Shabbat prep

I overslept my alarm and did not make it in to Jerusalem this morning.  I enjoined with the world in the Carmel shuk, and did my Shabbat shopping: whole wheat bread, nuts, and flowers.  And I bought stuffed grape leaves from some Druze ladies.

I was given Shabbat candles from a young Chabad woman. And located the malabi place by my apartment.  She gave me a takeaway, so it's in my fridge.  I will report.

Beyond this brief update, I need to make Israeli salad, and tidy up.  I located some stores in the shuk with leftover Yom HaAtzmaut stuff that I'll get for Israel Spirit another day.  I hit the Nachalot Binyamin craft show and got gorgeous earrings to match a spectacular necklace.

The new apartment and setup

Drinking some mint tea and posting photos for you:

View to the west (Mediterranean)

View to the east (Allenby, King George and Shenken Streets)

Looking north on Allenby

Living room

Kitchen. Yes, that's where the culinary magic happens.

Bedroom

Itty bitty bathroom

I walked up to the big supermarket to get some packaged food and do some research for my Hebrew teacher. I bought a carton of eggs for the first time in Israel (just didn't need the shuk-sized eggs).

Then, on to the shuk. A big shopping list, including all the makings for Israeli salad, cauliflower salad, and my Israeli broccoli and garlic with noodles.  Keep in mind that all these require olive oil, and I found a dandy:

Don't worry, I got olives, and apricots, and  butter (Israeli butter!) and cheese (I think I've figured out its name.  Will report on confirmation), too.

Kansas City to Tel Aviv (2017 edition)

Southwest to NYC (LaGuardia), NYCAirporter to JFK got me there in plenty of time for my midnight El Al flight.  When they opened up check in, I was waiting in line with a nice older lady. One thing led to another and Stella revealed that she is a Dutch child survivor of Bergen Belsen.  I tried not to be too star-struck.  She is traveling to Israel for a granddaughter`s wedding.  She lives in Queens.  After security and a bite to eat, I caught up with her at the gate.  She welcomed the company.  We were sitting close to each other on the plane and she was willing to move to my row if there was room (there wasn't).  We exchanged greetings during the flight.  Then on disembarking, we met up again, and suffered  the very long wait at passport control together.  Her sister was picking her up, so one would think that we would part ways there and then.  But...then we couldn't find our luggage.  Mind you, I had done  the math on her age, and I tried to keep her stress and walking down.  They had taken our flight off the carousel directory because we had been so long in passport control.  Luckily, my turquoise suitcase with yellow strap could be seen at a distance.   One of her bags was close, so I got her to come over and find her other bag.  I would never guess that she's close to 80.  We finally parted ways in the arrival lobby.

I changed some money, and got on the train.  One carry-on and one 45+ pound suitcase.  No big deal, right? Well, the train station only has stairs to come up on the south side of the street.  The street is fully divided. I huffed and I puffed and I got that stuff up to street level.  Took the #204 bus, reloaded my transit card and got to the Carmel shuk.  I am glad that the suitcase has wheels.

Ah, but there are more stairs.  Yes, I have a fourth floor walk-up.  Ha!

2017 Trip to Israel

Well, I'm back in Tel Aviv.  I'll post the trip details later today. But, generally, all was good and on time. I thank G-d for my remarkable health. I'm in a different rooftop apartment and I will post photos. So this is just a quick update to all my friends.

The trip home

The El Al flight landed in JFK and we proceeded to Passport Control.Oh, goodness, you should have seen the lines.  But we got through, collected the luggage and proceeded to the line to Customs, which moved much faster. Sheila lucked out and got a bye on Customs. On to the shuttle to LaGuardia, for which we had a reservation and is a wonderful service (NYC Airporter).

Cool thing on the departure runway at LaGuardia: our Southwest plane was in line behind a Navy F-18 fighter!  It took off with a thrilling roar.  Why it was taking off from LaGuardia????

Writing from the Milwaukee airport (last leg of the journey):  thanks for reading.

Post-script post

I thought that this was just about the cutest children's play area in the El Al gate for my flight to the US.

LEHI museum, hummus and departure

We checked out of the apartment and stored our bags for the day.  We walked over to the Florentine neighborhood of Tel Aviv.  We looked for the Levinsky shuk, but didn't find anything noteworthy.   It's a neighborhood market.  One of the five IDF museums in Tel Aviv is in that area (we went to three of the others last year).  The museum is housed in the building in which one of LEHI's significant leaders (Avraham (Yair) Stern) was murdered by the British:

LEHI's mission was underground resistance against the British.

We went to a hummus place recommended by an Israeli friend.  It had dandy hummus and wonderful mint tea (unlimited refills).

 and then walked back to the apartment to collect our luggage.  Our trip to the airport and El Al flight were, thankfully, unremarkable.