Grand Yahalom Netanya

... with tremendous training facilities and the best cafeteria we had eaten at yet. The lessons were conducted by certified athletic trainers. Among other things, we engaged in an assortment of beach wrestling games. In one, two people had to fight to take off the left sock of a third person, another time the belt. There were also one-on-one competitions where the wrestling was done on the knees and the goal was to get the other person onto his back, and another where one person had to do ...

... useful. My grandmother bought me carrot juice from a guy who was trying to convince her to let him take me out right after he was trying to sweet talk some poor high school aged girl (this, by the way, is why I don't date Israelis). I bought a picture made of ceramic with a glass backing by a local Russian artist named Nina Solodeev who was a total sweetheart.  Then my grandfather picked us up and we went to the harbor in Tel Aviv to ...

... of Hassidic families and young men. So then aft** all the buildup of the chaos and scrutiny of getting into Israel, th**e w**e no lines at Passport control and aft** a few questions and good wishes from the agent, I was on my way--about 3 minutes. Th**e was no one at customs checking anything. The train trip was wond**ful, mostly because of how friendly people w**e. The pilot from our flight, a *****ian-born Am**ican whose parents are Israeli knew the system well. And th**e w ...

... 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 ...

... us a souvenir to take home to Australia (they got Bianca a nice craft set), but we told them we'd rather take the girls Niv and Dor back with us, and the kids actually believed they were going. We next got a lift with Yitzchak's son Pinchas to Netanya, to spend Shabbat at the moshav nearby with Dad's Australian-born cousin Yehuda and his wife Ayala.<br><br><br>Dad's cousin Yehuda - one of the most hated men in Israel (literally)<br><br>These relatives we're a bit ...

... Nah, I think this blog is quite enough. I don't really need to update my location on 5 minute intervals. I believe 2-3 posts a day, if I can manage, will be quite enough. I will write here reviews for the sites I'll be visiting and hotels. I will also write them on Trip Advisor, since it's such an awesome site.

... various parts of TV. TV is a new city - it was founded in 1909 and has grown like crazy since then - lots of tall buildings but still an old central core with small cobblestone streets and old mansions built in the early 1900s - a world heritage site. We also went to the Reuven Rubin Museum - he was a Roumanian who emmigrated to then Palestine in the early 1900s and lived and helped build TV. Beautiful paintings depicting the growth of the city. Got back to ...

... the sand, full bar service and a DJ spinning European and Israeli trance, deep lounge and eventually dance music...Nothing gets going here until very, very late...Happy hour at the bars starts at 8:00 p.m. (that's when most people go home in Victoria)...dinner is late, 10:00 p.m. and none of the barrs get going 'til midnight.... Today is our first Shabbat (Shabbat) in Israel and the streets are packed with shoppers rushing to get things done ...

... we had a native speaker with us!  I know it helped when I was buying things!!! :-)  Pomegranate juice was next as they are in season and it was being freshly squeezed while we watched.  The flavor was VERY tart but oh, I enjoyed it. Next was the "outlet" store for Naot shoes.  The space wasn't that big but there was a ton of shoes crammed in there.  I found a couple of pairs but the shoes but he wasn't willing to go as low as I thought they should be ...

... represented in our group: USA - 4 people Canada - 2 people Scotland - 1 person England - 4 people Mexico - 1 person Brazil - 3 people Moldova - 1 person Russia - 1 person Argentina - 2 people Costa Rica - 2 people Hungary - 1 person Khazakstan - 1 person France - 1 person South Africa - 1 person Holland - 2 people Continue to look for updates...this is only the beginning! Thanks for all of your support!!! D-nomad