Soldiers Everywhere

So this is the wrap up to my trip in Israel, as I'm now in Copenhagen so I can write about how my time in Israel ended.

After the rest of the trip left I went to stay with Idit's family, one of the Israelis from the trip as previously mentioned, who live quite far out there and technically live in one of the settlements that are just over the green line, so to some it is in the west bank and not in Israel and as such is one of the major points of contention for the peace process. Idit's family is Orthodox and keep kosher. This completely stands out when you walk into their kitchen, which has two dish washers and the first thing Idit did was to tell me which were the dairy and which were the meat dishes and silverware. I essentially was terrified to use anything as I feared that any move by me would require a rabbi and countless hours of work and money. I got driven into the city by Idit's older sister who as it turned out is a 26 year old lawyer who isn't working in law, rather she hates the law, and is trying to figure out what she wants to do. I then did what I most enjoy doing, I walked all over Jerusalem. By doing so I feel like one truly gains and understanding of an area and you learn how to navigate, which after having gone around in a bus I had no idea how to do. So really all I did Monday was walk around, which I really did find to be most enjoyable, but perhaps I didn't accomplish what most would consider a worthwhile time spent in one of the holiest cities in the world. One of the first things I did was grab some great Zatar bread from the market. Then I wandered. In my wanderings I came across a man with tons of cats, did I mention that Israel has tons of cat's all to catch the mice, I wonder what Israel will swallow to catch the cat? As I was taking a photo of a crow he asks me if I speak English. I could not read this man at all, but pretty quickly he started talking about how the world is going to be confronted with the next big war soon, that the next Holocaust is going to happen and that all the worlds problems are due to the Germans. On parting he asked me my name, which I more than gladly gave him, he responded with joy and then quoted I guess the book of look saying "And the World be like the time of Noah". I then went to find a nice coffee shop, which was not an Aroma (Aroma is essentially Israel's Starbucks, which they have none of) and then I had dinner at Burgers bar. On my way wandering around it started to rain, I took brief respite in a Hillel cafe and got some spiked hot cider. I then could not for the life of me find the proper bus stop, but in the process I found a fellow Brooklynite who helped me on my way. I then managed to get off at the wrong stop luckily got some more help and finally made it back to Idit's.

The next day I went to two things in the early afternoon, first the chain of generations (I don't recommend, it is just too cheesy) and the western wall tunnel tour, which I highly recommend. Then off to some great Hummus and Falafel at Idit's favorite place and then we went to the Israel museum to see the dead see scrolls and art, also highly recommended. At night we met up with Yossi (one of the Israelis) and Jessi the other person to extend their trip. We went to a pretty nice low key bar, which I really though was one of the nicer places I went to in all of Israel. We then got some Belgian waffles and then the day was over and back to Idit's. I managed to get myself lost again (I don't know what it is with me and the suburbs and no one ever seemed to under stand Idit's address and I couldn't make heads or tales of it either to get it into my phone, but I manged to get myself out of it this time, well mostly.

Off to Tel Aviv, it is only 45 minutes away, so it is less than most New Yorker's commute, and Israelis think that it is relatively far. This was the ominous day of camera failure, so I'll just get that out of the way now. We went to one okay market and then to a decent cafe, where we met up with our medic and protector Eyal. We all kind of now wandered around together until we ended up at a pretty decent gelato place, where we met up with all but one of the Israelis. Then off to dinner where we ended up having yet one more Israeli join our group, Eyal's sister. At dinner we had some pretty good conversation about whether or not everything going on in Israel today with war and the attitude taken by most Israelis is right or wrong, of course we ended with that it is complicated. Everybody then wanted to go to a bar, which brought on a discovery that I never would have expected, Israel has bars that have age limits well above the drinking age, so we ended up at one that required Women to be at least 23 and Men to be at least 26. Of our group only 3 of us even met this category, so after some arguing and mentioning Taglit a few times we got into a not so interesting bar. I ended up crashing at Shachar's place. The next morning I ended up heading up to Natanya to see the one missing Israeli from the night before to discuss trip stuff (he is heading to Nepal in may when his army service ends). I ended up meeting his two travel companions and while hanging out at one of their houses I decided to buy my tickets, which got me to where I am now, Copenhagen. It is still shocking that it was cheaper to have this little side trip than to go straight to India. I then stayed at Lidor's. Lidor has an awesome younger brother who is only 9 years old and speaks amazing English, totally crazy and has great taste in Music as he had only the worst words to say about Justin Bieber, but loves early 90s and 70s rock.

Friday is Shabat and all you do is relax on Shabat, so that is what we did. We went over to Barack's place (one of Lidor's friends) and just hung out. All of this was just an experience of understanding what young Israelis do and it was really fun. They watch terrible American TV and love MMA, and they smoke Hooka, so really in the end no so different from a lot of American's, none of those things are really my thing, but they were fun to hang out with. We then had Shabat dinner with Lidor's family and even his grandparents showed up, who had come to Israel just before the war of Independence from Turkey. We actually had some really great conversations about what's wrong in the world today and the real reason why there is so much strife between Jews and Muslims, historically there wasn't and Jews and Muslims through out History have actually gotten along really well together. Saturday is still Shabat and really once again we did nothing, but we did have this really great Eastern European Jewish dish that I'd never heard of before, which was just a stew of eggs, beans and sausage and cooked overnight. We then hung out at Lior's (Lidor's friend) and just hung out a bit more, did some photo editing and then talking about traveling with Lior's older sister and her husband.

Sunday was then back to Tel Aviv, where I stayed in a Hostel, which was actually quite a nice Hostel with a bunch of nice people. I really just walked around Sunday, but I also tried to get my second Hep B Vaccine shot, which created all of this confusion. I finally found a place that would give me a shot, but they closed at noon. So then off to more walking. I then had a good dinner of Musseli and then with one of the other hostel guests went on a good old constitutional and then I play some weird russian card game with a girl from Queens.

First thing I go to do on Monday is have breakfast, but my yogurt is gone, so off to get more yogurt. After having my musseli I head over to get my vaccine. The doctor asks me why I'm in Israel and I say that I'm there for Taglit, his response is that the shot will be free, that worked out really well. I then walked up to Tel Aviv University and went to the Musuem of the diaspora, which was really quite nice, it had been recommended by Ifat. I then made the long walk back to my Hostel stopped along the way for dinner and then finished home. I then went to bed on the early side knowing that I had to wake up early as I planned to go to the temple mount and the Dome of the rock back in Jerusalem. So I woke up early enough, had breakfast and then Alex, from the hostel came with me and we ran over to the bus station and then off to Jerusalem. We then got to the temple mount on time and got to step foot on the tiny piece of land that has been the cause for countless deaths over the past few thousand years. To me it wasn't very special, just very intellectually interesting, as really there wasn't anything special about being up there, yet so many people have died for it, which really is almost nothing. I did almost have a moment where I though I was supposed to go into the dome, where we heard a noise and I started walking over to the dome when I said if the doors burst open I'll go in and naught 5 seconds later the doors open up, but it wasn't really a burst so I refrained myself from entering. Me and Alex then parted ways, I headed over to the market to get Halva and Rugelach and I ate at a vegetarian restaurant in the market, which I think got me a little sick. I really then had nothing better to do in Jerusalem so then after grabbing a coffee I went back to Tel Aviv. On arriving back in Tel Aviv I decided that that I wanted to have Schnitzel as my last meal and so I searched out the best place and ended up at Cafe Noir, where the Schnitzel and mashed potatoes were really quite good and I had a good conversation with a fellow patron, we even talked about precious medals as that is his business. After getting back to the hostel to retrieve my bag I had little time to dawdle and had to head for the train station straight away. I made good time walking, but I've certainly learned that Israeli security personnel love questioning me. To just gent into the train station I had to answer a ton of questions about my travels. I then stayed the night at the airport to make check in at 2:30am. I also had to return my Israel phone before midnight, which I successfully did. Any decent airport becomes a good one with free wifi. I then had to deal with another security guard (this is what they mean when they say they profile, they talk to people like me) I even got into telling this guy where I went to Hebrew School and what Holidays my family celebrates, then after hearing that I was going to India after Copenhagen he brought over yet another security agent to question me. From there on things were a bit of a blur, but I can say that I did not enjoy my AlItalia flight, I banged my hand really badly in Rome and then luckily had an exit row seat for my Rome to Amsterdam flight. Then finally to Copenhagen. A simple super on the serface intial impression of Copenhagen is that it is beautiful and great to bike in. Really, when I walked out of the train station my first thought was how beautiful it is and they even had bike racks on board the train. So how will Copenhagen be? Find out soon I guess, You'll know as soon as I do.

One looks at the military totally differently in Israel as everyone is either a veteran, serving or planning to serve. The entire attitude is different, but at the same time they all have to live. And ones comfort with the military changes completely in the simple course of a few weeks, you simply become numb to their presence and it becomes the norm. In many ways I think the U.S. needs to figure out some sort of service requirement, but hey Germany is getting rid of theirs.

I feel like I always forget something in my recalling this back so far.

Wide sweeping flow through the old, sprouts the new.