Free Lunch in Tsfat

I don't really remember my first conversation with Itzik. I'm not sure who started talking to who or what was said. I just remember that there was a pug that was following our group around, I was nervous that I didn't look particularly attractive in my modest attire, and that I wanted nothing in the world more than to continue talking to him.

We were in Tsfat. I hadn't been sitting very close to him on the bus and I don't remember how we started talking. I was a straggler in the group that day. Overly hot and wanting to take in my surroundings. They were serene. The stories that my guide was telling were serene too. The creation of Kabbalah. The old lady waiting with the tea.

Me, Itzik, and other stragglers entered the synagogue last and there weren't enough seat near enough to the guide to hear what he was saying. I wanted to listen but Itzik was next to me and I couldn't concentrate. I felt as if I was hypnotized.

The inside of the tiny chapel was beautiful. The words of the guide were beautiful. Itzik was beautiful. The pictures that Itzik was showing me of his family and his ship were mostly beautiful too.

There was a fuzzy warm tingling up my back and I suddenly had an urge to scream, cry, and throw up all at the same time. I walked away into the candle store and bought a wax hamsa with the prayer of the house written in English from the hands of the woman that had just created it. (It is currently hanging in Itzik's toilet room-- in Israel they don't really have bathrooms. They have a room with a toilet and a room with a sink and a shower. It's in the toilet room now and it actually looks really nice there)

Walking back to the group, Itzik found his place back at my side. I was starving and it was lunch time. I wanted something that tasted good and was typical to Israel.

To get to the area with the restaurants we had to walk up a lot of stairs. Like a lot of stairs. They were really slippery too. They had been polished by the thousands that had walked on them before. I thought about all of the people that walked on these stairs before me for a moment.

Then, I challenged one of the soldiers to a race up the stairs. His name was Eilon and he looked like my new friend and a boy that I would never be attracted to. I decided to stay with him for lunch because I was tired and hungry and hot and I didn't want to think or to try to figure out what I wanted to eat.

But Eilon was following Itzik, which I found out only after I had decided to follow Eilon. So, I followed Eilon who followed Itzik and the three of us went off on our own to hunt for lunch.

When Itzik found a place that looked clean enough for his standards we stopped. Itzik asked me what wanted to eat. I shrugged my shoulders.

"Chicken?"

I didn't care and it showed on my face so Itzik decided to order for me...which I was thrilled about. Itzik ordered me a kabob which is not the kabob that we are used to in the US. My only input was "not too spicy (harif)"

"Do you have money?" Itzik asked me.

I nodded, confused at why he thought to ask. I stood up to pay, only to be waved away by Itzik.

"It's my present to you."

Throughly confused, a little bit uncomfortable, and ecstatic because of the attention I ate my free lunch with the two soldiers.