Jews Gone Wild: Misha Dworsky World Tour '07

Kapadokya - Troglodytes Have More Fun - ~June 30-July 4

2007-07-18T04:35:00.000-07:00

You guys all have to see Capadocia. It's this really bizarre volcanic region in central Anatolia in which the rock (Tuff) erodes very easily, leaving a surreal landscape of natural spires and caves. It's also easy to carve, so many Capadocian communities of the dark and middle ages inhabited caves or - even weirder - underground cities they carved themselves to survive raids by invading Arabs. For more explanation, see mattrufo.blogspot.com, or buy me a beer sometime.

Zelve monastery complex.

Dangerous photo ops are a dime a dozen in Capadocia.

This is a 9th century church (I think) with the original paintings intact (the red circles at top).

Derinkuyu (underground city), main ventilation shaft.

Same thing, but from 8 stories down.

I just wasn't cut out to be an arab raider.

MTV Cribs - Ottoman Sultanate

2007-07-18T04:15:00.001-07:00

Our first real tourist destination in Istanbul was the quarters of the Ottoman Harem. Really amazing palace - it's like walking through every orientalist painting you've ever seen, minus the babes and the hashish.

4-poster. Uh-huh.

All these ceilings are about 50 ft high.

The details on this place are beyond reproach - even the gutter is beautiful.

Calidarium.

Not pictured is the Ottoman treasury, which is one of the most opulent collections I've ever seen. The skull and hand of John the Baptist were the runaway highlights.

Istanbul - Waterfronts

2007-07-18T03:51:00.001-07:00

Istanbul is a true maritime city, its character deriving very much from its waterways. See below.

Fishermen on the Bosphorous

Bosphorous cruise, European side
Approaching the Black Sea, Asian Side
Sultanahmet, toward the Sea of Marmara

In the park by the modern art museum

Afternoon swim by our first Nargileh cafe on the Bosphorous

Turkish kids like digital cameras too

Freedom !!

2007-06-26T04:47:00.000-07:00

I'd like to thank the Birthright foundation for sending me halway across the world on a free package tour. I learned a lot about Israel, did some decent (if completely unchallenging) hikes, and occasionally ate very good hummous.

But I also can't express how glad I am that the trip is over. If I were shipping back to America right now, I'd be downright pissed that I was railroaded through tourist site after tourist site with dozens of loud Americans, with hardly a minute to explore on my own. No one should do birthright without extending because you'll be more stressed out at the end of the trip than you were on the first day.

But that's all prologue. After tearful farewells at Ben-Gurion, I took the train in to Tel Aviv with my birthright friends & met up w/ some incredibly hospitable family friends out near Bar-Ilan University. After a refreshing day of laundry and blogging, I pack back into Tel Aviv for a send-off dinner with the remaining birthrighters. At 6:30 AM, I fly to Istanbul w 2 friends from the trip. After one of the most frustrating travel experiences of my life, I cannot overstate the sense of liberation I got when I walked into the El Al office yesterday to stamp my ticket for a July 24 return date.

My Istanbul traveling companions Tyler (L) and Matt (R):
Parking lot near the Central Bus Terminal, Tel Aviv.

Kingdom of Pork, Lewinsky St, Tel Aviv. If the trip leaders are dead, then anything is possible.... See you all in Turkey.

Golan Heights

2007-06-26T04:19:00.000-07:00

Druze Market with Coke cases, Mas'ada, Golan Heights.

I don't have pictures from most of our activities in the North b/c all our hikes & bike rides involved swimming, to say nothing of the canoe trip. But there were still some things worth recording. In particular, the food was spectacular.

The best middle eastern food in the world is in the Druze village of Mas'ada. Here I am with some really incredible Labneh (fresh goat cheese).

Gideon Levy, NYC tour guide and unofficial trip videographer, checks in from our Druze cafe.

Laundry day for the Druze.

Post-hike wine tasting at the Golan Heights Winery. The Yarden Gewurztraminer is worth checking out.

Mountaintop overlook of the Syrian border, complete with sculpture and punning coffee bar ("Coffee Annan").

The DMZ with the Syrian border. These nice green fields are chocked full of land mines.
Hi mom, I'm at the DMZ!

Yafo: The Anti-Tel Aviv

2007-06-26T03:55:00.000-07:00

Greek or Armenian church entrance, Old Yafo.

On our one day in Tel Aviv, we took an afternoon outing to Yafo (Jaffa), the old Arab port city that preceded the all-Jewish garden city of Tel Aviv. After ultra-modern Tel Aviv, it's jarring to find a cramped, ancient city 5 miles down the road. I didn't want to take my camera out in the market, but the backstreets here look like a picture postcard of a dusty Arab city. The highlight was probably a guy playing 3-card monte for 50 dollar stakes with an old man who was presumably his shill.

Fisherman & Coke box, Old Jafo.

The oppressor applies sunscreen, Old Yafo

I'm not sure exactly what this is supposed to advertise, but I want some.

Nice spot for a tower.

Jerusalem & Tel Aviv: Memorials

2007-06-26T03:22:00.000-07:00

Grave of Theodore Hertzl, Mt Hertzl, Jerusalem.

Mt. Hertzl is the Israeli Arlington Cemetary. IDF soldiers are all buried with these markers, regardless of rank.

Yitzhak Rabin Memorial, Rabin Square, Tel Aviv.

Rabin's grave, Mt Herzl, Jerusalem:

Moderate and liberal Israelis are still shocked about Rabin's murder. It was inconceivable, claims our guide, that another Jew would do such a thing.
Tombstones of Yitzhak & Leah Rabin.

Our tour group after Yad Vashem, Jerusalem's Holocaust Memorial:

I think this was the only time on the trip that the obnoxious kids in the group shut up for more than 30 seconds.

The exit of Yad Vashem, with a reinvigorating view onto the Judaean hills. Zionist subtexts or no, this is a great memorial.

Tel Aviv: Rabin Square

2007-06-26T02:57:00.000-07:00

Rabin square, Tel Aviv. Note the large pack of birthright participants in the background.

Floodlights.

Hi mom. Tel Aviv's modernist/bauhaus downtown is aging in a very attractive way. The cracked plaster & sea-salt patina everywhere reminds me of Nice or Marseilles.

I cannot wait to get back to TA and hit up the Bauhau Foundation walking tour.

Jerusalem: City of Weirdos

2007-06-26T02:43:00.000-07:00

Outside the Church of the Holy Sepulchre

Cigarette break outside the Wailing Wall. Jerusalem must the only place on the world where blackhats are the pillars of normalcy.

Old guy & guard outside the Dung Gate

Jerusalem: Outside the Old City

2007-06-26T02:00:00.000-07:00

Jerusalem is beautiful, though it feels kind of like a theme park. I wasn't able to tell whether there was any business there besides tourism and politics. Not that different from DC, I guess.

I think this is the dome of the Al-Aqsa mosque, but domes like this are a dime a dozen in Jerusalem.

The view in the other direction. These are arab slums at the bottom of the Mount of Olives. The Jewish half of Jerusalem looks like LA while the Arab half looks like any third world city. It's kind of weird.

Arab tags, just outside the old city

Manhole cover, old city.

West Jerusalem. Hebrew is clearly not a dead language.

Jerusalem: no time to talk

2007-06-16T15:00:00.000-07:00

Apologies for not writing. I had to recover from some abrupt food poisoning in NYC but was fine by the day before the flight. Therefore the trip became decidedly less eventful... until we reached the promised land.

Israel has been insane. I have not seen this many jewish youth in 1 place since I left Hebrew school. The main setback of the trip is that every minute is scheduled, leaving us no time for internet use.

Israel is amazing, though. I am learning a lot more about teh other americans than about the country we're visiting, but I have gotten to see the wailing wall, the church of the holy sepulchre, and other must-sees in the first 48 hours. I also got through to el al & moved my flight back to July 24, leaving time for excursions to istanbul & cairo before I get to move about israel in a group smaller than 40. I'm really sorry to lead you on with promises of content, but you should check back here July 26. As we say in israel, this shit is bananas.

Boston: Hipsters vs Rastas

2007-06-11T11:19:00.000-07:00

I was supposed to get down to the City on Saturday night, but the city's spotty and overpriced Chinatown bus service convinced me to ride back to Boston with Belden for a night in Allston. We caught up with a Berklee friend of his who's been in a reggae band in Seattle the last 7 years. & went out to a hipster dive bar w him to find some $2 Brubaker bottles & run the foosball table. Not much to say here, but I did at least find out what Rastas drink instead of Red Bull:

Dan says a Noni Juice before each show he plays guarantees a rockin performance. I didn't ask about the Sex Marathon.

Providence and its Creatures: Friday

2007-06-11T11:07:00.000-07:00

I think my favorite encounter on our Ulyssean wanderings through Providence was the Big Nazo storefront. Big Nazo is the nom de monstre of a former Jim Henson engineer who maintains a storefront a block from City Hall in downtown PVD. The area around RISD has a lot of weird & artsy stuff in it, but I was nonetheless a little surprised to see this in a storefront next to Kennedy Plaza:

The Big Nazo (I forget the guy's name) was really excited to have visitors: I think he knows Dave from previous visits. The workshop is amazingly cluttered with all these really insane, Boschian foam rubber & plastic creatures. There were simply too many to know where to begin:

The Big Nazo seems to do a lot of work in parades, & I think he teaches an adjunct creature design class at RISD. We got to see a great DVD of the class final, in which the students have to don their costumes & run around Providence freaking people out. I assure you that once you have a mask on, it's kind of hard not to get caught up in the craziness:

Anyway, check out his website: www.bignazo.com. I'm really glad to hear that he's available for Bar Mitzvahs.

Providence - Fast Times and Fiscal Policy: Friday

2007-06-11T10:28:00.000-07:00

Providence is really quiet when Brown & RISD are on vacation, which gave me a desperately needed chance to catch up on sleep. On 2 nights of good sleep, Friday turned out to be kind of an adventure. I started my day by watching the legislative budget announcement on TV with Dave. Dave's not on the finance committee, so we were able to enjoy the proceedings from the comfort of Telescope. I'll spare you the detailed background on RI fiscal policy, but suffice it to say that Dave & Dan were a little miffed that the governor's budget cut health and social expenditures primarily to finance cuts in the long-term capital gains tax while facing a 5% deficit....

After we heard that Dan's foster care funding was partially restored and that Dave had succeeded in reversing some especially ill-advised long-term care cuts, we decided to celebrate with a round of disc golf on the old Telephone course, or at least as much of it as Dave could remember 2 years later. Clearly the essence of grassroots politics:

At the Biomed Center:

Howard takes a gimme:

Anyway, Friday was another beautiful afternoon in Providence so our discgolf endeavors segued into a walking tour downtown:

Dave was the best walking tour guide I could've asked for, since he has an impeccable grasp of how things work in Providence. We wandered all over the West Side, which was occasion for a lot of great insider stories about the alacrity of the "redevelopment" industry. Westside Providence exceeded all my expectations - it had a great neighborhood feeling reminiscent of Northwest Philly. Cementing the resemblance was the hipster/activist potluck we attended. After about 8 miles of walking (by my count) we were very much ready for some group house fare and mid-priced red wine.

We also doubled the size of our retinue here, picking up Dan Bass, other Telescope residents & visitors, and (last but not least) Chris Belden, who drove down from Boston for the night. Chris &I got yelled at for some vocal/saxophone Duke Ellington improvisations sometime around midnight - surprise surprise. But not before Chris & I could take our electric blues band liner notes photo:

Besides the manifest charms of Providence already mentioned, we found some spectacular playground equipment around the corner from the potluck. Unlike more litigious or upper-crust cities such as Washington, it's still easy to find so-called "hazardous" playground equipment such as swings, jungle gyms, and (my favorite): the world's highest-octane teeter-totter:

mom and dad, I SWEAR we're not on drugs. Still photos can't relate how fast we had this thing going - once we got this going it was basically the Northeastern hipster version of a mechanical bull ride.

Anyway, Providence gets 2 big thumbs up. People like Dave who have mixed feelings about aggressive gentrification may not want to hear this, but the city seems to be on the verge of being the "new Philadelphia" (the 7th borough?) I'll have to make sure I can visit again before it comes to that....

Inside Providence: Wednesday

2007-06-10T16:53:00.000-07:00

Hey folks, I'm not in the holy land yet but I have a few hours of down time in front of a computer & figured I should set up my travel blog from the States. I think this is pretty self-explanatory (see description for further platitudes). I'll just add that my parents are probably reading this so please save the usual ribaldry for 1-on-1 correspondence.

While there are some pretty good stories already from my 3 nights in Providence + 1 in Boston, I think I'm going to let you guys fill in the narrative details from the photos I deign to post. Anyway, I was just in Providence staying w Dave Segal & Dan Bass for 3 nights at Telescope, heir to Telephone. While there will never (of course) be another Telephone, I think the Telescope kids are keeping it real. Here, e.g., is the house organ:

Anyway, Dave & Dan are involved in some pretty hands-on progressive activism, with the consequence that I had to meet Dan on the Statehouse steps in the middle of a campout at the capitol that sought to restore foster care funding in the legislative budget. Which is to say that Dan rolled up with an entourage of 100-150 foster kids, parents, and allied progressives Which looked sort of like this:

I think these guys were really pumped to be sleeping on the statehouse steps.

This should also tip you off that I will not be taking very many low-light photos with this camera....