A Long Ride To Nowhere

Yesterday, being Shabbat, all the volunteers had a free day. However, as most were completely hungover, not much was accomplished in this day. I went back to bed at 9am, and fully planned to sleep well into the afternoon, if it hadn't been for someone banging on my door LOUDLY at about 11am and shooting some water through the top of the door, before running off.

I couldn't get back to sleep after that, so I went outside to join the crowd. Found out all the gossip on the previous night.

Hmmm...

Later on, 4 of us decided to try our luck hitching to the town of Carmel, which apparently would have shops that are open. It was myself, an American guy, a crazy Swedish guy and Kady. We managed to get a lift part way from right outside the Kibbutz. Unfortunately the couple in the car had no idea where they were going, so what should have been a 15 minute ride, turned out to be at least double that, as they got completely lost. However, as the sun was shining, and the scenery was gorgeous, it wasn't such a disaster, as we passed forests, mountains, had Lebanon (absolutely beautiful) pointed out to us, as we listened to Hebrew music. The only downside (other than the Hebrew music, that is) was I had a thumping headache from sleep deprivation. Oh well.

Finally they dropped us off at some random junction, and we tried to hitch further up. Bastards! People with PLENTY of room in their people carriers, just looking at us gormlessly before passing by. No Good Samaritans. We must have tried a good hour, before crossing the road and deciding to try walking to a town in the opposite direction, which was slightly closer. As we were walking, we were discouraged to see a sign that indicated the nearest town was further than we thought, so thinking of giving it one last shot, we stuck out our hands again.

Volia! A lone driver in a people carrier pulled up! He was very friendly. Luckily, Oren (the American-Jew) speaks Hebrew, so he did all the talking. We were dropped off at a little shopping centre in a few minutes down the road, where we decided to eat at a lovely burger restuarant - which I enjoyed immensley, as although I've eaten out a lot since being in Israel, this is the first time actually WITH people. Absolute bliss to drink Coca Cola too - it soon cleared up my headache.

The friendly guy who'd given us a lift, said he'd be passing the area an hour later and offered us a ride back to the kibbutz, which was indeed very agreeable of him. As it turned out, our boss from the factory - Eli - appeared... alongside one of the volunteers, who it appears he's hooked up with. She looked VERY embarrassed to see us. Eli didn't 'Ello! 'Ow are you doin?' and joined us for a coffee. We decided to all squeeze into his car on the way home, where Kady complained about the music, and was told she could walk if she didn't like it.

She was quiet after that...

And when we were back at the kibbutz, I finally got an early night. So.. today I work til 6pm, but with a couple hour break at 11am... Still dreading it though. Reckon I'll stay at this kibbutz maybe another 5 weeks, and then hit the road.

Ah yes. Kady is still calling David 'Teddy'. A few of us were sitting around talking, and someone referred to him as 'David'. 'David?' Kady said 'That's so weird - that's what I originally thought his name was! How funny! I can't believe you thought that!'  Er...