Do not travel on an empty stomach Israel today

The following lines will tell about my experiences from visiting what is known as "nature", such as those I experienced this week on a trip that included viewing the scenery of the snowy and beautiful Golan Heights, a foray to Hermon, a tour of Sa'ar Falls, and more.

Obviously, the trip didn't involve the effort of walking and things like that.

I'm not at my best in terms of fitness;

This is what is known as "beautiful places".

As a smart friend put it in my ears this week: "Beautiful places are where you can sit."

And here is the time to give signs on the matter, to break down the components of my experience and understand a thing or two.

When I arrive at a beautiful place, really beautiful, really, really beautiful - my first reaction is a breath that stops and eyes that open and a heart that jumps with excitement.

I will forever remember the bends of the road, after which the beautiful object regions to which I traveled were revealed to my eyes.

The most beautiful place in Israel, as far as I'm concerned, is Rosh Hankara, and it is revealed like this suddenly and the heart skips a beat.

jumping

This is the first stage of the experience, known as the ecstatic stage which lasts between a minute and a half to two minutes.

Immediately after it, the breathing calms down, and after the consciousness internalizes the magnitude of the moment, the next phase comes - it is the photographic phase, which includes many parts in order.

First of all, the feeling of disappointment that I don't have a good camera hurts, and what a wretch is the person who skimps on something that he enjoys so much and why not second hand and ugh.

Then: choosing the photo angles, replacing them with other angles, a loud gathering of the travel partners out of impatience and a little irritation, the position, activating filters, talking to the photographer who takes the picture, insults, leaving the scene, apologizing, renewing the position, experimenting and long mistakes, exchanging phones between the participants, cleaning the lenses using the clothes, programming the device for delayed photography, the position, photographing.

This step takes between 10 and 15 minutes and is the highlight of the visit to the place and is also the one that will remain, by the way, even after we leave the place.

Immediately after it comes the phase for which we actually gathered, and it is the apocalyptic phase that will not be discussed now, but will be expanded upon later.

It takes a minute or two, immediately followed by the exotic phase, which is the extraction phase that includes a long yawn, three "come on" in two-and-a-half minute skips, one after the other, "where the hell are the toilets here" minute, minute "where are those over there going", "Ugh, What is this mud", "Want? Stay. I'm going", and let's move on to the final stage, the restaurant stage, during which there is a phone conversation with the restaurant about the question of whether it is possible to bring the table an hour and a half early because it turns out that we "finished" earlier than expected, a matter that in most cases We answered in the affirmative, so that pretty soon we'll be at our destination and between each meal we can edit the photos, highlight colors, remove an unruly belly, delete a passerby who gets stuck, and so on.

So much for detailing the necessary steps in each of my visits to "a beautiful place".

And hence the expansion I promised in connection with the third stage, is the apocalyptic stage, which comes between the photography stage and the extraction stage and manifests itself in a very strange feeling, which surrounds me regularly at such times.

The feeling is expressed in words: "What an amazing place. You should come here sometime."

Exactly, with these words every time, and with intense emotional intensity.

And this feeling, won't you agree, is a little strange, because right now, when I feel the need to be in this place, I am in this place!

Really, really here, where I aspire to be.

I and not an angel, I and not Seraph, I myself.

So what is this hidden ambition "to be here"?

Maybe in the next incarnation?

And the even more interesting question, through which we can perhaps answer about her friend, is that precisely later in the day, when I was dissecting a reddish breast and I dined until I was full in a wonderful culinary establishment - where I didn't really feel that I "should come here once".

At most I felt "I should come here one more time", but the experience - was the experience.

I didn't even find it necessary to take a picture.

What happened?

I think what happened is that for too many years my experience in beautiful and pleasant places is what happens to me in the short periods of time between restaurants.

It could be Sa'ar Falls and it could be the Leaning Tower of Pisa, and even Niagara Falls - it's always that place you go to on the way to Gilis Benov, or on the way to the kosher hotel in Florence or to an apartment in Buffalo.

Do you know a "culinary trip"?

For me, it turns out, every trip is a culinary trip.

The starting point is food - you can't travel on an empty stomach;

The target must be food.

Who doesn't eat after a trip?

You can die of hunger.

And the trip itself?

It is the leisurely period of time between meal and meal, between the dairy and the meat, between the butcher and the dinner, between the starter and the main.

But what a beauty here!

What a beauty!

We have to take pictures and upload them so they can see that we were here, and we have to - but we really have to!

- Come here once.

This is the entire Torah.

(And the truth? Food used to be just a vestibule to the lounge for me, a stop on the way to the other experience, and it's the cigarette after the meal. Thank God I escaped that, but that's a matter for another story).

were we wrong

We will fix it!

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