Phew, its been quite a ride! Good thing I've been keeping a journal the entire time.
Hannah, Liora and Fruma have been making fun of my blog the entire trip, but yet every time something hysterical happens, they all just say: "this is one for the blog".
So, sit back, put your feet up, relax. Stay a while. Pop in some Oasis. Yeah, dig out your What's The Story Morning Glory? album and hit track 1. As Hello fills your speaker start reading my blow by blow of the vacation thus far. Pictures will be included.
Day 1, Tuesday afternoon
Yehuda, the amazing personal driver for Credit Suisse here in Israel picked me up at my apartment and then we headed over to the airport to get Hannah. My cold had hit nasty levels and so Yehuda bought me some tea at the cafe in front of Stemasky's and we sat down and waited. And there she was, clad in a head to toe red velour track suit and sweating from the Tel Aviv heat and humidity was Hannah! Woohoo, trip was good. Except, her cell phone from Talk n' Save wasn't working. Apparently, her phone was "stolen" so it went into fraud protection mode and she wasn't able to call out. Interesting. We spent a few minutes trying to get her phone working and then Yehuda whisked us into the cab and we were off to Jerusalem. Hannah was pretty excited and it was just so nice to see her that I can't remember what we talked about in the cab. We did a lot of Upper West Side catch up. Then we got to our hotel and checked in, around the exact same time as this group of Chrisitans from Holland were checking in as well. We got our room key and stepped into the narrow elevator with three of the group members, who immediately asked us if we were Christian. Hmmm, that was a first. We said no, and I gestured to my lulav when responding that we were Jewish. We walked to our room, which was really nice, and unpacked. Fruma called and told us she had picked up some Burger King for dinner and was at the Dan Panorama visiting with Shayndie and Daniel, who is a good friend of Hannah's too. So, we headed out to the Dan Panorama to see the crew. It was really exciting to see Fruma, and it was nice to meet Shayndie and her husband (who we ended up hanging out with a lot this week). Before we headed out of the hotel though, someone stopped us in the lobby and asked if we were part of the Christian Group. Second time in a row in Jerusalem no less, that was pretty interesting for us.
At the Dan Panorama, Hannah and I had box envy. Let me explain. Shayndie picked up pastries at the Cafe Neeman bakery on the corner of King George and Jaffa and oh my lord, but I haven't had cake that good in a long time. Hannah and I both agreed that if we were walking our way through Jerusalem, and eating our way through the city, we needed our own box.
We forced Fruma to come out with us to Ben Yehuda and went for a slice at Big Apple pizza. Cafe Rimon was packed, literally, line out of the door. Hannah and I decided we would have to come back and settled for some pizza. It was sad that there was a guy offering to take polaroid shots of people with their pizza's. Seriously, he was screaming: "pictures with your pizza!" and I just laughed. Here we are in Jerusalem, the Holy City, with unbelievable architecture and holy sites throughout the area. And yet, the guy was offering us a shot with our pizzas! Only in Jerusalem folks, only in Jerusalem.
At this point, Fruma was ready to head home and the jet lag was starting to hit Hannah so we hoofed it back to our room. As we were getting ready for bed, we wondered how they were going to fit a third person into the room. It was really tiny. But, I was feeling lousy with the cold and Hannah was wiped so we toasted my Nyquil to her bottle of water and went to bed.
End of Day 1
Day 2 Wednesday
We slept in and boy did it feel amazing. When I went outside looking for the cleaning cart so I could grab another box of tissues, I spied the cot they were going to put into the room for Liora and started laughing. I grabbed Hannah and she wasn't pleased. I believe the term she used was that it looked like something the animals sleep on (I am cleaning up the language for Dad) and so I headed downstairs to have a chat with Kobi, the manager. We had, what my Christians friends would call a "coming to Jesus" and I was handed room keys for a new room. This one came equipped with a built in third bed but no working safe, which was upsetting as Hannah and I had a lot of items for the safe. So, we put everything into a large bag and used the main safe. As we were walking out the door to get our day going, I noticed an ant crawling on my bed. Not being a prima donna, I just dusted it off and we headed out towards Ben Yehuda. Since we missed breakfast in the succah, we went to Cafe Rimon and got omelets. Hannah called Ariella in Kiryat Sefer and we really caught up on the things we wouldn't be able to discuss the rest of the week. Now, Ariella is Hannah's best friend from childhood and my former roommate from Michlalah. She lives in Kiryat Sefer, which is "over the green line" and a very Charedi neighborhood. I wore my one long sleeve t-shirt and the longest jean skirt I own. Hannah was similarly garbed and we went to Geula to pick up the bus to see her. We had hoped to do some shopping in Meah Shearim but it was closed since no one in that neighborhood works on Chol Hamoed and we grabbed the 320 bus. The ride was gorgeous, at one point I saw an Arab shephard with his herd heading up a mountain. It was just surreal, the scenery spectacular. And then we got to Kiryat Sefer and it was eye opening to see the neighborhood. It was nice to catch up with Ariella and meet her kids and, on the way back to the bus home, we stopped by Dina's house. Another former Michlalah flatmate of mine, Dina just had her fourth child so I got to say Mazal Tov. On the way back to Jerusalem, Hannah and I discussed the experience and then the conversation shifted to a mutual friend on the UWS. And that's when the woman in front of us turned around and said:
No, it's Lashon Harrah. Stop. No. Bad. Bad, bad, bad. Lashon Harah, bad. And, shaking her head, she crossed over and changed her seat.
I was shocked. That has never happened to me before. She was right though, we were speaking lashon harah, but I don't know if that was the most effective way to tell us we should stop. What we ended up doing was shifting the focus and speaking lashon harah about her instead of the UWSer. Oh well. I'm human.
We got off in Geula and then fulfilled our box envy by hitting the Cafe Neeman bakery on our way back to the hotel. Yummy!
Liora was sitting on the bed when we walked in and was really happy to see us and to see the box. We had heard of some concert near Emek Refaim so we decided to hit the strip for dinner. As we were rushing around changing and getting ready, I looked on my bed and saw a horde of ants running all over my sheets. Now, one ant is one thing but a horde is quite another. So, I went downstairs and since Kobi was off duty, told Jimmy at the desk my problem. I explained that I just couldn't fathem crawling into bed with these creatures and could he please switch our room. He was so mortified about the ants that we got upgraded to a suite and ch-ching we were moving rooms again. This time, we have a larger main bed and Liora got her own bedroom with two single beds. We also got water bottle, some chocolates and a working room safe. I was in heaven.
We headed to Burger Bar and it was a zoo.
Wanna know how to scare away 18 year old Yeshiva boys? Ask them what Yeshiva they're in and, when they ask you where you are, respond that 12 years ago you were at Michlalah. As soon as I responded, and then ended with a "you're so sweet" all 10 boys disappeared. It was hysterical.
Burger Bar has amazing burgers, lousy french fries. I ate two and dumped the rest. Then we headed off to this concert which turned into some food fair, and we headed back to the hotel. It was late and Liora was tired so we wanted to get into bed. As we were heading up Emek, I ran into little Danny Cucher, The Cuch's baby brother. He was with his wife getting dinner on Emek Refaim and it was really nice running into him. We chatted for a few and then headed back uptown.
Meanwhile, Liora's phone experience was another doozy. Her phone wasn't working but it was because her SIM card was busted. I had to do the talking with the Talk N Save guys and I basically asked them what kind of racket they were running. He had the nerve to respond that they had over 12,000 cell phones out over Succot and he was sorry that my two friends had some problems but it happens. I was a little surprised by his response, someone needs to give those folks some PR lessons, and the next morning a courier was sent to our hotel with a new cell phone. This one didn't crap out until Sat night, so at least Liora was able to use it for a few days.
Another Nyquil toast and we were in bed.
Day 3 Thursday
I got an 8:00 am wake up call from the Talk N Save guys about Liora's cell phone so we actually were able to make breakfast in the Succah. Pretty lousy actually, but at least I didn't pay for another meal in Jerusalem. We decided to spend the day in the Old City so we strapped on the sneaks and headed out. We go to the Old City and decided to walk on the top of the walls from the Jaffa Gate through the Armenian Quarter until the Kotel. This photo is Hannah and Liora walking away from David's Citadel, one of the first stops on our walking tour. We didn't get a tour guide and decided to do the tour ourselves, which was really interesting. Partly because you need to have legs up to the sky for some of these steps. Good thing I didn't eat too much over the Chag because, a couple more pounds, and I wouldn't have been able to fit through some of the areas. It was narrow too. We got to the Kotel and were able to daven mincha and say tehillim, which was nice. Hannah and Liora haven't been to Israel in 12 and 14 years respectively, so the site of the Kotel was pretty amazing. Then, we raced over and caught a Tunnel Tour. It was really cool! They have done a lot of things since the last time I took the tour back in 1994 but sadly we were rushed through because it was Chol Hamoed and the line of people wanting to go through was huge! Now, at the end of the tour you are in the Moselm Quarter. They told us to wait for the escorts to come and walk us back through to the Kotel but Hannah said: Please, we walk through Harlem so we can do this ourselves!. Famous last words. Guess who got lost in the Moslem Quarter. Yup, us three losers. Somehow though, we thought we caught up with the group that had gone through the tour before us (a bunch of people in kippas so we though Jews so they must be the right folks). Yeah, they weren't. Somehow, we ended up with a tour group that were going to the Kotel Kattan, which is located in the Moslem Quarter.
And then the call for prayers blew and that's when I asked the guy with the gun where was the Rova.
He said: Rova HaYihudi?
I said: Ken
He said: Wow
Then he called his friend at the gate and told him that a couple of American girls were lost and could he escort us back to the Kotel.
He did and I was very thankful. I spoke to the yeshiva bocher, who was learning at Ateret Yerushalayim and actually living in the Moslem Quarter. I hope to send them a check soon to say thank you.
So we got safely back to the Kotel and then headed up to the Rova to meet Liora's friends Dani and Boaz at the falafel stand. Another food joint on Hannah's list, so we got to cross off falafel in the Rova. It was good but it wasn't incredible. The five of us finished walking through the Old City and headed towards Ben Yehuda so Liora could get some money out of the ATM. On the way, we stopped at the largest Succah in the Country. It was pretty big and nice, Hannah and Liora took some photos. Then we stopped by the Frozen Yogurt store and I got my favorite mixture and we went shopping for Hannah and Liora. They picked up some stuff, Hannah haggled, and then it was time to go back to the hotel to get ready for dinner. Jeff and Oren were coming in from Tel Aviv for dinner at Olive on Emek Refaim, which turned into a joint birthday celebration for me and Hannah. We ran into Zahava Kahan at the top of Ben Yehuda, which was great to see her too, and then headed home. Dinner was great and Fruma joined us too. My order was pretty bad though, so I ended up giving half my chicken to Jeff and eating Hannah's half of steak, before we got dessert with sparklers!! I felt 10 again but it was well worth it, my chocolate mousse cake was yummy! Liora and Fruma were starting to fade out when Eli G. showed up to wish us a Happy Birthday. He told us about some party in Baka and Liora and Fruma decided to head back to get some sleep. Hannah and I were wired so we went to the party and that's when I got to meet Slightly Mad! herself. It was very random the way we were introduced, but it was so nice to meet her in person! I've been reading her blog since before I got to this country, so putting a face to the writer was thrilling. Jeff decided to be a huge party pooper and forced us to leave about 30 minutes after we got there, and so I was yanked out in the middle of this guy's accoustic Oasis set.
Hannah and I crawled into bed around 1:30 and no more Nyquil toast this time. I fell right to sleep.
Day 4 Friday
Hannah and I slept in and Liora met a friend at the hotel for breakfast. Since it was a short day, we decided to keep things close to home and just headed over to do some shopping. We headed uptown this time and entered Mahane Yehuda to the shuk. I don't remember the last time I was at the shuk and it was definitely not a bit different. Same smells. Same yelling. Same pushing. Same shoving. Ahh, Israel. Hannah loaded up on dried fruit and I told her that she was going to have to sleep in the other room if she bought any more.
It gave a whole new meaning to Tut Sadeah. Seriously.
And then I met the Olive Man and I was in love. Hannah has a photo of him, so y'all will eventually see what I am referring to. But ladies, it was worth every second at the shuk. He was gorgeous. Hannah picked up some yarmulkas and with sundown a few hours away, we headed to Ben Yehuda to buy a gift for Fruma's parents, who hosted us for both meals this Shabbat and Yom Tov. On the way, we hit a shoe store and Hannah and Liora each got a pair of new sandals. I wanted this great black platform shoes but Hannah wouldn't let me get them. She said they made me look like a clown. Oh well, there's always next week when Hannah's back in the States. We ran down the block to the candy store and got a nice basket for Fruma and then we met Shayndie and went to Sbarra's for pizza. At that point, I decided I wanted to get my hair blown out for Shabbat. Shayndie called her sisters, who were getting their hair done at a place on Betzalel, and they told me if I came in 5 minutes I could get my hair done. I left the ladies and raced up Ben Yehuda to Yaniv Levine where Shayndie's sister and the hairstylist were waiting for me outside. He whisked me in and then told me I needed a haircut too and somehow I acquiesced and left with half my hair and a really nice blow out. With Shabbat rapidly approaching, i decided to call home to say hi to the folks.
Mom said it was the happiest she had ever heard me since I left the States. She was right, I haven't been this happy since I landed a few weeks ago. I've been having an amazing time.
And then the other shoe dropped.
My Grandmother was taken to the hospital by The Dude at 4:30 in the morning. She was in tremendous pain. My folks trip is up in the air. They didn't know what was wrong. Candle lighting was in 15 minutes. I was really upset. I didn't know what to do and there wasn't much to do at that point, so I asked my Mom to leave me an update on my cell phone and Hannah and Liora went to light candles. I tried to not ruin their time and decided to try not to think about things.
We went to Chovevei for Hakafot and to pick up Fruma, Shaydnie and her Mom. I ran into a couple of Kew Gardens Hills people and we chatted and then we headed over to Fruma's folks for dinner. It was amazing. The food was so good and we all ate way too much. After dinner, Fruma decided to go to bed and Shayndie and her husband went back to the hotel and Liora, Hannah and I went to Emek Refaim to a party.
It was interesting. Highlight of the evening was running into Slightly Mad again. Eli G. told us not to go to another party and then we ran into a couple of Tel Avivians I had met over Yom Kippur. We walked back to the party we had left and ran into Jeff and Oren. Liora was pretty beat and since we didn't know anyone really at the party, we decided to call it a night. It was already late and we had a 30 minute walk back to the hotel. We said good night to Jeff and Oren walked us back.
Liora took a Tylenol PM and got into bed while Hannah and I spent a few minutes cracking up about some things. It was nice to go to bed laughing.
Day 5 Shabbos and Yom Tov
We ALL slept late, Liora inclded! Fruma told us that they dance to the kotel with the sefer torah and that they go right past our hotel around 11:30 so Hannah and Liora ran to the Great Synagogue to see if for a few and I took my time getting dressed. Sure enough, around 11:45, there were the dancers and Fruma. We joined the group and danced down to the Kotel. A Harry Potter look a like led the cheering and singing and we got to the Kotel just in time to watch some more dancing. I was able to daven Mussaf and Mincha, and to say some Tehilim for my Grandmother, and then we walked back through the Old City towards Fruma's parents apartment.
We walked through this neighborhood, where apartments are like $2 million a piece. It was beautiful! I took this photo on Thursday, BTW. We got to Fruma's for lunch around 2:30 and it was again amazing food. At this point, my stomach is starting to protest all the eating, even with all the walking, and I was in desperate need of a food coma sleep. Liora left to the Inbal hotel after lunch to meet with Dani and Boaz and Hannah and I went back to the hotel to get a quick nap in before Shabbat was over.
And that was pretty much it so far. Jeff picked me up at the hotel and took me, and all of our suitcases, back to the apartment. It's nice to be back home for the night as tomorrow will be a very busy day indeed! I have to pack for Ein Gedi and take care of some school things. I'm hoping to get back to Jerusalem with enough time to join Hannah and Liora on a tour of the City and then maybe grab Liora and take her out to Cafe Rimon for dinner.
That's the update for today, some more thoughts in the morning and then again when we get back from the desert.
1 comment:
- It was the highlight of my evening too!
Lovely to meet you and see you again soon :)
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