Spring Break Israeli Style

Spring break is a well known concept in American culture that pertains to college students and often involves beach locations and lots of alcohol. In Israel, spring break exists in another capacity and involves people young and old; Spring break= Passover vacation.

In Israel, Passover is 7 days long, with the first and last day being a religious holiday and the 5 days in between are called chol hamoed. These 5 days are normal days that all schools have off and many employees either take off or businesses close. This year, Passover fell at the beginning of the weak, so with only taking off a few days, one could stretch this holiday over 11 days (including both weekends). Even those of us who worked for part of chol hamoed had an easier time. We were graced with empty streets, quiet phones and a more laid back attitude all around.

Like on spring break in the States, there are tons of deals with hotels and resorts for Passover. People travel north to the Galilee, south to Eilat and everywhere in between. Ariel and I played our part and took a 3 day trip to the Dead Sea. We stayed in a relatively secluded place (that still had lots of people) in one of the most northern beaches, only a 30 minute drive from Jerusalem. Every year there is a music festival sponsored by AHAVA (the hand cream) and we went one night to hear 3 Israeli singers. The shows were all great but the concert that only started at 10:00 pm and each singer gave a full performance with a 30 minute break in between for set up. By 4 am we decided to stop fighting fatigue and went back.

We didn’t know what to expect in terms of kosher for Passover food, but I was pleasantly surprised to find both kosher for Passover pizza and crepes at the festival. Of course, we had to try them both.

The next day was cloudy so we decided it would be a good day for a hike. We went to a trail in the middle of the desert off of the main road. It was about a 2 km drive to the starting point and all along this gravel road there were people with tents and barbeques. When we reached our destination I was even more surprised to find someone there from the Society for the Protection of Nature in Israel (SPNI) who had a map and showed us the route. On any normal day he would not have been there, but with the high volume of people coming through on Passover, he was stationed there for our reference.

The following day we spent sunning ourselves by the beach of the Dead Sea. We went into the water once but the water was actually wavy. I have never seen waves in the Dead Sea before. These were by no means surfer waves, but I didn’t float with my head back in fear of a rush of salt water over my eyes.

On the last day of this break we were back in Tel Aviv, recovering from our trip, doing the laundry and trying not to scratch the numerous mosquito bites that were acquired along the way.

Many Israelis complain about how crowded the tourist spots get and how much traffic they have to sit in on the way home, but I was thankful for the time off and was happy to join the masses in this spring break.

Until next year…