Back on the ship, I realized that I heard more Russian spoken today than Hebrew. We must have been in the heart of Russian emigre land. They all looked and sounded like my grandmother. I also noticed a large number of Africans and Jewish Ethiopians. In fact, we rode through the “hood” on our one-hour bus trip from the port of Ashdod to Tel Aviv. As always, uniforms were everywhere. All young people have compulsory military duty here. With so much at stake for the Israelis everyone has to be fully trained and expect the worst. Uzis were everywhere. Security, as always, is tight. You can't enter a bus station, train station or shopping mall without being wanded and having your belongings searched. I'm all for it if it means they are secure and have a little peace in their lives. A child's balloon burst in the mall we were in today and everything stopped dead for a minute. It was quite a sight. A funny thing happened for the second time. Just like the other day in Italy, someone asked us for directions in Hebrew. Second time in a week. I guess we look like locals wherever we are. People were late in getting to the ship for the third time. I don't understand how they can be so inconsiderate and irresponsible. Tomorrow we will be in our second Israeli port, Haifa. No plans yet. We might just get on a train or bus and see where we end up.
Tuesday, May 31, 2011
Monday, May 30, 2011
Israel
I am sitting in a restaurant in Tel Aviv at the moment. Yesterday was a relaxing sea day and that was good because today we got a very early start. We took public transportation to Tel Aviv, walked around the city center and headed for the beach. It is a large, beautiful beach on the Med with white sand and hardly any waves. It is very clean, has a beautiful promende and goes on for miles and miles. The weather is perfect, sunny and about 80 degrees. After walking for a few miles we took a sightseeng bus for two hours. The city has grown so much since I was here last that I didn't recognize it at all. It has skyscrapers, beaches, beautiful residential neighborhoos and tons and tons of people visiting from all over the world. There is a section of beachfront condos that looks just like Miami Beach. It is a lovely, busy place with lots of vibrant life. Wonderful! Photos to follow.
Saturday, May 28, 2011
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