Dizengoff Suites Tel Aviv

... awesome hummous, sabih (dont know how to spell but it's this pita stuffed with all kinds of veg, fried eggplant, hummous, tahini, hot sauce, you name it. sounds not great but is my new favorite food in the whoooole world and it's cheap too). we also ate thai food and noodles. MMM!!!

our last night also was the night before edan's birthday so of course we took him to the bar and made him barf. we were also late for our flight but ...

... dr boven en een roze rugzak en een machinegeweer op schoot..

In Tel Aviv wachtte onze host Ido op ons. Hij moest eigenlijk om 5u werken, maar hij bleef voor ons wat langer thuis. De 20 minuten wandelen naar zijn huis waren nog best wel 45 minuten zweten met backpack, maar uiteindelijk stonden we dan in zn appartement: zwart leren banken, overal aircon met afstandsbediening, nieuwe Ikea-keuken en een aparte slaapkamer met laptop voor ons! Ow, en een kat: Koshka.
Tel Aviv, Israel eyre

... my face and says "where do you need to go?" "To Ziona's falafel" "Well this isn't it". Great. I ask to use her cell phone and I call my cousin who is just down the street, she said she'll be here in a moment. I thank the soldier girl. This is a pretty common thing in Israel, if someone needs help, no one will hesitate to help you. I'm sure that girl would have walked me to my cousin's house if need be. And it's not a big deal, it's just the way things ...

... and smoke outside while everyone sleeps. I remember the day we met, nearly 15 years ago now. It's lovely watching people grow up, at least physically, he is a boy after all!
Today, Shabbat, I did nothing but what was noted above. Wait, actually, I walked the dog for a bit, we went to the little park nearby. This area is a little religious, I say a little because they're not hard core, they just keep Shabbat and maybe have a Kosher kitchen like this family does. Today the streets are ...

... so. The place was very busy. We asked the waiter if he knew anything about what was up with Evita; he asked a coworker, who had a good laugh, thinking that the first waiter was basically coming out to him. Anyway, no one knew anything.

I love Rothschild Blvd. Day and night, it's alive with activity. Lined with fascinating buildings, laced with history, full of restaurants and cafes, the median tree-lined strip busy with joggers and ...

... it can also refer to typical Israeli things like "parallel parking" which in Israel is extremely loosely defined, but in U.S. terms the parking job would be inappropriate. Get it? Now go out there and take some inappropriate photos yourself!

... for a second and focus on the human aspect to this whole thing it really helps. For example, think about every time you and your parents/spouse/kids/whatever want to go to the store. In reality, the store is only 10 minutes away from your house, but you have to maybe account for 1 or 2 hours to get there because the Israeli "security" wall is blocking the normal route. As well as this obstacle, you have to stop at the checkpointS along the way. At the ...

... was 2 hours away by bus. My quick math was telling me numbers I found hard to believe, like we would spend over 24 hours traveling just to get to our hotel. Since it was well past my bedtime and out of my control, I didn't dwell on that tidbit. Finally, me and the other 400 passengers loaded up on the massive 747-400, and they shut the doors to roll us out. We finally took off at 2:30 AM local time. Shortly after takeoff, it ...

... ten minutes til our table was ready" turned into 30 and then 45 minutes, we realized that the room was now filled with people standing around holding drinks, drunk people playing foosball, etc. People were kind of watching us, and we realized that everybody was hovering to get the seats on our couch. We joked that if the hostess finally offered us a table upstairs, we'd say thanks but no thanks, but when we finally agreed to get our table, we'd ...

... everything shuts down from Fri. night to Sat. night. No cooking is allowed on the Sabbath - only food that has been prepared before hand can be served. The restaurant was in Frommers and was cute and very popular - sort of a glassed in side walk cafe. I think we were the oldest people there and the only non-israelis. Lots of young people. Funny note: There was a very stern looking man at the front door who at first would not let us go in - he kept pointing to ...