Today is marked with a double date because, indeed, we felt as if the two days were all one. Our flight on Transat left Montreal at 2 in the afternoon, which meant that none of the kids were tired even though I had tried to keep them awake the night before.
Other then the fact that on Wednesday morning we discovered that Asher had Hand-Foot-Mouth and was difficult throughout the flight, the trip was uneventful. We landed around 7:30 am Israel time and then waited for Grandma, who finally came out of customs around 11:15.
Somewhat tired, but not wanting to either lose a day or perpetuate jet lag, we made our way to Tel Aviv with the intention of going first to the beach and then to Jaffa port. Realizing that we were closer to Jaffa, we went there first. Winding our way through crazy, narrow streets, we found the port. After admiring the glorious waves dashing against the port, we started walking in the old port area and fulfilled my silly desire of finding “the whale.” There is a whale statue at the edge of the artist colony that now inhabits ancient Jaffa. I have a picture of me and the whale from when I was 11 (family trip) and when I came at 16, so I wanted another.
We then wandered through the old port area. It was beautiful, but people were getting tired and grumpy, so we moved on to a beach at Tel Aviv, the first one we came to. I hung out with Avi, who felt it was not ok for him to go to a mixed beach. David, my mom and the kids had a great time.
David and I had booked a hotel for the first night very last minute. It was called the Ophir Hotel, located in Dizengoff Center. Getting there should have been simple, but I kept falling asleep while giving David directions. In the process, we found ourselves on some incredibly narrow streets. One such street ended at a dead-end, and David had to reverse our 9 seater van. It was quite harrowing.
How to describe the Ophir Hotel. I told the kids that it is a place that builds character...meaning that it will help them build a character in a story. Squeezed between 2 other buildings was a small, wooden staircase and an almost hidden black awning. The reception area stank of smoke and was tiny. The rooms, one on the second floor and one on the third, were bizarrely set up. Each room was unique and it seemed to me that this was all salvaged furniture. In our room, one wall had black and white striped wallpaper, while along the other wall was a giant white wooden bed with an enormous headboard. In the second floor room, where mom stayed with the girls, they told me there was a jet tub, but it was way too scary to go near. The rooms felt dirty, but I think it was shabby more than dirty.
We went to a beautiful café for dinner and got pizza for all. We also got awesome home fries and Cajun fries. Returning to the Ophir, we discovered that the air conditioning in the room was raining onto the floor, so David, Avi, Yaakov, Asher and I had a very sweaty night. At 3:30 in the morning, David and Avi went out to get cold drinks. They left some outside the girls"' room too, but the ladies never saw them...guess someone else at the hotel was thirsty.
Friday, June 23
We got the day started nice and early(ish) and ate cereal and milk at the Tel Aviv beach. Bye Bye Ophir, it’s been...strange.
We decided to head south. My mom and I both had strong memories of the Kibbutz Yad Mordechai Memorial. We convinced everyone to go because we saw that their was a honey museum there. Alas, after an hour plus drive, we discovered that the honey museum was closed. In fact, the sign implied that it is ONLY open on Shabbat and holidays! However, we did find a kibbutz member doing an exhibition of his photographs of women of the kibbutz dressed up like women they admired. We also made our way to the Yad Mordechai War Memorial. Again, my mom and I had a strong memory of this. Thirty years ago, we believe, as the tour guide showed you the site of the battle, at strategic moments silhouettes of the soldiers popped up in the fields. It was really thought provoking. Seems that now the silhouettes are always there, which was just less interesting. However, we were able to walk through the trenches and get a feel for what it would have been like to have been there.
Trying to salvage the day, we headed north to Ashkelon. We stopped at a small mini-market and picked up pitas and hummus and cucumbers and cheese to eat at the National Park. The oceanside park is both a recreational area/camping ground and a site of numerous antiquities from many different eras. We passed a Canaanite gate coming it and later saw Roman columns. We found a large parking area and started our picnic but slowly found ourselves surrounded by large crow-like birds. It was a bit creepy. We walked over to an ancient Canaanite well and then hiked up a hill to see if we could find the places my mother and I remember. After a long, hot walk up, the kids were getting very irritable and all we found was one Canaanite relic. David volunteered to get the car and meet us at the campground up top, which definitely seemed to have a parking lot.
What we didn’t know then was that the road up to the parking lot had a bar across it that had to be opened by the guy standing there, but David drove right past it. We waited and waited until finally heading to a snack bar and getting ice cream. I knew what had gone wrong, but since both David and I had new sim cards for Israel, I didn’t know his phone number. Eventually, he called me and we met up, but it was rather stressful for him. He decided that we all needed a fun break and to go to the beach, which was right next to the parking lot. I was on the phone with the tour guide we had hired so I wasn’t at the water. The kids had fun...until the jellyfish came. Everyone got a few stings, but Yaakov seemed the most hurt - poor guy.
It was now time to head to Yad Binyamin, where we were going to spend Shabbas with a bunch of different friends.
My son was against going to the beach for the same reason as your son. Mixed swimming. He went reluctantly with a bocher from Kollel Torah Mitzion from last year. He did send lots of photos of beached jelly fish. Apparently there is a huge problem with jelly fish this summer.
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