So when last I left you my sister and I were bedding down while watching Parks and Rec'. We were up early the next morning, bright eyed, bushy tailed, the works, to trek out to the BBC Television Studios where Aliza had booked us all on a tour. The BBC, despite emailing multiple confirmations, which we had printed, failed to alert the tours that we would be joining them but everything worked out in the end and we were slotted right into our planned tour group.
We started in the parking lot
After a brief introduction by our tour guides we had the opportunity to take pictures with the Tardis
And a Doctor Who themed banner
Then they took us inside and sat us down in a conference room by the "glass-enclosed nerve center" of the BBC News. I don't remember much about what they said, I was too busy watching the reporters read their e-mail through the clear wall of the room we were in. I do remember them spending a lot of time talking about how the BBC is actually moving to Manchester, something our guide sincerely disapproved of. We learned a bit about the history of the building, how the complex is shaped like a question mark and designed to be a "television factory" with a number of different sized sound stages and sets to churn out productions.
We visited a couple of the different sound stages, saw them putting together sets in various stages of completion, learned how weathermen operate (really independently and as a one-man team actually) and visited a green room. We also visited the retired set of some beloved British TV show none of us (the family) were family with.
The final bit of fun was when they took us into a mini-production room and asked for volunteers to pretend to be news anchors. Erica and I leapt at the opportunity. We were seated at a tiny little news desk, given those tiny little clip on microphones and then had to read our scripts off the teleprompter. I was super nervous because the script says "say your name here" and I was really really afraid I was going to read that instead of remembering to insert my name. The tour guide didn't help because he kept talking about how that had happened before. My dad, with previous experience as a radio host, volunteered for the position of announcer/voice-over guy and got to sit in the sound booth. Mom and Micah took pictures. Aliza cowered in shame? I'm just guessing I wasn't paying attention to anything but being on camera.
We exited through the giftshop and caught the Tube across the city to Westminster to the pier. We traded in our Groupons for an all day pass on the River Rover. This took a while and everyone wandered off to take pictures of the sights while I tried to herd people onto the waiting boat. By the time we figured out that the boat at the pier was in fact the boat we needed, there was nothing to do but watch it leave. I didn't take this particular piece of time mismanagement well and sulked aggressively for the rest of the day. In the meantime everyone else was off variously getting food or taking pictures or waiting in line. Mom waited with me for a while, this was me smiling
Eventually the boat came and we were treated to lively commentary on the way down to the Tower of London. From there we had to get off and switch boats, this required a 15 minute wait out in the very very cold windy air.
Our new boat had a slightly too quiet audio-guide for the next part of our trek down the river. I hadn't been down this far in daylight so it was interesting to see the London landmarks disappearing and to float past the Canary Wharf development, which is to London what Century City is to LA. I had also never been to the Greenwich area before. We disembarked right by the Cutty Sark, a very old famous trading ship that I read about in that London book I hated. Apparently it was always the fastest to return from India and people used to lay bets on which ship would arrive back first and it always won. Greenwich is a very quiet tiny little college town, we didn't spend much time there but we did stop into Ye Olde English Candy Shop, where they had Lucky Charms and Trix individual sized boxes for sale as candy. We kept on going to the Royal Observatory which is in Greenwich park and there, at the very top of a very very steep hill we each stood with one foot in each hemisphere. And took a lot of pictures. And mom took a couple of hi-larious videos of me waiting while she tries to change her camera back to still photos.
It was getting late and we didn't want to miss the boat back so we marched back down the hill and through Greenwich to the boat, this time making it just on time to catch our ride back up the river.
At the Tower of London we split up for the night, Micah and Erica came back to Sidney Webb where they were staying in the guest room and the parents took the boat to Westminster to their hotel.
That night Aliza and I visited with Micah and Erica. They came to visit my room and use the Internet and Micah attempted to stick an entire rice cake in his mouth.
That night we reconvened at the Victoria Theatre to see the musical Billy Elliot. I had bought us tickets in the very highest level in the very last row. But the highest level was closed so our 19 pound seats were upgraded to 60 pound seats. This definitely made up for the fact that apparently I can't count an accidentally ordered an extra seat which they would not refund because "it was my fault." The show was FANTASTIC. I don't really care that much for theatre but I thought the choreography was great, it was an engaging production, the music was well done. Everything about it was thoroughly entertaining. I think after the production we went home and spent most of the night hanging out in Micah and Erica's room with Erica and Aliza taking turns braiding my hair for ages while Micah tried to read his book without being distracted by our shenanigans until it was time to retire for the night.
Tuesday was my first day back at school. It was also my grandfather's yarzheit so my parents woke up extremely early to go to daven at Marble Arch Synagogue. I met them with about an hour to spare at LSE so I could give them a quick tour of the LSE campus.
I had just enough time to show them the Royal Courts of Justice
Then I had to run off to class for the day while my family went on the Alternative Art tour in East London, which they said was amazing and I would very much like to do someday if I have a chance. Instead I went and tried to pretend I had done the reading for my classes before running home to pack for our trip to Israel. I didn't have much time because Aliza had gotten us tickets to see the BBC record Click! A radio show about technology. We went and sat in the audience and listened and watched as the hosts did a few interviews and then a lady with a band demonstrated and then performed using an "air piano"
And some guys rigged up ping pong ball shooter that racked up ammunition if you tweeted about the show and then they fired all the 85 balls at this one poor guy sitting in its line of fire.
The show was mercifully short so we were able to get back to the residence hall with enough time to finish our packing before going to bed.
Wednesday was an early day, first because even though I had told the cab when I ordered it that my brother and sister-in-law did not have a phone to answer they would just be out there at the set time they called my phone before dawn anyways. We still had to be up early though, my parents came to drop off their extra suitcases in my room and then we walked up the street to catch the bus to Victoria Coach Station. It was rush hour so the bus was miserable, super crowded and we were that obnoxious family with multiple suitcases in everyone's way. When we got to the coach station we fairly easily found the bus to Stansted Airport, although just standing and holding a map was enough to prompt a query from a local making sure I wasn't lost. We checked in and found our way to the security gate where they proceeded to mess with us repeatedly. We got in one line, waited for ten minutes, were told that we were in the priority line and had to go to the back of the other security line, even though they had watched us stand in the wrong line without saying anything or identifying it in any way as priority. We get in the long line, the "priority line" is now empty, we make our way almost to the front of the line, when they re-open the "priority" line and start funneling people in our line through there. We were all pretty much seeing red at this point because they had handled the thing so poorly and we really didn't want to miss our flight, so of course they pulled my mom for a pat-down and Aliza to search her carry-on. Luckily we made it on our flight, which was uneventful, although they served kosher sandwiches which was a nice touch.
We found Micah and Erica in Ben Gurion, then chowed down on Kosher pizza hut and I treated everyone to my favorite candy in the whole world, mikupelet. This was also when Aliza learned that by ordering "Coke" instead of "Coca-Cola" she had apparently been trying to make a deal for drugs. I was foolishly under the impression that my UK phone having a SIM card meant that I could just swap it out for an Israeli card. So I made everyone wait while I went and bought a card and put minutes on it.
Of course since my phone isn't unlocked nothing happened. I made enough of a fuss that they eventually just refunded my money since neither of us knew enough about phones to figure out it was my fault. In the time I had been wasting trying to buy a SIM card everyone else was arranging a taxi for us. We got as far as Chashmonayim, the settlement where our family friends live and asked the guard at the gate for "Rashi Street" only to be told that there was no Richov Rashi there. False. They also didn't stop us when we decided to keep going and find out for ourselves. Mr. Greenspan was able to direct the taxi to his street quite handily and we spent the next ten minutes arguing with the taxi driver who had decided mid-trip to charge us less than the previously agreed price, but then insisted on a tip. Eventually it was all sorted out and we said our hellos to the Greenspans, who were kind enough to host us all, and then we hung out and caught up and made plans for the next day.
Thursday morning Micah, after a couple of tries, finally convinced a cab to come and pick us up. We could not however, convince that cab-driver to actually take us to our destination. He dropped us off, for no particular reason, up the street on the side of the road instead of pulling into the strip mall we were aiming for in Modi'in Eilit. Together we managed to convince this man Shlomo Greenspan rents from to rent us a car for the day. We agreed on a price and a time and then he charged my credit card 3000 shek, without ever mentioning the "hold' he was placing on it. With me driving and Micah navigating we made it all the way to Tzfat, leaving behind the beautiful weather they were experiencing in Jerusalem and driving straight into a days worth of steady rainfall. I didn't mind. I LOVE driving. And I love driving like an Israeli. Never blink, never yield, and you'll fit right in. Plus Tzfat is at the top of a mountain so the twistys on the way up are a joy to drive. It took a couple of hours but eventually we found ourselves in Tzfat and it started raining in earnest as we figured out how to work the car parking payment system.
Our first stop was at a side of the street tiny little falafel stand. It was one of the best meals I think I had the entire time we were in Israel. Absolutely delicious. With our bellies filled we started our explorations of Tzfat. Erica led the way, taking us down the mountain via secret elevator that comes out in a grocery store. Because we were on top of the mountain we were literally inside the cloud that was raining on us, which meant that instead of looking out on a valley or across to the other side of the hills, we could see....nothing. Grey blank space.
We wandered through the old city and took pictures, Tzfat is beautiful even in the pouring rain
We tracked down the signs that Erica remembered from when she was at school here
We stopped at the cheeze store, which was also located in the proprietor's family kitchen, where we sampled a bunch of different cheeses and then bought some halva for my mom as a present and a thank you to this guy for literally opening his house to us. Next was the obligatory hike to Neirot Tzfat, the Tzfat candle shop.
By the time we left Neirot Tzfat the streets had become rivers, the gutters, which run down the middle of the street in Tzfat, had completely overflowed and pretty much given up.
Since we were already soaking we kept going, wading to Erica's old school and hanging around while she went inside to say hi (since we weren't willing to walk through the courtyard which was 6 inches deep in water and if Micah was allowed inside at all). There were pretty gardens outside
By this point we needed to be inside so we ducked into the covered art market and did some browsing/shopping and then stopped at the "muffin lady" for a snack and a chance to dry off. The muffins were a disappointment but the warmth was not.
We were pretty much ready to head back at this point but I needed internet access so I could track down my friend's number. This meant we had to find the only hostel in the city with Internet and then hunker down there while I used it to contact my friend who lived on the other side of the mountain in Rosh Pinna. On the way back to the car we stopped at various shops to pick up provisions for the road
I chose garlic knots at one of the bakeries and was met with nothing but suspicion. They were sold by the amount and I had double bagged them because of the strong smell. My claim that there were four knots in the bag was apparently unconvincing and the side-eye that I got from this woman selling them was something to see. We got gas in Tzfat and then drove down the mountain to meet my friend at the restaurant he works at. We had absolutely no idea how to get there but as soon as we got into Rosh Pinna Erica spotted it at the side of the road. Micah and I went into the restaurant where Ben treated us to coffee and I had the chance to catch up with him for about an hour while Erica made calls in the car to do the same with her friends. It was really really nice to see Ben and I'm glad Micah and Erica were willing to wait while I did my visiting. Especially because it made us late and they had to miss a friend's engagement party in Jerusalem as a result. I did my best to get us back quickly but for the first 20 minutes the fog was so thick I couldn't see more than a few feet in front of me and we were on the twisty part of the road. I had a minor heart attack when a police officer pulled up behind me with his lights flashing, until I remembered they always flash their lights, and then wasn't sure what exactly to do because it was clear he wanted to pass me and I didn't want to speed. Eventually he found his way around and we kept going at on our way. We lost our way about an hour in because Micah's phone was so low on battery that it stopped updating the GPS and directions and just kept telling us to go straight. Once we figured that out we got turned around and made good time that rest of the way, chased out of the mountains and across the plains by the lightening and thunder storm I did my best to outrun
When we got home we had just enough time to pick up Aliza and head to the mall for an uninspiring dinner and some inspiring shopping, TimTams (the best cookie ever made) and Kariyot (the best cereal ever made, like a puffin with nutella in the middle). I got us a bit lost on the way in and then had some technological challenges figuring out how to open the trunk for the security guard at the gate (as in I had no idea how to open it and you could see into it anyways and it was empty so it was pretty unnecessary). By the time we got home we just made plans for the next day and went to sleep for an early start.
Friday Erica left to spend Shabbat with her friend and Micah and Aliza and I returned the rental car and caught the bus to Jerusalem. By coincidence we were on the same bus as my parents. When we got in we stopped to buy umbrellas since it was now pouring in Jerusalem and I had kind of been too lazy to retrieve my umbrella from Ben's restaurant and had just decided to leave it there. I got a sweet see-through umbrella. We split up at the tachanat ha'mercazit (the bus center) and Aliza went to hang out at the Internet cafe, Micah went to visit his old school in Har Nof and I grabbed an ice cafe and caught the bus with my parents into the old city. Our first stop was at the Kotel
Then we went on a jaunt around the Jewish quarter
we visited the Hadaya shop, the kardo shops, randomly ran into people we knew from Maryland, and then circled back around to the Kotel where we were scheduled to meet the rest of the family. Now the night before we had discussed how nice it would be to have a family picture in front of the kotel since we had never all been in Israel together before and were pretty unlikely to do it again in the future and wouldn't it be lovely to commemorate it with a picture of the whole family standing together in front of the most symbolic Jewish structure in the entire world. Yes, that would sure be nice. Too bad Micah didn't show up. Just stone-cold left me, my mom and my dad standing in the pouring rain for close to 45 minutes waiting for him. And didn't bother to come. Aliza came (late). And we took a really great picture of all the truly dedicated members of the family who all care about things like this
I'm still pretty peeved about the whole thing.
The part of the family that CARES then went back up the stairs and had a thoroughly mediocre lunch from very touristy stands that just happened to be right there and ate them standing up, huddled out of the rain.
We climbed back down the stairs with a pause for more pictures (sorry dad's knees!)
It was getting late so we had to find the bus. We found a stop right outside the security entrance to the Kotel that had our bus number on it and waited and took more pictures (can't stop.won't stop)
We finished preening and realized the bus still hadn't come so we asked someone else sitting there and found out it actually stopped past the gate and up the hill. We BOOKED it to the bus stop, I spotted our bus waiting at the top of the hill getting ready to pull away and SPRINTED up to it, forced myself on and then helplessly watched as the bus started to pull away. I'm yelling in Hebrew "WAIT! MY FAMILY!!" at the bus driver, old men are shoving themselves onto the bus as it slowly starts to pull away from the curb, all the doors are open and I'm watching as my family tries to fling themselves onto the moving bus. We all got on and everyone survived. We successfully shoved ourselves onto the bus back to Chashmonayim as well - and then Aliza and I spent the next 45 minutes taking picture after picture of ourselves.
There were a gaggle of midrasha girls on their gap year staying with the Greenspans for Shabbat so it was a full house but there were lots of helping hands to set everything up. My friend Aliza was supposed to stop by before dinner but it was pouring rain and they close the roads in Chashmonayim on Shabbat so she was unable to come by for a visit. Instead we just dried off, got ready for Shabbat and then enjoyed the incredibly delicious homemade shwarma and fresh amazing soft-as-a-cloud lafa. YUM. YUUUUMMMM. After dinner was cleared Micah, Mati Greenspan, Aliza and I played Lord of the Rings themed Monopoly and I placed second while Mati literally owned us all by the end of the game.
Shabbat was a short day. I woke up just about in time for lunch. We had a big lunch with lots of people there, it involved home made spicy cream cheese and bagels and all sorts of good food. The rest of the afternoon was devoted to playing a game of Risk. I actually managed to do pretty well until I got bored and went on a suicide rampage across Europe when we hit hour three or so of playing. I decided to join my family on their visit to our relatives in Tel Aviv so we all took a cab to the train station in Modi'in and then RAN to get onto the train to Tel Aviv. We said our goodbyes to Mati on the train.
Cousin Ruthi picked us up at the Tel Aviv train station and drove us to her apartment. There wasn't quite enough seats in the car, but I went to college so I was a pro at this part.
We had a really lovely visit with Ruthi and Chezi and Alon and Chezi's brother. We drank really strong Turkish coffee and vodka and hung out and talked about Israeli Big Brother (they have a 24 hour channel devoted to it!) and took pictures and looked at old family photos and took pictures of those photos.
About this time Micah heard from Erica. She was in the hospital in Jerusalem with her friend, both of them struck down with what seemed like food poisoning. Micah had to leave. Chezi drove him to the train station while we finished up our visit. Chezi came back and took the rest of the family to the train station and then took me to Mike's Place on the beach to meet my friend Aliza. It was amazing to be by the beach again even if it was just to hear the water lapping on the shore. I found Aliza and her boyfriend Eytan, who was celebrating his birthday, and with a group of their friends. Aliza and I caught up for a while and then we moved to the another bar (which I had actually been to with them before). The Saints game had just come on so I kept half my attention focused on the playoff game and half on socializing. We eventually ended up at the pizza place next door for a slice and then I had them convince a cab driver to take me all the way to Chashmonayim for an arm and a leg.
When I got back to the Greenspans it was after 2 am. And I had neither a key nor the code to the front door and no desire to call the house that late. Instead I tapped on the side door until the dog woke my sister and the youngest Greenspan at the same time and they let me in. Thanks again guys! I stayed up until 3:30 updating my phone to keep track of the game, only to watch the Saints lose in the last two minutes.
Sunday was our last day in Israel. Micah wasn't back yet. The rest of us decided to spend the time we had left in Jerusalem. We walked to the bus, past the "security fence" between the West Bank and Israel. Technically we were staying in an Israeli settlement during our trip.
Once in Jerusalem, my parents and I took the new tram to Ben Yehuda Street. The tram is new since I've been there and apparently they have worked out the kinks so that it moves faster than walking but the ticket machine is the single worse designed machine I've ever tried to wrangle a ticket out of. If you pay it in cash it takes an extra three minutes to calculate each coin after you've deposited it. Eventually we had our tickets and were on the main street, further down than we had planned since we missed our stop. Probably because
Mom and dad walked around to do some last minute shopping and I walked up the street to meet my friend Kfi who I had been stringing along for the last few days and had finally found a firm time to meet her. We met up at the top of the street and then walked on down to eat some crepes. While we were waiting for them we of course ran into a high-school classmate's younger brother. Small. World. We caught up for close to an hour and Kfi had the opportunity to yell at the creep sitting by my elbow and begging for a kiss. I vaguely feel like this happened the last time I visited her also. She had plans with a friend so I said my goodbyes and then did a little shopping of my own, stopped for some mikupelet ice cream and bought some Hebrew workbooks so I could get some of the rust off my language skills. I ran into my parents on Ben Yehuda and we got lunch together (possibly the best bagel sandwich in town definitely NOT the best pastries) and I had a half a shwarma, which is absolutely the perfect size for a shwarma in a lafa. We stocked up on provisions for the plane and then caught the tram. Actually first we took so long to get our tickets that we missed the tram and then caught the next one.
We took the bus back to Chashmonayim for the last time this trip. Said goodbye to the gorgeous countryside
Packed up, and took pictures. Lots of pictures. Pictures of Chasmonayim
Pictures of Aliza
Pictures of my parents with the Greenspans
And pictures of the car, just so we would know that if something fell out on the way to the airport
Then we said our goodbyes, (except to Micah and Erica who we didn't get to say goodbye to because they were still at the hospital - love you guys anyway!) and Israel wished us a goodbye
And Avraham dropped us off at the airport.
We made sure he dropped us off at the Terminal we had been told on the way in that it was very important to go to this terminal. When we got into the terminal our flight was on the board in red indicating we had to catch the bus to the other Terminal. We caught our bus to the other terminal. It was quite a drive. We checked in. Got asked our questions, during which I turned bright red because I once again forgot our cousin's last name. We went through security, and then we NO JOKE were taken on a bus BACK to the original terminal. Apparently Zimmermans gives airports this uncontrollable desire to pull pranks. The flight back was fine, I sat in the middle and tried to study. Made small talk with the girl sitting next to me, and then failed to study while I listened in on her conversation with the girl in the row ahead of us. Apparently I was sitting next to a 19 year old married lady who had gotten engaged after 1 week of knowing her now-husband, had been engaged for four months and married for three and wasn't rushing into having kids just yet because she thought it would be a good idea to get to know her husband first. It was fascinating!
The flight landed around midnight at Luton. Luton is not anywhere close to London. We hadn't planned how we were getting home and the self-help terminals were not being clear whether or not the trains were running. Everyone was tired and cranky and pissy. I got us tickets on the bus back to Victoria and we were able to catch an Addison Lee cab from there to my residence hall for 11 pounds which was a sick bargain. We were home by 3 am, my parents checked into the guest room and we all crawled into our beds to recover from the trip.
Oh my gosh, that took me forever to get it written down, but I'm glad I did it finally and I hope you all enjoy it. Thanks to mom and dad for their fantastic pictures, some of which I've used in these blogs.
I've got no class tomorrow and a long to-do list so hopefully I'll get around to finishing up blogging about January by the time February rolls around.
Love,
We started in the parking lot
We visited a couple of the different sound stages, saw them putting together sets in various stages of completion, learned how weathermen operate (really independently and as a one-man team actually) and visited a green room. We also visited the retired set of some beloved British TV show none of us (the family) were family with.
The final bit of fun was when they took us into a mini-production room and asked for volunteers to pretend to be news anchors. Erica and I leapt at the opportunity. We were seated at a tiny little news desk, given those tiny little clip on microphones and then had to read our scripts off the teleprompter. I was super nervous because the script says "say your name here" and I was really really afraid I was going to read that instead of remembering to insert my name. The tour guide didn't help because he kept talking about how that had happened before. My dad, with previous experience as a radio host, volunteered for the position of announcer/voice-over guy and got to sit in the sound booth. Mom and Micah took pictures. Aliza cowered in shame? I'm just guessing I wasn't paying attention to anything but being on camera.
Our new boat had a slightly too quiet audio-guide for the next part of our trek down the river. I hadn't been down this far in daylight so it was interesting to see the London landmarks disappearing and to float past the Canary Wharf development, which is to London what Century City is to LA. I had also never been to the Greenwich area before. We disembarked right by the Cutty Sark, a very old famous trading ship that I read about in that London book I hated. Apparently it was always the fastest to return from India and people used to lay bets on which ship would arrive back first and it always won. Greenwich is a very quiet tiny little college town, we didn't spend much time there but we did stop into Ye Olde English Candy Shop, where they had Lucky Charms and Trix individual sized boxes for sale as candy. We kept on going to the Royal Observatory which is in Greenwich park and there, at the very top of a very very steep hill we each stood with one foot in each hemisphere. And took a lot of pictures. And mom took a couple of hi-larious videos of me waiting while she tries to change her camera back to still photos.
At the Tower of London we split up for the night, Micah and Erica came back to Sidney Webb where they were staying in the guest room and the parents took the boat to Westminster to their hotel.
That night Aliza and I visited with Micah and Erica. They came to visit my room and use the Internet and Micah attempted to stick an entire rice cake in his mouth.
Tuesday was my first day back at school. It was also my grandfather's yarzheit so my parents woke up extremely early to go to daven at Marble Arch Synagogue. I met them with about an hour to spare at LSE so I could give them a quick tour of the LSE campus.
And some guys rigged up ping pong ball shooter that racked up ammunition if you tweeted about the show and then they fired all the 85 balls at this one poor guy sitting in its line of fire.
Wednesday was an early day, first because even though I had told the cab when I ordered it that my brother and sister-in-law did not have a phone to answer they would just be out there at the set time they called my phone before dawn anyways. We still had to be up early though, my parents came to drop off their extra suitcases in my room and then we walked up the street to catch the bus to Victoria Coach Station. It was rush hour so the bus was miserable, super crowded and we were that obnoxious family with multiple suitcases in everyone's way. When we got to the coach station we fairly easily found the bus to Stansted Airport, although just standing and holding a map was enough to prompt a query from a local making sure I wasn't lost. We checked in and found our way to the security gate where they proceeded to mess with us repeatedly. We got in one line, waited for ten minutes, were told that we were in the priority line and had to go to the back of the other security line, even though they had watched us stand in the wrong line without saying anything or identifying it in any way as priority. We get in the long line, the "priority line" is now empty, we make our way almost to the front of the line, when they re-open the "priority" line and start funneling people in our line through there. We were all pretty much seeing red at this point because they had handled the thing so poorly and we really didn't want to miss our flight, so of course they pulled my mom for a pat-down and Aliza to search her carry-on. Luckily we made it on our flight, which was uneventful, although they served kosher sandwiches which was a nice touch.
Thursday morning Micah, after a couple of tries, finally convinced a cab to come and pick us up. We could not however, convince that cab-driver to actually take us to our destination. He dropped us off, for no particular reason, up the street on the side of the road instead of pulling into the strip mall we were aiming for in Modi'in Eilit. Together we managed to convince this man Shlomo Greenspan rents from to rent us a car for the day. We agreed on a price and a time and then he charged my credit card 3000 shek, without ever mentioning the "hold' he was placing on it. With me driving and Micah navigating we made it all the way to Tzfat, leaving behind the beautiful weather they were experiencing in Jerusalem and driving straight into a days worth of steady rainfall. I didn't mind. I LOVE driving. And I love driving like an Israeli. Never blink, never yield, and you'll fit right in. Plus Tzfat is at the top of a mountain so the twistys on the way up are a joy to drive. It took a couple of hours but eventually we found ourselves in Tzfat and it started raining in earnest as we figured out how to work the car parking payment system.
Our first stop was at a side of the street tiny little falafel stand. It was one of the best meals I think I had the entire time we were in Israel. Absolutely delicious. With our bellies filled we started our explorations of Tzfat. Erica led the way, taking us down the mountain via secret elevator that comes out in a grocery store. Because we were on top of the mountain we were literally inside the cloud that was raining on us, which meant that instead of looking out on a valley or across to the other side of the hills, we could see....nothing. Grey blank space.
We were pretty much ready to head back at this point but I needed internet access so I could track down my friend's number. This meant we had to find the only hostel in the city with Internet and then hunker down there while I used it to contact my friend who lived on the other side of the mountain in Rosh Pinna. On the way back to the car we stopped at various shops to pick up provisions for the road
Friday Erica left to spend Shabbat with her friend and Micah and Aliza and I returned the rental car and caught the bus to Jerusalem. By coincidence we were on the same bus as my parents. When we got in we stopped to buy umbrellas since it was now pouring in Jerusalem and I had kind of been too lazy to retrieve my umbrella from Ben's restaurant and had just decided to leave it there. I got a sweet see-through umbrella. We split up at the tachanat ha'mercazit (the bus center) and Aliza went to hang out at the Internet cafe, Micah went to visit his old school in Har Nof and I grabbed an ice cafe and caught the bus with my parents into the old city. Our first stop was at the Kotel
I'm still pretty peeved about the whole thing.
The part of the family that CARES then went back up the stairs and had a thoroughly mediocre lunch from very touristy stands that just happened to be right there and ate them standing up, huddled out of the rain.
We climbed back down the stairs with a pause for more pictures (sorry dad's knees!)
It was getting late so we had to find the bus. We found a stop right outside the security entrance to the Kotel that had our bus number on it and waited and took more pictures (can't stop.won't stop)
There were a gaggle of midrasha girls on their gap year staying with the Greenspans for Shabbat so it was a full house but there were lots of helping hands to set everything up. My friend Aliza was supposed to stop by before dinner but it was pouring rain and they close the roads in Chashmonayim on Shabbat so she was unable to come by for a visit. Instead we just dried off, got ready for Shabbat and then enjoyed the incredibly delicious homemade shwarma and fresh amazing soft-as-a-cloud lafa. YUM. YUUUUMMMM. After dinner was cleared Micah, Mati Greenspan, Aliza and I played Lord of the Rings themed Monopoly and I placed second while Mati literally owned us all by the end of the game.
Shabbat was a short day. I woke up just about in time for lunch. We had a big lunch with lots of people there, it involved home made spicy cream cheese and bagels and all sorts of good food. The rest of the afternoon was devoted to playing a game of Risk. I actually managed to do pretty well until I got bored and went on a suicide rampage across Europe when we hit hour three or so of playing. I decided to join my family on their visit to our relatives in Tel Aviv so we all took a cab to the train station in Modi'in and then RAN to get onto the train to Tel Aviv. We said our goodbyes to Mati on the train.
Cousin Ruthi picked us up at the Tel Aviv train station and drove us to her apartment. There wasn't quite enough seats in the car, but I went to college so I was a pro at this part.
We had a really lovely visit with Ruthi and Chezi and Alon and Chezi's brother. We drank really strong Turkish coffee and vodka and hung out and talked about Israeli Big Brother (they have a 24 hour channel devoted to it!) and took pictures and looked at old family photos and took pictures of those photos.
When I got back to the Greenspans it was after 2 am. And I had neither a key nor the code to the front door and no desire to call the house that late. Instead I tapped on the side door until the dog woke my sister and the youngest Greenspan at the same time and they let me in. Thanks again guys! I stayed up until 3:30 updating my phone to keep track of the game, only to watch the Saints lose in the last two minutes.
Sunday was our last day in Israel. Micah wasn't back yet. The rest of us decided to spend the time we had left in Jerusalem. We walked to the bus, past the "security fence" between the West Bank and Israel. Technically we were staying in an Israeli settlement during our trip.
Mom and dad walked around to do some last minute shopping and I walked up the street to meet my friend Kfi who I had been stringing along for the last few days and had finally found a firm time to meet her. We met up at the top of the street and then walked on down to eat some crepes. While we were waiting for them we of course ran into a high-school classmate's younger brother. Small. World. We caught up for close to an hour and Kfi had the opportunity to yell at the creep sitting by my elbow and begging for a kiss. I vaguely feel like this happened the last time I visited her also. She had plans with a friend so I said my goodbyes and then did a little shopping of my own, stopped for some mikupelet ice cream and bought some Hebrew workbooks so I could get some of the rust off my language skills. I ran into my parents on Ben Yehuda and we got lunch together (possibly the best bagel sandwich in town definitely NOT the best pastries) and I had a half a shwarma, which is absolutely the perfect size for a shwarma in a lafa. We stocked up on provisions for the plane and then caught the tram. Actually first we took so long to get our tickets that we missed the tram and then caught the next one.
We took the bus back to Chashmonayim for the last time this trip. Said goodbye to the gorgeous countryside
And Avraham dropped us off at the airport.
The flight landed around midnight at Luton. Luton is not anywhere close to London. We hadn't planned how we were getting home and the self-help terminals were not being clear whether or not the trains were running. Everyone was tired and cranky and pissy. I got us tickets on the bus back to Victoria and we were able to catch an Addison Lee cab from there to my residence hall for 11 pounds which was a sick bargain. We were home by 3 am, my parents checked into the guest room and we all crawled into our beds to recover from the trip.
Oh my gosh, that took me forever to get it written down, but I'm glad I did it finally and I hope you all enjoy it. Thanks to mom and dad for their fantastic pictures, some of which I've used in these blogs.
I've got no class tomorrow and a long to-do list so hopefully I'll get around to finishing up blogging about January by the time February rolls around.
Love,
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