"Theodore Hertzel, Dude...Founder of the State of Israel"

Happy Memorial Day Weekend to all!

So for the first time in my adult life, I found myself spending Memorial Day Weekend not in Dewey Beach, Delaware, but the zionist entity formally known as Israel.

The adventure began this past Thursday morning when me and my buddies got a cab down to the King Hussein bridge at the Jordan-Israel border. After nearly 8 hours, we found ourselves at our place of stay, the Jerusalem Hostel, located in West Jerusalem, Zion Square. Due to some minor, albeit all to common, issues with Jordanian immigration, we finally made it across the border after several hours of trekking between border crossings, and dealing with Visa issues.

Jerusalem

Thursday evening we ate dinner at a little bistro near the hostel, and capped the evening off with at an Irish bar just up the street from Zion Square. As it turned out, the day we arrived happened to be the "Day of Jerusalem". This confirmed our suspicions that it was some day of celebration seeing as the the streets of West Jerusalem were swarming with teenagers draped in Israeli flags.
The following morning, Cody, Geoff, and I ventured out to the Old City for a few hours. Fortunately we got a chance to the check out the Wailing Wall, walk through the Souqs, and got some pictures of the Dome of the Rock. Our time for sightseeing was cut a bit short as we weren't anticipating our trip from Amman to take so long. I hope to get back to Jerusalem some time this coming July or August before I head back home. I would however like to share a few interesting observations from the Holy City:

1) Tons of kids packin' heat in West Jerusalem. Let me explain a bit further...
So as you may know, the Israeli government has a two year military conscription law for all Israeli Jews when they hit age 18. This becomes pretty evident when you walk around a bit and find tons of college aged kids in military fatigues, however it gets a bit more interesting...
The Israeli government passed a law where those conscripts who are issued weapons, must carry those weapons on their person at ALL times, to include when they are off duty. So what exactly do you get...throngs of Israeli teens wearing skater shoes and yankees baseball hats with M-16s slung over their shoulders! Welcome to the Zionist Twilight Zone...

2) Orthodox Jews are friendly, but pretty intense.

3) The Old City is absolutely beautiful. Since the three major monotheistic religions recognize the city as the holiest, or one of the holiest cities in the world, there's more interesting religious and cultural history than you can possibly digest in just a few hours of sightseeing. Let's hope I can get back in July and August!

Tel Aviv

Around 3pm on Friday, the four of us arrived in Tel Aviv after an hour long van ride from Jerusalem. From the bus station we trekked over to the Hotel De La Mer, located a block from the Mediterranean beachfront. After getting settled and packing up our cocktail mixers, we headed out to the beach for the rest of the afternoon. WARNING: Beware of walking through an intensely-competitive paddle ball game! Just about every Israeli and their respective mothers was playing out on the beach.. If you're at all serious about going professional in beach paddle ball (as I once was), then Tel Aviv is the place for you.

After a leisurely afternoon on the beach, my buddies and I headed out to dinner at a nice little steak house down the street from our hotel. Later that evening we went out to the Port of Tel Aviv where we hit a couple bars/clubs. In my efforts to keep the blog at or around PG-13, I won't go in the exact details of the Tel Aviv nightout. Suffice to say that when my friends and I convened the following morning to discuss the evening, it sounded like an Alberto Gonzalez congressional testimony...."I'm sorry, I have no recollection of that..."

Saturday afternoon we walked down the beach front drag known as Hayarkon Street, and got lunch at one of the the famous sports bars in Tel Aviv, known as Mike's Place. Made famous as it was the sight of a devastating suicide bombing back in 2000. The restaurant sits right on the boardwalk overlooking the water, great place to get lunch if you want a good burger and are looking for a laid back place to hang out for a bit.

Saturday evening Cody and I explored a bit more of the city before getting dinner at a nice Indian restaurant. Didn't get a chance to hit downtown, but we did tour around the Dizengoff Center, which is home to numerous good restaurants, and an immaculate shopping mall (NOVA people think Tyson's II). All in all, Tel Aviv struck me as a very livable city. The city has a very laidback, Mediterranean feel to it, but it's also the administrative/business capital of the country.
Israeli people were generally pretty friendly and helpful.. Oddly enough, because Israelis are somewhat of a hodgepodge of nationalities, my friends and I were mistaken for being Israeli on several occasions. I was asked at least three times, "Why aren't you speaking Hebrew"

One of my friends once told me that he'd never experienced such culture shock moving over such a short distance as he did travelling from Amman to Tel Aviv. I would say I definitely had the same experience.

All told, the trip was a blast. I'm now re-energized to get back to classes at Qasid and my internship. I have a pretty busy couple weeks coming up, but looking forward to my sister's visit in the next few weeks.

That's all for now.

Take care.