OK. Take a look up. A little farther to the image at the top of the page. Stop. You are now looking at a picture I took a few weeks ago of Jerusalum from Mount Scopus. As in Israel.
As ironic as it may seem for a semi-Catholic girl (whose father was so scarred by the nuns when he was a boy that he vowed never to force HIS children child to go to chatecism) to have the first stamp in her passport be from the Holy Land, this was an amazing trip.
When I first heard that work was sending me to Tel Aviv for a week-long business trip, I was a little concerned. If the all-knowing American press was to be belived (heh), this trip was going to consist of non-stop shuttles between the office and the hotel. Do not pass “Go”. Fortunately for us, CNN is not the place to get the scoop on visiting that part of the Middle East.
Everything was amazing. The accommodations, the people, the food, the country, even the mud was nothing short of wonderful. Outside of work, we were fortunate enough to squeeze in a day tour of Jerusalem on the front-end of our trip, and stayed over the weekend to visit Masada and the Dead Sea. On the way home, we did a quick overnight in Frankfurt, Germany. Who would have thought that the first bar we came across was an Irish Pub full of New Zelanders and American G.I’s singing Karaoke? Go figure.
Amazingly enough, I was nowhere near ready to come home. If only they knew how to put ice in drinks. Forget kissing U.S. soil when I touched down in Chicago. I headed straight for the airport lounge and an iced soda.
Update: Pictures are up. Links to the slideshows for each place we visited above. Enjoy. -J
