My Week Off, Part I

My friend Lee Anne decided, on a semi whim, that she needs a vacation and bought a plane ticket to come visit me. So I worked my butt off the week before so that I don't feel guilty during my week of travel (it didn’t really work so there was definitely more than one night where we pulled out our laptops and got some stuff done… at least we both work for Teach For America and have that same crazy work ethic). So I left Tel Aviv Friday evening with my big back pack and met her at the airport. It was so fun to see a familiar face from Charlotte who was with me during two of the hardest years of my life (I am certain I will still be saying this when I am 65 years old). Since it was Friday night there was no public transportation, so we took a shuttle to my aunt’s house in time for Friday night dinner. My family is not known for skimping on meal sizes, and once again we didn’t. The next day, we woke up to the smell of Liron’s amazing shaksuka (it is semi-boiled eggs in an amazing spicy tomato based sauce). Once again, we didn’t leave hungry. We took a little drive to the promenade in Jerusalem so Lee Anne could see a panoramic perspective of the holy city and get a little explanation of the modern day conflict. Later that day we went to Abu Gosh, an Arab village outside of Jerusalem. They had the common sense to realize that all the non-religious Jews that live in Jerusalem don’t have anywhere to eat their hummus on Saturdays so they opened up restaurants to serve our needs. We had delicious hummus, warm pita, Israeli salads and chicken skewers (I swear this whole blog won’t be about food). That night we went to Emek Refaim in Jerusalem so that Lee Anne could experience the buzz of Jerusalem after Shabbat ends.

The next morning we took the bus to the Dead Sea. We stayed on a kibbutz called Ein Gedi, which literally is an oasis in the middle of the desert. There are beautiful bushes, cacti and palm trees there, not to mention an amazing pool. The contrast of the pool and the greenery compared to the desert mountains is unreal. We spent the afternoon at the natural spa that the kibbutz operates. It contains sulfur pools which are great for lowering blood pressure and fixing ailments, although not so great on my silver jewelry. We then floated in the Dead Sea and conducted science experiments with the salt water (Lee Anne taught chemistry in Charlotte). It was when we were floating in the Dead Sea that Lee Anne finally realized that she is in Israel. We then finished our lovely day at the spa by rubbing down in mineral mud. Although we were tempted to mud wrestle, we were afraid to offend the religious Jew next to us… oh well, next time!

The next day we caught our bus to Eilat. Another example of crazy Israeli culture: Days before this trip I booked seats for us on the bus from the Dead Sea to Eilat. However, when we got on the bus, it was so full that people were standing and some were sitting on the stairs. While technically we could have kicked the people out of our reserved seats, I would feel awful if some 50 year old would have to sit on the floor for the three hour ride. So instead we roughed it and plopped on the floor by the bus driver. It ended up being fine, and numerous people kept referring to us as “sweethearts” for being so easy going about the whole thing. Anyway, we stayed at a beautiful hotel in Eilat, called Agamim (lakes). The hotel is built around the pool. All the rooms on the first floor have private entrance into the pool… it is unbelievably beautiful. We were so captured by the pool and the hotel that we didn’t even go snorkeling in the end, like we had originally planned. The sea was anyway a little too cold for my wimpy self. My sister called to tell me that while we are tanning in 80 degree weather, it was pouring rain in Tel Aviv and that they had three power outages already.

To make things even better, I managed to score two FREE massages. The hotel was really empty because it was the middle of the week so the spa was giving free five minute back massages at the pool. Mine quickly turned into a twenty minute rub down since there was no one else waiting! The next day, I made friends with a French 60-year-old guy who wanted to play me in sheshbesh (backgammon). We communicated in a random mix of Hebrew, English, French and Spanish. I managed to learn the numbers 1 through 6 in French as after each roll he would say “ahhh quatre et deux”. He was a riot. One of the spa workers was watching us play so when I beat the French guy, he offered to put a little wager on it: If I beat him he would give me a free foot massage but if he won I would have to buy him some treatment at the spa. Needless to say, I won five-to-one and managed to remind him of that as he was pressing on the pressure points in my foot.

On our last night, Lee Anne and I treated ourselves to a $7 bottle of wine (it tasted much more expensive) and drank it on the beach. With the sound of classic-rock-turned-techno in the background, we enjoyed our last night in Eilat. The highlight was when a 65 year man, who clearly had a little too much to drink, decided to go skinny dipping by himself. The lifeguards in us got a little nervous and were glad to see him finally coming out of the water. He continued to walk along the beach butt naked all the way to the public showers before he finally got dressed. We knew that nothing could top that off, so finally headed back to our hotel.

Now I am on my way back to Tel Aviv, as I have a meeting tomorrow morning. Lee Anne stayed in Eilat with her friend from the recruitment team at TFA so that they can go to Petra, Jordan tomorrow.