My Troubles with Israel Part I

I would like to start this entry off by saying that I love traveling. I like to see what is out there and how people live. I like how I mapped out the beginning of my trip; stay in this hostel this day and this hostel that day and then do whatever my heart desires in between. It just worked.

Planning around other people is hard. I mean not just you compromise what you see and do but I mean the planning just gets hard. Instead of walking until you are content you have people who want to go this way and get mad when you go that way and it is wrong. I have been fortunate with all of my travels though, very fortunate.

As you know, I have been planning to visit my cousin in London for Thanksgiving (November). This was a great idea until I did not get my French visa. Once that happened and I had to stick to my 3 months in the EU 3 months out, everything got complicated! I decided the best place for me to go would be Israel, I have been there before, I have some contacts there, and I can work on a kibbutz. This also sounded like a good idea when I looked at how expensive it would be to go and stay in Switzerland or try to get to Norway. Just go to Israel and stay in one spot. It would help me save some money and energy planning things.

My friend told me about a kibbutz that he stayed at and loved. When I contacted them, I dropped his name hoping for some good news, but they told me that they were all booked until next year and that I would have to go through the kibbutz national organization anyways. I thanked them and began my long and stressful kibbutz process.

I contacted the organization, I paid a fee, I had email contact, I set up a phone interview, and I applied for a specific kibbutz. This kibbutz is a family run one that only accepts 4 volunteers at a time and I can stay for a month (which is rare apparently to stay for such a short period of time). I did not hear back from the company. When I emailed them they said that they would contact the farmer. Basically I have been emailing the company once a week for three+ weeks and they said that they have not heard back from him that he has room for me.

Not just is this annoying, but now it is becoming a financial problem. I could have gotten round trip flights to Israel for $200, but now it was a minimum of $500. I decided that I could wait no more as the tickets were selling out and the prices were rising. It was cheapest to buy round trip tickets from London and I booked mine for about $550. I will be getting into Israel on the 18th of November at around midnight. I am guessing that I will be staying in a hotel that night…