Tel-Aviv - Day 2

This was the first morning at the hotel. It was a lovely breakfast, even though nothing was hot. No omelet station and no toaster for bread. The reason for that is Shabbat. There is even a "Shabbat" elevator, but more on that later. I tried a little of almost everything, but I was staying away from unknown dairy products (is it yogurt? milk? cottage cheese? I just didn't want to waste it). But a few pieces of bread with apricot jam and hot tea, some smoked salmon, fruits comprised my breakfast.
As I was getting a plate of fruit and coming back to my table, a kid from the table next to mine sneezed all over my table and the food already on it. The little snot! Literally. I gave him and his family decidedly the most unpleasant of looks and picked a new table.

After breakfast we had a walking tour of the city. It sounds more difficult than it was. Really, it was just a walk around the few neighborhoods not too far from the hotel. It was really windy at the hotel, but it's right on the beach, and the wind wasn't anything but a pleasant breeze when we got away from the sea. The Mediterranean one.
On our tour we walked by David Ben Gurion's house, which is quite modest. The tour guide told us that there is a library in that house consisting of about 20,000 books (yes, that's twenty thousand!). It sits on a quiet residential street, which is actually a boulevard. I haven't seen a boulevard in ages. To me, a boulevard is a very wide road that is separated by a narrow strip of "park". It's lined with trees, benches, people playing cards or board games, and little play grounds.
There were also kiosks. But these aren't your typical kiosks where you buy a pack of cigarettes, these were places where you can grab a quick bite to eat. In fact, we saw quite a few people enjoying the weather and eating their breakfast outside in the boulevard.

We crossed a few major thoroughfares and walked south to Rabin Square (dedicated to Yitzhak Rabin). On the way there we stopped for a while at the Rabin Memorial which is in the exact spot he was assassinated. Raya (our guide) indicated to the Israelis this assassination is what JFK's assassination is to Americans. Though this one is still quite fresh in their minds and people still get choked up talking about it.

After the tour ended a few people from the tour decided to go to the Tel-Aviv Museum of Art and I joined them. WOW. There's so much modern art and not being a huge fan of it, I was expecting disappointment. I was so wrong. It was great. There were quite a bit of French artists represented, as well as a few Picassos, Gaugins, Degas, Lichtensteins, Jackson Pollocks, a large collection of Archipenko and even a Monet.
What was funny to me was that most of the guards in the museum spoke Russian. It's so startling to me. 42 shekels well spent.

After the museum we went to grab some lunch and then go to Jaffa. We stopped at a cafe and ordered our food. It wasn't great, but it wasn't bad. It was interesting to see nobody paying any attention to the enormous dog of one of the patrons. The dog just lay there by the table, not bothering anyone, being very calm.

On our way to Jaffa, I petered out and decided to go back to the hotel. I was exhausted after a day of walking (9 am to 3 pm) and I was still a little jet lagged. It turned out to be absolutely the right decision to go to the hotel since I fell asleep as soon as my head hit the pillow. Had I not gotten this much-needed nap, I would have ended up with my face in the dinner plate. Speaking of dinner...

It was at a restaurant called Benjamin Segal, but surprisingly no visible mafia theme. It was very nicely decorated and the food was delicious. We had a very strong assortment of salads the names and contents of which I don't really know, a main course, and a dessert.
What I found interesting is that people who ordered a coffee for dessert also got a shot of carbonated water. I don't know why that is, so I'll try to find out.

Oh, back to Shabbat Elevator. This is the elevator that's designated for those who observe Shabbat and it stops on EVERY floor automatically. This way, they don't have to press the button. I don't know why that's a prohibition on Shabbat, but it is.

Israel - Day 1

We were picked up at the airport by family we have in town and spend most of the day together. It was wonderful. I got to meet people I've only seen in photos and see others I haven't seen in a long time. This being family means we had a LOT of yummy food. And as you read in the previous post, I even got a new recipe. Yay! But because things having to do with family are private, I will not go into any more detail about that.

In the evening, the family went with me to the hotel and essentially handed me over to the tour guide. It was really cute. After I got to the hotel and checked out the room, I decided to change it because it was smelling of smoke too much and I didn’t really like the view. Not enough ocean. So we all went downstairs (this first room was on the 4th floor) and I asked (again) for a non-smoking room. This time, I got a room on the 14th floor with an AMAZING view and it didn’t wreak of smoke.

Then it was time to go find the tour guide (her name is Raya and she speaks Russian) and the rest of the group. She said there are about 35 people in the group and I’m completely not surprised that I’m the youngest one.

She (Raya) gave us the usual spiel about what’s what and where and we were on our way. This was about 6:30-7 PM local time and I was about to fall asleep. I finally went up to my room and decided to capture some of the stunning view. It is incredibly windy today, but overall the weather is nice. There is sun, so it’s much warmer than what I'm used to at this time of the year, but I still have my jacket and fleece and long-sleeved things to wear.

After finishing the few shots, I decided it was time for shower. Has it been 2 days since I brushed my teeth? Ewww. The shower was very invigorating and relaxing at the same time after which I finally fell asleep (around 9 pm local time). But of course, I woke up to the phone ringing. Lenny gave me his wife’s other cell phone and programmed his and their phone numbers into it, so I can call them. But they called me first and the phone was in my bag and I was asleep. With an unfamiliar ring, it was fun to try to figure out what the noise was and what I needed to do about it, especially with about 2 days of no real sleep. Ella said my dad was gonna call, but for some reason he wasn’t able to. I wonder if the hotel gave him my correct room number.

I fell asleep again but woke up around 1 AM ‘cause of the noise neighbors. It sounded like the entire Israeli population of children was next door and was yelling loudly. So after much (not really) debating, I decided to go knock on their door and politely explain that it’s 1 am and I'm trying to sleep and they’re too loud. Seemed to have worked out OK. But now it’s nearly 3 am (nearly 7 pm Milwaukee time) and I can’t sleep. Sure, I took a few more night-time pics. IT'S SO WINDY! I was afraid of the camera being snatched out of my hands by the wind.

I should try to sleep more.