Settling In

Horowitz Travel Israel-January 11, 2017-Jerusalem

Like some people, the apartment is more photogenic on line than in reality. Our apartment was represented as being updated, & it was. But it hasn't been recently. It is showing wear and as with other times we've been in Israel, the workmanship is lacking. For example, they put in recessed lighting throughout, but in some rooms the wiring from the previous fixtures hang from the ceiling. Hot water has to be planned for. A switch turns on the heater & we're asked to turn it off when not using it. There are metal shutters on most windows. They're controlled by a remote. One of them is temperamental & gets stuck. When closed, they look like they could fend off mortar attacks. Maybe that's the point. We do have a washer & dryer, but they're in different rooms. The dryer has instructions taped to it that explain how to run the vent out of the window when in use.

We had a handyman here yesterday afternoon to help us figure out the heat & TV. Reva, the manager, gave us a cursory explanation of features. However, we were never told

we had a central heating system nor were we shown how to work it. We were relying on small electric wall heaters, which were inadequate. I was wearing a down jacket inside. Adding to the problem, all the surfaces, including the furniture are hard: marble, stucco, leather. Good when it' hot. Not so much for winter. Now that the heat works well, we have to turn it off at night or when we leave since it's so expensive.

I took an hour nap while waiting for the guy then we hit the streets looking for dinner. We're 2-3 blocks from Emek Refaim. It's a main shopping street with small groceries, specialty shops, & wall to wall restaurants. We think we'll start at the far end and eat our way towards our street.

After having divine falafel with fixings, including fries, we headed back. One observation: Israeli's must have strong immune systems. The server/cashier was ungloved as was the customer who stuck his hand into a bowl on the counter to sample the goods.

We were barely functional when we went to bed at about 9:30pm.  We'd been awake 34 hours. Somehow we slept through the night. David made it to 8:30 AM. I'm proud to say I awoke at noon.

In light of day the cleanliness is dicey. Why am I the one to find long dark hairs? The vanity around one of our sinks has black moldy stuff around the back. Guess that's why they supply lots of cleaning equipment.

We'd missed breakfast (no food in the apt. yet) & it was lunchtime. We wanted to find a real grocery store for our stocking up trip, but where? We saw a taxi on our street so I asked the driver if she spoke English. She didn't, but her passenger did. There goes my theory of younger people speaking English. We got directions to Supersol & learned that an American type grocery is called a supermarket; groceries are small, neighborhood shops.

It was a 10-15 minute walk, as represented, but we still hadn't eaten. I asked a girl where there was a restaurant & we were directed across the street to the Mall. It was our first encounter with security. We entered through a guarded metal detector, & bags were searched. It's not often we see guards with tzitzit (fringes of a prayer shawl) peeking out from under a jacket.

The Waffle Shop called to us. David stuck to the theme & was pleased with his dish & it's flamboyant display. I ordered Shakshuka. It's two eggs smothered in pasta sauce (I chose eggplant) accompanied with a salad & long crunchy wheat roll. Prices are shocking in Shekels (144) but it's $36. Still costly.

It only took us 10 minutes to figure out how to access a shopping cart at Supersol, & if we could get an affinity card. Carts here & in Europe (Aldi's too in the US) are released by placing a coin in a slot. The coin is returned when the cart is returned. It required a 5 shekel coin. We had a 10. We finally got an explanation that denomination didn't matter since you got your same coin back. The apartment came with a cloth shopping cart on wheels. Could we take it into the store? How do we carry it & push a cart? Yes, we could take it. I figured out a way to hang it from the cart. No one else was doing that. They all had them in their store carts. There were two prices for each item on the shelves. I inquired about a membership card. That took three people to answer. It was determined that I needed Israeli ID to be eligible. We paid the higher price. So, 10 minutes wasn't really long to figure this out.

Now we were cooking. To summarize, it took the same time to shop here as our first trip in Australia, two hours. We bought enough to fill our own cart to overflowing (about $90). Packaging was in Hebrew so it was tedious reading ingredients. We almost ended up with vegetarian chicken patties. Being a vegetarian is so easy here. Lots of options. While waiting at the deli counter for sliced turkey pastrami, I saw a clerk free at the other end. Nope, she only handled dairy. Of course, it's Israel. Different clerks for meat & dairy.

It was time to find our way home. That was the easy part. Our cart now weighed what felt like 100 lbs full, but it was downhill. I walked behind in case anything fell out. David schlepped. I helped toward the end, but he had to pull it up the steps to our flat. Yes, it's on the first floor. Translation, outside the U.S. it's the second floor.

Dinner was at First Station, the old railway station, now a small amusement park with cafes & shops. The carousel was playing "Give My Regards to Broadway" as we decided on an outdoor burger joint (Captain). No, it's not that warm (40-50) but most eateries put up plastic sheeting & use outdoor heaters. As we walked, we saw many bus stops & road signs in Hebrew, English, & Arabic. There is more diversity than expected. Africans aren't uncommon. I'd forgotten about the airlift of Ethiopians decades ago. Their children are Sabras (native born Israelis).

We're living in the German Colony. It was established in the second half of the 19th century by the German Temple Society, a Protestant pietist group of the Lutheran church. They were kicked out of Germany due to their millennial beliefs. They came here to await the messiah after the apocalypse. So, the buildings are that old. It's all beige. As we approached Jerusalem yesterday, I remembered how beige it is. As with the American southwest, it never appealed to my aesthetic. To achieve that look, most (all?) buildings are made of Jerusalem stone.

We're doing a load of wash. Most of it is what we travelled in. So far, we have rotation, water, & suds. Here's hoping.

Toby

Note on Dryer

Shakshuka