Day 20 – 23

On Saturday we had a party up at Kaddarim for the kids birthday / barmitzvah. Because only close family came to the temple for the bar mitzvah more extended family and friends were invited to come and bbq with us. It was fun – it was the last chance for me to spend time with the kids before I leave. We played poker and chess and rode around the kibbutz on bikes.

After the party Herbie drove us back to Tel Aviv and we stayed the night in a place Called Bat Yam – which by night is a bit dodgy but by day is really nice. Its right on the beach and theres lots of cafes and restaurants.

At about 11 Einav came again and together we went to some crazy bar cafe place where one of her friends were celebrating her 21st birthday. First you had to take off your shoes then you walk in and theres many low tables and nooks and crannys and lots of pillows and cushions to laze on. Next theres almost no white light except for a few candles here and there the whole place is dimly lit with black light so everything white glows! The tables are all painted so they glow neon and the menu’s are glowing too. I had a good time – unlike some occasions when the Israeli’s I meet in groups prefer to just talk hebrew with themselves I had a bit of conversation and it was a nice way to wind down the hectic day! We all left at a decent hour and Einav set off to the airport at 3am that morning for a flight to Barcelona for a vacation.

The next morning Mum and I had brekfast at a cafe on the beach then waited for Avi to come. After dropping mum in shiller I went back to Tel Aviv and just chilled. At about 4 I met up with Yoav and together we went to an awesome Hummous place that played non stop reggae music and sat and ate hummous and full. Yum. After eating we wandered over to a rally that was being held in a public square in Tel Aviv by Sudanese refugees to Israel to highlight the genocide that has been taking place in Darfur for a long time with little to none international coverage of the issue. We hung out there for a while and enjoyed the atmosphere and sat in solidarity and listened to music. After that we took a tour of Sheinken which is a street roughly comparable to Krd in Auckland or Brunswick St in Melbourne. Once the cultural hub of the city and now dotted with Nike Town and McDonalds – although interestingly enough I disovered that Starbucks opened here a few years ago and actually didnt survive!! Thats a first. The tiki tour took us to a pool hall where we met with Michal and played pool – I won some lost some then Michal and I paired up and kicked Yoav and Matzi’s asses. Very satisfying. After some investigation of gig guides we went to a bar nearby and saw a band play which was actually lots of fun. A hot chocolate later and I was so tired I crawled home and slept like a baby.

This morning I went out to get a Jerusalem Post (a newspaper in english) and boy it was hot! And it was only 9.30 in the morning. After a coffee Avi and I went for a swim at a beach in Tel Aviv – water was actually quite cold but very nice on such a hot day. After an hour we moved down the road a bit to another beach where some friends of Avi’s were sitting – Yossi is the son of Beni the Fisherman and is a hilarious kind of character – he insited we drink much vokda with red bll and forced a few shots on us too. I was downing the water as fast as I could or else I’d really be toast in the middle of the sun. Every 20 minutes or so you need to jump in the water and get yourself wet or else you die of heat stroke pretty much.

Later that night I visted Shuki and the kids one last time and helped them shower (which was a very wet affair I must add!) and then played guitar for them while they fell asleep. I can’t wait to be back to see these kids again I really love them with everything I got. Shuki, Tali and I sat and talked for awhile about how the journey was for me and what feelings came up. After a quick supermarket visit I came back and fell asleep.

This morning on the last day after the obligitory coffee in the morning Avi and I set of on what would be a 3 hour sivuv (tiki tour) to find shoes for me – I originally wanted some replacement chucks for my tatty pair but found some other ones instead. Also went round one of the markets and had a squizz. We ended up in another food joint (avi definately knows the best) and had Sabich which is hard boiled egg and potato and eggplant and salad all in a pita pocket.

Now we’re sitting around on Shiller soon to go to airport to leave this place for two days in Thailand!

Lehitraot!

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We hung in Be’er Sheva for a few hours yesterday and I just played with the kids and took Yaam for a bike ride around the block. After a yummy lunch we set off back to Tel Aviv. I got dropped off in Derech HaShalom where mum was staying because the daughter of Mum’s friend Sharon, Dana, who had stayed with us when traveling in NZ, was having her 26th Birthday party that night. It was fun – I was feeling a bit tired so it was quite hard meeting people that didn’t speak English very well but Dana and Inbal looked after me well. Then some random kooky guy just walked in off the street and I didnt know that he was a stranger and he started talking to me and he would always stand really close to you with some bizarre lack of personal space and he told me his conspiracy theories about the ’secret biological army base’ across the road. After a few hours of this my dad came and picked me up and we just went home and crashed.

This morning we went to Beni’s house in Herzliya and went for a swim in the pool there which was great – and then one of the lifeguards got his guitar out and we played for a while and he taught me a thing or two – about music, life in Israel and Hebrew – he was an awesome guy! After the swim we ate a bit of food at Beni’s restaurant then we tried to fish in the Marina with no luck and eventually a cheeky fish stealing the whole hook!

When we got back to Dizengoff we went and saw No Country for Old Men – which is bloody intense by the way – and then came home afterwards and watched Forest Gump – such a great movie!

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Wow so the last few days were full on! I had so much fun though – I think one of the biggest reasons I love being in Israel is having so much family around – if you are brought up with them all around its just there and you can get used to it. When you haven’t coming back to it is intense at the beginning but so natural and real and comforting.

Yesterday we all drove down to Nahalal (where my grandma’s other sister lives – Chava) and to a nearby restaurant where many people were converging for my grandma’s 80th. Slowly more and more people arrived and it was so amazing to meet them! People came who have such interesting stories of how they are connected to my family. A friend who studied at the same hospital as my grandma in Israel 60 years ago!! And also this awesome family who are the children of two brothers who my grandma and her sisters grew up with because they’re mother fell in love with the two brothers father and they became like step-brothers. Fast forward 60 years and the two brothers have had 5 children between them – and they are so awesome! And they love us so much and two of them used to babysit me when I was really little and I couldn’t speak properly so I used to add a “P” before their names and the nicknames stuck and they still use it today!!

Anyway after a huge meal including many en tree’s and a main and dessert and lots to drink and a speech from my uncle chuck and lots of talking heaps of us went back to Nahalal for coffee. Nahalal is really interesting it was the first Moshav in Israel. To explain what a Moshav is I have to explain the notion of settlements briefly. The entire country of Israel today except for the few big cities is comprised of hundreds of settlements all fairly close to each other – which is weird because except for in the desert you can’t drive for more than like 5 minutes in any direction anywhere without being in a settlement or an Arabic village. There are different kinds of settlements some of them are just villages some of them are Kibbutizim and some of them are Moshav which is basically a circular village of houses where everyone owns a plot of land that extends outwards (see photo).

That evening we went over to the village where Tamar lives. On a spiritual village called Harduf. We sat and played music and drank tea for a few hours then we headed home with my delirious second cousin in the back seat. She’s learning English and I’m learning Hebrew so we’re helping each other out a bit.

This morning after a walk around Nahalal we went up to visit my mums cousin Yuval at his home in Avtalyon, such a beautiful place that has an exquisite view or the north. They want to get out of Israel so mum and him are talking about doing a house swap for a year! After eating and talking for a few hours I dropped the girls off back at Nahalal and then I drove back to Kaddarim where I’m gonna stay for then next two nights.

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