The vacation from the vacation

When Leora and I realized that we will have to take a break from the trip for my sister's wedding, our conversations went from "it will break the momentum of the trip" through "we need to buy tickets" to "will we have enough time for the north?" All of these obviously concluded with a deep general sigh "Oh Maya".
As the date of the wedding came closer, we started getting excited. "It will be great to see our family and friends", "I can't wait to have a normal salad/ bread/ Guinness/ non rice-based dish" and of course "It will be such an amazing wedding" - which of course it was.

The one thing I didn't realize is this.

I had never been in Israel as a tourist before.

It's not that I haven't toured the country before, but it's different as a genuine tourist. Going places I always wanted to go to, but never got around to- like yad vashem. Going places I haven't even heard about like the Church of the Holy Seprulcher and just jumping from cafe to tourist attraction and back to a cafe again.

I will finish with two recommendations.
The first. Try being a tourist in your own home town. Take a week off work, stay at a guest house, get a guide book and discover what's in your backyard.
The second is to go to your siblings weddings. It's the most fun party in the world.