Israel: Sea of Galilee

When I arrived at the Sea of Galilee, I began to wonder why it was called a sea. It was more like a lake, enclosed on all ends by land. We took a boat out in the wee hours of the morning to sail across the famous Sea of Galilee where Jesus calmed the storms and Peter walked on water.

The sea was very calm in the morning but apparently, it can get very stormy and dangerous in the afternoon. On our boat was a group of Christians from Indonesia having a mini-service. Mom, dad and I were eavesdropping on their message in an effort to exercise all the Indonesian vocabs we have learnt (I took Bahasa Indonesia in school last semester!). Ah, they were really fast but we managed to pick up bits and pieces here and there. Funny thing was that we met the same tour group twice later on, once at Capernaum and another time at Tel Aviv.

After that, we headed to Mount of Beatitudes where Jesus taught the crowds in Matthew 5. Unfortunately, it was boxing day so the monastery on the top of the hill was closed. So we quickly drove to Capernaum (which was open, hallelujah!) to visit the town of Jesus. It was the place where he healed many people including Simon Peter's mother in law.

The guide then took us to a panoramic view of Sea of Galilee. Unfortunately, it was a foggy day so we couldn't see much. After that, we went to a kibbutz for lunch. A kibbutz is something special about Israel. It is a village of people who work together and live a communal lifestyle. They'd share all their profits and protect one another. The villagers pay taxes to the kibbutz while the kibbutz would provide them with free housing, education and land. The food we had was really good because it was grown in their own land!

Well, the first weekend of 2013 would be ending in a few hours time. Hope you had a great one! I spent mine in bed cause I'm down with a little flu :'(