Biking to Jaffa

The weekend before last was Shavuot, the long weekend that marks seven weeks after Passover, it's like Israel's version of May 2-4, so we decided to spend our free day renting bikes and riding down to Jaffa.  The bike rental system here is great - it's like Bixi bikes (which I've never actually tried) but they did a great job in Tel Aviv because there are stations everywhere, not to mention the entire city is flat, and it's roughly the same cost as taking a round trip on a bus. 

The day started out slightly less than desired. As we were figuring out how to pay, I felt something hit my shoulder and immediately thought - someone just egged me!!  That's how much impact I felt, like an egg thrown from an apartment building.  Turns out it was one of our friendly (gigantic raven) neighborhood birds...soooo gross.  I can't even tell you.  But the day was much better after that!  Unfortunately I didn't think of taking a picture so you could share in my disgust.  After recouping we got some bikes and headed out to the beach near our place.  The entire coast is lined with a boardwalk from Bat Yam in the south to Herzlyia in the North which makes it amazing for biking.  

I forgot to take any nice pictures of the coast...but here is one of a parking lot...(the sea is to the left)

The rest of the day we spent exploring the old city in Jaffa (one of the oldest cities in the world-  people have lived in the harbour since the bronze age!)  We ate shwarma and falafel for lunch and had ice cream near the docks.  

This is me exploring an alley:

Then we saw a very colourful wall:

And some pretty buildings (the first picture reminds me of St. Augustine, Florida):

And then we biked back along the coast (this is from a hill in Jaffa, looking toward Tel Aviv - our beach is another few kilometers past the farthest point)

I promise the view was better than this -  the majority of the ride is along the beach:

Whoa - I almost forgot one of the most significant happenings of the day.  We had our first full Hebrew exchange with an Israeli!  (like other than thank you and hello).  I ordered drinks (in Hebrew), and he didn't tell us the price in English!  He said it in Hebrew and I understood!  ok I also looked at the board before hand and could see how much it was going to be, but still. I know I'm impressed. 

Happy Mother's Day!

Happy Mother's Day to all the mum's out there! And especially to my own :)  I <3 you :)
This is the first Mother's Day that I have been in a completely different country than my mum - nothing like a holiday like this one to make you miss your family!  It doesn't seem like it is celebrated here in Israel (that or I couldn't read the Hebrew cards well enough yet, haha) which would be a shame because it's one of the good ones I think.

Speaking of reading, Zach and I start week two of our ulpan (Hebrew language classes) tonight.  I find that I can pick out little words here and there now, and am finding it much easier to study and try and learn new words on my own.  Turns out I'm not a self motivated or self directed learner when it comes to languages...

We've also been enjoying the awesome summer weather.  On days that are hard, and I miss everyone back home so much, it makes things a little easier to just float in the ocean.

To Japan for a Wedding

We've been away for a while! Feels like ages since Easter.  For the past couple of weeks Zach and I went down to Japan for a family wedding.  It was my first time in Japan and I loved it!  What a cool country.  It was funny to compare Japan with Israel: One is extremely orderly, polite and clean.  The other is, well, the opposite.  

~~Although a sidebar is needed here to explain that while someone may not come up to you at the train station and ask if you need help, Israelis generally tend to go out of their way to help you if you ask - it's sort of a difference between being "outgoingly polite, but reserved inside" (Japan) and sincerely helpful if you seek them out (Israel). This might also be because in Japan we were obvious outsiders, while here in Tel Aviv we aren't.~~

Also, it's sort of interesting to know that while disorder can be frustrating, it can also be a good thing.  I found myself being a bit more impatient in Japan as I stood in line for things and waited patiently for my turn - I guess I have gotten used to just elbowing my way in somewhere...  Got to get that in check when we return to Canada ;)

Anyway, Japan was stunningly beautiful - we made it just in time to see the end of the cherry blossoms in Nagano Province.  We missed them in Tokyo, but when driving home from the wedding (which was held in a super cute ski chalet in the mountains) we stopped by chance at a castle ruins park that we saw listed on the  GPS:

 The moat surrounding the castle ruins

 Part of the old tower

When we were in Nagano I tried one of the raw egg pasta creations (raw egg seems to be very popular there and it looked totally gross to me...so I tried it).  This was possibly one of the best dishes I have eaten in a long time at a restaurant - oh man!  I don't know what the little orange things were, but I think it was caviar.  Also it had bacon and cream - so really, you can't go wrong :)

Back in Tokyo for a couple of days at the end of our trip, it rained and rained -so I bought a clear umbrella which I was ridiculously excited about.  Unfortunately I couldn't take it back on the plane :(  Although that's not a big deal now that the rainy season is over in Tel Aviv :)

This is a picture from the waterfall that we visited up in the mountains.  The nearby active volcano heats up the groundwater which makes the falls a little warmer than normal.  Also, they appear to come out of nowhere as they are formed from groundwater seeping out - it was really spectacular!

We came back from snow in Japan - to beach season! yay!!!!!  Jet lag is easier to recover from when you are lying on the beach ;)

I know what I'm doing this weekend!

Easter in the Garden

Well we made it to Jerusalem on Sunday morning!  It was a super early start, but well worth it.  It was a classic case of making sure we left early enough to not be late,  but then catching every bus perfectly and being super early!  Oh well - we got to see the sun rising as the bus drove over the hills into Jerusalem (except that I slept most of the way there...)  We managed to find our way there, taking the light rail for the first time.  We also had time to stop for coffee downtown and then walk along the old city walls to the Garden Tomb.  The service was in English and a local church's band was playing.  It was kind of funny to see the garden all decked out with a sound system and speakers but it was necessary since there were at least 200 people there.  Kind of a weird feeling to be singing about Easter and realizing that everything went down in this general area.
The benches were set up all throughout the garden - we were sort of in the front middle: benefit to arriving an hour early :)

He is not here, for He is risen: (door to the tomb)

As we were waiting outside I found this funny sign - note the 3rd Sunday Service.  I wonder what "Scandinavian" sounds like?  Also - "son-rise"?  groan. (maybe I always thought it was sunrise growing up but it's actually been this 'punny' the whole time?)

After the service we stayed in Jerusalem for lunch.  One thing I love about Israel is the cafe culture - everything is so nice and laid back. It was a gorgeous sunny day and pretty hot too.  Yay for spring!

One thing about Passover is that all of the coffee chains have hiked their prices.  One of them explained that they have to buy all this special food, and replace all of the cutlery so that it is "kosher for Passover".  Also we went to the grocery store, and I had this idea that only the yeast and bread items would be covered.  Alas - apparently there are millions of products that aren't considered kosher for Passover and so the grocery store has aisles and aisles of sheet plastic taped over them -taunting you with their cereals and pastas just out of reach!  We wondered what would happen if you grabbed a product from behind the plastic and try to buy it...but I'm too chicken.  I don't want to get humiliated in Hebrew in my local store.

To finish the day, Zach made this...because we stocked up on yeast and flour the week before :)

HaYarkon Park

This Good Friday we went exploring HaYarkon park which is Tel Aviv's version of Central Park, centered around the Yarkon River.  It's huge! It's sort of misleading near us because we are right on the part of the park where the river flows out to the sea, so it gets small.  But if you walk in the other direction it just keeps going and going.  It turns out there is a 5 acre tropical garden, 10 acre rock garden (which is literally just rocks plopped on the grass...although apparently they are significant rocks to the geology in the area), a pond you can go paddle boating in, many bbq pits (one of the favourite activities of people here), a sport center, petting zoo (with a fancy looking peacock), water-park and aviary.  We only walked around for a few hours but we'll have to go back and explore more when the gardens are open! (It is Passover, day 1, so everything is closed).  Unfortunately we only got one picture - but it's pretty cool :)  Zach took it of this tree that grew over the fence (the new fence is where the camera is).  It's an HDR image, which is Zach's new photography hobby...basically it makes awesome looking pictures using a few exposure settings of the same shot so you can adjust more colour levels....or something like that. I'm gonna be honest - I just look at the pretty end result :)

Today we walked in the little park beside our home and saw this pretty tree!  So if we end up missing the cherry blossom festival in Japan next week - I will have still seen a pretty pink tree :)

Here is another HDR shot of our little park in the sunshine (25C today!) you can see this pink tree in the distance.

And then, when we got back, I got to talk to one of my best friends (via skype) who is brand newly engaged!! Yay! Congratulations Lindi :D  So all in all, despite my having the plague feeling slightly under the weather for the past week or so*, a great Easter weekend thus far.  Tomorrow morning we are attempting to attend an Easter service in the Garden Tomb in Jerusalem...but it means catching a bus at 6am, and quite possibly fending off hordes of Passover and Easter tourists (yes I realize we will be Easter tourists too)... so we'll see :)

*side note:  Zach made the most amazing chicken soup - from scratch.  Like, after we ate a roasted chicken (which he also made!), he put the remains in a pot with water and spices and something called mirepoix (right?) and it turned into delicious chicken broth which then turned into delicious chicken noodle soup.  He's totally amazing.  I didn't even know you could make chicken soup without chicken broth cubes, or what mirepoix was until we got married, haha. Cooking isn't exactly my forte.  I can feel my throat healing already :)

Family :)

This past two weeks our family came to visit us!  It was so nice to be able to show people we love where we live now and share our experiences with them.  It's also a great feeling to have family with us at our home and in our daily environment - somehow it makes things a bit more grounded if that makes sense.

Zach and I also got the chance to go and see things that we hadn't seen yet - Dead Sea, Eilat, Petra, exploring around the Sea of Galilee a bit more, Jaffa and Bethlehem.  Eilat is a resort city that borders Jordan and Egypt on the Red Sea and was a perfect spot to relax on the beach and get some sun - finally!  It was also a good starting point for seeing Petra which is so ridiculously cool it is impossible to describe it.  Those people could sure carve a rock :)  Floating in the Dead Sea was also as fun as it looks - so weird!

One of my favourite times was when we got some lunch at the grocery store and then took it up for a picnic on the Mt. of Beatitudes (basically a hill on the northern edge of the lake that is still relatively undisturbed and untouristified) It was perfect weather - sunny, blue skies, slight breeze, flowers everywhere and bees starting to venture out again. From our spot on the hill you could overlook the lake and we even hiked down it a bit and found some old shrines in the middle of nowhere - Israel is cool like that :)

Here is a picture that my brother-in-law Jon took:

The last place we saw was Bethlehem - the day was rainy and cold which dampened the experience a bit, but it was also interesting to see a village inside the wall.  I would like to understand it more because it is difficult, even living here, to really get what is going on.  Just purely from the surface, as an outsider, I see a large concrete wall with watchtowers every now and then that reminds me a bit of a prison, or of the Berlin wall.  I know that the issue is complicated - you hear about how the number of attacks and the terror has declined in Israel since its construction, and you also hear about the misery of the people who now have to live with this monstrosity in their backyard, separating them from their workplace, experiencing racial profiling everytime they leave the West Bank.  I know that there are strong political, security and religious forces behind everything - but the large majority of people affected (on both sides of the issue) are people.  People like you or me. Our tour guide at the Church of the Nativity (in Bethlehem) was explaining to Zach that he would like to get married to a girl who lives on the Israel side, but thinks her family will reject the match since he lives on the other side.  It's a weird thing.  Made weirder by the fact that by living in Tel Aviv and only speaking English, we are pretty much isolated from ever thinking about it.  The whole Iran issue has dominated the news and the Palestine issue is not often discussed.  But if you ask, everyone has a strong opinion.  It's kind of funny to read the Canadian news on Israel, and then read the comments on the articles that are often quite passionate but (sometimes) lack any sort of grounding in reality. I don't think it is an issue that can be understood fully, especially if you haven't grown up here and experienced it personally.

Regarding the Iran situation, an interesting thing that has been in the news here lately is an initiative by an Israeli to use social media to express his opinion on the Iran issue - people posting pictures expressing their desire for peace and seeking and receiving Iranian responses.  Reading through some of the comments and seeing some of the pictures gives a good look (I think) at the human side - the side that isn't interested in whose ego comes out the strongest at the end of all of this.

It is definitely an interesting place to live!  Makes all the robo-call drama seem a tad foolish.

Who wants to come visit us next?! :)

Mini Apple Pies

Yesterday I got a little bored and was very cold (currently Winnipeg is warmer than Tel Aviv).  This combo always = baking!  So I made some pie crust dough, but then realized that I didn't have a pie dish.... so I made mini pies! in a cupcake tray - they were so cute:

The recipe I used for the crust had vinegar and an egg in it which I though was weird, but it actually turned out pretty tasty and flakey ..and a little buttery because I got bored of cutting in the butter and left it in slightly larger chunks than usual.

Note - if you make these put something underneath the tray to catch the filling that bubbles out!  I tried to put the edgeless cookie tray under, but it did nothing and let's just say I'm glad we don't have a kitchen smoke detector, and that we can get a good cross-breeze through our apartment!