Travel time

I've never travelled for an extended period of time but I have seen those travellers - sitting around in the common rooms of hostels, writing in their journals, and revisiting their favourite haunts in whichever city they've found themselves in rather than racing from one tourist attraction to the next. This series of short trips feels a little like the extended travel variety of travel. 

Family portrait at a monastery on Mount Carmel

Not that I'm leisurely wandering from hostel to cafe and writing in a journal. But I am taking things day by day, not too concerned with seeing the sights but enjoying where I am at any given time. Granted, this approach was partly because I left all the Israel planning up to Ze'ev, but there was little stress in just going along for the ride. I do enjoy a more active approach to travel as being in Israel felt almost too normal rather than being and international trip for us; I have a mental list of things I want to do for our next trip to Israel but I enjoyed this trip for what it was. Family, showing off my baby, eating delicious food, as well as some adventures like hiking up Masada and walking along the rampart wall around Jerusalem's old city.

Family portrait at the Dome of the Rock

People have asked me how it is to travel with a seven-month-old baby and in some ways it is easier than being at home - I don't have to clean, I cook less often, and my husband is around full time. This is a different way of being and a different rhythm to our day to day. I am looking forward to being back home again and getting into a new routine with Leo but in the meantime... onward to Costa Rica!

Leo on his seven month birthday in the old city of Jerusalem