A year ago I left for a ten day trip to Israel. It was quite different from what I was expecting - more beautiful and less crowded than I'd thought. It hadn't been super high up on the list of places I want to see, but had a great opportunity to go so I took it. Highlight pictures:

  

Jerusalem

 An ibex in Ein Gedi park

Hyrax also live in Ein Gedi

Camel ride

 The cat enjoys having a square in Tzfat all to itself

The view from the top of Mesada. There's so much rock and so little else!

 The Dead Sea

 That's Syria over there

One year later, I'm very glad I went. I shouldn't have been surprised since I'm American, but I wasn't expecting so many different attitudes and viewpoints from the people I met on politics and all the complexity of the Middle East. A good lesson to remember when reading or hearing about the "opinions" of people in any country.