Israel 2023. Chapter 6: The Orient Rooms 317 and 319.
Where did we leave off? We had just settled into our new room.
I walked madeleine until she fell asleep and Inbar took Hallie to the pool. Tzvi sat and did work and then I went with Rachel and my mom to do a little shopping. We went to some random store and then we went to Mamila where I did some shopping at Strativarius, which is one of my favorite stores and I don’t think it’s in America.
Then we went to dinner. Not that any of us were hungry. Dinner was at Hamotzi, which is the perfect name for a post-Pesach dinner. The food was North African and apparently the chef is a well-known Israeli chef who was on MasterChef (or some similar Israeli show). Everything was delicious. We started with pita and salatim, maakoud (fried leek and potato fritters), felafel and humus, fried cauliflower, roasted eggplant and chicken pastille. For the main we shared a bunch of dishes that were all really interesting and unique – boulettes (Algerian meatballs with rice), lamb tffiya araias (pita stuffed with lamb), entrecote moufleta (a sandwich stuffed with steak, honey and almonds), and the best dish of the night, “shachama and bsala” (asado crumbled with challah, tehina and salted caramel. Dessert was the weakest part – we shared some chocolate cigar thing, semolina cake and honey cookies.
Austin and Rachel had to run out of dinner because they were headed to the airport. Tzvi and Inbar took the girls back to the hotel, while my dad and I went to get the car from Mamila. We took the light rail but I couldn’t get a ticket for myself because my dad’s rav kav would only pay for one ticket, so I was riding without paying. A ticket man got on and started walking through checking tickets, except he stopped right before he got to me. Lucky. Then we found the car in the parking lot but couldn’t figure out how to put the ticket in the machine to get out of the parking lot, but eventually we figured it out. Rough night for me and tickets.
It took a while to get the kids to bed. When they did, I went to the gym, and then that was it. It was a nice day. With only two days left, things are finally going well!
Spoke too soon.
At about 1am, all of a sudden we heard Madeleine crying. We ran into her room and found her sitting up and vomiting in bed. We almost made it two weeks without any sickness, but I guess this was bound to happen. She clearly had a fever, so we gave her Motrin and brought her into our bed. Tzvi enjoyed the cuddles, but that man can sleep on a stoop. I, cannot. Not a great sleep.
Madeleine woke up Friday morning ok, so we gave her Tylenol and headed down to breakfast. At breakfast she mentioned her ear was bothering her, so once we heard that it was straight to Terem (urgent care)! I took Inbar with me to have a native speaker (though after that winery incident, I question Inbar’s fluency). We checked in and the man told me it was going to cost 480 shekel, to which I said okay. We waited a few minutes before the nurse took us in to take vitals etc. Madeleine was actually in a good mood and was super cute. We then went to see the doctor who was an older Arab man. I will say the rooms were not the cleanest. You know the paper they have on exam tables? Well, that wasn’t clean, and they looked at me weird for asking to change it before having Madeleine sit on it. Anyway, he said her ears may be a bit red, and said we can get antibiotic drops, but didn’t truly think it was infected. We went to Superpharm next door and got the drops anyway.
I called Tzvi to see where they were and he told me they had just purchased dried fruit for 508 shekalim. That’s 28 shekalim more than the doctor visit.
We left to meet Tzvi and Hallie at the Shuk, and started our quest for lunch. Tzvi was all upset because he wanted a burger from Crave but I didn’t want meat (because its Friday afternoon and also I wanted an Ice Café), so he was upset that I wouldn’t eat. It was all very annoying. Finally he agreed to sit down at Crave. Inbar and Tzvi got burgers, Hallie got chicken nuggets, and we shared fries. Madeleine slept in the stroller. Mid meal, Hadas, the Sheirut Leumi girl pre COVID came to visit! It was nice to see her. She’s getting married like, today. Or tomorrow.
Madeleine woke up in a terrible mood and clearly with fever, but she wanted a few gummies so I gave her some. We walked down to Café Ne’eman where we picked up.a Babka, some pastries, and coffee that was delicious. We said bye to Hadas and got in a cab to my parents. Midway through the ride Madeleine starts crying and that’s when I knew. I quickly got a plastic bag out and she vomited into it. She was pretty stealth about it but the driver knew and missed a turn so it ended up taking like ten minutes longer than it should have. Magically no one was dirty.
We stayed at my parents a bit. Madeleine fell asleep and Tzvi and Hallie and Inbar went back to the hotel. Tzvi took Hallie to the tachana across the street and they rode the carousel and ferris wheel.
When Madeleine woke up she wanted a strawberry and some water, so she ate one. At that point we called Dr. Schlussleberg who told us there was a virus going around (yes, in Israel) and keep her hydrated. Well, a few minutes after that I was holding her, she started crying, and vomited everywhere. She started to my left, then to my right, and then right in my face and in my mouth. I don’t even know how I handled it, I really don’t. I just kind of stood there while my mom was laughing. I will say I am super thankful that it was really a candy-based vomit. Too much?
At that point we were all covered in vomit so I bathed Madeleine in my parents’ bathroom and put her in a shirt from my mom. I had my dad drive us back to the hotel and I immediately went into the shower. We gave madeleine Motrin and prepared for shabbat.
Shabbat dinner was at my parents. Inbar brought her best friend Lee, and my mom invited their apartment designer. It was a very nice, long, meal. Babka was amazing. Wine was awful. (The night we arrived at the Residence Tzvi stopped at a little market and bought a bottle of wine because he figured he’d need it to get through a few nights there. The wine was so cheap, I think the roll of paper towel we bought cost more than the bottle. Anyway, we left the Residence before we could drink it, but let’s just say the wine would’ve been on par with the accommodations.) Thankfully Madeleine was doing so much better. We walked home and had an uneventful sleep. It must have been like a 36-hour bug or something because the next morning we gave her Tylenol and she was totally fine from then on. Our last breakfast was great. We walked to the park in the morning and for lunch my parents met us at the orient. The lunch was delicious, and we were happy we were able to have one fancy meal at the orient. We did some packing in the afternoon, Hallie played with her friend, and we sat by the pool a little. It wasn’t nice enough to swim, but it was nice to sit out.
Shabbat ended around 8ish and Inbar took the girls for one last ride on the carousel across the street before we left to the airport at 9:15.
It was the same driver as last year, but luckily Hallie didn’t have to sit in the front row like last year. The airport was crowded, but not worse than we expected. At one point a woman took us off the line to check in so that was nice. Checking the car seat took an extra 15 minutes which was ridiculous. Once through, we had to have our midnight aroma. The line was super long but it was worth it. We got on the plane and were seated behind Matt Weider! We went to college with him. He’s a retina specialist now.
Overall the flight was nice, lots of crying babies, but at least the kids slept. I did not.
The End.