Israel. July 22, 2021. Day 5. The Day Was Long; Some People Peed in the Bushes.

Well, last night was something. For some reason the air conditioning was set to go off every 45 minutes or so. I didn’t change anything, but I couldn’t figure out how to fix it. So basically, from like 12:30 on I was up every hour turning the air conditioning back on. Finally, at 5:20 that was it, and I was up. I did get in a ten-minute Yoga though, so that was good.

We had breakfast and boarded the bus. I almost boarded a bus with French people, which probably would have worked out better for me in the end.

Our first stop was Tzfat. We visited a Kabbalistic artist named David Friedman. He gave an interesting lecture on his art and then people bought stuff. I bought a magnet with a painting of the number 8 on it. He explained that the number is shmona in Hebrew, the same letters as neshama, the soul, and the neshama is infinite, just like the number 8 when you turn it sideways. I’ve always gravitated toward the number 8, so I figured why not get the magnet. He sold coloring books of his art which was cool, and people bought some actual art.

From there we walked around the old city of Tzfat, saw some ruins that were a few hundred years old, and had some time for shopping. I bought a few things.  I think the shop owners were just so grateful to have shoppers. We ended with a mini concert in Rav Yosef Caro synagogue. It was cute.

ancient mikveh in Tzfat

From there we traveled to lunch on the outskirts of Akko. I actually slept on the bus a little, which is rare. Lunch was standard Israeli fare, but with fantastic French fries that I inhaled. Then we drove 5 minutes to a kibbutz. I didn’t really listen. Finally, it was time for the long trip to Jerusalem.

fuel

We drove for about 2 hours, had a rest stop, and then drove another half hour and stopped at the JNF 9/11 memorial. This is the only memorial outside of the United States that lists the names of every person that died on 9/11. We had a ceremony there which was very nice.

Then the problems started.

We started driving out of the memorial, which is located in a park just outside Jerusalem, but had to stop when we got to a police jeep that had drove into a ditch from making too sharp of a right turn. The jeep was tilted and two people were stuck. They couldn’t move because if the weight shifted they could have turned over the jeep down the hill. We had to wait for firetrucks to come and sat there for almost 2 hours. It was pretty bad, and we were pretty late. A few women peed in the bushes.

We finally got to the Prima Kings, our Jerusalem hotel. This was supposed to be a free night, but it was already after 9 by the time we arrived. I decided to skip the group dinner at the hotel and venture out, so I walked from the hotel to Ben Yehuda. I stopped at Ann for kippahs, and then made my way to Mamilla. I bought Tzvi some vermouth on the way, because you can only buy it kosher in Israel. At Mamilla I tried to get a salad at Roladin, but they wouldn’t make me what I wanted. Café Rimon said they were too busy to do takeout, so I went to Arccaffee and got a salad to go.  Then I walked back to the hotel.

As I got back, around 11:30, Zohar texted asking if I wanted to go to Machane Yehuda, because it was “important to see the nightlife.” Well, I’ve only got one real free night in Jerusalem, so off I went. We ended up at Hatch bar where we got beers and wings, and then at Marzipan for dessert.

Now it’s almost 2:00 am, and I have to get up at 6:30.  Wonderful.