Olive Pies

At The Frenkels, we had a delicious breakfast that was hand-made by the people there, the best breakfast we had in the whole trip. There were home made mini-croissants, a bunch of rolls, great juices, salads, home-made jams, really good fruits, and the second day there were really good waffles.

First we went to a little town in the Golan called Katzrin. Josh and I played a lot in the ruins and spied on our parents while they were visiting. There was a marketplace, a synagogue and a few old houses from fifteen centuries ago. We also saw an old olive press, and when the olives where done being pressed, they kinda looked like cow pies.

Then we went up to the hills to see the abandoned Syrian city of Kuneitra, and the border with Syria. Then we saw a memorial to all the soldiers who died in the Yom Kippur war with Syria. We had lunch in a Druze village where we had very good falafel. Then we went to Nerom Golan. It is a fighting post against the Syrians. It was really cool, also, because there were so many little passageways, old turrets, guns, and bunkers. Josh and I played there for ages. The story of the war is that on Yom Kippur, when most of the soldiers were home, the Syrians attacked Israel with thousands of tanks. Avigdor Kahalani, one commander, had only about 18 tanks and 24 men, and they resisted for 2 days and they pushed back the Syrians, until reinforcements arrived.

From there we drove further North to Mivzar Nimrod. On the way we saw a modern fort, used nowadays, that had a bunch of awesome tanks. We also drove by the source of the Jordan river in Banyas. Nimrod is a castle of the hashishins, which is where the word "assassin" came from because they were all assassins. But it was closed when we arrived. Then we went to a nature reserve, also closed. We had a great dinner at an Arab restaurant, then went back to The Frenkels.