Israel. Day 3. We Ate the Whole Waldorf.

Shabbat was lovely.

I think it was supposed to start at like 4:50, but that was the early Jerusalem time so really add some minutes and add some MORE minutes and THEN shabbat started. My dad walked over from Mamilla to go to shul at the Waldorf (because it seems Mamilla is doing everything to keep OUT the religious Jews, including not having davening). Tzvi, Hallie and I went downstairs closer to 6 where we met Gabriella and her friend Hannah in the elevator. We were sitting in the lobby when I saw Jamie Geller again walking around with her kids. This time I went up to her. She was so sweet and we had a nice conversation about mutual friends (whatsup Grant), honey garlic brisket, and great Israel hotels.

For dinner we were seated at a very nice long table in the restaurant. The place was so packed that they seemed to be using the entire restaurant and the central lobby area for diners. After some difficulty figuring out seating we we made kiddush and the meal began. I should just stop there because I don’t know if the meal actually ended. It could still be going on for all i know. Hannah and Sam Cohen (boys and gabs family friends from home) joined us for dinner which was very nice. There were like 5 salads on the table when we sat down, all fresh and very good. Then we ordered, which took a while.

Actually, i should just say everything took a while.

I started out with beets, onion and zucchini stuffed with meat and rice. Then we all had chicken soup which was bland but decent when you added salt. For the main most of us had veal ribs, which were basically like short ribs. When she brought mine it was about half the size of everyone elses and all fat, so we sent it back. I then got a monstrous one and it was delicious. For dessert they brought a chocolate ball thing that had caramel or lemon cream in it and then also a lemon dessert that wasn’t a tart but had some sort of cookie bottom. Both were pretty good. Tzvi couldn’t eat the lemon thing becuase of nuts, but one of the servers did drop one on him. He said something to the manager and asked about having the shirt laundered. The manager was very apologetic, took him to reception and arranged to have the shirt cleaned free of charge. Hopefully no one gets fired.

After that we made the mistake of asking for tea, so that was another half hour. As we were finishing the desserts we told the waitress we were still waiting for the tea and she told us, ‘yes, I know, I’m just clearing the plates.’ So I guess they consider tea a separate course and you’re not allowed to have more than one course at a time. I think we got back to the room at 10:30, and by that I mean we rolled back to the room.

I gave Hallie Melatonin and she slept well. We all slept well and didn’t wake up until 9:30, which was amazing.

Shabbat morning we got up and went to breakfast. It was pretty much the same except certain hot foods were missing and you couldn’t order a la carte. I was still so full from the previous night that I could barely eat. I don’t think anyone went to shul. Hallie hung out with Avery and Gabriella a bunch and we didn’t do much all morning.

We finally left the Waldorf around 12:45 to go to the David Citadel for lunch (again, Mamilla doesn’t have a shabbat lunch, so we were eating at the sister hotel). Obviously we were there before my parents. We were seated at this amazing large round table with super comfortable chairs. Problem was we were right near a big set of open glass sliding doors that led out to the food area and created a draft, so we made them close the doors, but then every time Tzvi went to get something for the rest of the meal he’d leave the door open and we’d all freeze. Lunch overall was pretty good. Great salads and vegetables, solid cholent and chicken, good kugel, and decent dessert. We ate well.

After lunch as we were heading downstairs, our family friend Abby was walking in to meet us. Tzvi had walked Hallie around and she fell asleep, so we all sat in the lobby and talked for a while. Tzvi fell asleep on the couch. It seems many people just go to hotel lobbys and fall asleep on couches, but dressed well. A literal interpretation of homeless chic. Anyway, we all split up an hour before shabbat ended and agreed to touch base after.

We bathed Hallie and got dressed to go out. After some texting, we decided on Tachana HaRishona (the first train station), where there is a bunch of restaurants and shops. We didn’t decide where to go but said we would meet there. Tzvi mentioned a crepe place he saw online that looked interesting. We got ready to go and went downstairs to get a cab. We texted my parents and asked if we should walk over to Mamilla to cab with them, but they said “better get a cab from Waldorf.” Then we texted Avery and Gabriella to ask if they wanted us to wait for them, but they said they were already with my parents.

We took a cab to the station and walked around a bit. We still hadn’t heard from anyone else so we kept walking around. We walked all the way to the end of the station where we found the carousel closed, which made Hallie really sad. She actually said, “I’m sad the horsies are closed.” We’re going to need to find her a carousel to go on because she went on and on about the horsies all night. It had been a while and we still hadn’t heard anything from my parents or Avery or Gabriella, so we texted them and discovered they were at the crepe place.

Before bringing Hallie in, I went to the crepe place and asked about nuts and found out that Hallie couldn’t eat anything, so that was a bust. We decided to just get Hallie pizza, and that’s what everyone decided on. We ended up at an Italian place called Fiori. Hallie had pizza, I had pasta with broccoli and garlic, and Tzvi had eggplant parmesan. The food was fine. My parents and Avery and Gabs spent the meal talking about their upcoming trip to Eilat (that we’re not going on), so that was stimulating.

After we ate we decided to go back to the crepe place for dessert. There was a band playing live music, but only a smattering of people gathered to watch. Tzvi took Hallie and sat in the front row. She loved it. She says she wants to learn drums, but guitar is her favorite. Maybe she’ll be a music prodigy (although it’s probably already too late for that). The band was a Shlomo Artzi cover band (we don’t know who that is, but the singer of the cover band said he’s the Israeli Bruce Springstein). It was pretty good. My crepe was okay. We got Hallie a cup of whipped cream, so she was happy.

After the crepes we decided to walk back to the hotel because it wasn’t that far, but we forgot it was a lot of uphill. Once back we put Hallie to sleep and then Tzvi went down to the lobby bar to use the vouchers they gave us for free drinks when we checked in. For some reason all of the bartenders are American. Tzvi ordered an old fashioned for himself and some fruity thing for me called a Russian River Punch. The bartender made my drink in a plastic to-go cup with a straw because they’re not supposed to let people take glassware out of the bar, but then he said he made Tzvi’s old fashioned in a real glass because he just couldn’t make it in plastic because it would hurt his pride.

Tzvi brought the drinks back to the room, we took a bath, and then went to sleep.

Tomorrow we’re off to Herzliya!