While the official one of the “101 things to do” is to visit every country, I realistically don’t want to visit every country. Some countries scare me. However, I would be happy visiting every continent at first and then trying to collect as many individual countries as possible.
My first step out of the country was to the Middle East, which officially is in Asia, which is the continent I least wanted to go to. The visit was primarily to Israel which in all fairness was one of the countries that I did say I would get a passport to go visit. I certainly thank my friends Jorg, Connie, two of my rabbis and A Wider Bridge to help me get out there. I also went to Turkey which despite it’s presence in the EU, is in Asia… specifically it is Asia Minor.
Due to the way the flights had to work out, I had to fly from Atlanta to Chicago to Istanbul (not Constantinople) then to Tel Aviv.
Turkey
If I had just gone from terminal to terminal I would not have counted Turkey, however the way the airport was, you spent a significant amount of time OUTSIDE the airport as apparently most of the planes could not come up to the gate. My feeling always was you have to be on the ground or have the sun shine directly on you before you can count a state, so I applied the same thing to Turkey. I spent more time outside the airport in Turkey than I spent inside the Turkish airport. Turkish men, by the way, are incredibly good looking even. One day I should attempt to get back there to do this country properly.
Israel
You can of course read more about my Israel trip at my other blog which I really don’t feel like writing again so you can see it there.
The summary of Israel is that it was very lovely. I had a few scares because the bus was attacked, there were rockets being fired, and I was being detained as a terrorist, but I finally went to Israel. I recommend if you go to Israel that you really learn Hebrew first.
Of course most importantly, I went to the Western Wall which is the site of where the Temple stood, it’s the most holy spot for Jews. It felt very nice being there and being at the wall which at night is probably one of the prettiest sights on Earth. I wish I could have taken a photo of it. Absolutely beautiful!
Me at the Western Wall. Was taken by W.
What country in Asia would you go to if you had to go to a country?
Completed: 2013
This is M.E.L - My Exciting Life 
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