h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

I did untill 2 years ago (live in Israel, that is)
Tell me where you're going and I'll tell you how Kosher it will be, even in Jerusalem there are different levels of Kashrut.
Tel Aviv can be difficult if you're strict, but it also depends on what you eat. If you're willing to have lots of Falafel, which is purely vegiterian (hmmmm... ) and Burekas, which is mainly dairy, you shouldn't have any troubles. They're both cheap and filling. If you want something more fancy, you might have a slightly harder time...

We'll be spanding varying amounts of time in Jerusalem, Tel Aviv, and somewhere around the Kineret.

Tel Aviv was where the friend was, no wonder it was hard for him!

I don't think I've ever really tried falafel, even though I've been given the oppertunity several times-I'm a notoriously picky eater. I guess I'll have to start liking it, though. As to fancy food-why bother?

Do you know anything about the Jerusalem Bird Observatory? There are supposed to be lots of great birds there.

OOOOOOOOhhhh falafel!!! I virtually existed on falafel, hoummous, tabouleh, baba ghanoush & of course the bread.

What's the milky thing? I am not generally very into milk stuff, but you never know, open to all new recipes so long as no dead animals in them!

I can make hellishly good hoummous myself, but somehow can't get falafel right, any foolproof recipes?

Hey, Jis, you may like to chat to Yael (lady pennywhistle) who lives in Jerusalem for some ideas too.



zdt

I don't know what you mean by "milky thing", but then I don't know too many Israeli foods.

I don't know how to make falafel-my old school apparently did it well (it didn't fall apart), but once my dad tried it and it disintegrated immediately.

Thanks-I think I will talk to her .

the milky/dairy thing i was referring to was the "Burekas".

My falafel fell apart too, very disappointing!

Yael is very & lovely, see my friends list, a bit too tired to hunt down U numbers right now, just say you are my mate!



zdt

My name is Yael, too. There's always more than one...
Burekas is basically filo pastry filled with: mushrooms+onions, or cheese, or potatos, or potatoes and onions, or cheese and spinach (beautiful, that), sometimes other weird and wonderful fillings, depends on the bakery. It's sold on street stands, and is lovely with hard boiled egg or on its own. You can't go to Israel and not have some. It's originally Turkish, I believe. My grandma used to make the cheese and spinach ones and serve them with greek yogurt dip (zezicky, I think it's called) that consists of pickles, cucumbers, mint and garlic all chopped into greek yogurt. Heaven!
I'll see if I can get a recipe.
About the Birds Observatory- there's a big compound in the Jerusalem zoo, I'm not sure where and if there are any other places. The Judea desert is wonderful for bird watching. If you go to Masada and wake up early enough you'll catch a great sunrise and birds at the same time.

Ahhh I've had the cheese & spinach ones on Greek island, yes, with Tsatziki; i think they were called something like "Filospinakkata"

Yum!

zdt

Sounds about right. Mediterranean food is lovely in general- did you ever try the stuffed vine leaves? Another dish my grandma used to make, and doesn't have the patience for anymore. They're a lot of hard work, but they taste fantastic!

http://www.omanot.com/recipes/191.html
Not exactly what I'm on about, but it is a version of Burekas.

I'm finally back!!! I haven't been on for a harrowing six days-the ing internet was down. I don't think I've been offline this long since August. The backlog is going to take days to catch up on.

Anyway, good news: I got into the honors art program for next year! I think there's only one class of it per year, and I know three other people who will also be in it-it's going to be great!

Congratulations! I hope you enjoy it.
I have to go, so this will be a short posting to help you get over the blog.

Will Ari be able to sit in on lessons? You could get some great studies of wildlife & colours!

(And i bet he would love the attention!)

zdt

Thanks!

I appreciate that, Elly!

The course is in school, but I think you do some work for it at home. I'd love to paint Ari, but I've tried sketching her and she won't sit still!

Um... who's Ari?

Ari is the parrot who owns me. Actually, I think that's the title of a book. She's a Sun Conure, which is a small, colorful, energetic and silly South American parrot.

Well, we finally got some snow here-quite a lot actually, we're supposed to end up with between one to two feet. Of course it's on the weekend when it won't do anyone any good-go figure. *sigh*

We're leaving tomorow and I still haven't contacted Lady Penny whistle. I really was going to do it. Sorry-I guess that's my procrastination instinct again.

Anyway, it turns out I *just might* have access to hootoo while there cos the hotel has wireless internet and my dad's bringing his laptop-I wouldn't bet on my being allowed to use it, though.

Poor Ari has to go to the boarder's again. At least she knows the place and knows we'll be back for her soon. She'll have lots of other parrots to scream with, too (parrots love to scream), so that's a plus, too.

*about 20 hours to the flight-so excited *

I've been back for a few days but I've been avoiding making this post cos there's so much to say. Time to bite the bullet and get it done.

Tuesday, 2/21-Our flight was in the afternoon, so we dropped Ari off at the boarder's place in the morning. She started right in yelling with all the other birds. She didn't want to step up off my shoulder, but other than that she didn't seem to mind too much. I'd brought her some stuff from home, like her hammocky thing, which I think helped. In the afternoon we went to the airport, did the customs thing, etc. Finally we got on the plane. And stayed there. It was a long flight.

Wednesday, 2/22
-Still on the plane. It occurred to me at some point that we were all Jews in (inner) Space. Hehe.
Sometime in the morning/afternoon (depending on which time zone you're funcioning in) we landed in Tel Aviv. Just setting foot in Israel for the first time was amazing. Eventually we found the tour group we had booked with and took their bus to the hotel in Jerusalem. All the way there I kept seeing kestrels on the street lights, but I couldn't tell if they were Lessers or just Kestrels-it was maddening!
We spent a few hours at the hotel trying to recover. Or at least I did. Yogurt and my other brother-henceforth refered to as "Zem"-decided instead to get aquainted with the TV and then try to kill each other. As usual. On the upside, I had seen Hooded Crows while driving through Jerusalem, and from the hotel window I saw a couple of Blackbirds and a Yellow-vented Bulbul.
Later, we walked to Ben Yehuda Street. It's a pedestrian mall where they sell Judaica stuff, food, and more stuff. We spent a while there, then walked back and went to sleep. Finally.

Thursday, 2/23-This was one of the days we were to spend with tha tour group. We were going to spend the day walking around the Old City in Jerusalem. We got off the bus near the Kotel (the Western Wall) and the tour guide gave a shpiel, which I ignored. I was too busy watching the Jackdaws, Laughing Doves, and White Wagtail variously flying or walking through the area. While trying to ID the Wagtail, Yogurt again proved his birding genius: "It looks like a plover."
When the guide was done, we went through the security thingy and came to the Kotel. That was the single most amazing experience in the whole trip.
Afterwards, we walked through the Muslim and Christian quarters if the city along the Via Delarosa (sp?) and went to the Church of the Holy Sepulcher. It was moderately interesting, but uncomfortable. My favorite thing about that bit was the ladder leaning against the building two stories up. Apparently, it had been sitting there since the 1960s or something, and no one could move it because of the Status Quo agreement. Hmm.
We walked around back to the Jewish quarter and got lunch. We didn't spend much time there, but it was enough for a certain member of our group to wander off looking for candy, delaying the rest of us. Eventually, we left anyway, any we were driving through Jerusalem when somebody saw Candy Man by the side of the road. We picked him up (though I couldn't see why we should bother) and went on to Yad Vashem.
Yad Vashem is a Holocaust memorial museum. Its name means "A monumant and a name". A new museum had recently been built there, so we got to see it. It's very well done, and also manages to mention how the people managed to preserve art and music in the ghettos, and, later, in the concentration camps. I don't know what to say about the memorial hall and children's memorial other than that they proved their points and got me to think.
That night, we went to dinner with some of my dad's friends. We were going to be spending the day in the Old City with them, so this was our chance to get to know them. They're very nice perople. They ended up parking some distance away from the restruant, and on the walk backthrough a backraods residential area I noticed how quiet Jerusalem is at night-so different from American cities.

Friday, 2/24-We met my dad's friends in the morning at the hotel, and they drove us to the Old City. We spent the morning in this Archeological Garden place near the Kotel-in fact, part of it is an extension of the same wall. We saw the piles of huge stones the Romans pulled off the top of it when they destroyed the Beit Hamikdash, the Temple. I knew the history of the Romans and the Jews, so I didn't like them before, but now, with the evidence before my eyes, it was suddenly more real.
There's a part of the garden where you can actually explore a ruined area, and, while everyone else was looking around, I, of course, was birdwatching. 2000-year-old structures all around me, and I was trying to ddecide if I was seeing Tristam's Grackles on that ledge or Blue Rock Thrushes (they were grackles). Also, we saw two more White Wagtails, and, inexplicably, two chickens. They weren't wild, but it was still funny to see them.
Around the corner were the steps that had been used to ascend to the Temple Amount in the times of the Beit Hamikdash. It was such an astounding experience to climb them...
We left the garden and went to the Burned House Museum. This is literally a building built over the remains of a house destroyed when the Romans razed Jerusalem. Inside, they had found stone vessels indicating that it was a Kohen's (priest's) house, and also the family's name. They also found a Roman spearhead and the skeletal arm of a young woman. We got there in time to see a short movie that showed what they thought may have happened to the people who had lived there.
After that, we went to the tunnel that follows the length of the wall of which the Kotel is part. We prayed at the spot that is the closest place Jews are allowed to get to the Kodesh Ha'kedashim, the Holy of Holies, in the Temple. Jews aren't allowed to enter the Temple Mount, not only because it's under Arab control but also because it's too holy for us to enter today.
Afterwards, we went to get lunch. It was more or less at this point that I decided I loved the old city. It just feels right.
We walked around for a while, but, since it was getting late(ish) in the afternoon, everything was closing for Shabbos. It was a great feeling to see that the whole city was shutting down for this day.
When we got back to the hotel, we had a little while to relax and then my mom and I went to light the Shabbos candles. The hotel was great for Shabbos-besides providing candles, you could sigh up for a Shabbos dinner and they provided light timers for the rooms. Anothe interesting feature was the Shabbos elevators. Many Jews don't use electricity on Shabbos, so these elevators would stop on every floor. It took a long time to get anywhere, but they worked. They reminded me of those elevators at the hotel where DNA worked as a bodyguard (thus giving him the idea for the SCC elevators).

Saturday, 2/25-We finally got to sleep late. We pretty much just sat around and read all morning, and in the afternoon we walked to a valley the name of which tempoararily escapes me to go birdwitching. Normally you're not supposed to carry things outside on Shabbos, but Jerusalem had an Eruv, which is basically something that makes carrying OK, so I brought my binoculars and bird guides. I didn't see a Hoopoe, the bird I had been hoping to see, but I did see a Red-Breasted Flycatcher and a Brown-necked Raven, plus some unidentified tits and othe birds and lots of Hooded Crows and Bulbuls. We also saw yet another example of bird intelligence: a Hooded Crow drinking from a water fountain!
That night, our last night in Jerusalem, we walked around to a Falafil place to eat, then we went back to Ben Yehuda Street. At one point police cleared the area because they had found a suspicious package, but someone said they would just implode it and it would be over in ten minutes. It was. Despite the media, I felt perfectly safe the whole time we were there.

Break time. More to follow.

CAPT testing is almost over. We lucky Connecticut people get to take a whole extra standardized test thingie. Yay.

CAPTs are done. Phew.

What happened? Jis just sort of petered off just when I was enjoying some particularly nice flashbacks.I'll see if I can get her to finish the trip log tonight.