Tidbits about the
​Holy Land

What we will miss (or not?)

• Olives
• Hummus
• Rice
• Salesmen saying "Only a dollar" or "many items only a dollar"
• Merchants chasing us down with "cashmere" scarves
• Mistreated camels and sheep
• Lamb for dinner
• Fish for breakfast
• Fresh pita bread
• Churches built upon churches
• Tourists
• Handing out Korans
• Guards hardly out of high school  with machine guns
• Stray cats begging
• Having mass in historical places
• Five  to ten salads before the main meal
• Turkish coffee, grounds and all
• Fresh dates
• Figs
• Smells and bells
• Call to prayer at 5 a.m
• Fresh lemons, oranges, tangerines
• Eggplant
• St. Peter's Fish
• Arabic and Hebrew
• Immovable ladder
• Candles
• First-century--and earlier--ruins
• Bedouin camps

• Olive-wood carvings
• No bananas or good scrambled eggs/omelets
• Cobblestone streets
• "Different" cakes
• Religious tensions
• Early-morning bus rides
• Head scarves
• Burkas/abayas
• Russian tour guides
• "Watch your steps"
• Yalla, yalla
• Ruins
• No news
• Green almonds
• Grape leaves
• Swarma
• Kanafeh
• Views from the top of the Notre Dame Hotel
• Mosaics and frescos
• Following in Jesus' footsteps
• Coptic, Armenian, Ethiopian, Orthodox, Syriac, Christians
• The Dead Sea and Sea of Galilee
• Shafiq and Ramzi
• Father Bob and Mike