Summary #4: Reporting for Jerusalem

Israel Day 5 (August 18th)

Our day began by making our way to the Eretz Israel Museum. Half of the exhibits were closed down and the rest weren’t very good. This place did not cater to tourists as most was written just in Hebrew.

From there we walked all the way to the Diaspora Museum at the Tel-Aviv University. This museum is all about Jewish life outside of Israel.

As most people suggested otherwise we did take the public bus to the Disengoff Center where we were to meet with Sharona after she was done her work. As most Israelis on a hot night, we went for a dip at the Banana Beach.

After that we met with Rebecca’s best friend from Calgary, Alexandra and her Israeli boy toy. They took us to this AMAZING lounge which is located on one of the most under-developed streets of Tel Aviv. Once inside, we were asked to take off our shoes. The place is painted with glow-in-the-dark paint and is decorated with lots of mirrors which were more noticeable due to the use of black lights. Very “glow bowling-ish”! The floors are made of sand which are covered by Arabic carpets and the tables are low to the ground which were surrounded by pillows for us to sit on. VERY COOL!

Israel Day 6 (August 19th)
Today was such a lazy day! We slept in (a lot) and then went to the Rishon beach for chi-lazing! In the evening, we went to the Birthday party of a close family friend of the Glogowski’s. The restaurant was beautiful and the food was delicious. There was Latin Dance music all night and people actually danced (probably because most of them are Latin). For entertainment, they hired a magician…David Blade style! He did this really cool trick just for Gadi and I were he split a deck of cards with his mind (we were holding the magician’s hands!) We were shocked!

Israel Day 7 (August 20th)
Alexandra woke us up at nine in the morning because she wanted to come over (actually, she didn’t want to go to a family function of the boy toy). We went to Rishon beach again (while Gadi slept at home) until shortly after lunch. Today was Sharona’s B-Day so the family went out for dinner (at 3pm)

The most amazing part of the day was the birthday party in the evening. We went to club on the beach in Herzlia Pituach. The tables and chairs were all in the sand by the water. The dance floor was underneath the open sky with a live DJ which was very good. We took off our shoes and danced all night! We even saw girls skinny dipping but we fought the urge to join them.

Israel Day 8 (August 21st)
We woke early and took the bus to Jerusalem- City of Gold. We made sure to make reservations in a hostel in advance from Winnipeg. One small detail that we missed was the location of this hostel. Although we knew it was in the Old City of Jerusalem, we were under the impression that we would be staying in the Jewish Quarter. Imagine our surprise when we found out we’d be sleeping in the heart of the Muslim Quarter!

Upon checking in there was a sign behind the counter: no alcohol, no smoking which we had no problems with. However, the third point was one the shook us up a bit: NO UNMARRIED COUPLES IN A ROOM! We had to lie about our identities and tell them that we were cousins. Despite everything, the hostel was very nice (and cheap) and had an incredible view of the old city from the roof top, so we decided to stay.

We wandered about the city and made our way towards the Kotel (Western Wall). No matter how many times each of us have been to the Wailing Wall, the feelings you get are still strong and makes you feel very spiritual.

We then checked out the new Southern Wall excavations which turned out to be quite informative. There is just so much history surrounding the Temple Mount! The evening consisted of a night tour through the Jewish Quarter and ended with a walk in the new Western Wall Tunnels that go underneath the Muslim Quarter of the city. The Western Wall that everyone sees is 80 meters long, but by walking in the tunnels, we discovered that this is just a fraction of the total length which is 488 meters!

On the way back home, we walked outside the city walls. We asked a security guard for a good place to eat in the old city but were warned of its dangers.

Sorry we have to cut this short as we are being kicked out of the cybercafe.

More to come later..