Our trip to Israel was indeed amazing, mind boggling, interesting, tiring, frustrating, fun-filled, emotional, and on and on and on. Having said that, I can also sit back and laugh at some of the odd things that happened, or the surprising reactions I had at certain things. One cannot consume so much history, politics, food, and ruins before the amusement factor begins to take hold and the sometimes uncontrollable laughter takes over! I'm sure when Bev and I got hit by one of these phenomenon the people on our bus considered rolling us off at the next bus stop! My advice? NEVER try to hold in a good belly laugh! It hurts!
What can I say about Falafels? WOW! That first stop we made at the little roadside stand at first caused a few lifted eyebrows... "Really?.... We're stopping out in the middle of nowhere, eating food from a questionable trailer, with two rugged looking Jewish fellows dishing up an unknown product?....are you nuts? Everyone pack their Pepto Bismol?" Not to worry...these packages of savory vegetables and falafel balls hit the spot and were only the precursor for the many that would follow! Side benefit? Those little balls of whatever, with mixed spices gave relief to the one travelers curse that befalls us all! Hallelujah!
And then there were the salads. Oh boy, that first night we were in hog heaven with the variety, the savory tastes,...oh this is great! The next morning...what's that? Salads for breakfast? That's unique. About the 3rd or 4th days of breakfasts and dinners, we'd round the corner to the buffet line, catch sight of the abundant supply of salads and make a drastic left turn to the basic staples counter! Potatoes, chicken, fish, cooked veggie and the occasional beef bi-product. Ah, yes...a taste of home.
Not complaining though, but the sight of my front teeth growing longer and my ears growing higher gave me cause for concern. Probably better lay off the greens for awhile!
Let's talk desserts. Fruits, pastries, cakes, puddings, pies, breads, baklava, ice cream,...even if we hadn't spared a corner of our stomach for a taste of sweetness, we indulged anyhow! Altogether now....OVERINDULGENCE!??? After all we HAD packed our acid reducers! How bad could it be? Let me explain 'bad.' When your pajama bottoms are too big, yet the elastic cuts into your waist, when you have trouble bending over to pull the covers up because your stomach gets in the way, when you can't even burp and find relief, when one pillow doesn't relieve the pressure and three bends you forward to far so you can't breath...well,....that's better known as 'bad.'
After several days we reduced our intake to yogurt and granola with a piece of fruit for breakfast, ice cream bar and a coke for lunch, a taste of salad with a few veggies and a small cut of meat and just a couple pieces of dessert for dinner! (P.S....one must not wean oneself from desserts too rapidly!)
How about those hotels? Our first stop in TelAviv was amazing....beautiful ocean view rooms, gentle sound of waves rushing to shore, white beaches, truly felt like a tropical paradise. Ah, this is living! This was going to be a pleasurable tour with hotels like this! Off the next day to the West Bank town of Ariel...nice sounding place, even if we had to enter the territory in bullet proof buses! Bus pulls up to the hotel....did I say 'hotel?'....ah, did I hear someone say 'there's no room at the inn?'...no such luck! This someone's idea of a joke or what? From magnificent trappings to the local parred down motel in Podunk, Israel! Not to mention the armed soldiers parked outside our rooms! How about those styling linoleum floors??
Ok, ok..enough...our visit around the area was amazing and given the circumstances in which they live...well, this was great! How kind of some local people to invite groups of 6 into their homes during the evening....a little unnerving at first...out at night in an occupied territory, going into an unknown home, but it turned into a wonderful inside view of Sylvia's home and her generous offerings of tea, cookies, potato chips and coffee. And yes...we ate!
Just a few mishaps along the way. I melted my curling iron first day, caught my hair dryer on fire the second, discovered a toilet wouldn't flush another day, nearly choked on the room service Turkish coffee that left a half inch of sludge in the bottom of the cup, couldn't get my swimsuit to dry after a dip in the Dead Sea, locked our room key in the room several times, thought I left my journal back in the last hotel....found it in a luggage pocket I didn't remember was there! "I can't find my....." was the frantic cry almost every day! Of course it was tucked away in some remote spot in my luggage that I was certain I would remember next time I needed it! I chalked it up to an aging brain!
Did I mention the cats? Cats everywhere! Not housecats, but cats that had to fend for themselves...rodent hunting, incidious bird killers...quite a phenomenon. It caused quite a stir when we were at the Garden Tomb area and the pretty white doves were floating about looking so lovely and serene, when suddenly a feline became airborne, grasping the fluffy feathered innocent and that's all she wrote for that bird! Ah, the circle of life!
At a certain point towards the end of our tour, I began to think if I saw another falafel, salad or baklava I would urp! Didn't we see a McDonald's sign somewhere?? Why, yes we did! Off to the streets of Jerusalem we went....Steve, Elaine, Bev and I...winging our way through unknown territory...baffled by the lack of a good sign pointing us to our culinary destination. Finally in frustration I stopped a young man pushing a stroller fully thinking I would have to use sign language to ask him where the nearest McDonald's was, but much to my surprise he said...'half a block up, to the left, up the alley and there it is!' Praise the Lord we were heading for a Big Mac!
What can I say....heaven on a paper plate!
Our journey has ended, our memories safely tucked away, our lives enriched beyond measure. One more Falafel for the road?
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