Salsa Mob Camping Trip :D
So on Wednesday-Thursday I went on a camping trip to the Kineret (Sea of Galilee) with 14 Salsa Mob friends - on one day's notice XD
Okay, that's not 100% true; we've known that we want to go camping sometime around this date for about two weeks now. There was even a FB event. But Ron, who usually takes a big part in organizing these things, was abroad in Italy all week before this, he just got home at 2AM on Tuesday morning. Two other guys (Esh and Ofir) supposedly took over the planning and organizing while Ron was abroad, but on Tuesday Ron and I spent the morning together and then the afternoon and evening with them trying to properly plan the trip. Turns out, Esh and Ofir hadn't done any real research or planning - everything was still up in the air. They hadn't checked out car rental prices until Ron pushed them to do so. They didn't make a list of food to buy and check prices at the supermarket until I said "Come one, everyone into my car, we're going to the supermarket to make a grocery list." And the guest list wasn't even finished and no-one knew who was coming and who wasn't and how much money every person had to pay.
In the end, though, it all went well and the trip was SO MUCH FUNNNN. We rented 3 cars and packed them full of equipment - waaaaaay too much equipment - everyone just brought whatever they could and no-one made a properly organized list of who should bring what...
We left Ron's town (it's where the majority of the people are from anyway) around 12 and started driving up north. I was very surprised to find myself riding shotgun - I'm usually the one who gets stuck in the middle because no-one else is willing to do it. But apparently there are rules for calling shotgun, and one of them states that if there is a couple in the car, then one of them must either drive or sit shotgun, so that they won't sit together in the back and get all cozy together during the drive and gross everyone else out. Since Ron wasn't driving, that meant that either he or I had to sit shotgun. And since he's a gentleman, he let me :) I still sat with a huge bag between my legs and two smaller bags on top of it on my lap (and later, two cartons of eggs as well...) but I bet it was still more comfortable than sitting in the back.
It took us about 4-4.5 hours to reach the Kineret, only to discover that the beach we'd planned on camping at was full, and overnight parking cost 150 NIS (roughly $40 or £25) when we'd thought it would be only 70. So we went to a different beach, the one where Ron and everyone else had camped at during last Passover (I wasn't there, but they were about 30 people so frankly I'm glad I wasn't there XDD ) and parking there cost only 55NIS! We were so stoked :)
We stopped to do our shopping about an hour from the beach, and spent 750 NIS on meat and seasoning, bread, coals for the barbecue, drinks (soft and alcoholic), salads (hummus, coleslaw etc.) pasta + sauces, disposable plates, cutlery and cups, eggs, cornflakes + milk, tea and coffee, sweets, etc. It was hectic but fun, and Ron and I managed the shopping cart :)
In the end the beach was pretty awesome. The part we chose to camp in was pretty empty, a decent walking distance from the bathrooms, and had picnic tables, lighting, and direct access to the water :) We pitched 7 tents around a huge straw mat in the middle, and there were only 2 tents with more than 2 people in them. Ron and I shared a tent of course, and even though we laid down a yoga mat, a picnic blanket, and two sleeping bags on the floor, it still wasn't all that comfortable. Still, it's camping, not a hotel :P We only slept like 3 hours anyway XD
After settling down and pitching the tents, we got started on dinner! There were two grills and a taboun (we made pita bread!); there was a ton of meat, and one of the girls and I made salad, and Ron and I made the pasta :) The food was pretty damn good, and there was a lot of it. We had to throw some away in the end, even!
(Ron is highly non-photogenic... I guess all photographers are XD )
Later in the evening/night we blasted music from the cars and danced salsa (of course XD ) and played frisbee, cards, guitar, or just sat around and talked. Ofir brought his hookah and a few people smoked, and we also brought out the alcohol :) There were 3 bottles of Lambrusco (2 red and 1 white), 1 bottle of cheap Vodka and 1 Fiegling, plus several juices to dilute (and spread the drinks a bit) Altogether, 5 bottles of alcohol for 15 people ... I don't think anyone really got drunk. But we all got a nice little buzz, and everything was much more fun later :) Not that it wasn't fun before, but everyone was a little giggly and happy and mellow.
Turns out that it's much easier to dance, and to play frisbee, when I'm a bit tipsy! I wasn't so good at frisbee earlier, but once I'd had a few drinks, I turned into a a lean, mean, frisbee-throwing and -catching machine! It was amazing, and Ron and the guys were all very impressed :)
I spotted one of the empty wine bottles and got an idea. I gave everyone a piece of paper from my notebook and handed my pen around, and asked everyone to make a wish. Then I folded all the wishes (without reading them) and put them into the bottle. Then I whittled down the cork a bit and reclosed the bottle. Next time we all go camping, I'll bring the bottle and we'll open it and probably laugh at all the crazy stuff we wished for when we were half-drunk and tired XD
We all went to bed somewhere around 3AM. Ron and I got a little frisky in our tent, but we couldn't go very far because I'm still on the end of my period. Still, we did what we could, and there was a lottttt of kissing, my lips are seriously chapped XD The night was pretty cold, but we had 2 blankets, and in the morning, once the sun rose, the tent became a sauna and I couldn't sleep :/
Everyone emerged from the tents gradually, and by 9AM we were working on breakfast. Some people just helped themselves to cornflakes and milk or cookies, biscuits etc, but once one of the guys, who'd brought a little portable burner woke up, I got started on making omelettes :) I made a whole carton of them until our gas ran out, and everyone enjoyed them.
After breakfast we went swimming in the Kineret, and Ofir even brought a blow-up boat and we all piled into it, it was ridiculous but so much fun :)
Then at around 12 we packed everything up, tried to pack it back into the cars (that took about an hour, lol) and then we headed up to Metula, the most northern city in Israel, bordering Lebanon. There's a sports center there with ice-skating, and pools and lots of fun stuff. Some of us had gone to what was supposed to be ice-skating in Tel-Aviv on sunday, but it turned out to be a ripoff and no fun at all, which is why we decided to add proper ice-skating to the trip north :)
The ice-skating was okay, not as much fun as I remembered - I haven't skated in about 10 years!! - and Ron also has zero experience skating, not even rollerblades, so he was kind of awkward on the ice, poor thing XD So we went up to the pool instead, and eventually the rest of the guys joined us and we commandeered the jacuzzi, it was so much fun :D
We had to bail around 6PM because it was a 3-hour drive back home, plus we had to spread people around town and stop to eat dinner on the way. Sharon, who was driving our car, had lost his voice due to a cold so he couldn't talk much, and he asked me to entertain him so he wouldn't fall asleep on the drive home. I told the guy my whole life story, more or less XD Ron, in the back seat, was also listening (although he was so tired he kept passing out for short periods of time) and at one point he teased me that Sharon now knows more about me than he does! It was funny, and to compensate him, I sat in the back seat next to Ron for the last hour of the trip, and he and I talked quietly.
Altogether, for a two-day trip organized in 12 hours, and costing 250NIS per person ($70 or £40), this trip fucking rocked.
... and Ron and Ofir are already planning another one :)
Okay, that's not 100% true; we've known that we want to go camping sometime around this date for about two weeks now. There was even a FB event. But Ron, who usually takes a big part in organizing these things, was abroad in Italy all week before this, he just got home at 2AM on Tuesday morning. Two other guys (Esh and Ofir) supposedly took over the planning and organizing while Ron was abroad, but on Tuesday Ron and I spent the morning together and then the afternoon and evening with them trying to properly plan the trip. Turns out, Esh and Ofir hadn't done any real research or planning - everything was still up in the air. They hadn't checked out car rental prices until Ron pushed them to do so. They didn't make a list of food to buy and check prices at the supermarket until I said "Come one, everyone into my car, we're going to the supermarket to make a grocery list." And the guest list wasn't even finished and no-one knew who was coming and who wasn't and how much money every person had to pay.
In the end, though, it all went well and the trip was SO MUCH FUNNNN. We rented 3 cars and packed them full of equipment - waaaaaay too much equipment - everyone just brought whatever they could and no-one made a properly organized list of who should bring what...
We left Ron's town (it's where the majority of the people are from anyway) around 12 and started driving up north. I was very surprised to find myself riding shotgun - I'm usually the one who gets stuck in the middle because no-one else is willing to do it. But apparently there are rules for calling shotgun, and one of them states that if there is a couple in the car, then one of them must either drive or sit shotgun, so that they won't sit together in the back and get all cozy together during the drive and gross everyone else out. Since Ron wasn't driving, that meant that either he or I had to sit shotgun. And since he's a gentleman, he let me :) I still sat with a huge bag between my legs and two smaller bags on top of it on my lap (and later, two cartons of eggs as well...) but I bet it was still more comfortable than sitting in the back.
It took us about 4-4.5 hours to reach the Kineret, only to discover that the beach we'd planned on camping at was full, and overnight parking cost 150 NIS (roughly $40 or £25) when we'd thought it would be only 70. So we went to a different beach, the one where Ron and everyone else had camped at during last Passover (I wasn't there, but they were about 30 people so frankly I'm glad I wasn't there XDD ) and parking there cost only 55NIS! We were so stoked :)
We stopped to do our shopping about an hour from the beach, and spent 750 NIS on meat and seasoning, bread, coals for the barbecue, drinks (soft and alcoholic), salads (hummus, coleslaw etc.) pasta + sauces, disposable plates, cutlery and cups, eggs, cornflakes + milk, tea and coffee, sweets, etc. It was hectic but fun, and Ron and I managed the shopping cart :)
In the end the beach was pretty awesome. The part we chose to camp in was pretty empty, a decent walking distance from the bathrooms, and had picnic tables, lighting, and direct access to the water :) We pitched 7 tents around a huge straw mat in the middle, and there were only 2 tents with more than 2 people in them. Ron and I shared a tent of course, and even though we laid down a yoga mat, a picnic blanket, and two sleeping bags on the floor, it still wasn't all that comfortable. Still, it's camping, not a hotel :P We only slept like 3 hours anyway XD
After settling down and pitching the tents, we got started on dinner! There were two grills and a taboun (we made pita bread!); there was a ton of meat, and one of the girls and I made salad, and Ron and I made the pasta :) The food was pretty damn good, and there was a lot of it. We had to throw some away in the end, even!
(Ron is highly non-photogenic... I guess all photographers are XD )
Later in the evening/night we blasted music from the cars and danced salsa (of course XD ) and played frisbee, cards, guitar, or just sat around and talked. Ofir brought his hookah and a few people smoked, and we also brought out the alcohol :) There were 3 bottles of Lambrusco (2 red and 1 white), 1 bottle of cheap Vodka and 1 Fiegling, plus several juices to dilute (and spread the drinks a bit) Altogether, 5 bottles of alcohol for 15 people ... I don't think anyone really got drunk. But we all got a nice little buzz, and everything was much more fun later :) Not that it wasn't fun before, but everyone was a little giggly and happy and mellow.
Turns out that it's much easier to dance, and to play frisbee, when I'm a bit tipsy! I wasn't so good at frisbee earlier, but once I'd had a few drinks, I turned into a a lean, mean, frisbee-throwing and -catching machine! It was amazing, and Ron and the guys were all very impressed :)
I spotted one of the empty wine bottles and got an idea. I gave everyone a piece of paper from my notebook and handed my pen around, and asked everyone to make a wish. Then I folded all the wishes (without reading them) and put them into the bottle. Then I whittled down the cork a bit and reclosed the bottle. Next time we all go camping, I'll bring the bottle and we'll open it and probably laugh at all the crazy stuff we wished for when we were half-drunk and tired XD
We all went to bed somewhere around 3AM. Ron and I got a little frisky in our tent, but we couldn't go very far because I'm still on the end of my period. Still, we did what we could, and there was a lottttt of kissing, my lips are seriously chapped XD The night was pretty cold, but we had 2 blankets, and in the morning, once the sun rose, the tent became a sauna and I couldn't sleep :/
Everyone emerged from the tents gradually, and by 9AM we were working on breakfast. Some people just helped themselves to cornflakes and milk or cookies, biscuits etc, but once one of the guys, who'd brought a little portable burner woke up, I got started on making omelettes :) I made a whole carton of them until our gas ran out, and everyone enjoyed them.
After breakfast we went swimming in the Kineret, and Ofir even brought a blow-up boat and we all piled into it, it was ridiculous but so much fun :)
Then at around 12 we packed everything up, tried to pack it back into the cars (that took about an hour, lol) and then we headed up to Metula, the most northern city in Israel, bordering Lebanon. There's a sports center there with ice-skating, and pools and lots of fun stuff. Some of us had gone to what was supposed to be ice-skating in Tel-Aviv on sunday, but it turned out to be a ripoff and no fun at all, which is why we decided to add proper ice-skating to the trip north :)
The ice-skating was okay, not as much fun as I remembered - I haven't skated in about 10 years!! - and Ron also has zero experience skating, not even rollerblades, so he was kind of awkward on the ice, poor thing XD So we went up to the pool instead, and eventually the rest of the guys joined us and we commandeered the jacuzzi, it was so much fun :D
We had to bail around 6PM because it was a 3-hour drive back home, plus we had to spread people around town and stop to eat dinner on the way. Sharon, who was driving our car, had lost his voice due to a cold so he couldn't talk much, and he asked me to entertain him so he wouldn't fall asleep on the drive home. I told the guy my whole life story, more or less XD Ron, in the back seat, was also listening (although he was so tired he kept passing out for short periods of time) and at one point he teased me that Sharon now knows more about me than he does! It was funny, and to compensate him, I sat in the back seat next to Ron for the last hour of the trip, and he and I talked quietly.
Altogether, for a two-day trip organized in 12 hours, and costing 250NIS per person ($70 or £40), this trip fucking rocked.
... and Ron and Ofir are already planning another one :)