Tel Aviv, Day 1

What a wonderful first day for our trip! We got up early to get to the airport. Luckily, it was a reasonable early (5:30), because it was a flight from Frankfurt International, which is only half an hour away. We got to the airport in plenty of time, and checked in at the kiosk no problem, but the luggage line was huge! It moved pretty quickly, though. Then was passport check. The guy didn't like that we didn't have our arrival in Germany on our passports. The dork when we first arrived had only stamped our official ones. Thank goodness Max had told me to bring those, too! He was OK after that, and he let us go. Then it was the long trek to our gate. Holy crap, I swear it was in Hamburg. We were at C14, but when we got to the end of the walkway, I only saw up to 13! I freaked out for a sec, until I looked right and saw that gate 14 had its own security check and was behind a thick glass wall. There was a sign saying it was only for Tell Aviv. OK. Every single person that went through had to get a wand scan. Once we finally sat down, it was 8:50. Boarding was supposed to start at 8:55. Phew! We boarded just a bit after that.

The flight was uneventful. We were lucky that we got a nonstop straight from Frankfurt to Tell Aviv. When I had looked initially, we were going to have to go to Berlin for a nonstop. All the ones out of Frankfurt had horribly long layovers in the middle of the night. But, we were lucky and a new flight was made, I guess, 'cause it sure wasn't there before. Anyway, it only took us 3.5 hours to get here. It was rather entertaining when we landed. On the TV screens, they showed information for connecting flights. The two connecting flights they showed were for Munich and Vienna. I wonder how common it is to go from Frankfurt to Munich (about a 5 hour drive) with a stopover in Tel Aviv? 

We got through passport control on this end without any trouble, and saw the lady holding up the sign that said our last name. 

It was kind of exciting, I've always wanted somebody to hold up a sign with my name on it in an airport. She showed us our baggage carousel, and said to come back to her when we got our bags, and she would set us up in a cafe to wait for Mom and Steven. (They were getting in an hour after us) But, by the time we got our bags, she said their flight had already landed, and we could just wait for them there. We took a quick bathroom break and waited for just a few minutes, and they were there! Our lady took us to our driver, and he took us to the van. We realized we didn't have any shekels yet, so I hope he was OK with dollars for a tip. It's Saturday, so all of the money changers are closed.

So, Mom has friends from here. One of her friends, Einat, is currently living in Haifa. another friend, Shlomit, is in the US, but her family is in Tel Aviv. Shlomit's sister, Tali, and Einat met us at the hotel and took us out for a tour of Jaffa. By then, it was past sundown, so things were open again (though we still didn't see any money exchanges). We walked around the wonderful ancient town, winding in back alleyways. I loved it. 

We saw the church of St Peter, and even got to see a bit of a service. We went to the wishing bridge, which is lined with zodiac signs. It is said that if you touch your zodiac animal and make a wish while looking at the sea, your wish will come true. I'll let you know later if it does. :-)  We stopped by a bakery and got some yummy pita. Next to it was a stand that sold salep. It was a thick milk product, into which you stir any combo of cinnamon, chocolate, almonds, coconut, banana chips and raisins. We left out the banana chips and raisins. I was afraid, but it was actually really yummy!

By far, though, the best part of the evening was dinner. They took us to a place called Haj Kahil, which will get an outstanding review on Trip Adviser, by the way. They talked with the guy I'm guessing was the maitre'd, and he just starting bringing out this amazing array of food in little bowls. 

This is only a small bit of dinner. There were probably a couple dozen of these little dishes by the end

You guys would be so proud of me. I tried everything. Beets, licorice root, eggplant, lots of unidentified green stuff, pickled kumquats, sooo much stuff. I didn't like all of it, but I liked more than I thought I would. There was a garlic soft cheese thing that was amazing, and cauliflower in tahini was my second favorite. There was also some of the best hummus I've ever had. It was all accompanied by huge pitas we saw them make in the kitchen right next to us. The maitre'd even had the chef come make a pita for me, just so I could get a video. 

I was almost stuffed, and the meat hadn't even come out yet! We had skewers of chicken, chicken livers, and kebab meat. I even took a bit of the liver. I wasn't surprised to find that I still don't like them. Then came dessert. OMG, one was called atayef, which was shaped like a pot sticker, but was filled with walnuts and cinnamon. (I like walnuts in very few things. Baklava, and now atayef) the other was called kanafeh. It was a round of goat cheese with some sort of noodly goodness on top, baked with a sugar and rosewater syrup. It sounds nasty, but it was sooo good. I want more. 

This was a different variation from the market, but the stuff at the restaurant looked a lot like this

After dinner, it was back to the hotel, where I sit now. It's way late, and we have a big day exploring Tell Aviv tomorrow, so I'm off to bed

Emma says- . the food was A-Mazing! I absolutely loved it. I also discovered that there is a food I dislike more than mushrooms - eggplant. The pita we got on the way to the restaurant was my favorite pita bread ever. The goat cheese noodle thing was absolutely delicious, and I want it in a basket and I want to eat all of it.We saw so many cats that we started counting them. We'll keep track for the whole trip, and I'll let you know at the end how many we saw.