“Tel Aviv is sweet, bro! For four days I would just sleep on the beach, wake up, smoke some hash, and go for a swim!”
This was the advice I got from the bedouin tent DJ when I told him I was staying in Israel. He wore fingerless wool gloves in the middle of the desert.
Today I slept (in a hotel) on the beach in Tel Aviv, woke up, drank four shots of espresso, and went for a swim. Birthright is over. Our Sea to Sea Trek turned into a Sea to Sea Trek-Plus-Short-Bus-Ride (due to extreme heat, the park rangers kicked us off the trail), but we made it to the Kinneret. We stumbled over the rocky shore, spilled in our bottle of Mediterranean, and went for one last swim as a group.
I’m going to miss my Birthright companions. These beautiful people have seen me naked, they have heard me cry, they have smelled me after four days without a shower. After two weeks in their company, it is strange to sit on this beach without them. As the next chapter of this mad journey begins, I’ll think of them fondly, and often.
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