Rejoining the World

Horowitz Travel- Israel-Tel Aviv at last-January 29, 2017,

Good news. I didn't faint after my shower today. Bad news. I didn't take one. We didn't have hot water. The maintenance guy came while we were out. Hopefully, he's fixed it.

We just had to get to Tel Aviv today to bring Leah Sass the stuff her mother wanted us to deliver. We were on the way to the bus much earlier than we've been out before. It was so cold I could see my breath. I wore Under Armor top & bottom, layers on that, scarf, earmuffs. Had a half hour wait for the bus. At least there was sun to sit in while waiting.

Security going into the central bus station was "broken." Bags were piled up on the Xray conveyor belt & the belt wasn't working. Locals just grabbed their bags off the belt & walked on in. We followed suit. So much for security.

The place was hopping with military. Thursdays are when they go home for Shabbat, & Sunday is when they return to their units. The women soldiers might have been described as "attractive" with their ponytails swinging behind them. All were armed with Uzis. Some of the men were shorter than I by a lot. I'm sure any one of them could take me down. They all carried huge packs which they stowed in the luggage bay under the bus to Tel Aviv. The Uzis rode with them in the bus. There was a fracas near the driver. People were yelling & trying to board. We finally understood that the bus was full.

I think I scared several on that bus. I'd forgotten my water bottle. I got a coughing, gagging, eyes watering, gulping air fit that went on for quite a while. The man behind David wanted to know if I needed the Heimlich. Then he offered his water, which would have helped, but it was in his own personal bottle, so I wouldn't use it. Ultimately, the driver gave me his water in a commercial disposable bottle. David tried to pay him, but he declined.

We were turned down by two taxis at the bus station in Tel Aviv before one took us on. I think they didn't understand where we were going although we had a full address. Our driver spoke enough English to ask where we were from.

David: The United States
Driver: Where there?
David: Ohio
Driver: Near New York?
David: Near Cleveland. Cavaliers. LeBron James
Driver: Oh. You like basketball & David Blatt
Driver: You like Donald Trump?
David: Not Trump, but many Israelis like him.
Driver: Not all


Tel Aviv was 10 degrees warmer than Jerusalem. It's a very modern, artsy, progressive city. We had a delightful lunch with Leah & were impressed with her plans & ambition. I hope it warms up. Even though we spent yesterday indoors, I wore a hoodie with the hood up over my layered clothing. At one point David was wrapped in a quilt. Friends of ours emailed us that they were staying in an apartment here in February & had to move to a hotel.

We got a call from Shaul, someone we've known since seminary days. He & his wife, Tanya, have lived here 40+years. They've been trying to get together with us but have been sick. They went to their doctor with the same symptoms we had & were given the same treatment. A week later, they were sicker. They went back to the doc & convinced him to give them antibiotics. They've been taking them for almost a week & are marginally better. We decided neither couple would feel much improved before we left & finally made a date.

Oh, there's a government moratorium on municipal services including garbage pick-up.  Funding didn't come through from the national government. It looks like NYC when that happens & it's only day one. At least we were upright & could get out to see it.

Best burger yet was at Roza's for dinner. Thought it was a vegetarian place that served pizza. Nope. Upscale Italian serving meat.

Shopping revealed the same Imagine Vegetarian Chicken Broth I get at Mustard Seed at home as well as the Israeli version of bacon. Picture of latter being forwarded.

Toby

Israeli Bacon

Garbage Strike

Down & Out

Horowitz Travel-Israel-Jerusalem- Erev Shabbat-January 27, 2017

How did we get so sick? Was it my taking a woman's picture with her phone then watching her take it back from me using the hand holding a snotty tissue? Was it the counter servers who don't glove & also handle cash? Or maybe the customers who sample foods without using toothpicks, utensils, gloves? Or perhaps the unwrapped challah? I'm sure we weren't the first to handle it. We handed it to the cashier. It was still not bagged when she put it on the conveyor belt. Maybe we're just wimps after living in a sanitized word.

David ran out in a two-hour window of clear skies to get the paper, Kleenex, cough drops, you know, essentials. It was early afternoon when he returned. I hadn't eaten breakfast, had taken the codeine, got into a steamy hot shower, got dizzy, got out, & fainted. Lovely day. I now have a cut next to the left eye which will probably bruise just as my right eye is clearing up. The only other time I fainted was in college when I'd taken a new-to-the-market cold medication on an empty stomach.

David made a whole can of tuna on challah then gave me a peanut butter sandwich. I felt better but have slept on and off all day.

It's going below freezing the next two nights. Our rental manager asked us to run water in one tap. There's no insulation in these buildings. It's raining like crazy now with high winds. Somehow, it's seeping through the mullions of our bathroom window. At least it's not in our bedroom.

We skipped services at Hebrew Union College & had a quiet Shabbat carry-out dinner tonight. We tried the other Shabbat food store & liked it a bit better than last week's. We bought carry-out quiche yesterday, & that will be lunch. We may not stick our noses out until dinner tomorrow. There's no place to go on Shabbat, anyhow. We really need down time.

Toby

Fighting the Crud

Horowitz Travel-Israel-Jerusalem-Bible Land-January 26, 2017

We scurried around buying our weekend stash of food this afternoon trying to beat the predicted Shabbat rain. Actually, our scurrying started last night after dinner. My cough/cold hasn't gotten better after over a week, & I started to run a fever. Terry was on her way out anyway so took us to a 24-hour clinic. We'd take a cab home. She assured us that Israeli medicine was excellent & on the cutting edge. I knew that to be true & had full confidence. What I needed to know was whether or not I should start taking the antibiotics we travel with. I put our antibiotics in a bag along with a banana, dried fruit, & nuts. Never know how long it could take. David was getting sick too, so it would be twofer. We are becoming familiar with foreign medical care. We have since learned that many people at Stuart's birthday party have this crud. It's going around.

As for efficiency, we were in and out in an hour. As for aesthetics, it needs a face lift. Many there spoke English or a semblance thereof. When we checked in we were asked for our passports. I thought that would be a hurdle since we secure ours.  They accepted a copy. They assured us they'd take VISA, & we could collect from our insurance in the U.S. We knew that ahead of time. Cost:$206.

The good news is that my blood pressure was excellent! The triage person asked about symptoms & allergies & that was it. No interest in what meds I regularly take. The doctor was happy I hadn't started taking my antibiotics, listened to my chest, checked my throat, & decided on an X-ray & blood work to rule out pneumonia & an infection. The X-ray tech asked me to remove my bra. She said there was no need to remove my shirt. When I looked puzzled, she said she did it in the army all the time. I figured it out. The lab tech not only didn't wash his hands or glove, but he put the needle & glass tube on the paper on the examining table. He didn't change the paper when he was finished. I'm sure it hadn't been changed in a while. He used a latex glove (yes, he had them) as a tourniquet on my arm. All in all, it was an easy stick. I couldn't help notice a pile of casts balanced on top of the paper towel dispenser. The results of both were fine so I left with a prescription for Tylenol (325mg) with codeine (15mg) & two starter pills. The Tylenol was for fever & codeine for cough.  I added that to my bag of tricks of cough medicine & nasal spray. We carry both separately in our med stash so we knew what to do if David got worse.

We'd cancelled our date with Leah Sass & didn't set an alarm but didn't sleep well. But how could we waste a day here? My temp was down, so we dragged our bones to the pharmacy & got on a bus for the Israel Museum. When we arrived, it looked overwhelming. Across the street was the Bible Land Museum. I kid you not. It seemed more manageable. We envisioned a kitschy Disney-esque amusement venue with actors wearing costumes.

We were so wrong. It's an extensive archaeological collection from the Neolithic through Babylonia. We got the audio guide, went DOWN from the second to the third floor & stayed three hours. It was evident from the artifacts, timelines, maps, & narrative that civilizations have borrowed from each other since time began. Kosher slaughter was used by Sumarians; carvings of the Egyptian goddess Isis holding a child on her lap is echoed in the Madonna & child; the evolution of the alphabet, & multiple flood stories are a few examples. My favorite "creation" story was that the gods got tired of always fighting amongst themselves. They created mankind to fight in their stead. I think humanity has done an excellent job.
One thing I noticed was a mosaic with a hippo depicted in it. As most of you know, our ten year old granddaughter, Rylee collects hippos, & that's a major search every time we travel. As we continued there were artifacts made form hippo bone & mention of hippos as dangerous animals. There were no hippos in the gift shop, nor have I seen hippos in any stores. I stand corrected. There was a malachite hippo in the Old City shouk. It was $100 after bargaining.

For a country obsessed with security, there was none at the museum. Displays were in cases with temperature/humidity monitors, but they weren't alarmed. Many times, we touched the glass to point out an object of interest. I even spotted a few nose prints.
We've been going through a huge amount of Kleenex. Today I saw that the tissues that came with the apartment have a design of a bunny emerging from an egg. Really? Easter bunnies they have, but no hippos?

I'm looking forward to a quiet day tomorrow. We need a break. Hopefully, we'll be able to keep this place warm.

Toby 

Hippo in Mosaic

Examining Room at Clinic

New Places

Horowitz Travel-Israel-Jerusalem-Ein Kerem- January 25, 2017

Today's agenda was to take Terry, Ron, Stuart, & Ellyn to lunch. Unfortunately, Ellyn was sick with a cold so stayed home. We went to Karma, a restaurant in Ein Kerem (meaning spring of vineyards) where we were able to view the golden domes of a multi-domed Russian church. The Spring of Mary is at the base of the hill where the church sits. It is said that Mary stopped to drink the water from the spring while visiting John the Baptist's parents. Today the water flows freely but is not potable. It's a popular pilgrimage site.

We are all great story tellers & shared anecdotes for a few hours. I had a feeling there was lots more to say, but Ron had an appointment so we broke it up. We asked to be dropped off at Ben Yehuda Pedestrian Mall where we attempted to walk yesterday. There are lots of jewelry & souvenir shops. It was cold & blustery, so we didn't linger. 

We walked back to the apartment & are exhausted. We have an early start tomorrow. We're going to Tel Aviv with a package for Leash Sass, a young woman from Akron who made Aliyah (moved to Israel permanently). We hope to see her brother, Ben, as well. He's in the army & we're not sure of his schedule.

We're going by bus. That means the Central Bus Station in Jerusalem, a bus change, & taxi ride to the restaurant where we're meeting them.

Toby

Gathering Information

Horowitz Travel-Israel-Jerusalem-Feeling it-January 24, 2017

David wanted to come to Jerusalem, walk the streets, & feel the people. Today we did all that & what we felt were sore feet, knees, & backs.

Liberty Bell Park is near us & it had been suggested that we walk through it. There was a restaurant at the other end, so why not? The park was established in 1976, in honor of the bicentennial of the U.S. There is a replica of the bell, but, that aside, the 9 acre expanse is dedicated for use by "All the Children of Abraham." It's one of the most popular & culturally diverse parks in the city & features activities for all ages as well as outdoor theater & music venues. 

We didn't like the menu at the restaurant we'd chosen so continued on thinking we'd be able to meet up with Ben Yehuda Pedestrian Mall. We had to meet a woman at 4 PM & were running short of time. We turned around & ate closer to our meeting place.

David realized he'd left his sunglasses at a pharmacy we'd stopped at in the other direction. We thought we'd check to see if they'd found them. The problem was the pharmacist didn't speak English, & David didn't know the word for glasses. Before we went upstairs to the pharmacy (what do disabled do?) we stopped at a kiosk selling sunglasses, learned the word, & sure enough, she knew exactly what he meant & had saved them for him.

How do you drive a car from Florida to Jerusalem? Impossible. Ship it? Out-of-sight expensive. Yet, we saw such a license plate on a car parked on the street. Curious.

The woman we met, Robin, is from the LGBT community. She's a social worker who has lived here decades. We thought we'd learn more about the legalities of the Community, but she was unfamiliar with laws regarding employment & housing discrimination. She personally has not had any problems with the system, but admitted that transgender people had it harder. She & her partner had been married by a Reform Rabbi here. They each bore a child by artificial insemination (paid by insurance). Since "gay" marriage isn't recognized by the government, when they split, there were and are issues regarding custody of the children.

Tomorrow we're taking Terry, Ron, Stuart, & Ellyn out to lunch to reciprocate as best we can.

Toby

Strolling

Horowitz Travel-Israel-Jerusalem-Park Walk-January 23, 2017

Strolling? What's that? We set out to "stroll" through Blumfield Park where the Montefiore Windmill is. It skirts the wall of the Old City. Instead of following the street, our detour was scenic, but challenging. We climbed steps up & down then ramps up & down. We helped a woman drag a very heavy stroller with a toddler in it up steep steps only to find her husband waiting & watching from the top with three more children. David noticed that, unlike at home, people don't smile at each other as they pass. Maybe they're out of breath. 

We wanted to branch out into different quarters so went to lunch in an Armenian restaurant. We were coaxed in by the owner as he greeted us on the street & convinced us to follow him into an ancient courtyard. It always strikes me how new our country is. When we were in Greece, we thought that was old, but this building housed a shopping area from Biblical times. The Roman columns flanking the courtyard are considered "new." Versavee met our requirements. It was old, secluded, & served food new to us. David had "sujuk." It looked like a quesadilla cut in triangular pieces. The double layer of dough was pita-like & filled with beef sausage. A surprise at the end was that the toilet (more steps to climb) was modern. Lucky us.

The narrow lanes of the souk (market in the Old City) branch off a gently sloping main street of steps. Each step has small ramps to ease the passage of delivery carts. We followed one piled up to seven feet as the man in back stepped on a dragging bike tire to brake, & the man in front balanced the load. They both shouted "hello, hello" to warn others. The ramps, as the steps, have been there forever & are quite clever, unless you're making your way along without a cart. The steps &, thus the ramps, are unevenly spaced & the heights of each are different.   

Keeping with our theme of exploring new territory, we searched for the Church of the Holy Sepulcher.  We followed a non-English speaking tour group into the building & realized we were clueless as to its significance. We learned. It was consecrated in 335, & for the last 160 years has been shared by Greek Orthodox, Armenian Orthodox, Roman Catholic, & to a lesser extent Egyptian Coptic, Syriac, & Ethiopians. It houses the traditional site of the crucifixion & the tomb from which it is believed Jesus was resurrected. More ups, downs, steps, & ramps.

As we left the Old City, a vendor who chatted us up a couple of days ago recognized us & asked us to come into his juice stand. The proprietor of Versavee greeted us in Hebrew (I doubt he's Jewish) & thanked us for coming to his restaurant. Then he invited us into his gift shop. Both were turned down with a smile & "perhaps tomorrow." We did go into a shop in Mamilla Mall where the clerk spoke excellent English & Spanish. When asked, she said she learned her English when she was in South  America.

We're whipped & came home for our last leftover Shabbat dinner. Time to start again.

Toby

Fountain in Blumfield Park

Church of Holy Sepulcher

Shops & Bus Stops

Horowitz Travel- Israel-Jerusalem-Machaneh Yehudah - January 22, 2017

No fair! The temperature in Akron is warmer than here.

There were jets flying overhead this morning. I hope it's only practice manuevers . No one seemed alarmed. I told David when we first got to the apartment, that if it came with gas masks, I was heading back to Akron. No gas masks.

Machaneh Yehudah is enough past the Old City (and everything is uphill) that we decided to take a bus. We bundled up (I have a down jacket, gloves, scarf & earmuffs) and went in search of Bus 18. It's a whole new bus stop & route! The bus was crowded, I was loopy from a head cold, & the buses move at quite a clip. I literally fell into a seat. Most people do. The goal is not to land on a person, package, or arm rest.

Machaneh Yehudah is a typical farmers’ market. We've been to many & each one has its own flavor. The produce was alluringly fresh, the dried fruit displays were hard to resist. There were spice stalls, & places to buy any lentil or legume your heart desired. There were more varieties of halvah than I knew existed. Housewares, hardware, clothing, you name it. David told me it was very aromatic in a good way (I can't smell). But at this market they also sold kepot (yarmulkes, head coverings) & mezzuzot. It wasn't a tourist mall. The customers were seriously shopping locals.

We wanted to find a Turkish-Kurdish restaurant, Azura, & asked directions many times. We got conflicting instructions in Hebrew, but fortunately, like most Mediterranean people, Israelis speak with gestures. We followed the "rights & lefts," but were vague on how many turns. After five tries, we found it. I was disappointed in that things I wanted were "finished" for the day. My first choice was stuffed eggplant, then goulash. I got a plate of beef with potatoes called beef Sofrito. 

David loved his huge meatball with rice & thin crispy noodles topped with lentil soup. I was relieved they had bathrooms. The one I used had a urinal outside the tiny room with the toilet. David had to tell me when it was safe to come out, although nobody really cared.

About this time, I asked David if he knew where the bus back to the apartment was. No clue, including the street where we were dropped off. Deciding to compound our "lostnes," we headed for Na'alot, supposedly an artistic area across from the souk "market." The streets looked empty & ominous. I hesitated until I saw a group of three young folks head down a side alley. Our courage increased as we followed them, & we eventually relaxed enough to wander on our own. We didn't find much. What we saw was residential or closed.

Luckily, David knows the bus routes, & I can find my way out of most maze-like streets. The street where the buses ran was where I thought it would be, & we headed back. We wanted some coffee at Ben Ami, near our place, but got waylaid at a shop we'd patronized before. We bought several items (I can't tell or it won't be a surprise to our kids).  We chatted with the owner's mother in her broken English & our more limited Hebrew. She told us of a woman who bought items she later returned because her daughter who taught at a U.S. university said she couldn't wear anything with Hebrew on it. Sounds extreme. We told her about our Iranian friend who joins us for Seder, & our synagogue that meets monthly with members for our local mosque. She was fascinated. She advised me on how to treat my cold (tea & honey), then she invited us to her house for dinner on Thursday or Sat. We can't go Thursday., but she gave us her phone number for Saturday. Who's knows?


We stopped for milk & David bailed out a couple who were having trouble understanding what they were buying. It was cheese yogurt & they didn't understand "cheese" in Hebrew. The man was Irish, the woman was from Finland, the baby was a Sabra (born in Israel), they spoke English, they weren't Jewish, & they'd been working in Ramallah for three years. They said their Arabic was quite passable.

We did make it for coffee & a succulent chocolate & cheese brownie. Dinner will be leftover Shabbat food & late.

Toby

Synagogue in Na'alot