Israel

October 16-20, 2017.

October 16.

One of the benefits to working for an Israeli company based in New York is that every once in a while, they give us trips overseas.  In this case, as our company celebrated 10 years, they offered everyone in the company the chance to go to Israel for a week (four days for those of us in the Customer Service department, because of course).  Being in Customer Service not all of us could go, but I was one of the first people to sign up because there is no way I'm turning down a free trip to another country.  No way.  And because I got promoted within the department, I was essentially guaranteed a spot on the trip, which was only made better by the fact that my new friend at the company also happens to be Israeli, and insisted I go where she goes, and because she's been to far more interesting places than I have, I wasn't turning that opportunity down.  Plus she's really cool and we've become really good friends outside of a work environment.  Which essentially turned into us doing our own thing instead of whatever it was the company had planned for us.

So I got to work early on Friday morning, my little suitcase behind me, as I took the bus in since there was no way I was paying for parking for four nights.

When we left work we had a shuttle bus waiting outside the office on 7th Ave to take us into Newark Airport, and my friend and I, being the seasoned travelers we are, split from the group once we led everyone through security and grabbed sushi and drinks while we waited for our 10 o'clock flight to board.


October 17.

Landing at Ben-Gurion was of course intense, since it's literally the most secure airport on the planet, and the lines for immigration were insane.  There were times it looked like the guy at passport control was more in-depth in his checks and took five times longer than in other lines, and finally our entire group was waved through.  It turned out that one of my co-workers, being of (distant) Bangladeshi descent was taken for more intense interrogation, which delayed us for about an hour.  We were told by the coordinator that we should just leave anyway, that someone would get him after they were finished, and headed off to the hotel where we'd be staying, near the corporate offices outside the town of Petach Tikvah.

We ended up only having about an hour to get ready before we were supposed to head to the gala celebration at the harbor in Tel Aviv, but my friend and I had already decided we were going to play hooky and go get real Israeli food.  So we and another girl headed into Yafo (Jaffa) and sat down at a seaside restaurant, and ordered an entire day's worth of food.

After we ate, somehow we were able to not collapse from the food coma (after having subsisted on airplane food for the past 15 hours or so) and walked around Tel Aviv-Yafo, from the old section to the more modern business district.

When you decide to turn a corner and go up the stairs because it looks more interesting than the path you're on.

Skyline of Tel Aviv

One day I would like to go back and see Tel Aviv during the day, but our walk along the Mediterranean was absolutely stunning and lovely, especially since October is when it starts to get cold in New York, and it was still gorgeous in Israel.  That and I absolutely love long walks on the beach regardless.  We got back to the hotel at around midnight, after getting on a bus that took us to right around the corner from our hotel.

I had no cell service, so my connection was based on WiFi and whatever the GPS picked up from my pictures.

October 18.

We got up early in the morning to catch a 10 o'clock bus to the Dead Sea, where we'd be spending the next two nights.  The bus ride was full of top-40 radio, which I actually really enjoy for travels like this because of the memories I can create and associate with music, as well as Israeli coffee and rest stops, and lots of desert.  90% of Israel is probably desert.

The whole drive was stunning.  The Dead Sea itself was too; turning a corner and seeing this vast expanse of teal water and knowing you're coming into the lowest point on Earth and seeing Jordan across the expanse.

We pulled into the hotel, which was really more of a resort, and at lunch.  As soon as my room was ready, I changed into my bathing suit and rushed down to the water so I could actually experience what swimming in the Dead Sea was like.

For all you "pics or it didn't happen" people.

Turns out you don't "swim" so much as "float".  But my skin felt amazing afterwards because of the insanely high salinity and the fact that you're not walking on sand so much as lots and lots of salt crystals.

I really wasn't in much of a socializing mood after that, because being with lots of people really makes me grouchy, but we booked ourselves massages at a discount and it felt amazing.  Chilled in the hot tub, ate dinner, and decided we'd go with everyone else to the party being held at this random place in the desert, nestled among two hills.

They'd brought in world-class Israeli DJs, and of course because it's Israel there was a whole lot of partying and drinking (Israelis love to get drunk; it's legitimately a "thing").  I had way more fun than I was expecting to, and it was also cool to meet the Israeli members of my team who I normally only communicate with over online group messaging through work.  So that was fun.

Legit party in the desert.

Went to bed way too late, only to wake up five hours later, weirdly enough feeling rested, and ready to take on the day because my friend (my new travel buddy) and I were going to play hooky again and instead of doing activities in the desert, we were going to go to Jerusalem.

October 19.

We caught the bus within two minutes of standing at the bus stop, and made it into Jerusalem about two hours later.  The main bus station is towards the center of the city, and we walked to the light rail/tram stop that would take us into the Suk.  This part of Jerusalem reminds me a lot of Sevilla in the summer time; similar style of buildings and overall atmosphere, though the Suk was something completely different.  It's the classic Middle Eastern bazaar, filled with stalls and shops, and this tiny hummus place where aside from the seafood place from my first night in Tel Aviv, I had the best hummus I've ever had in my life.

Good morning, from my hotel room.

HUMMUUUUSSSSSS.

I seriously fell in love with Jerusalem.  It's hard because it's such a conflicted and complex city, being constantly at war, and it's only gotten worse with the recent decision to move the US Embassy there from Tel Aviv.  All the Israelis I've gotten to meet since I've been with this company are heavily against the move, and it's something they're familiar with and deal with every single day.  I will never be able to understand what they go through, but I will say that the one day I spent in Jerusalem made me so much more understanding of it.  Especially in talking with my Israeli friend while walking through the Temple Mount.  She keeps reminding me that it may have been relatively peaceful while we were there, it is not a safe place and tensions are always high.

What I prefer to take out of the situation however, is that people are resilient.  They can live in constant danger and fear for their lives, but their spirit will never waver or falter.  Even if Jerusalem is a literal battleground and may always be so, it was beautiful to see that it hasn't stopped people from living out their everyday lives, making a living, and being hospitable.  The merchants we spoke to were wonderful, kind, and trusting, and it kills me that so much brutality is going on among these people.

Jerusalem, and Israel, is a land of complexities and juxtapositions, much like how I've described India.  In Israel's case, it's a melting pot of people who don't always want to be a melting pot, as these are people who've been victims of circumstance and in many cases oppression of various forms.  The history of this region is so deep and complicated that it's hard to even scratch the surface, but my day trip there was so enlightening in so many ways and I know I only managed to experience a shaving of a Titanic-sized iceberg.

It's Easter Weekend as I'm writing this.

I seriously can't get over how absolutely beautiful Old Jerusalem is.

The Western Wall at the Temple Mount

The Dome of the Rock, one of the holiest sites in Islam outside Mecca

We kept walking through the old section around the Temple Mount, discussing current events and not-so-current ones, and just being overall fascinated with modern Israeli views and participating in cultural and historical conversations.  I learned so much that day that I'm still processing so much of the information.

Outside the Jaffa Gate

Facing the Jaffa Gate

We started to walk back to the train station, given that we're both people who enjoy walking through cities rather than trying to rush through everything.  I legitimately love walking especially if I don't have as much time, simply because it gives me the chance to truly experience a city and culture.  I get to see, feel, smell, and sometimes taste things I can't while in a car or bus or train.

It also ended up being a good thing we like to walk, since we came across an Orthodox protest that shut down the entire transportation lines into the central area.  The protest was against the recent Israeli Supreme Court ruling that not even the Orthodox community is exempt from compulsory military service anymore.

It made national headlines, and I was right in the middle of it.

All in all, I really fell in love with Jerusalem.  It's an ancient city of conflict stuggling with modernity.  I don't know if I'll ever be going back, but I will forever treasure the time I spent there.

October 20.

It was a crazy 72 hours, but it was time to leave.  We left at sunrise, having a two-hour drive to the airport, where trying to herd people onto a plane, many of whom had never been on a plane, or who hadn't been frequently, much less understood that as Ben-Gurion is the most secure airport in the world, there will be questions regarding security and travel.  It was going to happen.

I had a fun little moment going through immigration with the passport control guy, who saw all my stamps (on a new passport), and we struck up a conversation in Spanish.  Given that it was Israel (Israelis are notorious for being very rude and standoffish) and early in the morning, having a fun conversation in Spanish made up for the tensions being built in the group.

All in all, Israel was a blast.  It was the definition of a whirlwind trip, and I only got about 15 hours of sleep total, but it wasn't as tiring as I was expecting.  And instead of only doing group things and partying, I got to do what I love most, which was get up close and personal with the culture.

Which made the entire trip worth it.