My first day in Israel. April 17–16

I was really excited to travel to Israel. I seek throughout my whole life to go there. In 2000, while visiting Lebanon, I was taken to the south in an excursion. We were literally next to the border with Israel. I was fascinated and kept in mind that It looked like a place I wanted to visit… and almost sixteen years later, I did. First of all, I was always passionate for the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. Secondly, my husband’s background made me want to be there with more eagerness. Thirdly, Harry had never been there with any of his wives (3), the fact that he wanted to take me there meant a lot to me; and lastly but not less important, I believe I have to see myself some situations to ensamble my own concept. I cannot swallow stories intact. I guess it is the way opinionated people are; that’s me. Be aware of it, but never mention it to me.

We left on a Saturday, April 26th, from Harrisburg, Pa. We spent the day in Philly with Paola and her husband, Sean. We rented bikes to ride around the downtown district. Moreover, we had breakfast and lunch in Chinatown. The meals were delicious; I am an Asian food lover. Besides, it was super healthy; best shrimp dumplings in the world.

At 6 pm we took our flight from Philly to Madrid. Seven hours. I told my ahuvi husband to buy Dramamine so that we could I actually sleep soundly. -Recently, I feel that getting into an airplane does not make me anxious anymore. I close my eyes and think that If something is going to happen, it will happen and that will be it. I, however, expect to be safe, hahaha.- We arrived in Madrid at 8 am (Madrid time), and we flew to Tel-Aviv at 10 am. We arrived at 2 pm in Ben Gurion’s Airport. Note here that Israeli people are a bit enmeshed in the way they organize everything. Given that “symmetry”, you might expect to spend long hours in immigration, but you would be surprised if I tell you that, although their booths and lines are tightly located next to each other, we spent less than 10 minutes passing through customs.

Notwithstanding, not everything could be mellow. The line to rent the car in Eldan was almost one hour and a half. Needless to say that I was extremely tired. There was not begin or end to the lines. Also, the lines got confused from one company to the other. I was really frustrated. One hour later, it was finally our turn. Still, we spent another thirty minutes filling the information they needed about us, our contact information, where we were going to be staying, etc. It should be added that I made the reservation three months prior to our trip, but, anyways, I had to re-confirm all the information to those people. Good news about this process is that the price for renting a car for a week was 247 dollars. This price included insurance, airport service charge, additional driver, unlimited km and an IPad. The IPad was not only connected to internet 24/7, but also I was able to share it to my phone and check my email and social networks periodically. I could not feel more happy about this.

We started our odyssey through Israel. Our first stop was Jerusalem. We decided to start in the East, then drive South, then West and Finally North. We were prepared to drive and spend some time inside of the car if in ex-change we were going to enjoy the beautiful landscapes of Israel.

We arrived at 7 pm approximately to Jerusalem Castle Hotel. -All our hotels were booked in www.hotels.com.- This hotel was pretty convenient because, beside that it was somewhat cheap, it was near the old City, and we definitely wanted to be able to walk that distance. Moreover, parking in the Old City is an adventure almost impossible to succeed in getting it done. So, walking or taking a taxi were two incredible smart options.

As soon as we arrived, I asked to the Israeli-Jew man at the front desk, whether or not it was possible (and safe) to visit the West Bank. He did not recommend me to drive by ourselves, instead he offered a few tours. I definitely took Bethlehem and Jericho in one day. Both tours for both of us cost us 250 dollars. Harry was astonished with my inquiry. On the other hand, I really do not think that something terrible is would happen if we would go to Palestine by ourselves. After being there, I realized that I would return by myself. Palestinians are very nice people; they do not want Jewish in their area, but they are pretty sympathetic to the tourists. Withal, I recommend the tour because you want to hear about the history of the place, and even if you are lettered in this subject (Palestinian-israelí conflict), you always want to experiment the interaction between you/your believes and the people of other traditions. In addition, Israel gives you a mixture of cultures. In other words, in the Israeli side you see how Christians, Muslims and Jews coexist peacefully. Besides, my trip to the West Bank was fascinating because I got to hear the history of each place told by the Israeli-Jew tourist guide and the Palestinian-Muslim tourist guide. Believe me, you want to see “both sides of the coins.”

So, I booked my trip to Bethlehem and Jericho for the next day. We were told we were going to be picked up at 8 am. Therefore, we were desperate to get some sleep. Yet, Harry and I wanted to have a nice dinner somewhere to celebrate our anniversary. We heard the instructions, run to the shower and got ready to walk around the neighborhood where the hotel was located and buy dinner. A worker of the hotel, who I recognized immediately for his generosity, from what part of the country he belongs to, gave us a ride to a fancy area near the Mamilla Mall. He dropped us in an area surrounded of restaurants and we chose Katy’s restaurant.

We checked the TripAdvisor in our area and found two restaurants. Casually, both of them were located one in front of the other. I chose Katy’s because of the reviews and the cozy and romantic ambiance; perfect to lionise our occasion.

The “on the house” appetizer was a taste of how great and sophisticated our dishes were going to be. I was amazed; being a food lover and Yelper “elite” I tend to visit different kind of restaurants and cuisines. In this restaurant, the bread was recently baked. Moreover, it was served with olives, olive oil, a piece of young feta cheese and veggies. I was having an orgasm to my palate. The orders were: liver in an exquisite sweet sauce and filet mignon in a mushroom sauce. We also ordered red wine for appetizer. The service was really pleasant. Our waiter was a Palestinian man (I assume, but for sure an Arab) capable to speak Arabic, Spanish, English and Hebrew. I tested him in Spanish and French and I saw him speaking Hebrew with a couple of Jews and Arabic with other group of guests.

Trying to fight back the jet lag I took Dramamine. We went to bed around 11ish pm. We closed our eyes hoping to get some rest before a new day started.