Shalom from Tel Aviv!

Well, we finally made it!

Mom and Dad Hertzman (aka Marc and Rebecca), shown here (at left) in their opera finery, took us to BWI, from which we flew to Tel Aviv, but not before finding some other travellers who also had a Mavica, and who kindly agreed to take our first travel picture (below).

(Side comment: I am now really glad we got the Mavica, because it turns out that the cybercafe from which I'm now writing had to make an exception just so I could pop the disks in their PCs; imagine if I came in asking to download software too?!)

The flight was fine, though it was difficult to sleep, despite the masks that British Airways provides; next time at least I will remember also to wear the earplugs they provide. It's not fun to wake up after an hour to hear the three-year-old two rows up wanting to play games with her (obviously tired) mom. On our arrival in London, therefore, Adam took a nap, but not before we met yet another traveler--this time, an American who had just finished a church mission to Africa--who also had a Mavica. They (Mavicas, that is) are everywhere! (You can tell from the photo below that Adam was a bit more tired by this point!)

But of course we realize that you want to know about Tel Aviv, not about the flight (though one interesting thing, to me, was the number of Christians on the flight--many of whom talked of their pending trip as a pilgrimage).

I guess something about the fact that my job focuses so much on the Arab-Israeli issue, and to some extent on Jewish-Muslim issues, often makes me forget that Jerusalem is also spiritual home to a third (and indeed the world's most populous) religion. Silly me!

(I'm sorry, I now have to interject that I am sitting here, in Tel Aviv's Cafe InBar, a great cybercafe, listening to "in the jungle, the mighty jungle, the Lion Sleeps Tonight." It's kind of incongruous, but fun.) Anyway, the picture to the right is us at Ben Gurion airport; landing was nothing short of amazing. All the passengers broke out in spontaneous applause, and I almost started crying. It was such a powerful moment, but in an entirely inexplicable way.

It took forever to get through customs; a Dutch man behind us commented that it shouldn't take this long. I said, well, I guess it's better, for security and all that. His comment was that, everyone blames delays on the need for security, so nothing is ever fixed--the delays persist. I can only imagine how much of a delay there is at the Palestinian checkpoints, if Ben Gurion's passport control takes that long.

We finally got through and got a taxi to Tel Aviv, and we checked in to our hotel (the Hotel Ami, on Hayarkon) just in time to clean up a bit and head across the street to watch the sunset on the beach. It was absolutely beautiful, and this picture doesn't do it justice. But it will have to do until I get my regular film developed!

We then ate what we thought would be a small snack, but what turned out to be a huge meal, of turkey kebabs and hummous, at a small grill near the Hilton just off the beach. We couldn't even finish the dishes we had, it was so much food. So when the old chef/owner came over and saw we were just sitting there (watching funny old videos on VH-1, like Olivia Newton-John's "Let's Get Physical" and a version of Cyndi Lauper's "Girls Just Want to Have Fun" in which all the girls were men in drag!), he asked if we wanted the kebabs in pita, and he commented on the fact that they were turkey meat kebabs--"so much more healthy. good for you"--we had to laugh. He gave us such a look of disdain when we said we were full. It was almost like he wanted to say, "Nu, ess, ess. What? You don't like my cooking? Look at you--skin and bones!" A perfect Israeli moment!

This morning, Adam and I awoke early (we had gone to sleep at 9 p.m., so 7:15 was actually quite reasonable). After a hotel breakfast of herring, hard-boiled eggs, tomatoes, green peppers, cottage cheese (Adam had the cottage cheese, not me), we called my Institute colleague Ze'ev Schiff and learned from his wife, Sarah, that he had already left for Jerusalem. (We hope to reach him at home tonight.) Then we called Adam's granny's friends, Dina and Akiva Ilan, and made some plans for when we visit them in Jerusalem. Then Adam called his office in D.C. (would you believe calls to the States are only 20 cents per minute! What a deal!) and then called Bank Leumi, to make plans for this afternoon. (As I write this page, Adam is giving a presentation to some of the people in bank operations at the bank, somewhere out in Lud or Lod or something like that, near the airport.)

After all of that, we took the #10 bus down Ben Yehuda street and went to Old Yafo (Jaffa) for the morning.

The picture to the left is actually a view of Tel Aviv (and me) from Yafo. We took a lot of pictures and mostly just walked around and read from Fodor's and read the various tourist information signs by the port or by the archeological digs.

And we saw a lot of cats (see one example, below).

Which of course reminded us of Granny's story about when she and Grandpa once visited Jerusalem, and they asked their friends, "How do you call a cat?"

To which their friends responded, "Why would you want to call a cat?"

OK, for cat lovers, that's not funny, but there really are cats all over the place here, and dogs too, to be honest, but at least the dogs are on leashes and people actually own them. (Adam's quit happy about that, because the dogs are big!)

The picture to the left is of Adam in one of the old alleys of Yafo.

Old Yafo is a great little touristy area, and it reminded me of Antibes on the Cote d'Azur, in France, except that instead of having all sorts of Provencal artisan weaving and pottery, it had shops with tallit and silver menorahs and paintings of the Old City!

It was clearly the off-season, as many of the stores were closed. But it was fascinating to walk around, and to realize the buildings, if not the stores themselves, were hundreds if not a thousand years old!

I'm glad we had Fodor's with us, because it recommended a little pita stand that had a great snack, za'atar, which is sort of like a marjoram-flavored pesto, on a toasted pita. Mmm!

(The picture to the left is of Adam buying "shtayim za'atar" (two pitas).

Then we walked around the Arab souk in Yafo and saw Persian-style rugs, brass hookas, lamps, lace, and all sorts of tchotchkes.

Anyway, so here I am at the InBar, typing away and watching the world go by.

By now it's nearly rush hour, or at least it seems that way (there are many more cars on the road). I've been here about two and a half hours now (had to read all the email before I did the page, after all, and it has taken longer to upload this page than I expected (probably in part because I didn't know what I would write; you can probably tell).

I think tomorrow, or when next I write, I will have the text planned out a bit first.

Part of the problem has also been the keyboard, which for the most part has the English letters on it, but which also has the Hebrew in red (as you can see), so it's a good thing that, for the most part, I know the keyboard (and it's a very good thing the keys are all in the same place, unlike Italian and French keyboards; using an Olivetti in Italy was one of the more difficult experiences of my writing life).

And, just to reassure Granny that we got her messages (the rest of you received "reply" messages, so you know that I got your missives), we took a picture of the screen when I was reading my Hotmail. See, Granny, we received both of your messages.

We were quite amused to hear from Jerry Sorkin, Adam's former boss, as well as from our brother-in-law's parents (they were visiting Ruth and David's place, and R&D showed Rena and Danny the webpage, apparently). It's nice to have such loyal "fans"!

=)

(Granny, in case you don't know, that was an emoticon happy face; imagine it as a happy-face turned 90 degrees counterclockwise.)

Oh, this picture's for Adam's friend Victor: Apparently "A Bug's Life" has been translated into Hebrew, quite literally, according to the title.

We also saw many ads for Prince of Egypt, though of course they were really in Hebrew (something about Mizrayim, but neither Adam nor I knew the word for "prince").

And a parting word for Granny; I remembered your story about you and Grandpa going into an Israeli bank and being surprised by the IDF soldiers with their uzis; well, I had the same feeling on the bus today, and I gather that Adam did too.

I'm not sure whether I should feel more secure seeing so many young men (boys, practically, and of course young women--girls--too) walking around with such big guns, or whether I should feel more scared!.

The other ubiquitous sight was Israelis with cellphones. On the bus to Yafo alone, we saw (heard) three elderly women and one older man get cellphone calls. Talk about a connected society!

So, that's it for my first page of comments from Israel; I'll try to have Adam write something, or at least give me something to write, next time. I (that is, we) hope you've enjoyed this page and come back and see us again soon!

Shalom; we'll be back online soon to write from Jerusalem (or, maybe we'll stop by tomorrow morning on our way to the Museum of the Diaspora--Bet Hatfutsoth, or however it's transliterated).

OK, I lied; I'm back with more news. And Adam is back from his meeting at Bank Leumi.

After I finished the preceding part of the page, I went to Hotmail and found four more messages online waiting for us; I guess you all finally woke up!

Well, Adam wants to head out, so we'll write more tomorrow.

Shalom!

The following link is the suggestion of Rebecca Hertzman's friend Barry Wessler; although we don't want to break up the days, we thought we would create a link for "Tel Aviv, Day 2," and at David Miller's suggestion, we will also proceed to have a link, at the bottom of each page, to the next day's travels (to make it easier for those who understand links and want to follow our travels chronologically).

So, click here if you want to see what we did on our second day in Tel Aviv.

And, Granny, if you have any problem clicking there, send us an email and we'll try to work out another option for you; after all, you are the real reason we're doing this! We love you!

Of course, you can still click below to see what we did in any of the following places ...

Last updated (just a little) on March 16, 1999.