Our first day in Jerusalem was quite a weird one. We woke up at around 9:00 to the sounds of horns honking down below on King George St., the hustle and bustle of the day already in full motion. It was strange because we knew we weren't going to be living here for very long - our goal was to move out as soon as possible so Galina could move back in. As a result we hadn't unpacked any of our luggage, and we woke up feeling as if we had slept over at someone else's house.
The bed takes up about one third of the room, and as Chelsey mentioned earlier, is extremely uncomfortable, with tablecloth-like blankets. The other parts of the room are filled with Galina's belongings, as she was obviously hoping that we would find a place soon enough so that she didn't need to get rid of them. Every shelf, hanger, and cabinet is filled with her clothes, scarves, and knickknacks, so there's really only room for us to plop down our luggage in the corners. We needed to get out of this place, and quickly!
However, before we could start the apartment search, our bellies were in dire need of some filling. We brought some leftovers from the Ramat Gan apartment, including a loaf of bread, some fruit, rice, peanut butter, and dates, but not enough to sustain us for more than a day or so. Plus we didn't want to eat the same things for every meal. So after lounging around and figuring out our plan, we made our way to the Shuk, which is only a few minutes away from the apartment!
The Shuk was much less crowded than last Tuesday afternoon. It must have been because we went so much earlier in the day. As a tourist, it would probably be more fun to visit the Shuk during more crowded times of day, however as a shopper it was nice to have enough breathing room to scope out the best prices and the freshest food. For just 21 sheqalim, or a little under 6 dollars, we managed to buy: 4 apples, 4 peaches, 6 Israel cucumbers (small), a bag of couscous, and 2 onions. We also went to a supermarket to buy cheese, oil, and hummus. This was probably the first time we went shopping that we decided against buying pita! Not that we're sick of pita or anything, but more because we prefer smaller quantities in order to preserve their freshness, while the Shuk only offered bags of 10, which would take us about 4 days to devour. A three-day-old pita is not the best pita.
After breakfast, Chelsey got to work searching for apartments and writing blogs, while I read the diary of Anne Frank on Chelsey's Nook. I don't get too many opportunities to use the Nook because after all, it is Chelsey's only source of reading, and there aren't too many times when I'm reading and she isn't. However, I really wanted to read this book so I managed to coax the Nook away from her at the bus station and on the bus to Jerusalem on Saturday night. Once I'm partway through the book, I'm committed to finishing it! Chelsey found a search option on Janglo (a housing website) that we had overlooked before, and started compiling a list of apartments to inquire about later that day. After lunch, it was my turn to start working on the apartments. Earlier we had been relying on email to contact the sellers, but weren't getting much luck, so we tried calling the sellers with our newly acquired phones.
The first two people wouldn't rent to a couple. The third person didn't answer the phone, so I left a message, and the fourth person's phone went straight to voicemail. The rest of the ads Chelsey highlighted only had email addresses, so Chelsey emailed them while we plotted our next move. Suddenly my phone began to ring! It was Reut, one of the people whose phones went to voicemail. She said her apartment was still available, and asked if we could meet at a cafe on Ben Yehuda Street at 6:30. Ben Yehuda is literally a pole-vault away from our current dwelling!
We decided to leave early to search for a towel to buy, and found a store that looked promising a few floors above the supermarket we went to earlier. However, the towels at that store were so ridiculously overpriced! The cheapest ones were about 55 sheqalim, or 15 dollars, while the more expensive variety was over 250 sheqalim! You don't have to be a math wiz to figure out how ridiculous that is! Anyway, we decided to wait until later to buy a towel, as we're trying our best to conserve money. In fact, I compiled an Excel spreadsheet to track our expenses, and created categories so we can see what percentage of money we're spending for each category. Learning the Excel shortcuts in psych statistics really came in handy!
At 6:30 we met Reut at Cafe Rimon, right off of Ben Yehuda. She wanted to meet there because it's confusing to explain exactly where the apartment is, as the side streets wind crazily around, intersecting, looping, and curving around the main streets, which also tend to be quite curvy themselves. It's very easy to get disoriented in Israel, as none of the streets seem to go straight for more than a few blocks! Reut brought us into her apartment, which is on the third floor of a building right off of Ben Yehuda. The lease option was only until October 29, so we'd still need a place for November and December, but we needed desperately to get out of Galina's place. Reut was very nice and lively, and probably in her mid-late 20s. She showed us the room, and it was huge! It also had a balcony overlooking the shops and restaurants, one of which is a jazz club that you can apparently hear from the balcony. The rent would be 2500 sheqalim, 600 more than Galina's but still within our budget. Reut really liked us, and since the people before us were 18 years old and potential party animals, she said we could take it, and told us to call her back when we decided. Wahoo! Reut also recommended where to get towels, and we found a nice towel for only 15 sheqalim!
We didn't really have to contemplate for too long to make our decision. Reut was extremely friendly and easy-going, and would be in and out of the apartment, living in the other room. The location was extremely close, so we could simply wheel and carry our bags from one apartment to the next. The room was much larger, and we'd actually be able to unpack our stuff. And most importantly, Galina wouldn't have to take the effort to move her stuff out of her own room. Whew! So after confirming with Reut on the phone, we decided to meet around 4:00 at the cafe, and we get to move in this afternoon!
We texted Galina to tell her the news and she was extremely relieved. Considering the situation, we are relieved too! After a yummy couscous dinner, Chelsey curled up with her book while I followed some NFL football games online, waiting for our food to digest so we could go running later. The previous day we had walked to the Kotel, and decided that it was a perfect distance for running! It was a glorious run, much better than in Ramat Gan because it was much cooler and less humid. Plus, we were running through crowds of people on their way to the Kotel, running through the Old City passageways and down the small flights of stairs. It felt like I was part of a race or something. We got mixed reviews from the passersby, some yelling "Kol Hakavod!" and others whistling or giving us weird looks. The worst were some teenage black-hatted Orthodox boys, who got into our face, pretending to huff and puff like a runner out of breath. We each took a few minutes at the ancient wall, and then walked/ran back to the city center.
We took a stroll through the area with the hookah bars and clubs, while vendors tried to offer us deals with free shots, which we ignored. We made our way back to the apartment on King George, for our second and final night. Chelsey read, and I followed updates of the Seahawks' valiant comeback, which unfortunately ended with a missed 61-yard field goal that would have won the game. Too bad. Chelsey also had a small fright because it seemed as if her watch, which was already 15 minutes slow off because it stops running if it isn't worn, was suddenly 45 minutes fast. After a while, we discovered that we had slept through daylight savings time - and my computer and our phones updated automatically.
Anyway, that's all for now! We'll be moving into the new apartment later today, and hopefully everything works out with that!
No comments:
Post a Comment