After a teary 1am goodbye at the airport, we're on our way across Europe and the Atlantic towards New York City! It's the next leg of our journey and we're feeling pretty excited. Having said that, the two great weeks we spent catching up with friends and exploring this Pandoras box of a country went by like the wind.

Liat rode the bus with us from Jerusalem to Tel Aviv, although she was running late to a yoga class and had to organise for a friend to meet us at the bus stop... It took a while but we eventually found Liats' friend Shiran. We caught a lift back to her place in old Jaffa, and were just in time for a house party!

This was one of those old sharehouses that should have been knocked down a while ago and replaced by high-rise apartments. Despite all of her neighbours giving up long ago, the old lady that owned this one was obviously not in it for the money and had repeatedly refused all offers. The lucky b*****s living here had a front door view of the Mediterranean sea, and an old house with more character than a Disney movie!

Liat met up with us after her yoga class, and Bar turned up a bit later. She had followed us to Tel Aviv to see her cousin's band play, and the show was happening just across the road from the party at Shiran's house! We finished up a few drinks and headed over to watch the band who, conveniently for us, sung most of their songs in English!

We spent the next day enjoying the sea (probably for the last time in a while) with Liat and another friend of hers. After the swim and an hour getting lost in Tel Aviv's central bus terminal we made our way back to Dudi and Almog's place in Modi'in. They had a giant and delicious chocolate cake waiting for us! On top of the cake was written 'Aussie and Aussa', which was Dudi's nickname for the two of us.

Israel is an absolutely amazing country and we only had time to scratch the surface, but for us catching up with our Israeli friends from Cambodia was by far the best part. Israeli's in general are pretty direct and can seem a little arrogant, although our friends are the opposite. They went above and beyond to make sure we were comfortable, and enjoying every moment of our time in the holy land. It was hard to say goodbye, but we're crossing our fingers that they'll come to visit us in Australia one day so we can return the generous hospitality.