Joe’s May 2008 Trek Thru Israel, Eastern Europe & The Balkans En Route to Auschwitz Along the Same Rail Transport Lines my Ancestors Rode to the Death Camps

Saturday night checked into Hotel with Rebecca and had dinner with the boys. Sunday was Rebecca’s last day before a late night flight.  We went over to Jaffa old city on Sunday to do the last of the souvenier shopping. The Jaffa old quarter is the real beginning of Tel Aviv’s start in the early 1900’s. Thus, it has the charm of the old Arab world as opposed to Tel Aviv that is a sprawling high rise metropolis.  My boys describe Tel Aviv as being more like New York City. Certainly I can’t disagree with them about the night life, the young people everywhere and the great food.  This is a stark contrst to the Tel Aviv suburbs like Holon where I visited friends that are like family.  Haifa is the very family oriented city. 

Rebecca and I stopped for Falafel and Schwarma which we both agreed that we overdid it on the food thing during our stay. By the way, the thin crust pizza on Shenkin Street which is the Tel Aviv version of Melrose or Abbott Kinney in LA is superb. I still have the rental car, so I dropped Rebecca off at the airport Sunday night. Thank goodness for GPS. Despite the road signs in Hebrew, Arabic, Russian and some English, the GPS was unwavering in its accuracy in getting me to the airport and back. On the wayback, I had to get gas, and the GPS was perfect for getting me to the gas station.  Monday I returned the rental car which was two blocks from my hotel.  I stopped at the red light and then made a right on red.  Within seconds, a policecar pulled me over.  The Policeman walked over to my car and only spoke Hebrew.  I showed him my US Passport and rental folder.  I asked him what I did wrong, realizing you cannot turn right on red.  He yelled at me in Hebrew, and turned away to go to his Police Car.  He opened the door of his car, sat in it and burned off.  At least I dodged the ticket.  The remainder of the day was a walk through Tel Aviv and to the market place called the Shook which has an incredible variety of foods, spices, candy and merchandise.  The foods in this marketplace are a photographer’s paradise. I took so many pictures of foods, spices and people, that I had to condense them into much smaller photos to get them onto this blog.  Of course, all of the Chinese manufacturing is dumped in Israel too.  Farewell dinner with the boys in the evening and back to the airport for an early trip to the airport.

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