Bloom 2.0

While I was working practically straight through my entire stop in Tel Aviv, Daina got to explore a bit and luckily took some pictures. I pretty much saw Recanati, our hotel and the lobby bar (no need for photos of those). Heading home tonight at 3 am, then it’s off to Edmonton. Shalom, layla tov and Yoffi.

Day 6: Exploring the Eilat mountains in a 4×4

Day 7 (am): Hello Haifa

Day 7 (pm): Taking in Tzfat (aka Safed)

Day 8: Work.

Day 9: Magnificent Massada and the lively Dead Sea (***New pics just added!***)

Day 10: Work, work, work; New Years dinner with students and professors (Daina too); marked Y2K+7 at a bar on the beach (too bad I can’t countdown in Hebrew but I know “SHANA TOVA!”).

Day 11: Work, work, work, repeat…

***UPDATE*** New videos added to the “Eilat to do, see and eat” post below. Three awesome videos, including one of dolphins swimming around Daina.

Ok, I’ve dropped the ball in posting stories, pics and video. I know, I know. The thing is, these Israeli students are working us hard. So little time. Yesterday, meetings began at 8 am and ended at 11 pm, then wound up at a pub on the beach. It was Shabbat today, so we didn’t have to do work but our prof took us to Massada and the Dead Sea — and then we had to do work all night in preparation for our meeting with the client Sunday. I’ve got a tonne of stories, pics and video ready to upload and I PROMISE it’ll be on this site by ealy Sunday evening Israeli time (just before our big New Years dinner with the professors and Israeli students).

Shalom.

(PS: We swam in the Dead Sea today and sat around in a hot spring too. <evil laugh> How’s the cold Canadian weather? )

***UPDATE AGAIN***So, for some reason all of the pics didn’t upload. Now, here is a complete slideshow from Eilat.

***UPDATE:*** I was able to catch a wireless signal at the Eilat airport, just as we’re about to board the flight back to Tel Aviv. So, here are some photos! Enjoy.

No wireless here at the hotel in Eilat so I’ll have to wait to upload pics and vids because I can’t plug in a USB into this computer. Anyhoo…time is ticking so I’ll keep it short and sweet.

Monday, Day 5 (afternoon): Landed in Eilat. Cold here but tolerable. Wore a golf shirt and shorts for the first time. Our hotel is not on the beach but it’s ok. good clean room, nice pool, view of the Red Sea.

Evening: Walked around and around and around. Boardwalk is wicked. Huge ass hotels. Really friendly people. Security everywhere — even to get into McDonald’s and Burger King. Still no Starbucks. Hooray. Had a falafel, of course. It was good. Daina had one too. I finished hers. No Christmas closings here. Everything was wide open and there were parties in clubs all along the beach. Funny snoop dog blarring and Shania Twain.

Day 6: Had a YOFFI breakfast in the hotel (included with room). I forgot how amazing Israeli breakfasts are (and most of you know, I do know a good breakfast). Lots of cheeses, eggs, breads, yogurts and coffees. Speaking of which, Israelis know how to make great coffee. Who knew? Finally got to chill on a beach for a day. Nice and hot when the sun is out. Daina swam with Dolphins at this eco park/research centre called Dolphin Reef that is super ethical to animals — it lets dophins come and go through from the reef into the Red Sea as they wish, but most stay to play with the people. I have amazing video. My phobia of swimming things touching my feet kept me on land but it was pretty cool.

Evening: Got to hotel to clean off the sand and change. Had a great Italian dinner on the beach. Early night tonight because tomorrow we’re heading into the desert for a 4 hour Jeep tour that will take us to a mountain top where we can see four countries: Saudi Arabia, Jordan, Egypt and Israel. Then, it’s off to Haifa tomorrow afternoon; he b’hai gardens and Tzfat on Thursday. Then, work begins in Tel Aviv on Thursday. Crap.

Some more things I’ve learned:

1. Daina looks Israeli. I know this because people will walk up to her looking for directions and speaking Hebrew.

2. Taxi drivers here are SLIME. I keep getting taken. The best was last night when we cabbed it to the hotel from the beach — about a 2 minute ride — for 20 NIS, or about $5. Today, we went to the Dolphin Reef, about 15 mins away, for the same price.

3. Israelis don’t know about the cancer-smoking correlation. Either that, or they just don’t care.

4. Diet Pepsi? Nope. Pepsi Max.

5. You can’t tip on credit cards. So, I keep having to take out cash.

6. Israel’s train system is called Israil. How witty.

7. Yoffi is my new favourite word. “YOFFI!” I also like regell and slee’cha. Toda rabba is pretty useful too.

8. Did you know there is a beach here with a fence in the water so orthodox men and women can swim but not see eachother? True.

9. Our family members can make some wicked Jewish food. Matza ball soup, knishes, blintzes, etc. And when in front of me, I eat. Here, it’s everywhere and so delicious. Ruglah to die for — and when they leave their shop windows open and you walk by, well, it’s all so Yoffi….

Anyhoo gotta run.

Shalom out.

A busy day began around 5:30 am as I just couldn’t sleep. I guess my body hasn’t fully adjusted to Israel time. We did the walking (all around the Old City, up to Mea She’arim, then to Mahane Yeuda market) and I’ll let the video and pictures do the talking. To view the photos, click, the “view slideshow” icon below. If that doesn’t work, you can also click here. Don’t forget, full res versions can be found at my flickr account by clicking here. Oh, one more thing: Another day of FAD4TET successfully completed (photo included in the slideshow). Yum.

Ok, I was going to post tonight but since I can’t sleep, I thought I’d post now.

So, here are some lessons I’ve learned so far in Jerusalem.

1. The young Orthodox love hotel lobbies. I had no idea this existed until I got here. I was sitting on my laptop around 8 pm and then, all around me are these couples of orthodox Jews, sitting at tables and having conversations. Daina informs me that since they are not supposed to be alone with the opposite sex until they are married, they choose hotel lobbies as meeting places to be either set up or meet up. We walked next door to the nice hotel for dinner and, lo and behold, another lobby chock full of dates. And there Daina and I were, with our tshirts on, no kipah, not speaking Hebrew. We got some interesting looks. Oy vey and oh well. Interesting stuff.

2. The NIS to US dollar conversion rate is about 4 to 1. 20 NIS = $5. I have no idea about C$. I’m certain I’ve been fleeced a couple times already by cabbies.

3. There is a McDonald’s and a Burger King but there are no Starbucks’ here — at least not that I have seen. Hooray.

4. Two Israelis arguing are hilarious to watch. They have such passion and love to wave their arms in disgust. I could watch it all day long. Last night, the manager and waitress were arguing over something.

5. It gets cold here at night. Really, really cold. So cold that Daina bought winter gloves yesterday. I hope that cold subsides soon. The forecast doesn’t look promising though.

6. I never realized how much I don’t miss smokers at home.

It’s now 8:25 am. Off to another day of sightseeing. Gonna do the Old City up right (now that everything will be open), visit the ultra-religious area Mea She’arim, the large Jerusalem market, then dinner with friends on Ben Yehuda Street

Also, tonight is Christmas Eve. I heard something happened in a manger nearby about 2,000 years ago. I’ll do some research and post my findings here soon.

As the Texas-born Israelis say…

What a wild few days. First, let’s begin with our flight from Toronto to Athens (the first leg our trip).

Two hours into the flight: So, there I am, watching The Devil Wears Prada on the screen in front of me when a woman two rows ahead takes her food tray and throws it into the aisle (and I mean throw). She then yells: “shut up, shut up, shut up” to the guy next to her (presumably her boyfriend or husband – a long-haired rocker-looking guy). I alert the flight attendant who was serving food to the people about 3 rows behind me; she goes and talks to the lady and then comes to tell me that she is fighting with her boyfriend/husband and that they are drunk. She goes to the back, makes a phone call and out comes a big guy in a pilot’s uniform to yell at the couple. They won’t listen and the official says very clearly: “That’s fine. You don’t calm down and there will be police waiting for you when we land to arrest you.” I start to get more anxious. I’m not the best air traveler to begin with, so this wasn’t helping matters. It gets worse. Since they still won’t stop, the flight attendant separates the couple and plunks the woman right in front of me. Fine. Great. Five minutes later, she gets up and demands the man who switched seats with her stands up so that she can have her seat back. Calmness; for about 4 minutes. Then the pilot man returns to yell at the rocker dude because he was hitting the seat in front of him and annoying the passenger in front. He stops punching – for now. Three minutes later, just as my blood pressure begins to drop, it starts again and the Greek guy in front of the rocker turns around to tell him to stop. Rocker dude stands up; Greek guy stands up and yells “mother-f&%k’er” to rocker dude. Greek guy punches rocker dude; rocker dude slaps Greek guy in the face. People start screaming. Me = shocked by it all and not looking forward to how it looked like it was going to end. Turbulence. The seat belt signs flashes and the plane makes a hard turn the left. I turn the channel on my in-seat TV off of Devil Wears Prada and onto the in-flight travel channel (which shows a real-time map, distance, speed etc) and it looks like we’re turning around to drop those wankers off in Newfoundland. Crap – so much for Athens in a day, I say to Daina. Alas, it was just turbulence. They calm down and the pilot and flight attendant re-arrange the seats. Things remained calm for the rest of the flight but I didn’t manage to sleep much.

11:30 am (Greek/Israel time): Arrive at Athens airport.

1 pm: Daina and I meet up with a couple of my classmates who were also going to Israel early and catch a train downtown, near the Acropolis. We have a sketchy lunch (no souvlaki, no “OPRAH!”). Daina has a bowl of lentil soup and I have this weird ensemble of cold French fries smothered in meat sauce. We were so tired and hungry that, well, it hit the spot.

2 pm: Walk to the Acropolis and walk up. Check out the pics and video. (Larger res versions can be found at my flickr account: click here)

4:30 pm: Walk around the market at the base of the Acropolis.

7 pm: Arrive at the hotel Olympic Airlines provided for us because of our super long layover. Free dinner too. Sweet.

10 pm: Arrive back at Athens airport and start to go through security waits/checks in preparation for trip to Tel Aviv. Daina and I talk with this nice man who is a teacher in Nehariya, where, coincidently, Daina’s dad used to live. He’s taking a year off and teaching in the Bronx. Also, coincidently, he likes hockey so I can talk to him too.

12:50 am: Suppose to board plane for Tel Aviv. Staff inform us the flight has been delayed to 2:15 am. (Now, keep in mind it is now almost 1 am on Saturday. We left our house in Toronto at NOON on THURSDAY and have slept about 3 hours in total).

4:30 am: Arrive in Tel Aviv. Hallelujah.

6:30 am: Arrive at hotel and remind desk clerk (who was sleeping the lobby when we walked in the front door) that we had asked for early check in. A room is available. He doesn’t charge us for the early check in. Again: hallelujah.

6:40 am: We realize why he didn’t charge us any extra. The hotel is the worst: Dirty hallways, two small beds pushed together, rusty taps in the bathroom, no soap or shampoo, the lobby smells like urine. Overall rating: 1 star tops. Rating on hotels.com: 3-4 starts. Shower does work, though. And the price is decent.

7 am: Fall asleep. Sweet, sweet sleep (interrupted a few times, however, by teenagers running down the halls. Kids today. Sheesh). Back to sweet, sweet sleep.

Noon: Wake up (reluctantly) and head to Jerusalem’s Old City. Not supposed to take pics near the Kotel so I only take a few shots in the Arab, Christian and Armenian quarters.

3:30 pm: Eat brunch/lupper at this restaurant called Papa Andreas, which has a roof top patio that overlooks Old Jerusalem. Daina, not surprisingly, has the lentil soup. We share a plate of kickass hummus and pita. I begin FAD4TET* (Falafel A Day For The Entire Trip). Day one: mission accomplished. So amazing. We take pics from the roof.

5 pm. Our waiter from the restaurant walks us to the Old City’s New Gate. Thankfully, we had him because it was dark and we would have gotten completely lost.

6 pm: Arrive, by foot, at Ben Yehuda Street only to find the entire place still closed because of Shabbat. Some stores start to open but it’s pretty much dead. We decide to come back tomorrow.

7:03 pm: Arrive back at dodgy hotel. Daina falls asleep right away. I write a blog post. The plan is to grab dinner (maybe another falafel?) at one of the two nice hotels nearby and then play it by ear – perhaps with some friends from school who are also in Jerusalem. Likely scenario: sleep for 12 hours to mingle with the other teams. The first team to arrive at 7:03 pm will be the first team to depart tomorrow at 7:03 am. The last team to arrive at the next pit stop will be eliminated. (Get it? Good. If not, well, I’ll explain it when we get back.)

*Patent pending, Bloom Corp. 2006.