We had been invited to attend the wedding of a friend's daughter in Israel. Being so close (geographically, at least), we were excited by this opportunity to visit another country and experience another culture. I had visited Israel as a teenager, but Craig had never been before. This was another rare opportunity - to visit someplace I had more familiarity (barely) with than he did.
First, I will point out that it is not possible to fly directly from Abu Dhabi to Israel for reasons that I will not go into here. We had booked our travel on this trip using Turkish Airlines, so our flight to Tel Aviv included a layover in Istanbul. We took a red-eye flight out of Abu Dhabi and arrived in Tel Aviv some 9 hours later.
We had been warned that Israeli passport control may take some time, particularly given our most recent trip and Craig's various passport stamps and visas. I do not clearly recall entering Israel on my previous trip because I had taken a bit too much dramamine on my first international flight. But I do remember the Israeli security in the airport leaving on that trip - in large part because my parents had varied responses to the question of whether our party had been together* throughout our trip, which had rather dramatic effects on the officers until the misunderstanding could be cleared up.
So we were prepared to be honest, direct, and patient. In the event, this proved to be largely unnecessary. When asked about previous trips to Israel, Craig said that I had been before but he had not. When I gave the date of my previous trip, the woman laughed and told me that didn't count because Israel had changed so much since then. Craig was asked whether his multiple trips to the UAE were for business or pleasure, but when he responded "business" there were no additional questions. She did say, in passing,** that she was surprised he had not asked her not to stamp his passport (as this could cause problems returning to certain countries), but Craig simply laughed and said that he "knew that she would not" because we had researched this issue.
Indeed, she did not stamp our passports. We were given instead a small piece of paper to keep with our passports until we left. I'm not sure if the photo is from my passport or from that day, as I put my hair in braids for both my passport picture and travel. I took a picture of my passport and card together:
We collected our multitude of bags and set out into the airport. I did have one moment of relief that we were not questioned about our four day stay in Israel with our accompanying six checked bags, two carry on bags, and two backpacks. Despite the obvious answer that we had recently been living out of our suitcases, I think this might, at least, have raised a few more questions.
It was a bit of a struggle to find a taxi that could accommodate all our bags, but we soon set off for our hotel. Traffic was far more like that in Los Angeles than what we had grown accustomed to in the UAE. That is, until we came upon the reason for the delay - a motorcycle was pulled over, not entirely on the shoulder for reasons that will become obvious in this description, because the driver was attempting to move a full sized refrigerator on the back. To make this scenario even more absurd, the appliance was strapped to the back of the motorcycle sideways, with the result that the vehicle was wider than it was long. Unfortunately, I was unable to get a picture of this insanity as our driver maneuvered around it.
Not unexpectedly, our room was not ready when we arrived at the hotel so early in the morning. We checked our bags with the bellhop and made our way to the breakfast buffet. I tried to sample as much as possible:
And I got the first of many wonderful lattes (we were at this hotel for only four breakfasts, but the staff knew our coffee and water orders on the second day):
We were fighting, not jetlag, but simple exhaustion. We had flown through the night, with little opportunity to sleep. We did manage to go out for lunch before collapsing in our room and taking naps.
One of the stories Craig had heard from my previous trip was about the falafel we had in Israel. My parents had taken my little brother and I to visit my sister, who was living and working in Israel at the time. We had arrived in Haifa, gotten checked into our hotel, and someone suggested that we should get something to eat. My sister asked if we would like to try falafel. To our great surprise, my father responded enthusiastically to this suggestion.
For those who don't know, my father is not known as an adventurous eater. As I recall this trip, my mother made and packed sandwiches for lunch each day and my dad frequently picked up something at McDonald's on our way back to the hotel in place of whatever the rest of us had eaten for dinner.
We arrived at the falafel stand and my sister eagerly explained the options available and made suggestions as to what we might like. In my memory, she ordered me a fairly plain version without any vegetables because I was at that point in life where any greenery is objectionable. My father patiently examined the offerings before he complained, "but where are the waffles?"
So, of course, we had to try falafel in Israel. Craig has never enjoyed the fried balls of ground chickpeas that we've tried in the States. But he is rather more adventurous about food than my father, so he was quite excited to give it a try. He found a highly rated falafel stand within easy walking distance of our hotel.
He loved it! So much, that we went back again another day. Pictured above is Craig's, as I enjoyed mine without pickles or peppers. Straying only slightly from my earlier experience, I did have some of the cabbage on mine.
*On one day of our trip, my younger brother had an upset stomach that prompted him and my mother to stay in the hotel while my father and I continued the planned sightseeing with my sister. One of my parents interpreted "been together" quite literally and said we had not been together the entire time. The other parent interpreted "been together" as something more along the lines of "no one disappeared without us knowing where they went" and said that we had been together the entire trip. This inconsistency in answers made us very glad the my sister had sent us to the airport with plenty of time to clear security before our flight.
**Given my previous experience and everything I have read about Israeli security, I do not actually believe that anything is said or asked "in passing" or by chance. Instead, I believe that his answer did not warrant further investigation.
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