After a year and half, I am back here, blogging another adventure. Now I am with a third travel companion who is not even 17 months of age, but has already proven to be a great backpacker. Our daughter Julia was super excited to get on that plane today. And even though this is her second big trip - we went to Brazil when she was 10 months old - she was absolutely in love with the plane!
We left Toronto at 6:45 pm local time. The trip was good, but Julia was able to sleep only for 4 hours and the rest of the 11 hours flight, she seemed to have the energy of a power plant. Here she is playing with papai at about 3am, Toronto time.
Israel has been in our plans for a long time. Ever since I backpacked through Europe 15 years ago and I unsuccessfully tried to get in Syria, I wanted to go back. At that time, the idea was to visit Syria, Lebanon, Jordan, Israel, Egypt and go back to Europe through Cyprus, but it didn't happen. So, here we are, in the Middle East, starting with Israel, but hopefully we"ll go back to visit the other countries soon.
Here is the beautiful Ben Gurion Tel Aviv Airport. We are so excited to be here, but the time difference is 6 hours and I have slept less than 2 hours on the plane. I feel like I just had a baby all over again (sleep deprived).
I feel like taking a photo of all the signs, including advertising. Even though they are just street signs, the writing here looks really pretty to me. I am sure I will get used to it in a couple of hours.
Our first impression of Tel Aviv is of a modern, clean and busy city. We arrived on Friday early afternoon, just before Sabbath, which means that traffic was crazy, with everybody rushing home for the weekend.
From Wikipedia: Sabbath or a sabbath is generally a weekly day of rest or time of worship observed in Abrahamic religions and other practices. Many viewpoints and definitions have arisen over the millennia. The term has been used to describe a similar weekly observance in any of several other traditions; the new moon; any of seven annual festivals in Judaism and some Christian traditions; any of eight annual pagan festivals (usually "sabbat"); an annual secular holiday; and a year of rest in religious or secular usage, originally every seventh year.
After after we were settled in our two bedroom apartment (about 120 dollars a night) we went straight to the grocery store across the street. Again, it was super busy, since most of the business close here at around 3pm on Friday and only reopen Saturday evening. We got fruits, vegetables, breakfast food and it cost us about the same as it would cost in Toronto. Then we dropped the bags at home and ran to the beach! BTW, we are staying a block away from this paradise!
Julia was absolutely in love with the place. You can see the energy of the sand and the sea working on her. Even though we were exhausted from the long trip, we all found strength to run around in the sand and enjoy every second of it.
How I miss the beach! Having grown up in Florianópolis, an island in the south of Brazil, the ocean was my backyard. I can't explain the happiness I feel when I smell the sea and feel the sand between my toes. But I can tell that I've passed that to my little one's DNA.
Just to make my friends in Toronto jealous: the temperature was 25 degrees! And the forecast for the week is even better: up to 30 degrees and sunny!
I keep thinking that I am in Rio de Janeiro. I've heard before from a friend that Tel Aviv is a mix of Rio and Toronto. I haven't seen too much of Toronto yet - perhaps the functionality? - but definitely Rio. Even the people are similar, as a first impression. Never the less, they both share this wonderful beautiful view, right downtown the city.
My favourite smiles coming back from tasting the Mediterranean Sea.
One of the things that we were looking forward the most is the cuisine. Mike and love Eastern food and Julia adores hummus. She can eat it with a spoon.
So, our first meal in Israel could not be different: started with hummus and bread. We at the whole bowl of it! Mostly Julia! Back at home, we collapsed at 8pm, local time.
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