by Olivia Kelley
After a nine and a half hour plane ride from New York, our team landed in Tel Aviv, Israel at 3:30 p.m. on Friday. (That’s 7:30 a.m. for you, Nashvillians). We met up with our tour guide for the trip, David Sparks, and took a short bus ride to our hotel just a couple blocks from the Mediterranean coast.
Our first night in Israel, we had the pleasure of sharing a delicious pre-prepared meal for Shabbat. (In Israel, sabbath is from sundown on Friday to sundown on Saturday). We then walked down to the beach and enjoyed the view before settling in for the night.
This was a short break before the chaos ensued. The next morning, we jumped right into filming. Our first stop - Caesarea.
Named for Caesar Augustus, Caesarea is an ancient city that was constructed by Herod th
e Great. While much of it is ruins now, we were able to learn about the history of the great city, sit in the theatre which has been restored, and walk along the beach. Our camera B crew caught some b-roll, background and detail footage, while we were there.
Our next stop, after a falafel lunch break, was Mount Carmel. This is where Elijah confronted the prophets of Baal and called down fire from heaven. We stood on top of the mount and looked over the valley of Jezreel as we filmed with our camera A crew.
Afterwards, we relocated to a hotel on the beautiful Sea of Galilee for the night.
Much of our team is experiencing some jet lag, but the sights we are seeing are well worth the exhaustion. More to come soon.
