Too Darn Hot

The heat index in Jerusalem today is 44.6º Celsius. That's a little over 112º Fahrenheit!! And as is the case with most apartments in Jerusalem, there's no air conditioning. My apartment is constructed mostly out of stone, which usually keeps things pretty cool. But not today, oh no. I'm sitting around in my gym shorts and sweating just from the exercise of typing. =/

Cold showers help for about 5 minutes. Then you start sweating again. Drinking ice water seems to help to some degree. I would leave my place in search of somewhere with air conditioning, but that would entail going outside. Trapped. Inside.

Oh well, at least I like my apartment. I did pull a page out of my childhood and put some grapes in the freezer. Hopefully soon they'll be ready to eat and will go to work on cooling me off from the inside out. It makes me wonder though, how different life must have been before air conditioning! At least, on most occasions, I can retreat to someone else's apartment, or a cafe, or school where there is (usually) air conditioning -- how tough it must have been when no where had air conditioning. I guess this is a nice slice of perspective courtesy of biblicaly hot weather. Thank you?

Dear Bloomington, want to trade weather?

Tel Aviv

Part I - Tel Aviv: So Hard to Leave

Tel Aviv is a great place to visit for the weekend. Great food, beautiful beaches, and beautiful people. Tel Aviv also was voted one of the world's top 10 beach cities by National Geographic. http://travel.nationalgeographic.com/travel/top-10/beach-cities-photos/

From their website: "Call it Miami Beach on the Med. Tel Aviv is the Dionysian counterpart to religious Jerusalem. In the “bubble,” as it’s known for its inhabitants’ tendency to tune out regional skirmishes, some restaurants, discos, and clubs are open until dawn. By day, the scene shifts to the city’s promenade and eight miles (13 kilometers) of beach literally steps from town. Head to wide and sandy Gordon Beach to sit in a seaside café or take a dip in the saltwater pool."

I've been a couple times now and wanted to post some pictures for people to enjoy.

Here's us walking down the beach

This guy walks around and takes your food and drink order and then delivers food right to you

An unusually dressed ice cream vendor

Enjoying some Mediterranean snacks

My friend Mike and me


Sunset over the Mediterranean

Here's a video panorama of this particular beach

This guy is a sheirut driver. A sheirut (literally meaning "service") is a group taxi/minibus and they travel various intercity routes for unbelievably low prices. To get from Jerusalem to Tel Aviv, about 45 minutes away, is only 24 shekels, or about $6. The sheiruts all line up outside the bus station and the drivers just yell out where they're going. You climb in, wait for the minibus to get full and off you go! They are regulated by a private company though, so don't worry. I'm not just jumping in some random minibus!

Part II - Toto, I've a feeling...

So I went back to Tel Aviv on a separate occasion: sadly, my ipod touch screen died. Or rather I should say, the back light died. I could still use the ipod, just only in direct lighting and even then, only barely. Good thing I bought the extended warranty, right? Oops, the closest Apple store is in Italy. Life never lets these things be simple for me it seems.

So, in Israel there is a certified reseller, iDigital. iDigital it turns out will honor the Apple Care extended warranty (confirmed by a US Apple telephone rep) but the closest store is in Tel Aviv. Hey, i figure this is my chance to go back to Tel Aviv and relax on the beach. I make an appointment and the technician says, no problem we'll get you a new one right away. By right away he meant a minimum of 10 days because they had to ship my old ipod to Europe to see if it could be fixed. If not I could get a replacement. So, I sign various forms to make sure everything is legitimate and while my ipod prepares for a trip to Italy, or wherever, I decide to find the beach Mike and I went to the other week.

So I start walking south and west, since the Dizengoff mall is somewhat on the north side of Tel Aviv. The bus station, where I would eventually need to catch a sheirut home was also south, I knew. I hit coastline and figured I must be close to the nice beach. The view is amazing and even though it's terribly hot, the breeze is perfect. I stop every now and then to sit on a bench and just take in the beautiful views. I keep walking. I decide to take my flip-flops off and walk with my feet in the water. I walk and I walk, but I don't see the beach I'm looking for with the nice umbrellas and everything.

Eventually I decide I've gone far enough and just sit and relax on the beach. I take a little nap. I wake up to the sound of people playing that crazy game with the paddles and the small ball (see the Haifa beach post from June). It's getting toward evening so I decide to catch a cab back to the bus station. It must be pretty cheap fare after all I figure, since I walked all this way south I must be pretty close to the bust station.

I flag down a cab and ask him what his opening bid is for a ride to the bus station (standard procedure here is to haggle for cab fare). He gives me a strange look and although I'm paraphrasing, says something like, "What bus station? There's no bus station." And I'm like, ok maybe he thinks I'm talking about intercity buses. I say, "the central bus station, I need to catch a sheirut back to Jerusalem." He replies, "Well for that you'd have to go to Tel Aviv. There are no sheiruts in Bat Yam."

Quick Israel geography lesson: Bat Yam is a city to the south of Tel Aviv.

So, it turns out between the sun clouding my judgment and just enjoying the walk, I apparently walked about six miles too far south. The beach I was looking for (I later found out) was only a short walk north of where I started. Live and learn, right? Rather than pay the cab driver a week's salary for a ride back to Tel Aviv, I decided to walk. I made it home safe and sound later that night. Just very, very tired. Oh, with a world class farmer's tan.