Todah Israel!

Todah Israel! 12/5

I woke up early and figured I should take advantage of the few hours of sunshine before I headed to the airport. The air was crisp and the city still wet from the rain last night. I took a walk through the Old City again and felt like I had the place to myself.

An art installation in an alleyway...the tree of life.

I got down to the shore and found all of the fishermen with their poles lined up along the wall waiting for a tug on the reels from the fish below.

Morning sea life.

The flag of Israel between two fishing poles.

Joggers and bikers passed by. I watched the Ocean. Decent waves were rolling in which, I could tell, meant another storm was coming even though the sun was shining.

Morning view of Tel Aviv.

A view of Tel Aviv through the faith sculpture.

The morning rays lit up the Old City of Jaffa.

Feeling content from my morning beach scene I went out on the hunt for the wishing bridge in Jaffa. It’s a bridge in the middle of the Old City of Jaffa that has astrological signs on it. According to local legend, if you walk out onto the bridge and touch your astrological sign while making a wish and looking at the sea your wish will come true. Sign me up!

Beautiful tile work.

My goat in tile.

I got there and found barriers up on either ends with a sign saying the bridge was about to collapse. Taking a look at this bridge, it really didn’t look like it was in disrepair. I had been on many other bridges that were more rickety than this one.

Doesn't look like it's going to collapse to me.

How could I resist an opportunity to make my wish come true? That’s right, in the words of Beavis and Butt-head, I was “breakin’ the law, breakin’ the law”. Although, I doubt the local authorities really would have cared, in my usual style I said “go big or go home”. I jumped the fence (way too easy, if they want to keep people out they need to try a little harder), I went out onto the bridge, found my Capricorn goat, looked at the sea, and made my wish! I think it definitely should come true given the extra effort I put into, right? ;)

My sign, the capricorn goat. Deterred by very few things in life! ;)

Proof that I made my wish!

Without a structural collapse and police incident I made it safely off the bridge and resumed my walk back to the hostel. I checked out and went for breakfast at a local restaurant, Puaa, intensely recommended by my host at the hostel. The owner squeezed me in at the bar and served me one last meal of shakshuka and cappuccino which I thoroughly enjoyed while listening to the sights and sounds of a little girls birthday party happening upstairs. I watched the little kids climb up the stairs using all of their might and staring at me with their twinkling eyes. They were upstairs leaning how to make cookies. I’ll admit that I really wanted to join them. Being five, cooking, playing, what’s not to love?!  Alas, it was time to go. I walked out into the rain, got in the car, and headed to the airport simultaneously happy and sad.

Happiness at the ocean.

I got there over three hours early and I am glad that I did. They take their airport security seriously here. I made it through the initial bag screening to be told I need to have an additional security check. I waited 45 minutes until I was called over by a very quiet screener who kept apologizing to me and promised he would help me repack my luggage as he opened the pandora’s box that was my suitcase. Calling his supervisor over about the fig jelly I was bringing home they had a nice 10 minute discussion on whether to open it and check if it was explosive or send it in a box by itself. Another girl came over and opened it. Yes, my free fig jelly was not explosive. Neither of them seemed to care about the large bottle of wine in my suitcase. Using his magic bomb detector wand over and over again through every crevice of my suitcase he inadvertently managed to hook it onto my pink and black lace underwear which went flying out along with a few other unmentionables. Oh vey! That thing is definitely not going to find a bomb in my luggage but it seems to have no problem finding my underwear and jam. Thoroughly embarrassed, he said, “Okay, you are cleared. Ehhhh, you want me to help you pack or you want to do it yourself?”  Seeing his cheeks were red I decided to spare him the embarrassment of repacking my underwear and put my suitcase back together again. He escorted me over to the ticket area. Checked in I went through another security area where again every inch of my carryon was inspected. All in all it took me over two hours to finally get to my gate. I had just enough time to get a beer, some food, and do a quick run through of the airport shops before boarding my plane.

Ummm, what's with selling lingerie at the airport?
Seems more appropriate for Las Vegas. Just sayin!

Ignore my finger pointing to Turkey, it slipped while
I was waiting for the lady to take the picture.

Finally on board and surrounded by Russians heading to Moscow I tuned out their language and stared out the window as we took off. I watched this beautiful country get smaller below the clouds. Inspired by some of Alon’s beautiful pictures out of plane windows I decided to pull out my camera to capture my last view of this amazing country. Just as I did, this is what I saw, a final gift.....

Do you see the rainbow around the shadow
of my plane in the center of the cloud?

At Hopi I learned that they don’t say good bye, something I really loved because I hate good byes. They just feel so final. The Hopi say something like until next time or until I see you again. So my dear Israel, thank you, todah for your gifts and I will see you again soon!

Todah Israel!