Although we had planned on being shomer shabbat and observing the Shabbat as much as we could, we made an exception for this past Shabbat. We had to clean the apartment and leave it in tip top shape because Rafi and I would be catching the first bus out of Ramat Gan to Jerusalem. We had planned to be in Jerusalem from October 1 until the last day of our trip on January 9 so this would mark the beginning of the second phase of our travels. The first part (in Ramat Gan/Tel Aviv) is characterized by our long, lazy days reading and relaxing - either at home or at the beach building sand structures, collecting shells, and playing in the waves. It also consisted of exploring the area, visiting a museum, and basically getting an overall sense of being in Israel. We used our time on the Mediterranean coast to get our bearings. The next phase of our trip (with our home base in Jerusalem) will be much more productive in our minds. We plan to travel with our backpacking gear, go on hiking and camping trips to explore the actual terrain and geologic structures of the land. We also plan to visit areas such as Eilat (to swim in the Red Sea), to rub mineral-rich mud all over ourselves and rinse it off in the Dead Sea, travel up to the North of Israel to hold some green beauty in our gaze, and to pop on over to Petra in the neighboring country of Jordan in order to both renew our Israel visas and to see the ancient sites on the other side of the river. While we are in Jerusalem, Rafi will continue meeting on Tuesday nights with his Jerusalem Scrabble Club, as well as join an Ulitimate Frisbee team. We want to try to find some sort of flexible volunteering experience while we are here, although if it does not work out, we will make the most of our time by doing other things to enrich our lives. We want to find a Masorti shul around our apartment so that we can begin attending services regularly. I would love to take a drop-in class on anything Jewish really, and maybe find an affordable Ulpan to learn some more Hebrew (although I do not think this will happen - they are pretty darn expensive).
On Saturday October 1, Rafi and I packed all of our things that we had unpacked three weeks previously. We cleaned the apartment thoroughly and I did a few loads of laundry (last minute clothing of ours, along with towels and bedding belonging to the apartment). I cooked up the last of our food that I could for the day and by the time that Yehuda (the fiance of the woman I sublet the apartment from) arrived, we were basically ready. He checked our electricity meter and calculated that we owed 75 more shekels than we paid! Rafi and I had been trying to conserve the electricity so that we might receive money back from our deposit. We barely had lights on and only twice turned on the T.V. (for football Sundays). I guess our having the air conditioner running every night was what ate our money.
Our interactions with Yehuda seemed somewhat awkward and we felt like we should get out of his hair as soon as possible, even though it was still Shabbat time and no buses were running for another 2 hours. Rafi and I strapped our backpacks on and grabbed our luggage, Yehuda helping us get out to the sidewalk. Raf and I said goodbye to Yehuda and continued a little further down the street. We caught a taxi to the nearby bus station where we waited with our luggage for the next hour for the 480 bus to Jerusalem to arrive. We were the first in line! Rafi read The Diary of a Young Girl on my Nook while I listened to The Lemon Tree as an audiobook on my iPOD. When the bus arrived we loaded all of our huge amounts of luggage in the underbelly of the vehicle and boarded. The ride to Yerushalayim was a quick one.
Rafi and I were both excited and nervous to start this part of our trip. We were excited because we would be living in Jerusalem, a truly amazing city with many things to do (and a nice cooler temperature) as well as the promise of being more productive. We were nervous because of the awkward living situation we were walking into. We knew that we would not be able to live at our apartment long because of the fact that the woman we were subletting from is not leaving after all (as we explained in an earlier post, her boyfriend fell from the balcony and is now in a coma). We are now caught in the middle. We have no where to live and we must find a new place as soon as possible, and all the time that we are living in her room, Galina has no where to live either.
When our bus stopped in Jerusalem, it was already dark. We debarked and picked up our luggage. Another young woman walked by and frantically searched the seemingly empty luggage compartment. She looked distraught and began raising her voice, asking in Hebrew where her things were. The driver came over and she yelled at him asking where her luggage was. She left and the driver searched a little more and found her things on the other side of the bus. After we watched this event occur and end, Rafi and I made our way to where the taxis accumulate outside. Rafi bargained aggressively with the taxi drivers, ensuring that we get the best rate possible.
We arrived quickly to our apartment building, the shwarma stand next door thriving with business from the customers post-Shabbat. After paying the cab driver, Rafi and I made our way slowly with all of our luggage up the three flights of stairs to the apartment. We found it easily after visiting it two weeks ago. Avital, our roommate was there and greeted us. She said to let her know if we needed anything and then retired to her room. Our room, was in a state of mild disarray. I had texted both Avital and Galina earlier in the day, letting them know of our approximate arrival time. Galina had warned us that because of her situation (basically living at the hospital) her room was still very messy and she would not be able to come by until 11 pm at which point she would grab some of her things to pack with her. Rafi and I left our bags on the floor in the room and decided to take a night walk to the Old City and Kotel and then get some dinner while we waited for Galina to stop by.
The walk was excellent. The air was cool and comfortable, completely refreshing compared to the muggy heaviness of Tel Aviv. It took us ten or fifteen minutes to get to the Old City and another fifteen minutes to arrive at the Kotel. The Old City is breathtaking at night. There were all sorts of people everywhere. There were groups of Russian speakers walking together. There were young and old people walking in all directions. It must have been because it was just after Shabbat ended and people were hanging out after Havdalah. At night, I noticed that the Jerusalem stone glistens in the light cast by the lamp posts throughout the Old City. It seems as though the stones are wet and contain big puddles of water, but really it is just the light reflecting off the surface. The Kotel was much more active than the time we visited during the day two weeks ago. The men's side had many more people at the wall and davening. I stoof outside the gate and took reeaalllyyy zoomed-in picture of Rafi at the wall this time.
We walked back to the shwarma stand next to our apartment building to get dinner. The place was hopping with other hungry souls. When it was finally our turn, Rafi ordered a shwarma b'lafa and I got a falafel b'lafa with all the trimmings. Outside of the shwarma stand I had turned around to grab some tahina sauce and ran into Jamie Schwartz from the Seattle area. She said that she recognized me when I was in line in front of her but wasn't sure because I was out of context. She was our first "run-in" with Seattle folk. Rafi and I walked around the block chomping on our food. When we finished, we climbed the stairs back to our temporary dwelling.
While we waited for Galina, we cleaned her things off of the bed and made ourselves comfortable, Rafi reading and me blogging. Galina arrived and came into the room looking sad. It is such a strange and awkward predicament we are in. We do not want to displace her or make it difficult for her as much as she probably does not want us to stay here. She said that she was going to grab a few of her things to take but she would not be able to clean out the room. I said that it was fine because we are not going to unpack anyway - we are going to try to find a new place as soon as we can. She said that she will post our advertisement that we gave her explaining who we are and what sort of apartment we need. She also said that she will also look for a place herself because it may be easier for a single to find something instead of a couple. We assured her that we would look and let her know when we find something. She gave us clean bedding and took the used off. Rafi and I made the bed and realized how strange this bed actually is (we will get to that later). Galina left and we settled back in as best as we could.
The feeling I get here is that I am spending the night at someone's house. I cannot unpack, and yet we originally had plans of coming to Jerusalem and settling down for the next few months. We may have to rent a few apartments over the coming months if we do not find something for the entire period. We definitely do not feel at home in the apartment, as we shouldn't, given the situation. When we laid down to sleep, we decided that we were very glad that we had to find a new place to live. The bed is terrible! There is a wooden bar down the center, separating the two sides. One side is flat, and the other slopes down at an angle. The bedding does not fit the bed either. We slept on top of a comforter (we each slept with part of our body on the comforter because it did not fit the bed) with a blanket the texture of a table cloth over each of us. It took me so long to fall asleep because of the strange bed, as well as the noise from the street. King George Street is a busy one, even at 1:30 am. We heard men yelling, cars and buses etc... Hopefully I get used to it. We definitely laughed a great deal about it as we laid there joking. I think that I would be more comfortable here if I knew we were staying. Since we are not, I want a new apartment QUICK!
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