Israel versus Greece

A colleague at work pulled together a group of 37 people to check out Israel's qualifier match versus Greece.

Israel has not been to the World Cup in 40 years, so it's a bit of a big deal here. As much as I don't enjoy soccer -- scoring chances are severely limited and the fake injuries are borderline disgraceful when compared to how playing through real pain is a badge of honor in hockey -- it tends to be a cultural event in most countries, so I go to check out the locals.

After parking on a nearby sidewalk, we walked a quarter-mile or so to the stadium and took our seats. The crowd was decent, but not quite as boisterous as I had expected. They had their chants, but they were even more repetitive than ours. At least they took the initiative rather than rely on prompting from the organ player as we do in the States. In general, the Israelis were frustrated with some of their players, and with the outcome (they really needed the win to increase their chances of getting into the tournament). It did bring out a chuckle when we'd hear the Israelis say, "ma zeh?" (what's this?) after particularly bad plays.

I give them credit for the following only because English isn't their native language. Otherwise, it's pretty weak.

This being soccer, most of us were lulled to sleep pretty early. Here's the video footage purportedly taken at the game.

Haredi Matzo

I took a trip with some colleagues from work today to visit the Haredi community in Jerusalem. We first went to the Belz Synagogue (click the "Belz" link for an interesting history lesson), which was HUGE. It can accommodate 10,000 worshipers, has nine levels, and has a bunch of chandeliers that weigh 1,900 pounds each and provide acoustics for the hall. Pretty amazing. Oh, and the Rabbi and members of the synagogue helped construct the building.





We also went to a Haredi matzo making outfit in the ultra-religious Mea Shearim neighborhood. Check out the video.

Ramat Gan "Safari" Park

(guest posting)

We went here a couple of weeks ago. We didn't get our hopes up, however, after one of the embassy drivers let us know it wasn't a SAFARI!!!!!; it was more of an "eh, safari."

We thought we were smart by going there on Shabbat, figuring fewer Israelis would be out and about. We were wrong. We realized that we should have taken advantage of our situation in which the Israelis work on Sundays, but we are off. Oh well...it at least gave us some more insight into Israeli culture.

You may be wondering by now, what is a Safari? Is it an adventure? A zoo? Oh, it's so much more!

Perhaps the most interesting thing about the Safari were the wild and loose-with-the-law Israelis there. More about that later.

The Safari begins, like most things in Tel Aviv, with a long line of traffic. You inch slowly forward until you reach the front gate where you are supposed to pay, but when you get there the clerk says he'll "be right back" and proceeds to leave you waiting there for the next 10 minutes. As a token for the inconvenience, he offers to give you the "local" price, for residents of Tel Aviv only. But we ARE residents of Tel Aviv, we protest. He laughs in disbelief, giving us the local price, all the while thinking he's giving us some sort of deal we don't deserve.

For a while the Safari continues, much like before, with a line of slowly moving traffic, and people honking and jockeying for position. You know, you just HAVE to be the first one to see the emu or the zebra who is waiting for you by the side of the road! Animals surround your car, mostly looking for handouts. But it is still amazing to see these wild creatures so up close and personal. (click on the pictures for larger versions).

You pass by rhinos and hippos, flamingos and gazelles. You see zebras and ostriches, and a pen full of deer. And just when you start to think, wow, that was worth the price of admission, you enter a parking area for the "real" zoo, where they have animals more traditionally in enclosures. I have to say the enclosures were quite nice and spacious (except for the bears), and overall the zoo beats the National Zoo, but not the San Diego Zoo, hands down.

Despite the myriad signs instructing otherwise, most Israelis packed with them a variety of fruits and vegetables to give the animals. Parents encouraged their children to climb over security fences and hand over oranges and carrots with no regard for their diets (see pic below). I nearly went ballistic when I saw a young mother give her child a bag of potato chips to give to a monkey. It was horrifying. I do admit (albeit with a considerable amount of guilt) that the sight of a macaque peeling a Jaffa orange was incredibly adorable. For a time, I took solace in the fact that most guests were feeding the zoo inhabitants healthy fresh fruits and vegetables; however, when Michael later struck up a conversation with a zookeeper, he pointed out that too much food is too much food, no matter how healthy it is. The animals don't know when to say when.

notice how the boy has been placed over
the barrier separating people from the cages

Hard to see from this pic, but here are two little ones begging for food that was being thrown to them from across a moat.

This rooster was chilling out near and peering into the bear enclosure.

The Safari even had a petting zoo!

Sleeping baby goats are adorable!

So, after the zoo, you get back in your car for more wild safari action. You're supposed to keep your windows rolled up and stay in your car, but since no one else was following the rules, we decided to break the window rule. We did stay in our car, particularly after hearing a story I won't repeat here involving not a lion but a hippo.

Talk about tame...

Um, tickets please?

The last great thing to see at the Safari are the lions. You drive right near them, separated only by an electrified fence, which appeared from our vantage point to have a rather large gap on the side. It's times like these that you remember you're not in Kansas anymore. The lion in the picture here caught a whiff of the gazelle's that had mistakenly entered this area. A park employee in a Subaru positioned his car between the lion and the general direction of the gazelles. I don't think it would have helped much had the lion been sufficiently hungry to test the fence.

All in all, the Safari was a great Saturday outing. However, all zoos tend to make me a little sad. I remind myself that these animals are teaching the zookeepers about how to protect their species in their natural habitat, and that helps a little. I'm also really curious and love animals myself, so the opportunity to see them up close is hard to pass up. I just really wish that someone would enforce the rules at the Safari to keep the animals healthy. I find it frustrating that Israelis don't seem to see a bigger picture in their actions, not just at the zoo but in general. It's like how they'll just stop in the middle of a one-lane, one-way road, like you have nothing better to do than wait till they figure out where they want to go next. I honestly don't believe there's any ill intent...just plain obliviousness. I could go on, of course, but this is about the Safari.

So, please, enjoy the primate video!

Israeli Elections

Israel's parliamentary elections take place on 10 February. I don't have much to compare this year's elections to, but it seems pretty muted. The conflict that ended last month in Gaza probably had something to do with it. Right now it seems Likud is poised to win a plurality in a very fractured Knesset (the name of the Israeli legislature). That means former prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu probably will return to that role in about a month after he forms his coalition government. The big question will be -- who will be in the government. That's what we'll all be waiting to find out.

In the meantime, I've posted some election campaign posters. Take a look. Ask me any questions you have.

http://picasaweb.google.com/mpearl055/2009ElectionsInIsrael#

Pilgrimage to IKEA

Most people think that in Israel people make pilgrimages to the holy sites of Judaism, Christianity, and Islam. However, I discovered this evening that Israelis also visit Swedish "holy" sites, namely IKEA.

We were on our way to do some grocery shopping at the non-kosher Tiv Taam in Netanya when we decided we'd get a bite to eat at IKEA (fancy, we know). We realized it would be opening around that time because the sun had just gone down, meaning Shabbat was over. We arrived in the rapidly filling parking lot and made our way to the door while holding our noses (for holy sites, this one has the most "stank" we've ever encountered; we think there's a sewage treatment plant nearby). As we approached, we saw a long line waiting to get in to the store, with people queuing up for the metal detectors. I thought I was heading into a concert or something.


Once inside, it was more madness. IKEA, with it's we're-gonna-force-you-to-keep-looking-at-stuff-to-buy crazy maze system, is already somewhat stressful to shop in. Add to it stairways and aisles teeming with Israelis and...well...it was bizarre. The strangest thing about it was that tonight is the equivalent of a Sunday night in the States. The work week starts tomorrow. Is IKEA where I would choose to spend the waning hours of my weekend? Probably not.

This doesn't begin to capture how crowded it was.
(Note: I always wanted to work at IKEA. And,
check out the look that kid is giving me.)

Grocery Stores: From Disappointing to Sufficient

When I first arrived here in Tel Aviv, I found that pretty much all the grocery stores in the city were wildly overpriced and were tiny. I had to go through some trial and error to figure things out. My biggest debacle was taking a store's name at face value. "Meatland" had a glorious advertisement in the local paper and it prompted me to make the special trip out to Ranaana to visit this apparent Mecca for meatlovers. When I arrived after our 20 minute car ride out there, my first question from the outside was..."can this be it?" It was tiny. I ventured in and learned that, yes, that was it. It was the size of maybe a studio apartment. Tiny. And, it was Kosher. Not exactly the land of all meats that I had expected. Anyhow, as you can imagine...big disappointment.

I learned from my mistakes, headed out to some other 'burbs, and finally found some good-sized, clean grocery stores. I have now settled into my shopping groove, which is to go to Tiv Taam (a Russian-Israel owned chain that is NON-kosher) and Supersol. Tiv Taam is a little fancier than Supersol, is open on Fridays and Saturdays, and it has a larger meat selection. It's in some ways like Whole Foods compared to Safeway, I guess. Tiv Taam has a whole area dedicated to fresh spices and grains, a flower section, a booze section...in all, it's pretty nice, as you can see below.

Most exciting of all is the Tiv Taam branch out in Ramat Gan (or thereabouts), which has an awesome grocery cart escalator that makes it worth the trip out there. You roll the cart onto the flat conveyor and magnets keep it in place is it makes its way up/down from the parking lot or store. I rode it several times just for kicks.

"Fixed"

Our internet has been pretty spotty and slow and we were advised to switch from ADSL to cable...so, the technicians were supposed to come over today. Kudos to the company for texting a reminder yesterday, for calling to let me know of their impending arrival, and for them actually arriving on time.

The guys came in and did an "85% installation." They got it done, and got most things done well...there were just those little parts that weren't quite right. For example, when the were ready to install the coaxial cable, the were going to run it straight from the outlet (about 3 feet off the ground) into the modem. The would have had the wire basically hanging in mid-air, cutting off part of the room. I asked them instead to tack it to the wall, which they agreed to. Another example of why this install was typically Israeli was when one of the techs went to his truck to get the additional wire they needed, he got 3 feet instead of the 6 that were needed, so they had to splice two short pieces together. Not sure why he couldn't just get one piece that was the right size. And, finally, when he finished and had checked the specs, I asked if it was all good. He said, "it's fixed." I asked, "it's working well, or it's fixed?" He repeated that it was fixed, and then said that in Israel this was like 100% perfect. His colleague interpreted for me by saying, "eh, it's pretty good." So, in short...he was admitting that it was just ok. Great.

I will say, though, that it did mark an improvement...I don't think it was a coincidence that once the internet was working (fast!), we saw this outside the window:

Shabbat Dinner With the Family

I have some family who live about 20 minutes north of here in a small town called Bnei Tzion and they invited me over for Shabbat dinner. I arrived a little after 6:30 and met the extended family. Bilah is my father's cousin. Her husband, Benny, was there as well as his sister (Danielle?) and her husband, Haim. Bilah and Benny have three kids, and two of them--Chen and Eyal--were there with their wives and two kids apiece (Eyal's family actually lives in the house with Bilah and Benny). It made for a very welcoming and very full dinner table.

Before dinner we sat down and had some tea with fresh herbs from the garden--mint, sage, and an herb they kept calling 'luisa' which (when my sinuses cleared following the cold I had been developing) I discovered was what I would call lemon verbena. They offered us cakes, which at first made me think that I may have misunderstood the dinner invitation and were only having dessert. However, soon the table was being set by various family members while Benny, the chef, put the final touches on the meal. We had no idea the culinary delights that awaited us!

First there were Shabbat prayers including passing around challah, dipped in course salt, and wine. I wore the yarmulke, but I passed on the wine so as to not spread my cold. The meal itself began with a course of fish called Princess of the Nile. It was absolutely delicious...light and flaky and swimming in a delightfully savory sauce. Then we had soup, and vegetables and potatoes and salad and paprika chicken, and just when I thought I couldn't eat another bite Benny brought out an enormous bowl of fruit salad, a very refreshing end to the meal. The amount of food Benny prepared for this meal was staggering. Even with 14 people eating, there was enough left over to feed us all again. If we all would have let him, he would have done it, too!

After dinner Benny showed me his artwork, both throughout the house and in the gallery he has downstairs (he maintains a more complete gallery and workshop at Bilah's mother's house). He is a prolific painter, but also makes beautiful metal sculpture--he made the metal bannisters and tables and bathroom vanity in their house. They really were amazing. I have to say that one of the most remarkable pieces of artwork he showed me was a model of Noah's ark that he made with one of his grandsons for a school project. It was a multilevel affair with a retracting ladder, windows, and rooms for people, animals, and supplies. The handiwork was so intricate and detailed, it really blew me away. It could have been in a museum.

The best thing about the dinner, however, was the people. They were so warm and friendly to me. They speak English really well, but sometimes it was cute when they'd say a whole sentence and then look to someone else for that one last word. I can only hope to someday be a tenth that proficient in Hebrew, so it was really nice that we can communicate with them. They also had a knack for humor, keeping most of the room in stitches. The funniest line of the evening was when I asked Eyal about the possibility of him being called up in the army. He said he has some health problems and so he serves in a "disabled" unit. So, he said while he pantomimed wheeling himself in a wheelchair, "if they call me up, it must be very bad for Israel."

I left with bags full of lemons, cumquats, and herbs for tea from their garden....way too generous, but greatly appreciated. I almost forgot to mention the kitties. Their cats were really funny! I'm not entirely certain how many total cats they had, but I interacted mostly with Shmuelech and Fishka, tall skinny tabby siblings (grey and orange, respectively) who tolerate just about everything and are very cute and cuddly. Shmuelech even tried to come home with me by jumping in the car as I was leaving.

I'll be visiting them again soon and will post pics...

Covering All Views

Part of my portfolio out here is covering the rightwing parties in the Israeli Knesset. That is how I ended up at a conference in Jerusalem last Sunday, which was entitled, "Facing Jihad." The conference was sponsored by Eryah Eldad, head of the HaTikva ("The Hope") party, who focuses almost exclusively on ensuring that Jews can settle throughout what he calls "The Land of Israel" -- all the land between the Mediterranean and the Jordan River. This territory includes the West Bank, which most of the rest of the world considers occupied Palestinian territory.

The conference focused on publicizing the "threat" these individuals feel that Islam or "Radical Islam" poses for the West. The big name on the marquee for this event was Geert Wilders, a far-right Dutch parliamentarian with flowing, bleach-blonde hair who produced a film linking violence with Islam. Critics labeled the short film -- "Fitna" -- as racist, while others threatened to kill Wilders. The Dutch MP, taking the threats seriously following the 2004 assassination of fellow countryman and critic of Islam Theo Van Gogh, travels 24/7 with a team of bodyguards, several of whom surrounded him during his presentation.

The conference provided a useful insight into one segment of the Israeli polity. I would have preferred, however, if there had been more of a give and take with critics of this strain of thought.

Kazakh National Day

The Ambassador tagged us with the honor of representing the United States at the Kazakh National Day celebrations at the Dan Panorama Hotel this evening. We didn't let him down. We represented.

We arrived to see the reception hall packed with members of the diplomatic community. We were fortunate to observe musical and dance performances by Kazakh nationals, along with a video presentation about life in Kazakhstan. We would be remiss if we did not mention the food, which was yummy. We indulged in some chicken kabob, salmon, dumplings, and a massive spread of delicious desserts.

All in all, it was a pleasant way to spend a Sunday evening.

Sporting Culture Shock

I'll admit that I guess I have a bit of sporting culture shock whenever I play hockey with a new group of people. Groups always have their own unique rules and practices. The guys here, though, are an interesting lot. 

I was forced to listen to some whining last night when one of my passes and then one of my shots hit two separate guys. The first guy stood right in front of a pass, trying to block it. The second guy--who was the knucklehead who almost knocked my teeth out with his reckless stickwork--was standing in front of the net playing goalie when my shot (a casual wrist shot) hit him. A key fact here is that said knucklehead had told me the first time I played that "we don't stand in front of the net; we play with no goalies." Anyhow, at that point, the first guy who got nailed starts complaining that "we don't play like that here." I asked him what he expects should happen if someone is standing in front of the net when I'm getting ready to shoot. He suggested that I shoot it "softly."

Election Season in Israel

The presidential race back home was exciting (though rather long) and has dovetailed right into electoral season in Israel. Israel's Prime Minister, Ehud Olmert, has suffered politically from the fallout of Israel's less-than-stellar performance in the Israeli-Hizballah war in 2006, and from the weight of numerous investigations into his alleged corrupt practices. Olmert announced a few months ago that he would step down as premier, which led to a race for the leadership post within his ruling Kadima party. Tzipi Livni, Foreign Minister and political rival of Olmert's, was the front-runner to lead the party but she received a very strong challenge from Transportation Minister Shaul Mofaz, a former Defense Minister. Livni eked out a primary win, but she was not able to form a government (despite her standing as the most popular politician in Israel0 and elections were called for 10 February.

Kadima, a new party formed near the end of 2005 to support then-Prime Minister Sharon when he left the more rightwing Likud Party, is facing its first true national election and probably will find its biggest challenge coming from Likud, headed by former premier Benjamin "Bibi" Netanyahu. Polls are calling it a neck-and-neck race right now, but it seems the next government most likely will lean more rightward than the one we find today.

It is, however, an election, and I'm sure there will be an evolution in the race over the next few months.

In the meantime, Israel had municipal elections this week. I spent a small part of my Veterans' Day holiday checking out the local scene. An aide to one of the government ministers showed a colleague and me around his party's campaign operation and explained how they prepare and monitor results. Like most things in Israel, it was similar to what we find in the US, just smaller. Of note, though, is that each party has its own symbol that it displays on cards. I believe that is what they actually vote with. So, in all the campaign posters you see around town, they all have their little card, reminding you to vote for that party (other than mayoral posts, for which voters directly elect a candidate, Israelis elect a "party slate," which is a list of candidates selected by the party and presented to the voters as a bloc). See the picture for an idea what these cards look like.

Keeping the Streets Clean

Ah, yes, it's the little details. Inside this yellow box on some Israeli streets, locals will find little baggies to clean up after Fido (or perhaps it's "Schlomo" here). Apparently, steaming poo frightens shoes.


Kudos, also, for the recycling. These cages are not the most aesthetically pleasing, but they serve a good purpose and some, like this one, even have floral designs added to them.

Lost in Translation

English is pretty abundant here, on signs and menus and with the exception of grocery stores, it hasn't been difficult to find people who speak English really well. Product labeling in stores has been the source of some confusion, causing me to almost purchase fabric softener instead of laundry detergent and fooling me into buying water softener salt instead of dish detergent. Perhaps because of the large number of English speakers here there are fewer translation mishaps than you'd see in, say, Japan, but there is still plenty of material to bring a smile to a native English speaker's face.

Take the aforementioned laundry detergent....

Not sure who thought it was a good idea to name the stuff 'Colon 101'. I tried to squint my eyes to see if it were some fancy font of Hebrew meant to be read "backwards" but it really can't be. I can only hope that "colon" means "clean" to Israelis.

I kept wondering why the dishes weren't getting clean and why the "detergent" crystals were so large and difficult to put in the soap tray. Here is the box of stuff that turned out to be water softening salt "Recommended" by several leading dishwasher companies. I can read the word "chadash" in the yellow banner which means new and I can now read the word "melach" in the red banner beneath the 'finish' logo which means salt. In any case, this company has devised a great scheme to get you to buy detergent, rinse aid, and now water softener as well. Good times. Well, I'm looking forward to seeing if the dishwasher actually does work if you put actual soap in it.
There are a few restaurant names worth mentioning as well. Buzz Stop for one, which is a bar. I guess the proprietor wants to stop there if you want a buzz rather than that place stops/kills your buzz which is how it sounds to me. Never been there myself so I can't comment on the effect of the place. And "Alcohol on the Beach." Nothing wrong with this name, per se, but perhaps a little softening around the edges might help.

Buzz Stop, as you can see, is especially awesome because it clearly targets a certain nationality. As if the flag weren't enough, there is Lady Liberty in all her glory.
Incidentally, it says "Buzz Stop" transliterated into Hebrew lettering as well.

Adventures in Biking

I'm really enjoying getting around by bike in Tel Aviv.  I suppose I could walk to work, but a half-hour journey each way gets a little dull, especially when there are those times when I'm trying to get to my destination quickly.  Riding the bike cuts the trip down to seven minutes and it's faster than I could go by car.  Cruising around the city at other times allows me to quickly get familiar.  I use some of the skyscrapers as waypoints and just take meandering routes to get where I want to go.  That's how to see a city.

Biking here, however, is not without its risks.  First, take riding an Israeli-made bicycle.  I guess it's possible that the one I purchased was a lemon, but I figure it ties in with my 85% theory (if you haven't heard of it by now, just e-mail me and I'll tell you about it).  Anyhow, the bike basically shifts gears when it wants to.  I'm just along for the ride.  It doesn't sound like it would be all that bad except for when you need to stand up to cross the street quickly in front of traffic, only to find that you have gone from a high-resistance gear to one that is low and the chain hasn't fully settled on the sprocket.  You're pretty much just screwed when that happens, and it's happened several times.  I'm just waiting for the day the brakes fail.  Hopefully none of this happens before I go a second round with Crazy Eddy's bike-selling cousin this Sunday.  He has promised to fix the bike.  We'll see.

The second risk or riding a bike here is the affectionate and cozy Israeli pedestrian.  I guess it is such a small country that the people here really feel isolated if they're not packed snugly up against another person.  That's the only thing that can explain why the guy coming the opposite direction on an empty 12 foot wide sidewalk has to veer toward me as I drift away from him to avoid a head on collision.  

The third risk is the Israeli driver.  I have to say that it hasn't been that bad so far.  Yesterday, however, I was heading back from Jaffa on a two-lane road (one in each direction).  I passed a stopped bus at one point and continued on my way.  The bus finished picking up passengers and started gaining on me as we both approached a red light and stopped traffic.  I was about 15-20 car lengths away from the cars at the traffic light when the bus starts blasting its horn behind me.  The driver was in a mad dash to get to that light . . . so that he could . . . stop!?!  When i didn't cede ground, the bus began to overtake me and I found myself riding about six inches away from the curb as the bus passed within less than six inches from my left hand grip.  It was a little nervewracking to watch the bus slowly squeeze me out of ridable pavement.  I emerged unscathed, but I'm not going to deny that I spent the rest of my ride playing out scenarios that probably would result in the Israeli government "graciously" facilitating my departure.

O Jerusalem

On Sunday I rented a car and drove up to Jerusalem with a friend. It's about a 45 minute drive from here. We did a cursory visit...not rushing to see everything, but more of an overview.

We started the day with lunch at the American Colony Hotel. It's a famous old hotel, popular with "international diplomats" as the 1000 places to see before you die book mentioned. Well, I was there and we ran into another woman from the embassy who just happened to be there at the same time, so that book was pretty accurate. The hotel is a calm oasis amid a densely packed city full of sounds, smells, and sights you are unlikely to see anywhere in the US. I was not thrilled with my lunch, a curry chicken sandwich in which the chicken was positively drowning in mayonnaise tinged with an almost tasteless yellow seasoning masquerading as "curry," or the inattentive service we received. An order of bread arrived just as I was delivering my last spoonful of pasta to my mouth. In spite of that, the grounds truly were beautiful and other menu items did look quite tasty. Hopefully the brutally honest remarks I left on the comment card on the table will have had time to make a difference before we return. A much better meal was had later in the evening (in spite of some language difficulties) at a small cafe called Sambooki where we had an enormous, delicious salad and got to pick out everything we wanted. It's also a bakery so there were delicious cookies for dessert.

I don't have any good pics of what it looks like inside the Old City, but it is typically densely packed. Narrow streets are really just sidewalks and no vehicles enter. You walk through packed bazaars to get to the main sites inside so you have this real feeling of being transported to another era.

Here is the Temple Mount/Wailing Wall/Dome of the Rock. It's not a great picture of the wall because it's obscured partly by that footbridge. 


The Mount of Olives (covered in tombstones).


The next three pics are from the Church of the Holy Sepulcher. The final three stations of the cross purportedly took place on these grounds, although there is considerable controversy regarding the resting place of Jesus before he rose. Some believe it was the Garden Tomb outside the Old City walls on the way to the American Colony Inn (which probably wasn't there back then :). We ended up getting stuck in the church for a very long time, first because my friend wanted to stand on line to actually enter the Holy Sepulcher and see the rock under which Jesus was buried, according to some. However, when my friend was almost at the front of the line, the Armenian archbishop and cronies decided to have a ceremony there with singing and candles and lights which halted the line for a good 20-30 minutes. Then once the tomb was visited and we were preparing to leave, brothers of another Christian sect were blocking the only exit while they performed a similar ceremony at the Stone of Unction. It was a very interesting visit, but was definitely ready for some fresh air when we were done. It was very dark in there. I've never been in such a poorly lit church before.

The site of the where Jesus died on the cross. You have to duck down as the woman in the picture is doing and you can put your hand into a hole and feel where the cross once stood.



The Stone of Unction...where Jesus was laid to prepare for burial. People rub articles of clothing on the stone so that they will be blessed. We left with some of our items being newly holy.


The exterior of the Holy Sepulcher...not sure why the guy in the pic seems so happy.


Ok, so when we got out of the Church, it was already getting dark. So the next few pics are some evening shots of the Old City walls and surrounding area.

Israel defeated the Evil Empire

Yes, that's right...you will find NO Starbucks here!!! Apparently Starbucks invaded in 2001 and by April of 2003 had to close up shop entirely, laying off all 120 employees they managed to hire in that time. Too many good cafes already here. And since just about every cafe, ice cream shop, and restaurant offers free wireless here, they'd have to be willing to budge on their asinine policy of charging for internet while being a paying customer. There is one coffee chain I recognize from the US, Coffee Bean and Tea Leaf. They have pretty good sandwiches; I had a smoked salmon wrap that was tasty. You see a lot of salmon sandwiches here, I guess because you can eat salmon and dairy and it can still be Kosher. It's not hard to find bacon or other pork products, and incidentally there is supposedly this law that no pigs are allowed to set foot in Israel, so they house the pigs here on raised platforms so that they do not technically touch the ground. 

A word about ice cream... Just about every block has some sort of delectable gelateria where even the sorbet tastes like it was infused with cream. My favorite place so far is Vaniglia, just a block or two down Ibn Gvirol from here, for a couple of reasons. One, it's close and on the way back from the park, two, they don't serve crepes as many ice cream shops do so you don't get stuck behind somebody ordering 3 crepes while you wait for your one tiny scoop of ice cream, three, they have a multitude of size options so you can get exactly how much you want, and most importantly, the display. They have a large case of rectangular steel containers piled high with delectable flavors of dark chocolate, straciatella, tiramisu, passionfruit, coconut, lemon....the creamy confections laying in perfectly soft, glistening peaks made by the gelato spatula and to top it off, most of the flavors have a visually appealing sample of the main ingredient on top (such as half a passionfruit or a slice of lemon). 

$$$, Jaffa, and Crazy Shlomo (the bike guy)

The food, like everything in Israel, is very expensive. Israel is something like the 13th most expensive city in the world (for reference New York is 23rd). A single roll of Bounty paper towels cost $6 here. Breakfast is easily $13 no matter where you go. I haven't noticed gas prices because we've only been walking, riding bikes, and taking cabs (also expensive).

One thing that isn't expensive is produce. I haven't been to the outdoor markets yet, but they are apparently very cheap. But judging by the fact that you get loads of tomatoes and cucumbers at every restaurant, I would imagine they are easy to come by. Olives are also plentiful here.

There are also some things that are commonplace here that would seem like luxuries in the US. For example, just about every single house/apartment has these automated shutters that open and close at the touch of a button that are completely room-darkening. I don't use them that often because I'd never wake up in the morning, but they're great for a nap. The apartment also has zone heating/cooling so you can target the temperature for whatever room you're in and a bidet and toilets like you see in Japan with the different buttons for flushing a little or a lot. No other bells and whistles like Japanese toilets sometimes have, but who needs those anyway?

I just checked the temperature in DC and it was 37 degrees. It's 75 here. I'm not complaining. I'm sitting at a cafe right now looking out at the water. The sun's going to set in about an hour and a half and I plan to walk on the beach a bit before it does.

I recently took a walking tour of Old Jaffa. Jaffa was the original city before Tel Aviv came to be and it is gorgeously situated right on the water. The city has been there since many many years BC, but Napoleon destroyed it all, so what you see today has been rebuilt since that time. And even some of those buildings are restorations. In some places they have preserved old Roman ruins and other archeological digs, and today there are artist shops in the old part of town.

The newer part of Jaffa is not as nice and it's where you go if you want to get something cheaper than you could in Tel Aviv. After quite an adventure at the bike shop there, I picked up a full suspension bike. In the US, the bike shop would have been a law suit waiting to happen. A metal rack on which at least 10 bikes hung when we entered the shop (which was little more than a 2-car garage type room with two separate rolldown doors) started to fall down. So various workers came from all over the place piling bikes outside and on the other end of the room and some guy started spot welding the rack back up. Sparks were flying and the proprietor was still selling bikes. At one point we were in one half of the garage room and they rolled down that door and almost trapped us in by piling bikes in the narrow pathway between the two halves of the room. A pesky foreigner offered to 'translate' for us, but the shop owner spoke better English than he did. He had one of those lame cycling outfits on and warned us against touching his bike because it was expensive. Then some other guy started sawing into the metal causing more sparks to fly. People were shouting in a few different languages, customers coming in and out, workers moving, repairing, and selling bikes. All in all, I am glad we got out of there with a bike and no serious injuries.


Here are some pics. I included a video of bats we saw living in this abandoned building in Jaffa.

View of the Tel Aviv coast from Jaffa.

View from museum at end of tour.




Feral cats can be really cute.









Bat video...

I bought a bike!

Catherine and I went down to Jaffa for a free walking tour. I'll try to do a separate post there. Being in Jaffa allowed me to buy a bike from the nutty bike store on Jerusalem Street. I have been jonesin' for a bike since I got here because my only form of transportation has been my own two feet or cabs; the former can get tiresome, the latter expensive.

Anyhow, I had bought a bike from the zany bike store when I was here previously and I had negotiated to sell it back at a fixed price. Not surprisingly, the guy jerked me around on the sell back price. Regardless, his bikes are still cheaper than others that you can find downtown. I was looking for a get-around-town bike that I could leave locked outside while I was eating or at a cafe, so cheap is good. 

I arrived at the shop and it was twice as big as before, with bikes hanging, bikes parked, bikes out front...everywhere. Most were of the cheap Chinese variety, which was fine by mean, but he did have some Treks and other decent bikes. The owner was so manic that he kicked up dust like the Tazmanian Devil as he moved about the store. He'd come to me to ask what I wanted, show me some bikes that fit my needs, then turn away while I was in mid-sentence to go yell at one of his "quirky" mechanics. This was all amidst, mind you, some major cutting and welding going on in not one, but two parts of the 15x12 foot shop. 

I wasn't too much in the mood for bargaining, so I just had him slap better tires on the bike that I wanted and I rode home with this (which MIGHT last me two years, but I have my doubts).

More Space Than I Thought

Israel is a very small country (at one point approximately 10km

 separates the West Bank from the Mediterranean). Nearly everything here is on a smaller scale and space is at a premium. Most Tel Aviv streets seem narrow with narrow sidewalks. There are, however, several boulevards that are fantastic. They are so welcoming because 60% of the street is for pedestrians and bicycles. The center portion is a large "sidewalk" with trees, a bike path, and benches. These boulevards leave only one lane for traffic in each direction on each side of the pedestrian strip. It is very pleasant to walk down these streets, where many other Tel Avivians congregate. 

I saw two other parts of town that were spacious today while Catherine and I were on a very, very long walk (probably four hours walking nonstop). We went by port, which has trendy shops and restaurants. The boardwalk there is quite large and includes open spaces for crowds to move about and for jugglers and "trapeze" artists to perform. The area, in addition to its spaciousness, was also nice because it was new, modern, and clean. I'll be riding my bike over there frequently, I think.

Then, when we finished up at the port, we cut through Gan HaYarkon (The Yarkon--a river--Park). The park was very large, had nice walking paths, a rock climbing facility, tennis courts, basketball courts, and an inline skating rink. It also had a nice bike trail and paddle boat rentals. It's a good location to get away from the congestion--and is an alternative to the beach.