Remembering

With less than three weeks to go, it sure feels like the home stretch now. Jennifer’s visit has been great. I will blog about our trip to Eilat and Petra separately, but in the meantime, here is an update.

Heading back toTel Aviv from Eilat

We got back from Eilat late Wednesday night, and yesterday (Thursday) we got up early and she got to grab a coffee “at the usual place” on the way to the gym, she got to meet and work out with Emanuela, we got our nails done with two very nosy women, and we had lunch at this great place called Goocha on Dizengoff, which so many people had recommended (thanks people!). 

Lunch at Goocha

 After lunch, Jenn took the bus and went to Jerusalem to visit her cousin Roy and returned this afternoon. She got dropped off at the Israel Philharmonic Orchestra (or IPO – how ironic!) where she met me as well as Rita, who had invited us. From the IPO she got picked up to go to a Lag BaOmer bonfire. Whew!

The IPO is the leading symphony orchestra in Israel. Founded by violinist Bronisław Huberman in 1936, at a time when many Jewish musicians were being fired from European orchestras, its inaugural concert took place in Tel Aviv on December 26, 1936, and was conducted by Arturo Toscanini. It has performed under some of the world's greatest conductors, including Leonard Bernstein and Zubin Mehta. 

It was certainly on my To-Do list when Rita called me a few weeks back and told me she had tickets for us.  And what a treat it was! 

We got to experience Conductor Ryan Mcadams and Guitarist Angel Romero performing Symphony NO.2 (Sinfonia India) by Chavez, Concierto de Aranjuez by Rodrigo and Scheherazade by Rimsky-Korsakov.

The other type of IPO

After the Concert

Normally performances take place at the Mann Auditorium but it has been under renovation since August 2011 “with no end in sight,” so we went to the Tel Aviv University's Smolarz Auditorium instead.

Bonus: here is a link to documentary on the anniversary of The Israel Philharmonic Orchestra - a cultural icon of Israel and one of the greatest classical ensembles in the world - as it celebrates its 75th Birthday on December 26th, 2011. 

After the concert, Rita and I went back to Coffee Bar ("it is not a coffee bar") for dinner, one of Tel Aviv's finest restaurants and where Rafi and I had been twice - and the waiter remembered us and asked where Rafi was! I emailed Rafi a photo of the pate for him to guess where we were - and he did!

Rafi, where are we?

Now, I will go back in time... to Tuesday April 24.

Before I came on the trip, I worried a bit I would not have enough human contact and/or structured activities, so I signed up with Machon Avshalom for adult education classes and field trips. For a variety of reasons (primarily that, thank G-d, I have not lacked either human contact or activities), I have never gone to a single lecture but have joined in two field trips. On April 24, Rafi and I participated on their field trip to Ashkelon.

I had already been to Ashkelon at the end of March (coincidentally, to visit Rita) and blogged about it, but this time I would be going with Rafi – and with a Post-Doc from Harvard in Archeology as a guide. The objective of the trip was to learn about Ashkelon’s National Archaeological Park.

The group heading into the hike at the Ashkelon National Park

The guide did a good job  in our 2.5 km walk, and perhaps as a PhD she did a "too good a job" as at times she went on and on about something seemingly unrelated to the archeological remains we were looking at.

Ashkelon National Park, with the sea behind us

Some of the more interesting things I learned had more to do with what it must be like to be an archeologist, as well as about the tension between the Israel Antiquities Authority (IAA) and the Israel Nature and Parks Authority (INPA). 

In Israel, the IAA is in charge of the country’s antiquities and antiquity sites, their excavation, preservation, conservation and study. The INPA is charged with the protection of nature, landscape and heritage in Israel. The latter has to make sure parks have adequate facilities for visitors (such as washrooms). 

Both have to function on precisely the same land.  Israel is a small country but with a 4,000 year history (the Caananite era dates back 2000 BC) archeologists have layers and layers to dig and find. There seems to be endless archeological sites in the country, many are not active probably due to lack of funding (or, as I have been told, "so next generations of archeologists also have something to discover").  At the same time, Israelis love nature and hikes and camping, especially the very popular Israel National Trail, a hiking path that crosses the entire country.

Our tour guide shared with us several stories of real conflict between the INPA and archeologists sharing the same space but with diametrically different goals, to the point where she is considered persona non grata in this park.

As it was the eve of Yom HaZikaron, the Day of Remembrance of Israeli Fallen Soldiers and Victims of Terrorism since 1860 (when Jews were first allowed to live in Israel outside of Jerusalem's Old City walls), we returned to Tel Aviv before 5 pm.  

Blood Donor van outside Rabin Square ("No, it doesn't hurt - me" said the attendant)

Israelis commemorate Independence Day starting off the day before with Yom Hazikaron to remind people of the price paid for independence and of what was achieved with the soldiers' sacrifice.

 

There are memorial ceremonies all over the country, and Rafi and I went to Rabin Square, two blocks from the apartment. It was a real privilege to be there. Enormously moving, from the minute of silence and the siren, where everyone everywhere stops what they are doing, to just thinking about the meaning of being there, surrounded by 50,000 (?) mostly young Israelis who have experienced so much in their lives.

At the ceremony everywhere in the country, for the first few minutes after the siren there was the lighting of the memorial flame, a few memorial prayers and an inspirational presentation. At Rabin Square we had Yair Lapid, a controversial political figure who started off as a media personality, hosting “Singing in the Square.” It featured popular singers performing songs about fallen IDF soldiers, as well as short documentaries about the fallen.

The narrative as well as the videos were moving and at no time tried to exploit the sentiments of the crowd. Across the borders of Israel, similar ceremonies are marked with violent outbursts and cries for revenge. There was absolutely none of that there.

I genuinely felt there was a real sense of empathy and one-ness among everyone, either onstage or off. And the songs were beautiful and haunting, and I heard many people hum along softly, knowing all the words.  I was impressed by the calmness of the crowd. Even Rafi, whose Hebrew comprehension is precisely zero words, was moved by it all. Words were not needed.

Rabin Square as the quiet crowds gathered for Yom HaZikaron

The next morning, the actual day of Yom HaZikaron, I wanted Rafi to experience at least one short trip by train in Israel so we decided to go to Haifa in the spur of the moment. 

It was mid morning and the train going there was pretty empty, just a few people and a couple of soldiers on our compartment.

One minute before 11 am, on the train.

We were about 10 minutes from arriving in Haifa when, precisely 1 minute before 11 am the train stopped mid-track.  The tracks run alongside the sea, and I could see people on the beach boardwalk. Outside the siren began to sound. Everyone on the train stood up; the beach-goers outside did as well.  We all bowed our heads and stood in silence for two minutes; some people had tears.

I know that a real understanding of what went on around me during Yom HaZikaron is a lot a function of shared experiences which I don't have. And this is probably the most crucial difference between Israelis and Jews in the diaspora (something that those Israeli-made TV commercials that were shown in the US clearly picked up... before they were pulled off the air).   The lack of broad based awareness of Yom HaZikaron among Jews outside Israel seems to me to be a cornerstone of the differences between us. I was privileged to have shared this day with them.

An Intense Day in Jerusalem

Rafi has now gone back home and Jennifer is here but about to leave Sunday.  I am so very behind in my blogging efforts that it feels odd to do it. My last post was on May 3rd about events on April 21st and today is May 10th. In other words, I am 3 weeks behind. I need to think about a strategy to catch up or I will still be blogging about my adventure long after I get over my jetlag in Vancouver. I go home three weeks today.


The cab came to get Rafi last Friday at around 2 am and Jenn arrived at noon the next day.  So in between I spent the day getting back to the gym (and finding out what the damage is); getting my hair cut; having lunch with Nicole; and going to the beach with Emanuela. 

Some of the highlights of the time with Rafi in Tel Aviv include, of course, the fabulous restaurant options that the city offers. The food, the locales and the people-watching opportunities are unparalleled. The city really never sleeps. Even when we stayed up late, (way past our seniors’ bed-time), we were able to see how all restaurants and bars and cafes are open late, very late, and full of people.

Post workout snack...

On Sunday, April 22 Rafi met Emanuela at the gym ("she is stronger than she looks"...) and then we spent the day walking around Tel Aviv. 

Dizengoff fruit juice stand, one of so many

Strolling

For lunch, Rafi wanted to go back to Dallal so, ever the accommodating wife (Rafi, you are not allowed to post comments on this blog), we went back.

The day culminated in the evening with tickets to the Tel Aviv Opera, where we saw a wonderful, modern production of Madam Butterfly (and, with the surtitles, for the first time I got it how horrid a character Pinkerton is). We had excellent seats, third row centre. I am glad I ordered them a few weeks back as the place was sold out. 

At the Tel Aviv Opera

While at the theatre, Rafi got a first hand taste of how people are like here. As we entered the beautiful modern Tel Aviv Performing Arts Centre, I ran into R., a business executive I had met a few weeks back. He lives in Haifa and drives regularly to Tel Aviv to the opera to which, he says, "his wife is converting him into a fan."  I just love the idea of simply running into people you know in town, any town, but especially here as I get the sense that I am actually engaged with the city. 

Before the show, we wanted to get a snack but (consistent with my as-yet unanswered, open-ended question "When  do people here eat?" or better yet: "When don't they?") there were fierce lineups at all the food stations. Once we were seated, next to Rafi sat a woman about our age who engaged him in conversation, and Rafi got to find out all about her, her family, her business and her life before the curtain rose. In a just a few minutes in Israel, you get to learn pretty much what at home would take a lifetime of conversations with a random stranger to learn.

From the opera we went, of course, to dinner at a place called The Diner by Goocha. A pretty cool place, very Hollywood, still pretty full even though it was about midnight. I wasn't hungry but Rafi enjoyed what he ordered for dinner (which, for the life of me, I cannot recall what it was).  We knew we should not stay up too late as the following day we were taking an early inter-city bus to Jerusalem to meet Roy, Rafi's nephew.  The next day we got up early to catch the 7:30 am bus. 

In Jerusalem, Roy (who has got to be one of the nicest people I know - and I know he reads this blog. Hello Roy!) picked us up from the bus station, after a few attempts on our part to figure out which way out.  Roy gave up a full day to drive us around and show us Jerusalem. (We really appreciate it as we know he both works full time AND goes to Hebrew University full time).

We started the touring doing something easy: by going to the epicentre of the universe, otherwise known as the Temple Mount to Jews, or al-Aqsa Mosque and Dome of the Rock to Muslims.

At the epicentre

The Temple Mount is one of the most important religious sites in the Old City of Jerusalem and has been used as a religious site for thousands of years. At least four religions are known to have used the Temple Mount: Judaism, Islam, Christianity, and Roman paganism.

With Roy

Jews regard the Temple Mount as the place where God chose the Divine Presence to rest; according to the rabbinic sages, it was from here the world expanded into its present form and where God gathered the dust used to create the first man, Adam. The site is the location of Abraham's binding of Isaac, and of course, the site of the two Jewish Temples.  Jewish texts record that the Mount will be the site of the Third Temple, which will be rebuilt with the coming of the Messiah.

Inside

Among Sunni Muslims, the Mount is widely considered to be the third holiest site in Islam and the location of Muhammad's journey to Jerusalem and ascent to heaven. After the Muslim conquest of Jerusalem in 637 CE, Umayyad Caliphs commissioned the construction of the al-Aqsa Mosque and Dome of the Rock on the site.

The clincher: the Dome of the Rock currently sits in the middle of the Temple Mount, occupying or close to the area where the Bible mandates the Holy Temple be rebuilt. 

Map of Old City sites

To get there, from inside the Old City, right next to the Western Wall ("next", of course, because the Wall surrounded the area where the Temple was), after passing through security, one walks over a wooden bridge which, in and of itself, is controversial. This is before you even enter the Temple Mount.

An Islamic Waqf has managed the Temple Mount continuously since the Muslim reconquest of the Kingdom of Jerusalem in 1187. In 1967, soon after Israel had taken control of the area during the Six-Day War, Israel agreed to leave administration of the site in the hands of the Waqf, and freedom of access was enshrined in the law. Additionally, as a security measure, the Israeli government currently enforces a ban on non-Muslim prayer on the site. Non-Muslims are only allowed to enter the area once a week, on Monday's between 9 and 11 am. Also, we were not allowed to enter the mosques inside, so we walked around instead.

Non-Muslims who are observed praying on the site are subject to expulsion by the Israeli police. 

Outside

While inside, the place is as peaceful as one could ever imagine an area to be, with small groups of people walking about and engaging in quiet conversation, completely belying  the passion, the tension and the violence it inspires.

At the risk of sounding unoriginal, I was trying to understand the place but couldn't really.

View of the Western Wall

After a stop at the Wall (more telegrams; the ones sent a few weeks ago seemed to have fallen off), we walked around in the Arab Quarter. 

When we last walked there, four years ago, it was on a Friday after prayers and there were thousands of people literally pouring out of the Temple Mount area and filling the narrow streets of the Old City like a stream, mostly males walking very fast, shoving and looking angry. On this visit, on a Monday, it was mostly women and old men, plus a few children. The place was fairly empty and felt nonthreatening  this time.

One of the stops in the Arab Quarter was the Austrian Hospice, truly an Austrian oasis. The hostel, located directly on the Via Dolorosa, is built in the style of a palace on Vienna‘s Ringstrasse. It was built in 1857 and served as a hospital from 1948 to 1985; now it's been renovated and restored to its original use as a guesthouse for pilgrims and visitors.

Inside one can enjoy a weird sense of tranquility, an unparalleled view from the roof terrace plus, of course, all the goodies of a Viennese café. We climbed to the rooftop garden to overlook Jerusalem, then went to their cafe, which truly looks and feels like being somewhere quiet in Vienna and not in the epicenter of the universe.

View of Jerusalem from the Austrin Hospice roof deck

Kafee und Kuchen in the Old City

 

At the Cafe we sat, chatted and rested for a while. I had been reading a lot about declining enrollment in the Israeli Army, one of Israel's cornerstones. The numbers show an increased reluctance among young Israelis to do military service and yet further analysis seems to show that these figures are the result of population increases among the Ultra-Orthodox, who do not serve (but will soon, if the law is reformed -- one of the few things everyone but the Ultra-Orthodox seems to agree on).

The IDF is commonly seen as one of the most powerful armies in the world due to the fact that there is a required service.  However, if you think about it, it is actually the miluim (reserves) that are the main force in the army: all men who served in regular/required service serve in miluim until age 45. This is a yearly event lasting between 20 and 30 days.

To me it seems incredibly onerous on both a personal level and an economic level to remove all men from their homes and their jobs every year. Aside from taking the dad from the family, the government has to compensate each soldier with lost wages, at precisely his earnings level, during their peek earning years.

Think about the productivity lost, the hassle, and the cost to the country.  The closest we have to this is Jury Duty, where a juror is considered to be on unpaid leave for the period. 

This is particularly amazing in light of the strength of the Israeli economy that has to sustain all this.

So, thinking about all the hassle, I asked Roy about how he felt abut his miluim. He loves it, he says, as he gets to spend time with his friends.  (Guys!)

From the Old City of Jerusalem, Roy took us to a Museum I would have never thought if going on my own, but one which I thank him for identifying it for us and taking us there: The Museum on the Seam, a socio-political contemporary art museum.

The Museum, in a unique way, presents art as a language with no boundaries in order to raise controversial social issues for public discussion. At the center of the changing exhibitions in the Museum stand the national, ethnic and economic seam lines in their local and universal contexts.

The exhibit we saw is called "Beyond Memory" and  it "sets out on a memory-aided journey to the future, to face works of art which expose us to images delved from the archives of repression and denial of fears and anxieties from our past experiences. It attempts to examine through them future scenarios awaiting us and to learn from them how to avoid repeating past mistakes".

Located on the road that used to partition Jerusalem before 1967 and in a building which still has bullet holes throughout, it tries to convey that suffering is universal and that no one has a monopoly on it. That by only transcending one's personal experience and memories of it, can the future change. 

Of course this makes total, logical sense.  But like in every argument and/or discussion I have with the Israeli "lefties" I do not see an equivalent attempt at reaching out by the Arabs in general or the Palestinians in particular. Au contraire.

The Huffington Post writes that many Middle Eastern artists refuse to even display their art there, protesting Israel's policies toward the Palestinians. "Many of their governments, notably Iran, make contacts with Israel illegal. In Egypt, which signed a 1979 peace treaty with the Jewish state, rules by many artists organizations forbid members to engage in any 'normalization' with Israel."

We finished the Museum visit sitting at their rooftop deck, gazing at both East and West Jerusalem, and having a great discussion about the meaning of it all.  I tried very hard to see the art in the context of other world horrors, which I am assuming is what the curator is trying to do. But I cannot help it but to see in it a thinly veiled attempt at normalizing the Holocaust, that steel wire that connects Jews.

But the Holocaust, as Rafi pointed out in our tranquil discussion on the deck, is truly a unique event in history when people, us, me, my dad who survived, my grandparents who did not, his mother who did, his grandfather who didn't, were hunted down across all political and geographic boundaries with great zealotry and optimal organizational skills. This took place only one generation ago and Jews' collective memory is too fresh to have it minimized. 

Display is supposed to say "Memory"... Coincidence? Maybe I am just a poor photographer.

Our day in Jerusalem could not end without a memorable meal.

Roy took us to Eucalyptus, where Jerusalem is the theme of the restaurant and its mixed Arab-Jewish staff serve dishes that reflect the two cultures.  Their chef picks herbs and mushrooms from the hills surrounding Jerusalem and has a basket of herbs on display to show customers the plants mentioned in the Bible.  The menu draws on food mentioned in the Bible, such as figs (one of the seven species), and food linked to Jerusalem's history such as khubeiza, a wild wheat eaten during the siege of 1948 ( had both of these). 

It was a phenomenal day and we took the bus back to Tel Aviv, pretty exhausted from what we had seen and done.

Eating in the Judean Hills and Yaffo

On Saturday, April 21, Nisim and Malka (my sister’s sister-in-law and her husband) picked us up to go on a day-trip to the Judean Hills – and the outing was dreamy.   

After less than an hour on the road, the adventure started with a stop at a local boutique winery, in an area referred to as "little Tuscany."  Wine Spectator writes: “Driving through Israel’s Judean Hills is a bit like driving through Tuscany or Napa. Vines line the hills on each side of the winding road, and wineries are set among the forested rolling landscape, spotted with wildflowers. Just 25 miles from the Mediterranean Sea, the Judean Hills has a more moderate Mediterranean climate than that of northern Israel, remaining green even in the heat of the summer.”

Precisely.

We arrived at Katz Winery at 10 am or so for the appointment with the wine-maker, Mr. Katz, but the gate was closed. A harried wine-maker's wife rushed to the gate to unlock it and we drove in. We met the wine-maker, sitting like a pasha at an outdoor table with a few ready-to-go glasses in front of him. I knew immediately this wasn't going to be your average winery tour.

Mr. Katz had been a chemistry professor at Hebrew University in a past life but at some point decided he would rather apply his expertise to something more fun, namely wine-making. His is an organic winery, and he uses his knowledge of chemistry to improve on G-d's given grape juice. He told us lots of stories as we sampled the wines (so, really, I cannot recall any of them; it was 10 am after all) but I do remember that when he stepped away for a minute to fetch the next bottle and Nisim asked the wife, who was tidying up, how long the presentation would be, she rolled her eyeballs, shook her hand in a very Israeli way and said words to the effect of "Pfft! He could go on forever!"

The wines are excellent but Mr Katz is only able to produce a relatively small quantity. He sells only locally. He was stunned when a restaurateur who manages the new, super-posh Bereshit Hotel in Mitzpeh Ramon bought his whole supply at once.  Mr. Katz’s best quote: "Wine-making is poetry."

Malka enjoying some poetry

After about an hour with Mr. Katz, we headed to two farms in the area. The first stop was at Sataf, a goat farm in another most idyllic place,  for a cheese-tasting. Getting there I was simultaneously glad and sorry that Nisim and Malka have a brand-new SUV as he had to drive such a nice, shiny new vehicle on such a rough pebble road (but we were comfortable; that’s important too).

In the Judean Hills

The farm is located west of Jerusalem, down the eastern slope of Mount Eitan by the Sataf Springs. This area has known agriculture for the last six thousand years. The farm was started in 1974 and has an organic vegetable garden based on the ancient technique of terrace farming, a goat herd of 170 heads and an award-winning goat cheese dairy.  The artisanal cheeses are both delicious and (bonus!) do not really taste like goat cheese. Not surprisingly, Rafi got tempted and bought way more cheeses than we could possibly consume back in Tel Aviv.

Cheese-tasting

(Being us, we could not help ourselves to try and figure out their business model: the farm is only open to the public two days a week, and they are packed when they are open. Their cheeses are more expensive than what similar cheeses would cost in Canada, including the Israeli-owned Carmelis in the Okanagan, BC. So, all in all, we put our mental calculators away: a great business.)

The second stop was at Har Haruach Goat Farm, close to an area called Nataf. They also produce organic cheeses using ancient methods, and they are also open only two days a week. But I think we were too full from the previous cheese-tasting so we did not stay long -- and just drove straight to lunch.

Lunch was at Rama's Kitchen, located in one of the most spectacular locations possible, high up in the Judean Hills in Nataf, just 15 minutes outside Jerusalem. It offers a really stunning panoramic view of the piney mountains. Theirs is a Mediterranean/Middle Eastern menu, dominated by local produce grown right there. It is also usually open only two days a week (what's with the two-days a week work week? I am liking the sound of that.)

This restaurant has been in existence for 80 years, and recently two famous chefs bought it and now cook with what they grow (and getting directions by speaking in Hebrew to a Thai farm worker was something, I tell you).

Organic Farm. Thai workers who speak Hebrew.

Humus with red beet puree and pine nuts

Grilled 'pizza' with lamb and tahini sauce

Grilled Fish and grilled lamb chops

It was a wonderful day and we very much enjoyed Nisim and Malka’s company and conversation. The drive back was smooth and relaxing, with Israeli music playing softly on the radio...

Now, after such an outing, normal people would have just taken the evening off. We didn’t.

We had plans for dinner in Jaffa with Rafi’s cousin Avi, his mother Lydia, as well as his daughter Hamutal, her husband Simon and their gorgeous baby daughter. They invited us to a restaurant offering authentic Arab cuisine "with a Galilee orientation" called Haj Kahil, located right across from the Clock Square in Jaffa.

The weather was mellow and Rafi had not yet walked to Jaffa along the Tayelet watching a sunset, so that is precisely what we did.

Sunset walk to Jaffa

Clock Square, Jaffo.Sunset

The restaurant was amazing. The waiter started us off with the traditional huge number of Arab salads for appetizer. As a joke I said to the waiter, "I don't think there is enough food" but I think he took me seriously and kept bring more and more appetizers.  The piece de resistance was their leg of lamb stuffed with rice and raisins and almonds. Rafi also had lamb kebabs in a spicy tomato sauce served in a closed bowl with a bread crust.

Waiter bringing the leg of lamb 

Other patrons equally impressed with said leg of lamb

Lamb kebabs in a spicy tomato sauce surrounded by a few appetizers

Hamutal and Simon (looking a bit surprised at Rafi's ability to consume food)

And so the day ended. Our hosts offered to drive us home but Rafi and I (mostly I) insisted we would prefer to walk. Only 3.7 km.

Cars, Motorcycles and Other Things I Had Not Noticed

Apparently, I have been blatantly unaware of really important things here, like cars and motorcycles. This has been pointed out to me a few times in the last two weeks, and I have been the beneficiary of many, many learned discussions about the topic. I would say I am a quasi-expert now… all thanks to my dear husband. (How could I have been so neglectful!) So, in order to continue documenting what matters (or at least what matters to Rafi), I shall redress the damage.

Truth is, there are lots of motorcycles on the road and on sidewalks (more on this later), and motor scooters in particular are very popular. But the most popular motor scooter model isn't the Vespa, which is probably the best known brand. The winner here in Israel is the SYM Joyrider (in case your life to this point has been as woefully uniformed as mine, here is a link to their website). SYM, I am told, is a Taiwanese brand. The Joyrider comes in many size engines, and the 125 and the 250 cc's seem like the most popular here.   

Israelis bikers like to weave in and out of traffic, pretty recklessly (said he, who sold his Kawasaki 1500 cc’s many years ago), taking a lot of chances and violating the traffic rules they must have (?) learned in driving school. Having said that (pooh, pooh, pooh), we haven't witnessed an accident yet. Israelis also like to park their bikes wherever they can, which mostly means on the sidewalk (they occasionally drive on the sidewalk too). 

Sidewalk parking example

Now, onto to cars. 

Compared to North America, cars here are small, and so are the parking spots, and maybe even the highway lanes (not sure about that; people look at us weird when we ask them). Most cars here are hatchbacks. One sees very few large and/or expensive foreign cars, such as a Mercedes S Class or BMWs. Cars are of course very expensive. Regular cars carry a purchase tax of an unbelievable 83%. The average cost of a vehicle here is about $35,055. We stopped at a few dealership to look around today (I am being a good wife) and the prices were shocking.

Posted price for BMW 320i: about $100,000 - more than double than at home

I learned recently that this year, Israel will be the first country in the world to begin to end its addiction to oil. They will start replacing gas cars on a mass scale with electric cars that are cheaper, more convenient, and no less powerful – all with no tailpipe. (The same solution, from a company called Better Place, will be implemented in Denmark, and soon in Australia, which will demonstrate that it can also work in big countries.) And while here there is still controversy on whether or not this will work out (it is Israel after all, so controversy is a theme), it is very exciting to see it come to fruition.

So, in a move designed to jump-start the adoption of hybrid and electric vehicles, the treasury now offers tax benefits to buyers who purchase these vehicles. Plug-in hybrid vehicles, which use rechargeable batteries and can be plugged into external electric sources, will be taxed 20% in 2013 but the tax rate for these vehicles will increase annually until 2017, at which time they will be fully taxed.

Wow.

The driving, in spite about all that you hear about it, we have found to be not as bad as expected. The Israeli driver has a few very bad habits, such as too-frequent honking and tailgating. Speed limits aren't posted as often on the highways as they are back home, and are mostly 80 and 90 km per hour on highways and 100 km/hour on freeways. This makes for sluggish driving. Rafi, who did all the driving on our trip to the Galil (which I will eventually blog about) tells me that it is just as sluggish as at home. We didn't see a lot of police on the road either.  

Traffic in the city is heavy but when it comes to driving I have seen worse in other countries, such as Italy and Greece.

And now, bicycles. 

People love their bicycles here. The weather is good and the city is pretty flat, so the perfect combo for riding. There are lots of bikers on the road, weaving in and out of traffic. You can rent a green coloured bicycle in designated spots and can ride it for a nominal cost for 30 minutes and then drop the bike off at another station. These are very popular and the station right outside my apartment building is often out of bikes.

Rent by the 30-minute interval

What throws me off all the time are the bicycle lanes on the sidewalk. Bicyclists and electric scooter riders -- and sometimes even motorcyclists -- speed along beside pedestrians so if you turn around while strolling,  not realizing you are stepping onto a bike lane, you could get hurt badly.

OK, I think I have covered enough under "transportation" -- and I never got around updating our trip to the Judean Hills. 

Mañana.

Eating in Tel Aviv

First off, thank you to those of you who have asked me when am I going to blog again (including Lia, who wins for “most creative” as she posted a message in our ongoing game of OMGPOP, and Nurit who also wins because she asked me “how the honeymoon was going”). I am flattered and a bit overwhelmed (but rest assured, I am mostly flattered. Really flattered. Actually, I am Huge-Grin flattered).

Rafi has been here for 12 days now and I am really taking a “vacation within the vacation.” We have done a lot and at the same time, nothing. Perfect.  

Since I have had the luxury of only doing what I feel like doing all these weeks, I have tried to plan around what he likes doing on a vacation, which means: going to as many restaurants as possible and walking about between meals. For him, the walking tours minimize any activity that includes the word “museum” in it.  I bought a map and placed all the recommended restaurants on it, cross-referenced to a write-up. This way, wherever we are in Tel Aviv, there are always at least 6 recommended restaurants nearby. With all this, I have had precious little time to blog.

But I do want to keep up with the blog as I am not taking a lot of pictures and the blog is definitely meant to be my keepsake. As a matter of fact, in re-reading a few earlier posts I realized that (1) I am already forgetting some things I did and people I met and ideas they shared with me, and (2) I am not noticing as many things as I did at first. I guess I have been here a while. I am blending in.

On his first Friday morning here, I wanted Rafi to experience the fabulous atmosphere on Dizengoff Street watching people watchers sitting at the endless number of outdoor cafes, so we walked there first. We then went to the Tel Aviv Port and had lunch with Emanuela at her favourite seaside restaurant, Fortuna del Mar, in the Tel Aviv Marina close to the Carlton hotel.   

I am not sure they totally hit it off, especially when she explained to Rafi who she was planning on voting for in the next elections and why. Actually, I am not really sure of this since, along with the grilled fish, we polished off two bottles of excellent Israeli wine.

With Emanuela

That evening, we had made tentative dinner plans with Isaac, a friend of a friend of Harley and Jessica’s. Isaac is a fun guy, with a most interesting background: born in Ethiopia, of an Egyptian father and a Sudanese mother, and raised in London. He comes to Tel Aviv very often, has a place here and knows all the cool people and places. I had met Isaac before and enjoyed his wonderful stories and insights but after that huge late afternoon lunch, I was kind of hoping we would not hear from Isaac that day – but we did. So we joined him for dinner.

Isaac suggested we go to a new restaurant in Tel Aviv, one I had not seen in any of the restaurant guides I have been consulting, called The Blue Rooster (HaTarnegol Hakachol). Someone posted a video here. What a find! 

HaTarnegol Hakachol is a seasonal restaurant making use of local raw materials, and adorned by two fireplaces more than two centuries old located in a brand new building quite away from the hubbub of the city. We got there before Isaac (no, we weren’t hungry; we are just on-time sort of people). The restaurant was full but we complained about the table we were given anyway (yes, we do fit here), so they sat us at a better table. A few minutes later, however, the owner came and moved us to the best table in the house (what did she do with the patrons sitting there, I wondered) as she realized we were with Isaac.  Soon enough, Isaac arrived with a friend, Nicole, a lovely Brit who moved here a few years ago.  The meal was unbelievable in several ways, especially after the waiter brow-beat us into the Tasting Menu.

Now, everywhere else in the world, “Tasting Menu” means a number of small dishes to sample (sample!) the menu. Here, it meant full-size dishes of the complete menu. After eight (8!) full-size, Israeli-scale appetizers for the four of us, the waiter started bringing the main courses. We had to be quite firm telling the waiter to limit them to three only. The waiter was cross but acquiesced. When the time for dessert came, the waiter did not bother asking us and simply brought 3 full-sized portions of three types of ambrosia…

We got home pretty late and very happy.

The next morning, we had to get up early as Nisim and Malka (my sister’s sister-in-law and her husband) picked us up to go on a day-trip to the Judean Hills. The Judean Hills are a mountain range in Israel where Jerusalem and several other biblical cities are located. The mountains reach a height of 1,000 metres.

I had asked Nisim where we were going, but he said it was a surprise.  I am loving surprises these days.

More tomorrow... We are off to dinner at a cool restaurant called Coffee Bar ("one of the most loved restaurants in Tel Aviv.") - and we need to walk 32 minutes.