Landing in Israel: In the beginning, there was.......

An uneventful trip to Israel. That's always a good thing when you're traveling by plane to the Middle East. The entire plane clapped when we landed safely, which is something I haven't heard since I was on an Aeroflot plane 15 or so years ago.

I went Delta - don't get me started on the quality of their service. My words will only be of frustration and tears.

Tel Aviv has changed dramatically since I was last here. I'm here as part of a social media blogging expedition sponsored by the Israel Consulate. "It's all about tech baby," however our voices over the next week and a half will be about so much more than technology because Israel is about so much more. It's a place of passion, innovation, complexity, intensity, contradiction, spirit and drive.

Together with nine other bloggers, I'll be meeting with visionaries in the areas of tech, social media, renewable energy and the arts. All of our content will be aggregated to Traveling Geeks.com. Right now, we're having a glitch with images, so you should continue to tune into our individual blogs as well to get the raw data.

Before the more structured agenda kicks into gear, it was necessary to head to the Dead Sea, a place of great healing and mystery. And venture to the desert which is where I am now; sitting in a zimmer listening to the sounds of birds, crickets and stray cats outside my window.

Below: on the road to the Zohar Junction, where more than twenty years ago, I stood on the side of the road for three hours trying to hitch a lift to Eilat. Hitchhiking is now apparently illegal in Israel for soldiers, who were frequent hitchers in the eighties and nineties. Now, its no longer safe.

Photo taken by: Susan Mernit