Israel. Summer 2022. Day 6. I'm Exhausted.

Last night wasn’t bad.

I took a bath, had my food, and sat outside for a while. It was nice to watch people walking and I also heard music from the First Station across the street. Around 10 I thought I should get in bed, but I picked up a book. Well, two hours later it was midnight and I decided to stop. Problem was, I couldn’t fall asleep. I don’t know when I ended up falling asleep, but next thing I knew I woke up and thought I might as well check the alarm clock and was shocked to find it was 10:17! I hopped out of bed and ran down to breakfast. Didn’t want to miss my last breakfast! I brought my book to breakfast so it wasn’t so lonely.

After breakfast I went to the pool. It was packed, but I managed to get a day bed. I noticed that they replaced some of the stupid uncomfortable chairs that are under the umbrellas with actual lounge chairs, but those were all full, so I sat  on my day bed, read my book, and tried not to get sunburnt. I went in the pool a couple of times. It’s interesting that it really is mostly Israeli here. Maybe one or two American families, but that’s it. And that’s basically how I spent my day.

At one point I was able to switch from a bed to a lounge chair that had an umbrella. By 4 o’clock I had made it through two books and two magazines. I ate some carrots, challah, and hummus, and around 4:30 I left the pool to change because I was going to walk to the Kehats, our family friends. Well, I walked, but no one answered the door. I waited around for a while just in case they took a walk, but nothing. Ends up they were sleeping. Oh well.

I got back to hotel and actually went down to check out the Turkish spa. I walked in, got a towel, saw that there were people in the spa, and walked out. As I was walking out the lifeguard was like “yea, too many people.” I nodded. This was the same lifeguard who was watching The Notebook on his phone last trip.

The next couple of hours were kind of lonely, but I packed, showered, sat on the balcony, and soon shabbat was over! About 2 minutes before shabbat was over someone knocked at the door asking if I was checking out because I was supposed to at 8. I told him I had paid for late checkout and had until 9. Sheesh.

I checked out, met my driver Avner, and was off to the airport! Avner is the taxi driver who always sends a car that’s one size too small, so I was actually expecting him to show up with a motorcycle this time, but thankfully he came with his SUV that easily fit my very heavy bag.

The airport was crowded, but not packed. The lines were long, but not awful. When I got to the counter the woman told me “you know, your bag is very heavy.” I said yep, and handed over my credit card. Remember when I was underweight at only 44 pounds coming here? Well, I managed to pick up an extra 20 pounds of stuff.

The security line was longgggg, but it moved. I made it through with 10 minutes until boarding, or so I thought…

I was really looking forward to getting Aroma at the airport because I was starving, but it was closed! So, I had to get a generic tuna sandwich at a stand. It was sad. Then I went to the gate where I met Einav. She is now training to work at the gate (in addition to the check in counter). I told her this is where you get the worst of the complaints, so good luck.

Boarding time came and went. Nothing was happening because a Turkish Air flight was at our gate and wasn’t moving. Eventually they changed our gate and everyone had to move. Einav said it was like Yitziat Mitzrayim. Once we were at our new gate it was going to be a little while because they had to do everything again. At this point I saw someone who looked familiar. Her name is Samantha and she works in the JNF Philadelphia office. We had just been at the Northeast Retreat together. I said hello and we spoke a bit. You always find someone you know.

We finally got on the plane and I’m again in the bulkhead (this time courtesy of Einav who switched me from my regular economy plus seat to the bulkhead). My assigned seat was an aisle, but I asked a flight attendant if I could switch to a window that was empty. She said I could switch after takeoff. Yay! The guy in my new aisle though seemed very serious and not thrilled that I was there, but the middle was empty. Also, the armrests don’t go up so it’s not like he could have laid down. Right?

The flight was fine. I slept a bit but was up and down. I watched JLO’s new documentary Halftime which was pretty good.

Finally we landed! Getting back into the country was no problem AND I got my luggage! Thanks El Al for doing what you’re supposed to do. I hopped in an Uber and that’s it!

Great trip. Short trip. I’m exhausted.