Monday Night!!! Dinner in the Yemenite Quarter of Tel Aviv

Our group dinner was fantastic! Our group is fantastic actually!!! It reminded me of a group dinner we had on a vacation that began in Puerto Rico…We were upstairs and able to relax totally and freely interact with our new-found friends and fellow travelers. 10 people from my small temple in this group of 24 we had at dinner was so cool! And we have many Rabbi’s and Cantorial Soloists and many people, like me, who are first-timers to Israel and who have wanted to come “forever” too! We don’t even have to elaborate on that, just say and and smile and we totally understand what that means.

As soon as I saw our tables, dressed with hummus, tabouli, felafel, something called “cigars” which were so like “lumpia” I was shocked, and delicious olives and fresh pita and pitchers of water, fresh lemonade and grapefruit juice, and opened bottles of wine, I thought of my sister and nieces who would LOVE noshing on these “appetizers” with me! For us, this would have been more than a meal! But, after we ate all that, they brought us brimming plates of fresh cut and cooked “french fries”! I admit I didn’t eat any of those (I was fairly full of hummus and some other new interesting spicy egg plant dish as well as baba ganoush!), and then we each received two long hot scewers of chicken chunks, that were delicious and moist (yep, I ate that!). Finally they served us fresh and oh so sweet sliced seedless watermelon that was so ripe and juicy it was richer than any desert I could have though of wanting! And ended with a cup of hot water, steeping fresh mint leaves to which we added our own teabag to our own strength, and sipped and enjoyed the end of our evening dinner together!

As we walked back to our bus, the honking horns of cars and scooters up the alley sounded almost as though we’d expected it! It had a familiar sort of ring to it. It was really odd however, that the frustrated scooters, stuck behind cars who couldn’t maneuver up the alley quick enough for all the parked cars, us walkers and the plentiful cats (although none of them were really blocking traffic–I just wanted to mention that there were cats everywhere; on car roofs, awnings, banisters, mini balconies–you name it!), were on cell phones! I can’t figure out how they heard who they were talking to/with as the scooters were not exactly quiet!

I’m having trouble sleeping…which is why I’m writing that at 8pm “home time” which is 3am here in Tel Aviv. AND GUESS WHAT?!?! EASTENDERS, one of my favorite shows from when we lived in UK, is on TV here! In English with Hebrew Subtitles ~~ big smiles on my face here!

Back to this evening. Our first FREE TIME to roam…what to do after dinner in Tel Aviv. Our newly refurbished and, in my opinion rather posh hotel, The Dan Tel Aviv is located right on the Mediterranean Sea! So my friend Beryl and I had a fabulous walk along The Mediterranean Sea!!! It had a familiar feeling to other beach fronts I’ve walked on vacation with restaurants and clubs lining the road and walkers and runners lining the beach side; but the restaurants were Kosher and everything in Hebrew and it was just so cool! And as we walked up the street after our lengthy “walk about the big block”, we passed a Hookah Bar and several other clubs, one even offer us “ladies” a free shot if we’d come in! Beryl and I politely declined and chuckled at the offer.

We stopped at the local beverage, snack and lottery shop and bought some water and went to the bank machine for our first NIS (New Israeli Shekels). I withdrew 400 in NIS from my bank account and just found out that it cost me $103.55, which pretty good I think!

Well I’m off to fall back asleep to Eastenders! It will take me another night I think to adjust to the time change! Big day for Tuesday, experiencing Independence Hall and the history of Israel’s independence; and later volunteering at a food mission, but from “gleaning the fields, to those in need of food” and I’m really looking forward!