Arriving in Israel

My flight to Israel left Sunday afternoon. I few Czech Air and thought I would be one of the only people flying through Prague to Tel Aviv. Boy, was I wrong. My flight was full of orthodox Jews, both Israeli and American. Every other person was carrying a hatbox, many were also wearing tallit. Our flight arrived in Prague at 6 am local time. To fly to Isarel you have to pass through special security at the gate, which was not yet open. So I sat around as all the other Jews prayed, washed their hands and ate their kosher snacks from New York.

The other funny thing about the flight was the number of kosher meals served. I had ordered a gluten-free meal. The flight attendants came around with the “special meal” lists and kept trying to serve me a kosher meal. I had to keep correcting them and request my gluten-free meal. They figured it out, but it took a while. When they cleaned up, the kosher meals had to be collected separately which meant other passengers were really confused as to why their meal trays were still on their tables. I understood what was going on, and chuckled to myself.

When I arrived, the airport was insanely busy. I took a train to Tel Aviv and then a taxi to Sam’s apartment. The taxi drivers were trying to convince me to pay them a flat-fee instead of using the meter, which Sam had explicitly told me to do. I fought the taxi drivers and wound up walking to another area to take a taxi with a meter.

Sam showed me around her amazing apartment, which has three bedrooms, two bathrooms, a living room/dining room/kitchen area, a covered patio, balcony and rooftop balcony. She lives with two Israeli guys: Yonni, who is 21 and just got out of the army, and Shay, who is in his late 20s-early 30s and works at a restaurant at night. The apartment is in Jaffa (Yafo in Hebrew) which is considered a southern part of Tel Aviv and is much older than Tel Aviv. Tel Aviv was founded by people who moved out of Yafo.

Sam and I walked up to Tel Aviv to the beach. Her friend Daniela came and met us there. She took us back to here apartment which she’s leaving. It’s a one room place – practically a dorm room – on the ground floor. It had a kitchenette and bathroom, but I didn’t think the door was very secure and I don’t really want to live by myself. Then Sam and I went for hummus, which was delicious. Here you can eat hummus with a pita (not for me!) or people dip onion in it.