1. Zelda was our GPS for the week. She "helped" us avigate Israel. In the end we were successful and didn't end up in Jordan or anything, but we got lost quite a bit. She also is terrible at Hebrew. I think she learned Hebrew in Wyoming. Nachalat Binyamin became Gilligan's Island. She had us turning down streets that didn't exist, and at one point in Jerusalem we ended up driving on the new light rail tracks. Zelda sure did keep us laughing.
Mom and dad got to Israel Friday afternoon. We had dinner at the old train station in Neve Tzedek and then ended up walking down some slightly sketchy streets in search of Rothchild Blvd. We had super yummy gelato at Iceberg and got wet in the rain.
Dad also had his first experience with coffee outside America. People outside the US don't drink drip coffee like we do. Everything is either instant or espresso based. Even McDonald's didn't have "real" coffee. In the past week he has tried just about every espresso drink possible.
Saturday we walked around the Old City in Jaffa. Mom and dad saw the Mediterranean for the first time and mom and I put our feet in. It was cold, but still warmer than New York. :) We had lunch at the Tel Aviv port in North Tel Aviv (the wealthier part of town), and walked around. We saw some guys dressed in ice cream cone costumes, but the ice cream was dirty and they looked like turds. We went to Rabin Square and for dinner dad had pizza with crust so thin it was like matzo.
Sunday we headed out of town, north to Cesarea. We walked around the ancient city, saw lots of old stuff, and almsot got blown away by the wind. We also went to Dreidle world and saw some pretty cool dreidles. We had lunch in Haifa and saw the Bahai gardens. We didn't walk through, it was closed for the rain, and mom and dad took one look at all the stairs and laughed at the thought of climbing them. We headed towards the Galilee, but got lost in the outskirts of Haifa. The guide book called the area where we got lost "drab satellite towns of Haifa".
Our hotel on the Galilee was in the middle of nowhere, but we found awesome chinese food in Tiberias.
Monday we got up early and went to Tsfat. We found the city ok, but Zelda got really confused in all of the tiny streets and we got pretty lost. We finally found a place to park and got to check out all of the cool old synagogues etc. We also went to the world famous candle place. When we got back to the car we discovered that we really weren't supposed to park where we did...we got a parking ticket. Not sure how to take care of it, I guess we'll figure it out.
We went down to our hotel by the Dead Sea. We got upgraded to the spa hotel! Mom and I went for a dip in the warm salt water pool after dinner, then to the sauna. We tried the wet then the dry one. We're not sauna people...too hot!
Got up in the morning and went to the Dead Sea. It was raining, and cold, but we had to go for mom and dad's first time in Israel. When we got there, there was a group of South Koreans covered in Dead Sea mud, warming up by running up and down the beach and doing jumping jacks. They tried really hard to coax us into the super cold Dead Sea. We finally did get in. We floated for about 3 minutes then ran back into the hotel and warmed up in the warm salt water pool. After showering off the Dead Sea we headed to Masada, in the rain. It was cold and wet, but walking around Masada was cool. As we drove to Jerusalem we dried off and got warm. Zelda had trouble with Tsfat, but Jerusalem was worse. There are no straight roads in the whole city. It took us a while (surprise surprise), but eventually we found the hotel and went to dinner at a yummy burger place. Dad was happy to see "American" food.
Wednesday we got up early and headed to the Old City. Once again we had trouble finding where we were supposed to go. However, that wasn't Zelda's fault, dad left her at home. We got a tour/history lesson at David's Tower (a fortress that's thousands of years old). Then we went to the Church of the Holy Sepulcar and the Western Wall (Kotel in Hebrew). Unfortunately we couldn't go to the Temple Mount because it is only open to tourists a few hours a day. We had really good lunch (we've eaten really well all week!), and walked around the Old City for a while. We also saw the King David Hotel, which is a really nice old, fancy hotel. We got lost once again on our way to dinner (that was when we ended up on the train tracks). We finally found the restaurant we were looking for and it was quite tasty. Dessert was especially great. I wanted ice cream, chocolate ice cream. The waitor said one scoop or three and I asked for two. He said no. Then he said I can give you one scoop twice. Isn't that two scoops? Very confusing. Mom got three scoops. He brought me two small cups with one scoop in each....one scoop twice! Silly Israel.
For the first time since leaving Tel Aviv, we were dry all day!
Today we went to Mount Herzl (the military cemetary), then to Yad Vashem (the Holocaust museum). Then mom wanted to see the Chagall windows at Hadassah hospital. Huge hospital that we of course had trouble navigating. You have to go through a whole shopping mall to get to the hospital, then walk through the whole maze of the hospital to get to the basement where the synagogue is. There are 12 small stained glass windows that depict the 12 sons of Jacob. Good thing there was an echoing audio description of them, otherwise we never would have known what they were.
We got back in the car and headed back to Tel Aviv. There was traffic. A little taste of New York. So we got back to Tel Aviv and had to have dinner right? We found a restaurant in Jaffa, near the flea market. Easy right? Ha! The streets in Jaffa might be smaller and more windy than Tsfat. Zelda was not happy. It took quite a while to find the restaurant. We were determined though, and finally found it. Yum! Best food I've eaten in five months. Living as a volunteer I never eat in fancy places...rarely ever even eat indoors.
Tomorrow is their last day in Israel. We'll see what kind of adventures we can fit in to the last day.
Great review. One scoop twice. Still laughing. Pictures?
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