we assumed that since we had just ordered enough food to feed half of the impoverished nations we’ve now been to that it was included. It wasn’t. Each piece we ate out of the basket we were charged a euro for. Uncharacteristically, I actually challenged the waiter and said I wasn’t paying. I got the typical “stupid American” comment or whatever and we went on our way. Turns out that really IS how it’s done here at a lot of places. But not all. So you never know just how much bread to fill up on…

View Tax – We decided to hit up a pretty touristy place in the main square of the cathedral in Sevilla for a nice dinner. It was horribly over priced, but it had such a nice view that we figured what the heck. We had our subpar meal and asked for ‘el cheque por favor”. When it came, everything was 30% more than it was supposed to be, which was already a lot. Turns out that if you sit outside you get charged the extra toll for the privilege of gazing out upon the square. While the entire menu was in English, that little tidbit was buried at the bottom of the back page in Spanish.

Narrow Streets – Charming, yes , but only when they are not actually open to traffic. The streets here are so narrow that cars parked along them have to collapse their side mirrors so they don’t get sheared off. I’m a lot wider than a side mirror. (this is where my brother is inserting the fat joke of his choice I’m sure). So every time a car comes barreling down the street – and they don’t slow down just because it’s narrow and filled with pedestrians – there’s always the chance of losing an arm. I’ve been dying to take my contacts out and give my eyes a rest, but no way I can walk around here blind.

I don’t always mean to be the negative one. This really is a great country, and a lot of fun to relax in. As long as you’re not planning to get any work done it’s the place to be.

The only thing we knew about the mid-size city of Granada were people basically came here to see the Alhambra, a medieval complex overlooking the town (often considered on par with the 7 wonders of the world.) Other than that, we had no clue what to expect of the place. Upon pulling up to the graffiti laden cinder block train station, with quirky looking characters hanging around, we thought we had made a big mistake. Like I used to sing in my elementary school chorus, “You can’t judge a book by its cover, there’s more to see then what meets the eye!”

AND, there really was a lot more to be seen in this town. The first thing that struck us was the lack of tourists relative to in Seville and Madrid. It's no secret that in areas which cater to tourists you get shops filled with lots of junk, and of course over-priced restaurants with subpar food (since they’re not depending on repeat business.) We however found the food to be quite good in Granada with a local crowd filling a chunk of the scene– we definitely didn’t eat anything gourmet, but some simple tasty dishes.

The bar scene was also very cool, with many cozy little hubs scattered within the alleyways and side streets. Our first night in town we hung out at The New Yorker, sipping on gin and tonics, grooving to what I thought was good music (Jason of course thought was bad), and having a merry old time. Our second night was a little more interesting, when we decided that we were going to check out what looked to be a restaurant mid-way up the Alhambra, which is quite a hike to get to. Turns out it was a private wedding party.  Clearly the ladies seving tapas didn't pick up on this fact that we didn't belong, and happily served us little morsels of goodness.  We eventually ended up at a hookah bar that looked out onto the beautifully lit up Alhambra. This is when Jason proclaimed he could move to this town – he hasn’t said that about many places we’ve been.

The following day we continued to be enamored with the place after spending the whole afternoon at La Alhambra. The views gazing off this complex, which we climbed a good mile up-hill to reach, were incredible. The sprawling compound of the La Alhambra truly was a site to be held, filled with lush gardens, oozing water fountains, monstrous fortresses, ornate palaces and nice shady benches to sit and read our books. We spent almost 5 hours wandering around the area taking it all in. No doubt it's worth a trip to Granada, not only for the Alhambra, but also the town itself.

The first thing Jason said when looking at one of Antoni Gaudi's structures, was the origin of “gaudy” must come from this artist.  There is no denying that his style is ornate, bordering on over-the-top ostentatious. Barcelona is filled with structures, buildings, parks and cathedrals designed by the now deceased architect. To sum up his grandeur, the Sagrada Familia Cathedral, has been under construction for over 100 years and is scheduled to be complete 2026! Let’s just say had we realized the extent of “construction” that was still going on inside, we probably wouldn't have paid $20 to get in.

Yesterday was another “Gaudi” filled day, wandering around Park Guell. The garden complex is filled with many unique constructs designed by Gaudi. The lower area is mobbed by people checking out the mosaic figures, fountains, and strange looking structures. Although that was all cool, the real treat was hiking to the top of the mountain, to take in the incredible view of Barcelona – we were really struck by what an enormous city this was.

Exploring different parks seems to be what we’ve gravitated towards --today was yet another day wandering through the expansive Montjuic Park. Our goal of getting up to the castle turned into quite a mission. Eventually, a tram ride took us to the Montjuic Castle, a site I had visited 10 years ago while in Barcelona with some girlfriends. From here we had a 360 degree view of the city, including the entire coastline.

Of course, no time spent in a city would be complete without checking out the local dining scene. Yet again, Spain managed to disappoint in the culinary realm. First off, a lot can be forgiven if there’s a nice ambience. However, for some reason the Spaniards turn their lights up really bright, totally ruining any sort of mood-lighting potential. Next thing, the norm of having slot machines in restaurants is such a turn off – makes me feel like I’m in a cheap Vegas joint. Now, let’s talk about the intense rush of smoke that hits you upon opening the door to where you're supposed to enjoy culinary delights –- this is soooooo unappetizing. And last thing I promise, I’m so sick of bocadillos! If you’re after anything but food, Barcelona is right on, especially if you’re in search of something “Gaudi”. . .

A lot of times we ask ourselves if we’re more into a place than we might otherwise have been because the place we were before didn’t impress us. For example, we were really underwhelmed by Spain in many many ways. Now here we are in Dubrovnik, Croatia and thinking this is one of the nicest places we’ve been the entire trip. It’s been three days now and we’re still just as amazed as the first moment we laid eyes upon it, so I think it really is a truly incredible place.

Plus, Joy’s family has flown out to meet us here! Judy & Steve (the parents) and Jake & Aimee (the brother and soon-to-be-sister-in-law). The only person missing is Josh, whose new high pressure career in the snack cracker industry has prevented him from joining us. It’s a true family affair, with Jake & Aimee sharing a beautiful 3 bedroom place with us right in the heart of the old town. Founded in the 7^th century, the old town is completely walled off from motor vehicles and is one of the most striking and unique cities we’ve seen thus far. Words can’t do it justice, and neither really can pictures. A little touristy for sure, especially when the cruise ships roll in, but not overcrowded or mobbed like so many of the places in Spain.

As far as the food goes, seafood is king here. Being on an isthmus jutting into the Adriatic Sea there’s an abundance of fresh fish. Something we’ve been sorely missing. We’ve already had some fantastic meals, including a great family dinner last night. Speaking of family events, we took a day trip to some of the surrounding Elaphite islands today that was nothing short of spectacular. Some of the most beautiful scenery imaginable and a delicious lunch of grilled whole fish that was so good I had to go back for a second. Oh and a few hours on a beach that was half regular and half nudist, with no effective separation between the two.

Here’s the thing about nudists – they’re never good looking. It’s never a group of hot college girls frolicking around and playfully splashing each other with water. It’s always old men and women – often difficult to tell apart since each have equal sized breasts and no visible penis. There seems to be a direct correlation between the amount of flab and extra skin a person has and their desire to be naked. It was pretty funny to see Steve take the opportunity to “swim laps” and head off in that direction though…

Unfortunately, our Montenegro “tour” was not the most informative experience. I was told the driver of our private van would speak English, and be able to give us some background and history on the country – this did not happen. So, we were left merely to take in the gorgeous scenery of the country on our 12 hour excursion.

Our first stop at the old city of Kotor, was reminiscent of the Old City of Dubrovnik. Tall city walls, quaint little churches, cobble stone streets, a surrounding bay, and more cafes and restaurants then you know what to do with. I think Jason is adding building a walled old city to his list of money making ideas, since there was no shortage of tourists checking it all out. We decided to buy an overpriced guidebook here, to read up on some history of the country of Montenegro.

Surrounded by Croatia, Bosnia-Herzogovina, and Serbia, Montenegro's tourism had suffered greatly from unrests and wars in these surrounding countries in the 1990s. In recent years, along with the stabilized situation in the region and in part due to it's independance from Serbia in 2006, tourism in Montenegro has begun to recover, and is being re-discovered by tourists from around the globe. It truly is a special region consisting of sprawling bays that open up to the Adriatic Sea, enormous mountains stretching for miles on end, lush flora and fauna, and a coastline that would take your breath away. Thus, it’s not hard to understand why so many people from the EU are buying up property in this country.

My favorite stop of the day was at the St. Stefan panorama. This seaside resort located 5 km southeast of Budva (where we ate lunch), used to be a tidal island , but is now permanently connected to the mainland by a narrow isthmus . It truly looks like something out of a movie set. It’s no wonder the rich and famous come to spend their holidays here on this exclusive resort on Montenegro’s coast.  I tried to convince Jason we needed a couple nights here, but he wasn't buying it:)

A car ferry boat on our way home helped to cut down our travel time back to Croatia, which we all welcomed after being in the car for more hours than not that day. We all had a chuckle when we saw how insanely lax the passport control was – they didn’t even open up our documents, just counted to see there was enough passports. My mom had read just that morning that the Adriatic Coastline was rated in the top 25 of deadly roads in the world –- we all breathed a sigh of relief upon arriving home safe and sound that evening.

That’s right, Jason has reached the big 3 – 0 while kicking up his heals in Dubrovnik! September 6th was an action packed day filled with all the things my hubby loves. We began our voyage to the Peljesac Wine Region, driving along the beautiful coastal roads. Our first stop was at Ston, a military fort whose defensive walls are a notable feat of medieval architecture: there is a 5 km Great Wall that surrounds the town. We climbed a small section to get up high enough to check out the awesome view of the salt flats below. I figured this was a good way to build up an appetite for our next jaunt.

Our journey continued along the curvy inland roads, passing gorgeous vineyards along the way. We arrived to a little mom and pop mussels/oyster farm in a secluded bay surrounded on all sides by towering mountains. In order to check out the mussels, and pick which ones we wanted to taste, we had to “walk the plank”. There literally was a shaky thin floor board connecting the mussel platform floating in the water, with the walkway, and we all were concerned about crossing the thing. We all made it safe and sound – it was well worth the risk since our feast of shellfish plucked right out of the water was one of the best we’ve ever eaten. AND my mom even tried her very first oyster!

Jason loves a good nap, so we made sure to allow time in the day to rest up before our big night out at Nautika Restaurant. This is the place to eat in Dubrovnik, hosting many famous people in the past, including most notably the Pope! Once I saw the 8 course tasting menu it offered, I knew this joint would make Jason’s big day complete. It truly was a fabulous dinner, including highlights as shrimp mousse, a lobster medallion salad, shrimp scampi, a lemon meringue and vodka sorbet cleanser, and an almond and chocolate birthday cake. No doubt, this was one of our top meals of the trip leaving big smile on all our faces!

Although I wasn’t sure that as a full-fledged 30-year-old Jason would be able to handle the next couple days of somewhat strenuous activities, he managed to hang in there. Climbing the old city walls of Dubrovnik was awesome. If you were to have only 24 hours in the city, this is the one thing I’d say is an absolute must. The views from on top the mile long walls were stunning, looking out onto the Adriatic Sea, as well over the roof tops of the historical city.

Our last afternoon excursion over to the island of Lokrum, just 10 minutes away from Dubrovnik, was a lovely trip. We just wandered around the island, checking out the botanical gardens, and eventually chilling out for a bit by the “dead sea” (the salt water lake in the middle of the island). Jason even built up enough strength to try and get one of the wild peacocks on the island to open its feathers for us, although it didn’t happen. This final day with the family ended with a nice dinner at a local restaurant, topped off with us kids hitting up a very cool bar overlooking the lit up old city walls!

One of the things we always ask ourselves when we get to a city is, “Could we live here?” The answer is almost always no. In fact we can probably count on one hand of a Chinese machine shop worker the cities that could support our fragile ecosystem (Hong Kong and Sydney are about the only two that come to mind). But now we have a third to add to the list, as Vienna has all the life sustaining properties we require. Tremendous food, great shopping, youthful exuberance (but not too youthful, since now that I’m 30 youngsters annoy me), and amazing public transport. Not only do they have a clean and efficient metro system, but also trams that go everywhere. Plus most roads have a separate, wide bike lane. Not that I would ride a bike. But it’s nice to know it’s an option. Plus just about everybody speaks English.

Unfortunately, we had to leave our first hotel. It was beautiful and comfortable and everything we love in a place, but since it had just opened that week the internet connection still wasn’t working. And the fastest way to put a Wandering Walker in a mad mood is to mess with his internet connection. So we packed up after the first night and schlepped over to Flemings, a strange restaurant/hotel combo chain. The room was nice enough, but for some reason they thought it might be classy to stick an all-glass shower in the dead center of the room. And not frosted glass – just plain old regular see through glass. I don’t know about you, but for me shower time is private time and being on display like that is sort of unnerving. Plus I couldn’t shake the idea of putting a few strippers in there and letting nature take its course.

I can’t say that we were at our most adventurous while in Vienna. Frankly, we were feeling pretty tired and worn down. We mostly wandered around home base and saw the basic sites and hung around the room watching BBC. We watch a lot of BBC as the vast majority of countries have BBC as the only English channel option. The thing about BBC is that they repeat themselves. A lot. It’s sort of like watching Headline News on an endless loop for hours on end. While I do feel very up-to-date on world events, and could probably deliver a newscast to you word for word about what’s going on in Iraq, I am looking forward to returning home to my million channel plethora of choice. I will never complain about “what the hell are all these channels up in the 600’s and who the hell needs all those” again.

Once we figured out when the High Holidays were this year, we decided to be in a special place to celebrate them. Budapest, with its rich Jewish heritage, seemed like the perfect city to ring in the Jewish New Year. The Dohany Temple, also known as The Great Synagogue is the largest Jewish house of worship in all of Europe, and second largest in the world. It houses over 3,000 people and is the center of Neolog Judaism. The interior is absolutely awe-inspiring with grand tall ceilings, three stories of sitting space, ornate décor, a Bimah that would take your breath away, stained glass windows that decorates even the ceiling, and an ark that was literally the size of an enormous walk in closet housing around 20 Torahs.

The most amazing part of the experience was feeling like I had stepped back in time. The population at the service averaged what looked to be around 70 years old. I couldn’t help but think about how much history there was in this room; a Congregation of Hungarian Jews who had once been brutally tormented for their beliefs in this very country almost 60 years ago, were now standing proud in the heart of the city. My emotions certainly boiled over on more than one occasion during the service while observing such a beautiful site. My thoughts also turned to Grandpa Art, who I saw in so many of the faces of the older men shuffling around the room. He would have fit in perfectly!

One thing that I had not expected was for an organ and a choir to be part of the service. Normally I find this a complete turnoff, but the music and chants this day were so majestic, setting an incredible feeling in the room. Even Jason felt at ease, mesmerized by the beauty of the environment.

No doubt I am feeling a tinge of homesickness during the holidays, missing the tradition of being with my family and friends. However, experiencing this step back in time at The Great Synagogue was something I will always remember for the rest of my life. Also, the falafel and shwarma we splurged on after the service was just the comfort food we needed!

It was eight years ago today that I met Joy. I was at the birthday party of a mutual friend, Paul Katz, and it was late into the evening. She sat down on the couch and started to give me a hard time about something or other. She can do that better than anyone I know. We talked for a bit, even took a walk around the block, and then we went our separate ways. Not, however, before I wrote her number down on the back of one of my business cards. I still have that card. Like a desperate man who didn’t know the rules of the game, I actually called her the next day. And now here we are, eight years later, in the ninth month of a trip around the world together.

It’s funny how chance it can all be. Had I left just a minute earlier – as my friends Dave & Kate whom I was there with wanted to – we probably never would have met. I would never have known what true love was. What it was like to have a partner in every sense of the word. To be welcomed into a new family, to see how wonderful life can be, and to be shown how to be a better person. I guess it would have just been Wandering Walker instead of Wandering Walkers.

This city was not what we expected, our first impression being somewhat disappointing. After 26 countries, and countless metro/subway systems, there is no doubt Budapest’s is the most perplexing. I’m not going to try and explain the details of it all, since I still don’t even understand it myself. The one fact we did absorb is you can’t transfer to a different line without having to pay another full fare – this is just plain impractical. AND, since during the few taxi rides we took our meter appeared to be rigged, we decided walking was the best mode of transport in this city.

Now we’ve seen our fare share of graffiti around the world, but absolutely no place comes close to how covered this city is with spray painted images and tags. It was quite disgusting seeing such beautiful old buildings, churches and even the steps on the escalator covered in ugly graffiti. Jason and I decided if we ever moved to this city, our profession of choice would be painters, clearly no lack of work opportunity in this town.

My favorite parts of the city centered around the areas on the Danube River. This waterway separates the Buda and Pest sides -- the name Budapest is a combination of the two, a fun fact I was unaware of prior to our travels there. We cruised up and down the Danube on a beautiful glass boat, stopping off on Margaret Island for an afternoon of exploration. The boat ride was a great opportunity to see and learn about some of the sites along the riverbanks including the grand Parliament Building, the Chain Link and Liberty Bridges, Castle Hill, the Royal Palace, and many churches.

I never thought we’d have one of our best meals of our entire trip in Budapest, at a restaurant called Mokka. The ambience was superb, the service was spot on, and the food was phenomenal – after our countless servings of goulash, and uninspiring meals this was a real shocker. By far the most unique and delicious dessert we’ve probably ever tasted was the ricotta dumplings, served on a warm bed of marzipan, accompanied by a creamy ice cream – this was heaven in our mouths.

On a whim our final day, we decided to jump on a local train and take it to a suburb town. Upon stumbling onto the cobblestone center of Szentendre, we were in love. It was an absolutely adorable little town lining the Danube River, filled with many restaurants and infused with tons of charm. We happened to catch a local festival where strange enough a local band was playing Nirvana covers, which was quite out of place (check out the video clip!). Szentendre even boasted the supposed worlds only marzipan museum, which I must say was impressive – I especially found the full size Michael Jackson figure that weighed almost 200 lbs and took 3 weeks to complete interesting. An impromptu boat ride back down the Danube to Budapest was a great way to end our time in the country.

It had been 7 years since my last visit to Israel, a country that I had spent over 2 years living and traveling through during my college days. Thus, my anticipation and excitement to return here were sky high, especially eager to show off the country to Jason. However, my first impression of Tel Aviv was definitely a disappointment, discovering how dirty and rundown parts of the city seemed to have gotten. This was especially evident on our walk along the esplanade to Old Jaffa, where the number of deserted structures, heaps of garbage, and stray cats clashed against the beautiful view of the Mediterranean Sea. I returned from that afternoon a little disenfranchised about why this place was so special.

One night out with our friend Yoav, coupled with great conversation about why this city maintains so many of its quirks, helped us to see through some of the superficial flaws. I started to experience all the wonderful aspects of the country that I had fallen in love with years ago. First and foremost, Israeli people are a breed all of their own. Although their no-nonsense, straightforward approach to life often comes off as rude, I find their blunt nature somewhat refreshing. I was especially impressed when our waiter informed the table next to us that had not left him a tip, that service is not included and that it's typically 10%. In the states you would have just been left with a disgruntled server who most likely wouldn’t have said anything.

The food in this country is absolutely outstanding. I had forgotten about all the fresh breads, delicious array of dairy products, and incredible salads they have here. Our first day in Tel Aviv we made a b-line for Yotvata to indulge in the fresh smoothies that are amazing. There is a really cool area along the water that didn’t exist when I was last there called the New Port. We spent many meals in the great restaurants there, including an afternoon at Aroma Café catching up with my old friend Asgeir who I met in Jerusalem.

Our 4 days in Tel Aviv flew by, and before we knew it we were on our way down south to spend Yom Kippur with my cousins in Beer Sheva. No doubt being in Israel for the high holidays is a unique experience, since the entire country literally shuts down. It is generally accepted that people don’t drive their cars on the holiday, which leaves the streets completely open to pedestrians. It felt like a block party as we walked to shul for Kil Nidre, the streets flowing with people socializing and children riding their bikes. It’s a site that apparently only happens once a year. The best part of the weekend in Beer Sheva was of course spending time with my cousins Amy, Miryam and Yishai, all of who I had gotten to know when I spent time in Israel before.

Yesterday was an adventure filled day with Miryam, Achiad (her boyfriend) and Yishai. After packing I think around a dozen sandwiches for just the 5 of us, they took us on a day trip to some beautiful sites in the Negev. First we stopped off at Ben Gurion’s gravesite, which is a spectacular look out onto a large canyon. We descended into Ein Avdat, and did a little hike in this area, eventually coming to a small flowing spring. Yishai, Jason and I opted to climb to the top of the canyon, which was an adventure in itself. Yishai and his 17-year-old nimble body, was practically giving us a heart attack with his attempts to scale the side of the mountain instead of using the path. Once Miryam and Achiad picked us up in the car, we continued to Makhtesh Ramon, the largest crater in Israel. Since I was last there, they have set up a sculpture garden along the rim of the canyon -- we had fun swinging on the large swings structure! Watching the sunset from Camel Point was the perfect way to end that long day in the desert.

A typical day in the life of a Wandering Walker. We woke up in Eilat, Israel, a resort town on the very southern tip of the country. We took a cab to the Jordanian border, leaving our car at the hotel so we could cross over on foot. Driving in Jordan = bad idea. It took several border agents and stampings, and a full page out of our already overcrowded passport, but we managed to make it across. Once on the other side it was the usual game of haggling for a driver. Problem is, there’s only one guy who controls all the cars, and miles and miles of desert. So after making a big show of refusing to pay what he was asking and then taking a 5 minute stroll around the desert to look for “other options”, we returned with our tails between our legs.

The car we got into was wonderful. Nice driver who spoke English, air conditioning, the whole nine yards by Jordanian standards. For about 5 minutes anyways. Soon we were pulled over to the side of the road and told to get out. Figuring the odds had finally caught up with us and we were going to be kidnapped and ransomed we got out and switched into his “brothers” car. Not quite as nice, being held together by what looked like a few pieces of string and a prayer to Allah. And clearly his brother was on some sort of suicide mission, trying to scare us by taking his hands off of the wheel and swerving off the road to gauge our reaction.

But hey, we’re used to this, no big deal. Until we pulled off the road an hour and a half and greeted by a machine gun toting guard. Our driver got into some sort of shouting match, then got out of his car and hugged the guard. Then we were told to get out and come with the guard. We followed him to a gate and were asked if we “would like to see the King’s palace”. Not seeing a plethora of options we said sure. So we were motioned into the gate, made to sit on a couch where I almost knocked another machine gun over with my bag, and all stared at each other. This lasted for about half an hour until we were told to get up, that we would not be seeing the inside of the palace, and were then sent on our way. We later found out that this whole little scene was quite extraordinary as the land we were on was strictly forbidden and that the guard would lose his land, his wife, and all of his possessions if anyone found out he let us through that gate.

Thirty more uneventful minutes and we arrived at our hotel in Petra, which is situated right at the entrance. And so we ventured in. This is one of those times where there’s no way to describe what something is like. Petra is probably the most beautiful place we’ve seen the entire trip. I will say that I was not aware that the Petra experience involved the level of audience participation that it did. I thought you just go in and look around at all the ruins. Turns out it’s a 4 – 5 hour hike through the desert. But what an amazing hike it was. The colors in the rock, the carvings, the natural scenery, the camels, the Bedouins, all of it was simply awe inspiring.

We managed to hike all the way through to the very end. It was pretty late in the day at this point and there were almost no other people around, especially up that far. We decided to follow the “sign” to see the view atop the large boulder. When we got to the top we met a very cool guy about our age who apparently lives on that exact spot in a tent where he sells a few trinkets out of. His family has been there for generations. While not living in his tent he pretty much operates as a Syrian gigolo. He wanted us to watch the sunset and stay for the night up there, but we decided we should get on our way before it was pitch dark. It’s a pretty treacherous and rocky path back down and the light of the moon probably wouldn’t have done the trick.

About halfway back we decided to swallow our pride and take a camel back. We negotiated a price with a thirteen year old Bedouin boy to borrow his camel and both hopped aboard for the final couple miles back. Needless to say by the time we got back we were exhausted. We went out for a Jordanian Mezze Platter in “The Cave” for a late dinner, which we were told would be enough for one but turned out to require three waiters to bring it all over. We ate until bursting and headed back to the hotel to crawl into bed and die. But unfortunately my night was not over as a small work crisis kept me up until almost 2am. Making for a long strange day…

Click here to see all the pictures form Petra