Day 11: With Julia in Jerusalem! (June 22)
When we landed in Tel Aviv aiport at 4 am, I thought we'd be entering a deserted airport and we'd have trouble finding people awake to help us...far from it! It was more hopping than other airports midday - all the stores open and people milling about. It took a super long time to get through passport control but once we were officially welcomed into the country, we found our way to the shared taxis that we were told would be the best way to get to Jerusalem. The only potential problem is that they don't go until they have all 10 seats full...there were enough people to fill several shuttles. I had to call the airbnb owner to give the shuttle driver a spot to drop us off. Once we got to that spot, I called him again and he sent his cleaning lady who lives nearby to guide us through the curvy neighborhood streets to get to our apartment for the next 12 days. Rather than come greet us at the corner however, she motioned from afar for us to follow her. She was like an apparition only pausing to make sure we didn't miss a turn. Our two-bedroom apartment is very small and very old, but perfect. We were most happy to see that it has a washing machine and a little patio on which to dry our clothes. We were getting to the end of clean!
My plan was for us to immediately crawl into bed and get some sleep since we hadn't really slept much on the planes from Malaga, but Rachel was too enthralled with the loaves and loaves of freshly baked bread in the just-opening shops on the main street we had just seen. I was too tired to object when she went out on her own and happy when she came back with a few treats and a loaf of challah. We both slept for a couple of hours, then started the laundry and went to meet Julia is the nearby Mahane Yehuda Market for a delicious breakfast! It was so good to see Julia! She has been having a great time in Jerusalem and has lots of places to show us.
In Israel, the weekend is Friday and Saturday, and from sundown Friday to sundown Saturday, the city is basically shut down. So, we decided it would be a good time to visit Tel Aviv (a much less conservative place). Julia had forgotten to pack a bathing suit so they girls to the light rail back to Julia's dorm and met me back in the apartment. Though we had just arrived at our apartment a few hours before, we packed up our smaller backpacks and headed to the bus station through the market.
The bus to Tel Aviv was easy but we chose to walk from the central bus station (never located in the nicest part of any big city) all the way out to the ocean (a really long walk through not the greatest areas). On our walk we passed through a cool handicraft market. The hostel was basic but really well located just a block off the beach. Our plan had been to walk down to the old part of the Tel Aviv, Jaffa, but we needed a little snack and thought we should walk down to the beach to get one. Picked up a delicious little stuffed pizza pocket sort of thing and went over to the beach to find a bench to sit on to eat. I needed to be in the shade (Israel is hot even at 4 pm) and I think this group of young boys smoking pot and playing guitar were even more surprised than Rachel was when I just wiggled my way into a partially empty spot on the bench. They reacted well though, serenading me with a song from Israel. If I had Rachel's talent I would have definitely taken his guitar in return and treated him to a song of my own, but alas, I do not, and that is about the last thing Rachel would choose to do.
We started off on the planned walk but the water looked so incredibly inviting that we abandoned the plan, went back to hostel to change into suits, and spent an hour or so jumping in the perfectly temperate perfectly sized waves. I have actually thought that if I never went into another ocean in my life it'd be ok with me, but I decided in that moment that the Mediterranean was a totally different story. I started thinking about all the futures trips I would have to take to this sea and how happy it would make Jim.
That is until I got back to the room and my face started to burn and itch terribly and when I looked in the mirror the swollen redness I was feeling was totally visible. I washed my face and Julia had cortisone. It cleared up eventually but I have no idea what that was about! Certainly made me less sure about my future ocean trips.
Rachel and I did a Nike Fit training program while Julia went back to the beach to read. I met her while Rachel showered and then we walked 20 minutes to dinner to a place we read about and were surprised to find was closed (Friday night). We took a cab to an Indian restaurant and sat outside enjoying each others' company so much we didn't really mind that it was probably the worst service of any restaurant I have even been to. It took over an hour to get our food (after 9 pm) and though we talked big about watching a movie when we got back to the hotel, Julia was the one to fall asleep first. Long day!
My plan was for us to immediately crawl into bed and get some sleep since we hadn't really slept much on the planes from Malaga, but Rachel was too enthralled with the loaves and loaves of freshly baked bread in the just-opening shops on the main street we had just seen. I was too tired to object when she went out on her own and happy when she came back with a few treats and a loaf of challah. We both slept for a couple of hours, then started the laundry and went to meet Julia is the nearby Mahane Yehuda Market for a delicious breakfast! It was so good to see Julia! She has been having a great time in Jerusalem and has lots of places to show us.
In Israel, the weekend is Friday and Saturday, and from sundown Friday to sundown Saturday, the city is basically shut down. So, we decided it would be a good time to visit Tel Aviv (a much less conservative place). Julia had forgotten to pack a bathing suit so they girls to the light rail back to Julia's dorm and met me back in the apartment. Though we had just arrived at our apartment a few hours before, we packed up our smaller backpacks and headed to the bus station through the market.
The bus to Tel Aviv was easy but we chose to walk from the central bus station (never located in the nicest part of any big city) all the way out to the ocean (a really long walk through not the greatest areas). On our walk we passed through a cool handicraft market. The hostel was basic but really well located just a block off the beach. Our plan had been to walk down to the old part of the Tel Aviv, Jaffa, but we needed a little snack and thought we should walk down to the beach to get one. Picked up a delicious little stuffed pizza pocket sort of thing and went over to the beach to find a bench to sit on to eat. I needed to be in the shade (Israel is hot even at 4 pm) and I think this group of young boys smoking pot and playing guitar were even more surprised than Rachel was when I just wiggled my way into a partially empty spot on the bench. They reacted well though, serenading me with a song from Israel. If I had Rachel's talent I would have definitely taken his guitar in return and treated him to a song of my own, but alas, I do not, and that is about the last thing Rachel would choose to do.We started off on the planned walk but the water looked so incredibly inviting that we abandoned the plan, went back to hostel to change into suits, and spent an hour or so jumping in the perfectly temperate perfectly sized waves. I have actually thought that if I never went into another ocean in my life it'd be ok with me, but I decided in that moment that the Mediterranean was a totally different story. I started thinking about all the futures trips I would have to take to this sea and how happy it would make Jim.
That is until I got back to the room and my face started to burn and itch terribly and when I looked in the mirror the swollen redness I was feeling was totally visible. I washed my face and Julia had cortisone. It cleared up eventually but I have no idea what that was about! Certainly made me less sure about my future ocean trips.
Rachel and I did a Nike Fit training program while Julia went back to the beach to read. I met her while Rachel showered and then we walked 20 minutes to dinner to a place we read about and were surprised to find was closed (Friday night). We took a cab to an Indian restaurant and sat outside enjoying each others' company so much we didn't really mind that it was probably the worst service of any restaurant I have even been to. It took over an hour to get our food (after 9 pm) and though we talked big about watching a movie when we got back to the hotel, Julia was the one to fall asleep first. Long day!
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