An Ol' Broad's Ramblings

Playing Tourist On Day 13

19 November 2008, 4:05 pm. 1 Comment. Filed under Israel, Travel.

I had no idea how terrific it was to actually sleep till 8 am, but ya know, I could get use to that again. Since it was our last day in Israel, and we were pretty much on our own for a while, we decided taking it easy would be a good idea. Little did I know….

We sat on the mini sized ‘veranda’ for a bit watching folks down on the beach. It finally occurred to me to snap a couple of shots of our view.

Look to the right, and you see….

Do a little ‘zooming’, and you get the Old City of Jaffa

Ya look to the left, and reality sets in.

We had some serious time to kill before Avi came to pick us up at 5:30, so we asked the concierge if there were any museums in the area, just to wander around for a while. Yup…there was a museum we hadn’t even been told about, Eretz Israel Museum. This is one seriously cool museum! Unfortunately for me, and my feet, it was more than just some wandering around. They had different buildings covering the postal service, old coins from every age, pottery, glass, mosaics, and even a big archaeological dig, all right there.

Dig.

Mosaics.

And cats. Lots of cats. This one looks like he/she might be Mr Spot’s Jewish cousin!

Lucky for us, it was pretty clouding all day, so it wasn’t as warm as it had been, but it was fairly humid. Well, humid compared to the previous areas we spent time. By the time we caught a cab back to the hotel where Avi was picking us up, and our luggage was “stored”, we were both pretty hungry. I’m not sure how a tuna sandwich the size of an actual tuna, or a small bowl of pasta the size of the whole country of Italy, is a light lunch, but that’s a LOT more than we had in mind. So much for having dinner with Avi!

Right on time, Avi showed up at 5:30. He decided it was time for us to see part of the “real” Israel. No history, just people, and what people do. What better way to see this than the local market. No tourist type market, but the real street market where residents get their groceries, and just about anything else you could imagine.

These are olives. I had NO idea there were so many varieties of olives!

The US health department would have an absolute fit, but I gotta tell ya, I wouldn’t have much of a problem shopping there! Well, not much. I do appreciate our grocery stores, but they don’t let ya haggle!

On the main drag, there were some musicians entertaining the folks. Nothing unusual about that, but these were Orthodox musicians, and one of their fans was a scantily dressed older woman, who seemed to be a couple of sheets to the wind. The more she tried to get their attention, dancing, the more they ignored her, turning their backs on her. I didn’t get a picture of her, but trust me, she was scary. Heh.

While walking down the streets, I noticed the Orthodox will look down when passing women. I wasn’t offended, by the way, as I had read this was common practice.

Then, it was time to head to the airport. While it was kind of sad to be leaving, it was also a matter of joy! We’ve missed our bed, our four legged children, and our home in general!

Once again, I had the joy of going through the first name issue! “What is the origin? What does it mean?” Yada yada. Heh. Seriously, I think I should have had it all written out and just handed the info to the security folks. It might have saved a lot of irritation on their part, not to mention time.

Once we got through the initial security and got our bags checked, we all sat down and chatted for a bit. I have to tell you, if you have LOTS of energy, Avi is a great guide, and well worth the money. Lucky for me, he was also patient enough to slow down once in a while. LOL

At 11:25pm, our plane took off from Tel Aviv. This time, the movie thingy was working, and I had the dubious “pleasure” of watching the 4th Indiana Jones. Jeeez…. What a major disappointment! After a less than impressive dinner, I managed to sleep a bit off and on. When I woke for good, we only had about 2 1/2 hours left till we hit Atlanta. I thought I’d watch another movie, not realizing that I wouldn’t see the end. Oh well, I suppose it wouldn’t kill me to wait for Swing Vote to show up on HBO or Starz.

So, now, we are finally HOME! Needless to say, we’re totally tuckered. The Mr has been snoozing in his recliner pretty much since we got here. I wish I could. I can’t quit coughing! It figures!