When I was a teenager my family lived in Israel because of my dad’s job. It was a great year we spent over there. Every weekend we traveled all over that country. Going to all the ancient ruins and sifting through the rubble trying to find coins or pot shards.
It was a wonderful time in my life. I’ll never forget visiting places like the old city of Jerusalem walking through the streets and buying food and exotic items in their little stores. I had great friends that I will never forget. Like Olav Ingstead, the Norwegian Ambassador’s son. He and I would rent horses for five dollars a day and ride them as fast as we could down the beach with the salt spray in our faces. We rode them over the dunes and explored the burned out remains of tanks and vehicles left there from past battles.
He and our friends would swim all day at the beach not far from our house. When we walked home we would often get in rock throwing fights with the Palestinian kids who didn’t like us cutting through their village. It was all in good fun and no one ever really got hurt. One day after one of these rock fights we headed home and found one of these Palestinian boys walking down the road. He didn’t see us until it was too late and we all piled on him and gave him a sound thumping. He ran off crying and we all got a good laugh. Later we stopped at a Cafe to get some sodas. As we drank them we saw a big Arab on a big motorcycle driving up. He wore the Arab headdress,a sweaty tee-shirt and bluejeans. But unfortunately on the back of the motorcycle was the same kid we had just beat up.
Stayed tuned! More about this adventure tomorrow!
Tags: ancient ruins, arab headdress, bluejeans, dad, day at the beach, five dollars, good fun, great friends, job, olav, old city of jerusalem, palestinian kids, pot shards, rock fight, rubble, salt spray, sifting through, sodas, tee shirt, time in my life, traveler, walking down the road, wonderful time
by Diane, on July 27 2008 @ 4:01 pm
Looking forward to the rest of your story - sounds like you were a handful LOL!
by Janet, on July 27 2008 @ 4:05 pm
Hi Marc welcome to the network! Sounds like you’ll have some very interesting travel stories to share
by Adier Barrin, on July 28 2008 @ 5:59 am
Walking through the streets and buying food and exotic items in their little stores.
In my case we walk in the streets looking for exotic food.
by Marc, on July 28 2008 @ 11:32 am
Hello Adier, Yes walking through the streets can shopping can be fun. I learned early on though to be careful what you eat. Especially if it was meat on a stick. It really tasted great but who knows what it was hopefully not monkey meat. Thanks for responding , Marc
Marcs last blog post..Rock Fight