The Radical Sabbatical: Israel (part 7)

January 22 through 25, 2023

"The purpose of life is to live it, to taste it, to experience to the utmost, to reach out eagerly and without fear, for newer and richer experience." - Eleanor Roosevelt

Eleanor was onto something there, and staying in Israel for 10 weeks (minus 3 for Amsterdam, Egypt, and Jordan) offered plenty of time for those experiences. Here are some final reflections on our time there and generally being a tourist in Israel.

1) Tel Aviv touts itself as a city that "doesn't do winter" and they're pretty much right about that. Much like southern CA, the weather was largely mild and there were always people on the beach, except for the very few days that it rained. I enjoyed skipping winter (for the most part 😊) during our stay.

2) Since Israel is pretty small as countries go, it was easy to see much of it in the time we had. I'm sure the locals would say you need even more time than that ("a lifetime!") but we did make our way around to most (if not all) of the major cities and sights. Jerusalem, Haifa, Tiberias, Rosh Hanikra, Eilat, Tel Aviv, Tzfat, Akko, Caesarea, and even a few places in the West Bank 😮.

3) The food was largely great but I will admit to hitting "falafel and shwarma fatigue" about halfway in. And I discovered that I like hummus but I don't love it 😒, and there was no shortage of that at every restaurant/meal (and an unspoken competition to be the best). I never quite got used to the drinking water (which is safe but not that tasty), but I was a big fan of the extensive desalination projects that Israel has going.

4) In my opinion, Israelis smoke way too much (cigarettes and vaping) and tragically most of the offenders are in their 20's (it is a young city/country). Maybe it's cultural but it was surprising and disappointing. My least favorite part of this was the amount of smoking that happened at shops and cafes 😬.

5) Tel Aviv is easy to get around by bus and on foot, but scooters and daredevil food delivery drivers sometimes made that harrowing. We made the right decision to not rent a car during our stay (except when Jeff came to visit and then I made him drive the whole time - and that was harrowing enough 😨).

6) I learned early on that every Israeli has an opinion on politics and the Palestinian situation. If you even asked a simple question (to taxi drivers, friends, strangers), you'd likely get an earful. I decided I learned more by listening that by offering my less-than-informed opinion 😐. It was interesting though to be in Tel Aviv when the 80,000+ person (peaceful) protest against the government happened (I was about 3 miles away from it, in my apartment) and to read the news reports about it. And I never felt unsafe walking around solo; in fact, many Israelis told us that the US seems a lot less safe than Israel these days, given the recent gun violence 😨

7) Favorite parts of the stay (for me) included wandering the markets (Carmel, Jaffa, Sarona) and the shopping districts. Even though we have no room for souvenirs, we certainly have room for small jewelry, right? I learned to bargain (which is not my strength) and found some beautiful items for gifts. I literally spent days doing this 😃.

8) Although I did my best to track down my Dizengoff connection, I was unsuccessful. The library leads went nowhere, the Tel Aviv University suggestions were unhelpful, and the genealogy society emails I sent were unanswered 😒. Alas. But I did have one opportunity to tout my famous connection when I came back from Jordan and the border agent asked if I had any family in Israel. He did raise an eyebrow (I'm pretty sure he was impressed 😎) when I mentioned Meir Dizengoff as a possible ancestor.

9) Speaking of unhelpful, we tried in vain to get travel vaccines in Israel (or a COVID booster!) for our upcoming travels to India and South Africa. I think their health priority is for their own citizens (understandable) but between the language barrier and the outdated information (3 clinics I found online did not exist in real life), I eventually gave up 😥. (This was also slightly problematic since Art dealt with chronic gout, toe pain, and intestinal issues during our stay 😟.) Ironically, we might have more luck in Turkey.

10) We kinda got used to the sticker shock (prices were incredibly high) in Israel but I never liked it. Why is a can of soda $3 at a normal grocery store? Why is cereal almost $8 a box? Why is a hamburger $25 and a simple falafel sandwich close to $15? Everything was about 2-3x what we were used to (even the Israelis agreed with us on that, and I believe Tel Aviv might actually be one of the most expensive cities on Earth 😨).

11) Our apartment turned out to be satisfactory if problematic. We determined that all of its flaws (no oven, mysterious puddles of water near the fridge, heating that didn't always work, no dryer, a portable 2-burner stove that mostly did the job) were balanced out by the superb location. I guess that's what you pay for... location location location. And the landlord was pretty responsive, even if I never met him in person 😆. The apartment did allow for making meals at home more often which helped me feel more balanced nutritionally, and although my exercise regimen has been negligible this trip, walking through countless cities has helped 🏃.

12) The proximity of Israel to Jordan and Egypt did make for nice side trips. I wish there were more peaceful close neighbors that I could have visited, although I'm not sure we would have had the time.

13) During our final days in Israel, we squeezed in some fun outings to Akko (so Art could see it too), Jerusalem (for a tour of an Orthodox Jewish neighborhood), the West Bank (for Art to do a podcast at an Orthodox guy's home), The Technion / Israel Institute of Technology (which had a cool cable car to reach it), and the Tel Aviv Sarona Market (which is similar to the Anaheim packing house). I even squeezed in one last massage (I found a place I liked and became a frequent customer) as well 👍

I still feel like there was more to see and more to say about Israel, but that's probably enough for now (and 13 is a good Jewish number to end on). Overall it was a successful and productive time (Art even finished 9 lectures for the Teaching Company, and played lots of backgammon!). We visited all the people we knew there (former students, backgammon friends, friends of friends, second cousins) and got a real taste of the country. I *almost* felt like a local... if I knew more Hebrew, I'd definitely feel like a local. There was certainly an assumption that everyone visiting should know some Hebrew, so we were lucky to even know how to read/speak a bit, and my knowledge of the numbers is now solid 👊.

Aside: I have not been reading nearly as much as I want to, partly because Catch-22 was such a slog (I was determined to make it through on this third try but it was not meant to be...). I finally gave up on it and read two other books (a novel set in India, and a math book about Poincare's Conjecture, oddly enough) that I found in a local thrift shop. Currently reading Heart of Darkness on my device, also a slow read but I think I'll manage to finish it 🤞

Final aside: I finally treated myself to new sneakers here... it was time (the old ones would not have made it around the rest of the world 👀)

Lehitraot, Deena and Art