It has come to my attention that the name of my blog is "Israel 2021 Ilana".....ok, forgive me when I set the blog up I was running on literally 6 hours of sleep in 48+ hours!!!!!!
I cannot figure out how to change the title of my blog, so for those of you actually following, I am here and it is 2012!!!!!
Wednesday, October 31, 2012
Day Four
Another beautiful day in the Land of Milk and Honey! Awoke for the "free" hotel breakfast, and have to say that it was so nice to NOT be around tourists for two days, that it was shock to hear all the "American" language and seeing all the old Jewish people (me in a few years)!
After breakfast we walked to the Old City, a nice 20 minute walk from the hotel to Jaffa Gate. The usual shmatas in the Arab Market, the Jewish Quarter stores are much nicer!! Of course, with that, they are so much more expensive, but I wasn't really looking for anything specifically, so I didn't do too much damage.
We walked and walked through nooks and crannies inside the walls. We saw things we would never have seen on a tour, the places the people live, schools, day cares. It is fascinating. We walked to the Wailing Wall and since Jodi was wearing teeny white shorts, she had to wear a shmata to cover her legs. I was jealous, and even though I was dressed more modestly, I asked if I could have a shmata too!
It was wonderful to actually have time to pray, to reflect, and to take in the splendor that is "our" Western Wall. We spend probably 45 minutes there, again, something you really cannot do on a tour.
And after we were religiously sated, we moved on to the falafal stand to have a Falafal Pita (amazingly delicious!)
Just reread the above, and I have to say that a log about a day in Israel is probably the only place you will find the word shmata three times.
We walked back to the hotel and had every intention to go to the pool, but alas, the pool here is closed. So a jaunt to the lobby to go online, even though for some odd reason, we are getting Lobby Wifi in our room.
Jodi went to work out, and I didn't.
We got ready for dinner, and then hopped in a cab to a restaurant that Adam's friend Rebecca recommended called Darna, dubbed an authentic Moroccon Glatt Kosher restaurant, and dispite this, it was wonderful!!
We ordered morrocon soup, salads galore, a beef couscous, glazed cornish hens, and an Israeli Pinot Noir. And the desserts, oh my g-d!!! The waitress poured us mint tea, and packed up leftovers in the biggest doggie bag in the history of doggie bags!! We took our left over wine, and since the water she brought us was bottled and 24 sheckles (that is $6.00!!!!) we even took the left over water!!
Took the long way home (not on purpose) and saw the sight of a fundraiser/thankyou for Israeli philanthropists at the YMCA (again, only in Israel).
Back at the hotel now watching tv, writing this blog, and feeling very stuffed and tired. Tomorrow we join the group at 3pm, and a little wistful that our independent journey is ending.
After breakfast we walked to the Old City, a nice 20 minute walk from the hotel to Jaffa Gate. The usual shmatas in the Arab Market, the Jewish Quarter stores are much nicer!! Of course, with that, they are so much more expensive, but I wasn't really looking for anything specifically, so I didn't do too much damage.
We walked and walked through nooks and crannies inside the walls. We saw things we would never have seen on a tour, the places the people live, schools, day cares. It is fascinating. We walked to the Wailing Wall and since Jodi was wearing teeny white shorts, she had to wear a shmata to cover her legs. I was jealous, and even though I was dressed more modestly, I asked if I could have a shmata too!
It was wonderful to actually have time to pray, to reflect, and to take in the splendor that is "our" Western Wall. We spend probably 45 minutes there, again, something you really cannot do on a tour.
And after we were religiously sated, we moved on to the falafal stand to have a Falafal Pita (amazingly delicious!)
Just reread the above, and I have to say that a log about a day in Israel is probably the only place you will find the word shmata three times.
We walked back to the hotel and had every intention to go to the pool, but alas, the pool here is closed. So a jaunt to the lobby to go online, even though for some odd reason, we are getting Lobby Wifi in our room.
Jodi went to work out, and I didn't.
We got ready for dinner, and then hopped in a cab to a restaurant that Adam's friend Rebecca recommended called Darna, dubbed an authentic Moroccon Glatt Kosher restaurant, and dispite this, it was wonderful!!
We ordered morrocon soup, salads galore, a beef couscous, glazed cornish hens, and an Israeli Pinot Noir. And the desserts, oh my g-d!!! The waitress poured us mint tea, and packed up leftovers in the biggest doggie bag in the history of doggie bags!! We took our left over wine, and since the water she brought us was bottled and 24 sheckles (that is $6.00!!!!) we even took the left over water!!
Took the long way home (not on purpose) and saw the sight of a fundraiser/thankyou for Israeli philanthropists at the YMCA (again, only in Israel).
Back at the hotel now watching tv, writing this blog, and feeling very stuffed and tired. Tomorrow we join the group at 3pm, and a little wistful that our independent journey is ending.
Tuesday, October 30, 2012
Day Three
Sitting in the lobby of the beautiful Dan Panorama, reflecting on today, another great day!
Went for breakfast at the little cafe across from our room. Then decided to head back to the shore and look for Jaffa, old and new. Found it with ease. Amazing that it really hasn't changed since we were here last, although we were able to explore it in more depth than the last time we were here ("meet back at the bus in 20 minutes???!!!). Also, I am not certain, but I don't think there was Zumba classes in the streets when we were here last time!
Heading back down toward Tel Aviv, discovered a store that needed attention. Spent too much time in there, but after a while and an emergency call to Amex, we headed back towards our humble digs.
Stopped for a bite to eat for lunch, then back to The Trieste to check out and meet Ofer, the taxi man! Had an hour to kill so decided to have a quick coffee. Ofer comes early, we down our coffee, say good bye to Odelia (loved her!) and off we go to Jerusalem!
Traffic out of Tel Aviv was horrible, but eventually we were on the highway headed towards Jerusalem. Ofer pointed out some very interesting things along the way (after an eerily quiet 1/2 hour or so), and about 1 1/2 hours later, we were at our destination, The Dan Panorama!!
Checked in, showered (ahhhhhhhhhhhh) and went for a walk to our evening meal at a restaurant called Joy (and indeed the food was a joy to eat, me Shnitzle, Jodi lamb chops)! Now relaxing in the lobby (the only place with free Wifi) catching up and listening to live piano. Nice Nice Nice!!
Went for breakfast at the little cafe across from our room. Then decided to head back to the shore and look for Jaffa, old and new. Found it with ease. Amazing that it really hasn't changed since we were here last, although we were able to explore it in more depth than the last time we were here ("meet back at the bus in 20 minutes???!!!). Also, I am not certain, but I don't think there was Zumba classes in the streets when we were here last time!
Heading back down toward Tel Aviv, discovered a store that needed attention. Spent too much time in there, but after a while and an emergency call to Amex, we headed back towards our humble digs.
Stopped for a bite to eat for lunch, then back to The Trieste to check out and meet Ofer, the taxi man! Had an hour to kill so decided to have a quick coffee. Ofer comes early, we down our coffee, say good bye to Odelia (loved her!) and off we go to Jerusalem!
Traffic out of Tel Aviv was horrible, but eventually we were on the highway headed towards Jerusalem. Ofer pointed out some very interesting things along the way (after an eerily quiet 1/2 hour or so), and about 1 1/2 hours later, we were at our destination, The Dan Panorama!!
Checked in, showered (ahhhhhhhhhhhh) and went for a walk to our evening meal at a restaurant called Joy (and indeed the food was a joy to eat, me Shnitzle, Jodi lamb chops)! Now relaxing in the lobby (the only place with free Wifi) catching up and listening to live piano. Nice Nice Nice!!
Monday, October 29, 2012
Day Two
This morning we got a surprise visit from Emily and her friend Joan and quickly got ready for the day!! Went for a delicious breakfast right outside our door, and enjoyed hearing the story of Joan's history! And then we walked, first down a beautiful street (downhill means you are walking towards water) with lovely shops and little restaurants. Finally the Mediterranean Sea came into view, and what a view that is!!
The weather was so beautiful today that all walks of life were out enjoying the sea, from the inebriated, to the fully clad Arab women, to the hookah smoking men, children galore, cosmopolitan young men and women, joggers, and of course, many camera/map toting tourists. We continued north to another shopping street (I am not naming these streets because frankly, I cannot remember! ).We ended up walking through a wonderful outdoor market that dead ends at the point where Allenby, King George and a few other major roads converge.
We followed Allenby (north?) to Ben Yehuda, and then walked that street until we found this great little cafe to have lunch at. We all made good healthy choices (and I discovered that I really don't hate Kalmata Olives??!)
Emily's host came to fetch us, we said good bye to Joan, and we piled in the car to go back to the beach to this beautiful outdoor shopping area that was converted from an old railway line (it used to run from Alexandria to Constantinople, right through Tel Aviv ). Now it houses very nice, trendy, chic, expensive stores. It also is a hot spot for bridal picture taking, and there were at least five beautiful brides that we saw there being photographed!
We said good bye to Emily and her host, and walked (no kind of ran) down to the beach to get a photo of the sunset, but we were barely too late. We took some photos anyways.
We walked back to The Trieste, and Odelia (that is the women who owns the B&B) called us to ask us if we were still interested in dinner with her. By the way, it may seem like all we are doing is eating, but I promise there is a lot of stuff in between our meals!
Of course we are interested, so minutes later Odelia picks us up, with her 8 year old daughter Elaine (so cute, loves the son Call Me Maybe :) ) and away we go!! She takes us to this really interesting part of town to this amazing restaurant where we have so much food and freshly out of the oven pita bread (oh my goodness) that we cannot believe our eyes. It was tasty, and we barely had room for the rugalach and blueberry bun we purchased an hour earlier at this wonderful bakery stand, but we managed.
Now earlier Odelia mentioned that she was going to a Bar Mitzvah and said we could join her if we were interested. Hell Yeah, we were interested!!!!
So while she took Elaine home to put her to bed, we went back to the room to shower and change (long pants, long sleeve top) and minutes later we were off to our first Orthodox Bar Mitzvah!! Wow, talk about culture shock. We had to wear these slips over our pants, the men were all on one side of the room dancing and merry making, and the women were on the other side of a big wall divider with hundreds of little children wreaking havoc and looking religiously adorable! We were totally sore thumbs in a sea of Orthodox women, but they were so hospitable, insisting that we eat (again) and we even had a table picture of us (I am sure in a few weeks the mother of the Bar Mitvah boy is going to be looking at picture proofs and saying "who the heck are those two people???!!!". )
Day two proved to be even better than day one. I cannot even imagine what tomorrow will bring!
Sunday, October 28, 2012
Day one
Our adventure started four days early. We were scheduled to depart Wednesday October 31st, 2012. Hurricane Sandy had different plans. Between her and Frankenstorm, we had to think fast. So a decision was made on Friday night, as I was being blessed by Rabbi Greene, that we were leaving Saturday!! Note to self, when traveling with a group, book flights with the group!
The scramble to get things tied up, we needed accommodations for four extra nights, which was not such an easy task, but it got done. We needed to pack, but for some inexplicable reason, I was already 95% packed and had been for some time.
Emily and Jodi were dropped off around noon on Saturday, our fearless leader Wendy, who was to follow with the group on Tuesday night via Amsterdam, dropped off her son's phone (he is studying in Tel Aviv and was in need of a replacement) and my husband Andy graciously chauffeured us to Hartsfield for the first leg of our journey.
An uneventful (somewhat rocky) flight to JFK, sitting in our new and unimproved seats (we had carefully selected for the flights we were supposed to be taking and they were outstanding seats, new seats NOT SO MUCH!)
Landed with ease at JFK, with a few hours to kill before our next "highly anticipated" flight to Tel Aviv. After a free Bloody Mary (thanks Em!) at the Delta Sky Lounge, and a first class Italian dinner, we go through the additional security at Gate 6, and we are off to Tel Aviv!!!!
10 1/2 hours in Row 47 (the row in front of the bathrooms!!), Jodi in the aisle, me at the window, and some poor fellow who thought he had a chance to score an aisle seat with a trade with Jodi (no thanks!). And away we go!!! TV/movie selection was outstanding! Watched Jeff at Home, took my Ambien (well not really MY Ambien) and although I was not 100 % comfortable, I must have managed to sleep, because when I awoke there was only two hours left of the flight, and they were serving up breakfast!
And so a little before 2pm on Sunday October 28th, we land in beautiful Eretz Yisrael! Luggage a breeze, Israelphones sorted out kind of (they have to deliver them to our "hotel" (an explanation of the quotation marks around that word to follow), we hop in a cab driven by Ophar (who wants us to call him on Tuesday so he can take us to Jerusalem) and through the busy highways and streets of Tel Aviv, we arrive at The Trieste Bed and Breakfast!!
Jodi: "Are you sure this is the right place?"
Ok enough said, you can imagine our surprise. But Ophar says yes, this is the right place, the building is a square structure, no reception area, no front desk, but there is a parking lot (tiny) to the right of the building with cars in it...so we take a leap of faith and let Ophar drop us and our luggage there.
Hmmmmmmmmm, two men with cameras and another who looks like he might belong to the "hotel". As it turns out we are in the right place, the owner of the hotel is not around, he will let us use his phone to call her. Who is this man, and why are there camera men lurking around the hotel???? A WEDDING! The bride is getting dressed in one of the three units in this establishment, the young man with the phone, the hairdresser!!! The owner of the establishment ON HER WAY, 5 minutes!!
Mother and sister of the bride come out to the staircase, I offer to take their picture! I am only worried our 4 pieces of luggage will be in the pictures of the bride making her debut in her beautiful dress, but the paparazzi assures us she is not coming out yet. Mazel Tov to the sister, Mazel Tov to the mother!! They both look beautiful. Mom runs into the room and comes out of the room with a bag of candy. We must take a handful and throw it at the bride. We comply. The bride is beautiful.
Finally our proprietor arrives in a taxi, she is a bit flustered, but she shleps our bags back downstairs, talking talking talking, and leads us to the side of the building to our "big room". Ok, it is big. And kind of nice in a funky and weird way. But its clean, and she is so adorable, I wish I could remember her name because I think we are going out for dinner with her tomorrow night! I think my son Adam described the room perfectly, he said it looked like we were staying in a bomb shelter or dungeon, but later as we Skyped, he said it kind of looked like we were staying at the Wailing Wall! Why? Because the walls and ceiling are made of brick, and I have decided that before I leave this room, I am going to write a little prayer, and stuff it into a crevice of this room in Tel Aviv!
We walk to Herzl from our hotel. Every thing is in walking distance, and everyone we talk to says we are in a safe neighborhood, so we go! Jodi got her Shwarma, and I had a Falafal, and we came back weary and sated.
So my roomie is sound asleep, as I should be, but me, I am starting to blog!
The scramble to get things tied up, we needed accommodations for four extra nights, which was not such an easy task, but it got done. We needed to pack, but for some inexplicable reason, I was already 95% packed and had been for some time.
Emily and Jodi were dropped off around noon on Saturday, our fearless leader Wendy, who was to follow with the group on Tuesday night via Amsterdam, dropped off her son's phone (he is studying in Tel Aviv and was in need of a replacement) and my husband Andy graciously chauffeured us to Hartsfield for the first leg of our journey.
An uneventful (somewhat rocky) flight to JFK, sitting in our new and unimproved seats (we had carefully selected for the flights we were supposed to be taking and they were outstanding seats, new seats NOT SO MUCH!)
Landed with ease at JFK, with a few hours to kill before our next "highly anticipated" flight to Tel Aviv. After a free Bloody Mary (thanks Em!) at the Delta Sky Lounge, and a first class Italian dinner, we go through the additional security at Gate 6, and we are off to Tel Aviv!!!!
10 1/2 hours in Row 47 (the row in front of the bathrooms!!), Jodi in the aisle, me at the window, and some poor fellow who thought he had a chance to score an aisle seat with a trade with Jodi (no thanks!). And away we go!!! TV/movie selection was outstanding! Watched Jeff at Home, took my Ambien (well not really MY Ambien) and although I was not 100 % comfortable, I must have managed to sleep, because when I awoke there was only two hours left of the flight, and they were serving up breakfast!
And so a little before 2pm on Sunday October 28th, we land in beautiful Eretz Yisrael! Luggage a breeze, Israelphones sorted out kind of (they have to deliver them to our "hotel" (an explanation of the quotation marks around that word to follow), we hop in a cab driven by Ophar (who wants us to call him on Tuesday so he can take us to Jerusalem) and through the busy highways and streets of Tel Aviv, we arrive at The Trieste Bed and Breakfast!!
Jodi: "Are you sure this is the right place?"
Ok enough said, you can imagine our surprise. But Ophar says yes, this is the right place, the building is a square structure, no reception area, no front desk, but there is a parking lot (tiny) to the right of the building with cars in it...so we take a leap of faith and let Ophar drop us and our luggage there.
Hmmmmmmmmm, two men with cameras and another who looks like he might belong to the "hotel". As it turns out we are in the right place, the owner of the hotel is not around, he will let us use his phone to call her. Who is this man, and why are there camera men lurking around the hotel???? A WEDDING! The bride is getting dressed in one of the three units in this establishment, the young man with the phone, the hairdresser!!! The owner of the establishment ON HER WAY, 5 minutes!!
Mother and sister of the bride come out to the staircase, I offer to take their picture! I am only worried our 4 pieces of luggage will be in the pictures of the bride making her debut in her beautiful dress, but the paparazzi assures us she is not coming out yet. Mazel Tov to the sister, Mazel Tov to the mother!! They both look beautiful. Mom runs into the room and comes out of the room with a bag of candy. We must take a handful and throw it at the bride. We comply. The bride is beautiful.
Finally our proprietor arrives in a taxi, she is a bit flustered, but she shleps our bags back downstairs, talking talking talking, and leads us to the side of the building to our "big room". Ok, it is big. And kind of nice in a funky and weird way. But its clean, and she is so adorable, I wish I could remember her name because I think we are going out for dinner with her tomorrow night! I think my son Adam described the room perfectly, he said it looked like we were staying in a bomb shelter or dungeon, but later as we Skyped, he said it kind of looked like we were staying at the Wailing Wall! Why? Because the walls and ceiling are made of brick, and I have decided that before I leave this room, I am going to write a little prayer, and stuff it into a crevice of this room in Tel Aviv!
We walk to Herzl from our hotel. Every thing is in walking distance, and everyone we talk to says we are in a safe neighborhood, so we go! Jodi got her Shwarma, and I had a Falafal, and we came back weary and sated.
So my roomie is sound asleep, as I should be, but me, I am starting to blog!
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