Yom Kippur...the holiest of days...

It's nearly sunset which is the beginning of the holiest 25 hours in Israel, Yom Kippur. It is the day of atonement. A day of prayers, repentance and fasting for the Jewish religion. A time where synagogues are exploding with patrons. A time when driving is not allowed which makes the roads quiet with cars but bustling with walkers, jogger, runners and most of all bikers. All business establishments including airports are closed with the exception of hospitals and police.

Here are some interesting photos.

For my family we will use this time to be together and reflect on our life here in Israel and of course ride our bikes on the roads.
More pictures will be added later.

Update:
Yom Kippur 2012 is over and what an experience. It was a day of atonement, prayers and sacrifice for those who fasted for 25 hours. And for us it gave us a day of togetherness, bike rides, movies and hanging out. Below are some pics. Also note, not only is this happening in our neighborhood, it is happening everywhere in Israel. Yes, Israel is relatively small country but can you imagine if your entire city shuts down for 25 hours? That means no petrol, no groceries, no Starbucks, no cable... I think it will be good for everyone, don't you think? 

The beginning of Yom Kippur. Notice the absence of cars and peeps. 

No cars moving and bikers are starting to come out.. 

It's fun seeing groups of kids just riding together and having their own little adventures.

This guy is having fun!

Off to the main road we go, Hwy 2.

I contained myself from laughing and hollering while making this video as to not get too crazy. Left hand on the handle bar, the other my iPhone (some peeps can get really attached to their smart phones) and some uncertainty with this beach cruiser as it is the first time I'm riding it with this speed. But overall this ride felt like the scene from City of Angels where Meg Ryan's character was riding down this beautiful road with wonderful scenery. The cool air moving thru her hair and you just want to take a deep cleansing breathe and feel that she's happy and in awe of the world that surrounds her. That's how it was minus the truck accident part, of course=). It was a great feeling. And yes, this is the same way we came up, a much slower time on the return. Yippee! Here's a clip from the movie. You CAN find everything online =)

And so is this girl.

And these two boys.

Caution! Kids on bikes. I think I'd rather drive with cars with Israeli drivers (more on that later) than ride bikes with kids on their bikes. Very unpredictable.

 The next day there weren't as many bikers probably because of the heat but also it's the main part of the holy day where most people go to synagogues. You're probably wondering, "wait, no cars? how are people getting to synagogues?" I had the same question. It turns out, synagogues are everywhere. Netanya (city I live in) alone has more than 100! You can easily walk to one.

At sundown, cars started trickling on the road to a full on "back to normal." There was a bit of sadness sort of like the end of a book you really enjoyed reading. But you're super glad you did!

Back to normal

Happy New Year!... in September...

"Shana Tova! Shana Tova!", you'll here this everywhere. It means "Happy New Year". The Jewish new year aka Rosh Hashanah falls on September 17 and 18 of this year, 2012. And is part of the High Holy Days. It's a time of self-reflection and repentance. Additional prayers are said during Shabat. The shofar is blown and tashlich is performed. It's the casting of sins in open water. Most Rosh Hashanah meals are accompanied by apples and honey to symbolize a "sweet new year." 

SHANA TOVA!

shofar

Pomegrenate, apples and honey are symbolic foods of Rosh Hashanah

Say Whaaat!...

Look at these road signs. Don't you think it's fascinating? 

This is one of the first things I noticed while being in Israel. Notice the words are in Hebrew (obviously), Arabic (say whaat?!) and English (expected). I was fascinated by this so I grabbed my Encylopedia and... who am I kidding? So, I looked it up on the internet of course and found this. About 20% of Israeli Citizens are Arabs. And a VERY long history affiliated with this fact.  

In addition to Hebrew, Arabic and English, you'll also come across pamphlets like the picture below. What language is that?

It's Russian. Why? Because there was a huge immigration of Russian Jews to Israel in the 90s. Click here to learn more. 

Anymore? Oui madame, miss, et monsieur. Francais! Lots of Frenchmen in Netanya, the city we live in. In fact, I was asked once if I was from France in French. I have also met a few people living in our building that are vacationing from France and my current GP here is French who works in a French affiliated medical center/system. 

More? why yes. There is Yiddish, German, Polish, Ukrainian, Persian, etc. Many Jews desire to have a piece of land in this holy land. And so you have Jews from all over the world visiting, congregating and/or living here. 

With these many languages, there's still nothing like knowing Hebrew. I often find myself wishing I am fluent in it so I can really immerse myself in the culture and know exactly what's going on around me. And it will definitely make life here less complicated. 

But I'm grateful English is the major foreign language. So yes, you can get by with just English. But it surely helps to know some Hebrew. More on that later. Shalom. Yom tov (have a good day). 

Perseverance...

On the third weekend of our stay we decided to take a road trip and seek the beauty of the Bell Caverns in Bet Guvrin just an hour away. We got our printed map, a full tank of gas and snacks. Off we go. 

We had no problems following the directions but Google maps led us astray. At the end of all directions, we were on the middle of a narrow road in the middle of nowhere. Not a single structure was in sight.

 We back tracked and tried to get a signal for my phone for internet access. We did BUT I only had enough credits (pay as you go) to get the website page up. At this point we were kicking ourselves for forgetting to bring a map. We are almost two hours in when it's only suppose to take an hour. We know what road it is at, we just don't know where that road is. We drive around a bit more and we see brown signs which usually indicate a park or some sight. We follow the signs and it leads to nowhere. 

It's been more than two hours since we left the house. Luckily we had snacks and water with us. We were all frustrated so it helped that we weren't hungry or thirsty too. 

With no map and no internet/gps, it's time to ask someone. Jason parked the car at the last petrol station we passed by. I went in to ask for help and to hopefully buy a map and mobile credits. After a few minutes of trying to communicate with little English on the cashier's side and lack of Hebrew in my part, I left with no real answers, no map and no credits and more frustration. 

On the way to the car, I asked a couple having coffee and cigarettes. They spoke more English than the cashier and seem to know where it is. So we go the way we were told. Nope. Wrong.. nothing there. 

Should we just head home? Nope, we can't be that far. So we decided to ask one last person and see where it takes us. We come across a couple of guys in a park. They were nice and drew us a map. So we were happy. 

We follow their directions and even saw a sign for Bet Guvrin. Hurray! We turned left at a T junction which was the last direction given to us. As we were driving along a feeling of confusion and frustration sets in AGAIN. It's suppose to be really close from that T junction. We kept on for a few more kilometers and voila, we are at a west bank checkpoint! 

Oh we're in trouble now! Not really knowing how strict the border is and/if it's safe for foreigners, we were scared. Fortunately the armed guy that approached us spoke great English and pointed us to the right direction, we think.

 Almost three hours in instead of just one, we finally made it! 

The joke was on us. They're CLOSED! 

At this point, there's nothing else to do but just laugh! 

And laugh we did!

The following weekend, we made it just fine without any problems in less than an hour. 

Here are a few pics. 

Bell Caverns

Olive Mill

Burial Caves 

We made it!

per·se·ver·ance   [pur-suh-veer-uhns] nounsteady persistence in a course of action, a purpose, a state, etc., especially in spite of difficulties, obstacles, or discouragement.

Here is the right way to go. The first time we went, we took Road 1 to 38 and the directions made us turn west before hwy 35. Don't ask me why or how...

Sting... Stung... Stung

Ah yes! The apartment is only a walk a way from the beach! Clearly the first thing we must do is go to the beach. And to the beach we went. We were warned that it's jellyfish season (a few weeks inJuly/August), the stinging kind. But no big deal, we'll just stay away from them. They're big enough to see. In the water we go. Weee!

La, ti-da, splash, swim splash. OUCH! $!%#! that hurts... ugh.. that stings.. brush it off, rub it off. Still stings a little.. Oh well, still like the sea.. la, ti-da, splash, swim splash. Gasp! point! jellyfish sighted... move away.. no big deal.. splash, swim splash, splash, swim splash. OUCH! brush it off, rub it off.. still stings a little... paranoia sets in... am I going to get stung now?.. no.. phew.. splash, swim splash... how about now? no... la, ti-da, splash, swim, OUCH! That's it! I'm getting out! The bloom of jellyfish wins! 

Apparently floating severed tentacles in the water still has it's vicious powers when in contact with human skin. Boooooo! That stings in more ways than one!

We are not the only ones annoyed by this. In fact, the entire country is affected. And it's getting worse each year. It all started with the opening of the Suez Canal (man made) which allowed the migration of the jellyfish from the Red Sea to the Mediterranean sea. The decline of sea turtles (natural jellyfish predator) due to coastal construction by humans is also adding to the problem. So... yup, it's our fault really. We think we can mess with mother nature. Sorry, mother nature.=(

Luckily for us and the rest of the coastal population, the jellyfish season ended just a couple of weeks after our arrival. So off to the sea we go. La, ti-da, splash, swim splash. Weee!=)

the culprit