Aliyah Blog 88: Gan HaShlosha Lake

Expectations

Traveling here, I ended up preferring my side-trip to the neighboring Gan Garoo. My expectations were higher than reality … which is rare in Israel. It’s a nice lake, sure – and there are lots of little colorful blue fish swimming at your ankles – and it’s something fairly unique for Israel – though coming from my latitude in North America, this was basically Pennsylvania lake with prettier fish nipping at your ankles and slightly more dense water due to the minerals.

When I heard this place is a “hot spring at a constant 86 degrees” I’m thinking “must be like Iceland or Japan with steam” … maybe a Vermont jacuzzi experience … I traveled 1.5 hours to find hot water because replacing a bathroom apparently means no hot water for a week.

That hot showers here were great. The lake wasn’t so warm. Israel has every different climate and type of activity imaginable – seems I found camp Watonka in rural Pennsylvania.

I have “minui” – park pass for all parks in Israel – which only gives me half price for this park because, as they told me “it’s five parks”. If all parks are free, that means five parks cost … let’s see … 5 times 0 equals …50%? <shrug> Ugh, it seems there are two things the park ranger didn’t learn at school – only math.

Despite being a lake, Israel managed to hide another museum here.

The Other Four Parks

The grounds are nice and pleasant … and as is the custom in Israel, not well labeled. Driving around, there’s a camp site … then there’s a brown building surrounded by brown fence with a tower in there. I parked there … seems closed.

Then I continued to another building which turned out to be an archeological museum … with another staple of Israel museums: school groups. As I’m walking towards the building, birds chirping in the background, a pleasant 71 degrees outside, a kid in one of the school groups asks me where I live. No idea why he asked though a reason probably isn’t necessary.

It feels like everyone is your friend around here – it’s just something that seems fine here – people talk to each other (when phones not in face). This past Shabbos a young Chabad guy of post-peach fuzz phase went to the kids’ playground and has kids repeating after him, “Torah … tzivah … lanu … Moshe” (the first words you’re supposed to teach a child … the Torah was commanded to us from Moshe). Then he handed out candy and the parents are all fine with this.

Actually, they’re muttering about it to each other and saying as long as he doesn’t say the Rebbe is still alive, they’ll let it be. Imagine doing this at a park in America … “hey kids, I’m a 19-year-old complete stranger handing out candy while yelling religious phrases with facial hair that looks like cotton candy face because my religion says I can’t remove it!”

The Other Four Parks Without Getting Side-Tracked

Okay, so the archeological museum – it’s divided into rooms with heavy wooden doors, each with a different time period / place. One, for example, was Etruscan art found in Israel. The stuff isn’t under lock and key and the security / upkeep doesn’t seem in place … and sadly, I’m getting accustomed to seeing really old pottery and the like and wondering if it’s really a lot more plentiful than I had believed. “Here’s a roomful of 2000 year old kids drawing that survived” and that sort of thing … had to go to the Metropolitan Museum of Art to see this in the old country and it’d be polished to perfection while a guy in a suit, sitting in a chair all day, would make sure you weren’t eating. Everyone and their brother has found a 2000-year-old relic in Israel … nu, it’s survived this long … you want to eat your lunch while you look, fine with us.

Back to the Barracks / Stockade

Passing some outdoor broken cars (“Hey Cletis! Move your hunk of junk out of park!” / “No ma! We can charge an entry fee because it’s another park!”), and a small canal back to my car, turns out there is an unmarked (of course) way into the barracks / stockade. Inside it has every vibe of “meant for a tour by school children” explaining how these sorts of places with the high watchtowers were built as protection from the local Arabs and to help delineate the future borders of Israel after the partition plan of 1937. Here’s where people slept, where they cooked food, and where they ate … and a sign that says, “no eating in the dining room” – that’s for the archeological museum.

Conclusion

Okay, it’s fine and all … didn’t meet my expectations … I wasn’t a big fan of swimming in lakes in summer camp either.

Next up: another blog entry on idiosyncrasies of Israel which I’ve been waiting to put together.