Phase III: Israel Again

Back in Tel Aviv, my brother Mikey had decided to come over from Toronto to visit for a week so that we could spend some time together. In the last few years we haven't spent much time together at all because I've been in London for a year and he's also been away at school the year before that, so it was really nice to finally spend a bit of time together and do something a bit different. We have an aunt Esther who lives in Israel as well, and its amazing having her here because she's amazing, spoils us naturally, and is just another connection to Israel which is always welcome.

On Monday we spent the day hanging out, and on Tuesday after our plans to go kayaking on the Jordan River fell through, we decided to go and spend the day in Haifa. We took the bus to Haifa which took a bit longer than we had expected, and when we arrived were starving. Suddenly, Mikey remembered that one of our family friends always tells us about this amazing place for falafel in Haifa, he calls it the best in the world. So we put in an early morning phone call to Toronto to find out the name of the place and where it was, and decided to go for a wander to find Falafel Halutz!

Now, we had both never been to Haifa, so we didn't know our way around, and after asking a few people, discovered that our wandering had taken us in a MASSIVE circle, eventually ending up quite near the falafel place. When we saw the sign for Halutz Street, we were thrilled... unfortunately, when we discovered the street, we also discovered that there's no such place called Falafel Halutz. We had to go based on the address information we had, which was #3, Rehov Hahalutz. We found some guy's falafel place who told us that he was #3, and although we weren't convinced, the falafel was AMAZING. Usually I'm not much of a falafel fan, usually opting for schwarma. If I ever get falafel, I only get from Tov Li in Toronto... I know... typical Jewish kid from Toronto, but hey... its the best. This place easily challenged Tov Li, and we left satisfied and smelling of Tahina.

That was essentially our day in Haifa. We wandered around for a while, got lost somewhere near the middle of the Bahai Gardens, peed in someone's backyard (possibly IN the Bahai Gardens) and then when we got to the bottom and wanted to walk up to the top, the place was closed. We decided to walk down the street, popped into a mall for air conditioning (where I bumped into one of the students from Manhigut) and then made our way to the bus station. We jumped on a bus at about 6:30 heading towards Jerusalem, and arrived in the Holy City two hours later.

BurgersBar for dinner, checked into our hostel, and then went for a late night wander to the Kotel. The atmosphere at the Kotel late at night is amazing, and it was so nice seeing actually how many people were there at around 11:30. There was a shiur going on in one corner, and a massive minyan of black hats standing right up at the wall as well. We went and did our thing at the wall, and then called home. One of us had the idea to tell our mom about the Live Kotel Webcam that broadcasts online 24/6, and after lengthy explanations that may have included how to spell 'Google', mom worked out how to see the kotel from the coziness of the study in Thornhill, and couldn't believe that she could see her two boys waving at her from Jerusalem. Our dad then naturally called and logged on from his office, and then Justin (our youngest brother) did a tutorial with our Bobba in Thornhill to show her the two of us standing at the kotel. After a while of that, we made our way back to the hostel.

Wednesday we basically wandered around Jerusalem, bumped into some people we knew, ate some marzipan rugalach, had schwarma for lunch and bought some presents for friends.

That was the day in Jerusalem, and went back to Esther's to sleep on Wednesday night.