Apollonia | Gloria's Travel Blog

Posts Tagged ‘Apollonia’

Purim

   Purim is a festival they celebrates the deliverance of the Jewish people from the Persian Empire. It is the famous story of Esther. In Israel they celebrate with 3 days of parties.
    This year being my first year was so much fun! On the First day I went with my mom & nephew to Apollonia, ruins of an old Crusader fortress off a cliff. It’s been around since the Persians in 586BCE. It has a beautiful view and from what was uncovered it was nice to see, but I’m sure there’s more still to be uncovered below.
    The evening of the first day is when everything begins so after a nice dinner where I made this spicy cucumber soup which was a hit. My sis & I went out to meet my sis & her husband to go to the Florentine street party. Yes that’s right, street party!  There were over 10,000 people out in Tel Aviv alone and I’m sure most were at this party. It was filled with adults dressed up having a good time, drinking beer outside and dancing. I dressed up like a cat, my sis as pochahontas, the other as an Indian in a Sari. It was lots of fun to go and see. I really can’t believe how many people showed up. It was like going to the fireworks but with everyone in costumes and all in about 20blocks together. You could hardly move by.  It was a blast I stayed up til 3:45am!!
    The second day I was exausted but woke up and we went to a carnival near our house. A nice family event. Then we were invited out for a special lunch with a family with all the things you’d have at a normal purim meal. There was lots of food.
   The third day we went to Jerusalem. I ended up seeing the city of David remains. It’s near the Arab quarter and sometimes can be dangerous so I haven’t ventured out before. I saw this great 3d movie about the Bible and what was previously there; it was really lifelike and informative. I saw Hezekiah’s tunnel with the water from the Gihon but chose the cannanite dry tunnel. It was really great to finally visit. After we went to the Western Wall and off for a really tasty burger. So many people were dressed up and drunk. It’s apparently biblical to be drunk on purim and so all the religious people are smashed. It’s quite funny to watch.
    The 3 days just ended so Eitan is back to school and I am recovering from little sleep. Can’t wait for next year!