Yesterday was a day planned to travel to Jerusalem to spend the day with a dear friend Naomi Fidler. The plan was to catch the train to Jerusalem; whilst it's a slower journey (twice as long as the bus along the expressway), it's a more picturesque trip. So that was the plan - get a cab from the hotel to the train station in time to catch the 9am service. It was a good plan.
So the difference between a good plan and a good outcome is good execution - I need to learn that bit. So the first thing I do is have an argument with the only taxi driver at the hotel at the time I needed to leave to get to the station on time. He wanted to rip me off by charging me double the price the doorman said that I should pay. So he gave me a quick lesson in the rude words of the Hebrew language and off I trotted on foot. I'd printed off the Google map directions beforehand and I knew I could do it in 30 minutes or until I could flag down another cab.
Ok, so two big problems showed themselves pretty quickly - I'd taken a wrong turn early on and therefore I was lost, and that I'm still not used to the direction of the traffic and was always on the wrong side of the road to flag down a taxi. But I finally found a cab driver who hardly spoke English but he got me there with 15 minutes to spare. When I go to buy a ticket at the station (after the mandatory security screening of my camera bag) the girl tells me that there is no 9am train, the next train is at 10am. So I contact Nao in Jerusalem who was planning to pick me up from the station and tell her that I will be arriving an hour later. So, instead of going down the platform, where they were doing maintenance work, I sat at the top of the escalators to that platform and started playing games on my phone. There are trains pulling into that platform and leaving all the time but at 9am there is some announcement in Hebrew that I pretty well ignored (since I don't understand it) - until the Hebrew word for Jerusalem is announced and I look down and there's the train, sitting at the platform. So I bolt down the escalators just in time for the doors to close and the platform guard says that I'm too late and the doors won't be opening for me. Off goes the train - next train is at 11am - just like the Internet said - should have ignored the little girl in the ticket window! Options? Waste another 2 hours sitting at the train station or walk to the bus station which is only 5 minutes away and take the express intercity bus.
Off to the bus I go. The guy who sells me the ticket gives me colloquial instructions of where the bus can be found and that throws me completely because I can't find the right place - this is a seriously busy bus interchange (I'm talking about maybe 50 different bus services arriving and departing over 4 levels of bus ramps). But the ticket guy was cool when I went back to visit him - his English was pretty good and he realised that he'd given me the short-hand version of the instructions to the right bus so we got that sorted and then I quickly got to the right platform. The bus ride is a 45-minute freeway express service and the "excitement" for me was to have a young soldier sit next to me with the butt of his sub-machine gun pressed gently into my side. I know that it's stuff you would get used to but it's a bit weird the first time. He was happily listening to his iPod and meant no harm by it - the bus seats aren't too wide so he didn't have too many choices - and it could have been worse - it didn't have to be the butt end that was in my side!
Anyway I was going to see many, many young people with guns in Jerusalem as well as lots and lots of religious dudes. I felt that that combination makes such a strong visual statement about Israel.
Jerusalem was much colder than Tel Aviv. Fortunately I was told to dress in layers but even a t-shirt, shirt, light jumper and leather jacket couldn't keep the chilly wind out. But Nao and I found each other (somehow) on Jaffa Road, outside the bus station and off we went. A family sadness had meant a sudden change of plans for the day but with Nao's girlfriend Debbie with us I spent the day with both and then just with Debbie, and just did "normal people" stuff with beautifully normal people who invited me into their lives for the day. Of course the sign of true friendship is? ..... take me shopping at a factory outlet shop for some religious goodies for my gorgeous girls!! True friendship .... and then the use of true real-time technology for me to be taking and sending photographs to the girls for them to choose exactly what they wanted me to get for them. Amazing that you can do that across the planet in seconds, just amazing. Afterwards, while Nao went off to do some family stuff, Debbie took me to Jaffa Road, showing me the almost brand new light rail service that has transformed a previously very hectic traffic area to an amazingly cosmopolitan-feeling road that I really enjoyed.
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| Jaffa Road with light rail line |
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| Yummy food at Moshiko's |
Then we just chilled, grabbed some food from one place and sat and had coffee at another and just chatted. You get two counsellors together and the talk just doesn't stop, nor did I want it to.
It was easy to make the decision to come back to Jerusalem after the tour finishes so we can all hang out together again.
The day came to a close with Nao and her husband David (with a name like that he's got to be a top bloke) picking me up from Debbie's place and then we picked up their son Daniel and we all headed back to Tel Aviv in the evening. We dropped Daniel off at his apartment and I enjoyed the Tel Aviv night-lights view from his balconies. I also met his incredibly talented flatmate (whose new TV commercial that he produced, scripted and shot (on a Canon 5D Mk III of course) launches next week). Then Nao, David and I went off to dinner together nearby my hotel.
Today is my last before the tour starts and the sun was out so the scene from my little balcony was so nice and bright.
I went for a 4-hour walk down to and around Tel Aviv port (which is really a mooring marina for pleasure craft) and walking past the local surfing beaches.
I also had the pleasure of seeing the fly-past of 4 stunt planes that might have been practising for Israel's upcoming Independence Day celebrations.
Until next time .... when I'll be "on tour"!!
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