Israel: The Trip

At the airport, the passengers waiting for Delta Flight 152 from Atlanta to Tel Aviv had a rather motley appearance. Christian tour groups, Spanish speaking teenagers, military personnel (American), religious Israelis, secular Israelis, people of all ages, and all races. Most looked like they were expecting to have a good time.

We were very lucky because, although the plane was pretty well filled, the third member of our three seat group never showed, so the two of us had room to spread out, and Edie could even lie down to sleep.

Having flown to Atlanta from Washington, we were surprised when we looked at our route to Tel Aviv to see that the plane was going to return to Washington and leave the continental U.S. in mid-Delaware. This means that, in addition to the almost two our wait in Atlanta, we would have flown a total of three hours just to get where we started. In fact, the plane went a little south of DC and crossed into the Atlantic at about Newport News, but still......

I wondered what, if any, additional security we would have in Atlanta. And, in fact,w e had to go through the metal detector twice. When we flew from DC to Atlanta, our boarding passes stayed in tact. In Atlanta, they kept half and gave us half. By mistake, I gave the gate officer (at the second security entrance) the boarding pass to get us to Atlanta, not the one to Tel Aviv. What did he do? Point out my error? Arrest me? No. All he did was say 'thank you' and let me pass. Gives you confidence, doesn't it?

What characterizes a plane to Israel? My experience says, generally, chaos, with people sitting, standing, moving around, and especially playing with their hand held baggage. Put it under the chair. Good. No, take it out and put it above the seat. Fine. No, not there, move it further back; there may be more room. OK. No, that's too far back, bring it back here. If you want. Wait a minute, I need something from the bag; bring it down. No, never mind, I don't need it. And on and on.

The flight was fine, for an eleven and one half (but who's counting?) hour flight. They fed us three times. A meal, a breakfasty snack, and a lunchy snack. At 5 a.m. EST, the religious men on the plane (surprisingly few, maybe a dozen) did Schachreit in the vestibule where the breakfasty snacks were prepared, so they got first choice. (The yogurt went fast)

Towards the end of the flight, when it was clear that I had done all the dozing I was going to do, I watched a movie, "Volver" by the Spanish director who very long name begins with an A, and is written something like Almovodar. A young girl murders her pediophilic (I thought he was my) father, and her mother hides the body in the freezer of a friend's restaurant. Meanwhile, her aunt dies, who is totally mentally and physically incompotent, but who lives by herself in a big house, where she is apparently taken care of by her (she's supposed to be) dead mother. And then it turns out that her mother isn't dead (or Russian), but that she killed in an arson set fire her husband and his mistress, who was the mother of a close friend and neighbor, who everyone thought simply disappeared. And everyone (who is alive at the end of the movie) lives happily ever after.

So, we got to Tel Aviv early. Michael met us at the airport and announced he was sick. Yorem met us at the airport to pick up the camera equipment we brought for him, and by default got to drive us into Jerusalem, which is a long ride, to our hotel (which he seemed to have some trouble finding). That was very nice.

We went out for dinner. Turing left from the David Citidel Hotel past the Skirball Museum, the King David Hotel and the YMCA and stopping at a fish/dairy restaurant called Rosemary. The Greek salad that we split would have fed the Greek Army. The Bulgarian feta on the salad was Israeli. The trout was really what I call salmon trout and was quite good, but was served with another salad, 3 to 5 baked potatoes, a cooked tomato, a cooked yellow bell pepper, and a half of a roasted onion. Enough for the Turkish army too.

That was day number one.