Today is my last day and Tel Aviv is my last port of call on my worldwide tour. I am both very excited and equally as nervous to make the trip home tomorrow. I am excited to come back and catch up with my family and friends, take a nap on my couch, wake up in my own bed, and see how my house has fared my absence and the subsequent party that was held there.
I am nervous that I am coming back big bills, no job, no car, winter approaching, and the inevitable reverse culture shock. It is going to be strange being in a place where I can brush my teeth with tap water, drink something with ice in it, not have to clean sand out of everything several times a day, or live out of a backpack. Repacking my backpack to accommodate every day’s needs has become as common to me as opening my blinds in the morning back home. I almost do it without thinking at this point.
Anyways, back to Tel Aviv. Today is Yom Kippur.
Yom Kippur is the most holy Jewish Holiday and the country completely shuts down from sunset yesterday until sunset today. When I say the country shuts down, I mean it is like someone flipped a switch. There are no radio or television broadcasts, the airports and public transportation are shut down, there is not a single business open and most of our hotel is even shut down. The entire Jewish population fasts for the entire day so there is not a single place to get food or drink. Like I had said in my last post, we were lucky to make it to a supermarket before it closed or we would involuntarily be participating in the Jewish fast.
We knew immediately that our hotel stay wouldn’t be a normal one when we showed up in the lobby and the reception desk greeted us by name. We were the only people checking in yesterday. The last day and a half has been more like camping indoors than staying at a nice hotel which was the original intention for the last few days of all of our trips. There is no restaurant, bar, housekeeping, etc. We have been making sandwiches and using ice and a small fridge to keep everything cold. Even with the skeleton crew at the hotel, it is still much nicer than a lot of places that I stayed at over the last three months!
Being here during Yom Kippur is very nice in a lot of ways. Last night, in the peace of the night, we walked around for a while. The roads are shut down and there is not a single car out. It was almost eerie being in a city of almost a half-million people and not seeing one car driving down the road. We did see most of the inhabitants, though, as it is traditional to walk around at night after sunset. Most people wore white and took to the streets with friends and family enjoying the warm, quiet night. There are so many people walking around but with no other signs of modern society it reminded me of a scene from a post-apocalyptic movie.
(These two pictures are from the internet)Yom Kippur is known as the “Day of Atonement.” The central theme for the Jewish population is repentance and atonement for past sins. I am, of course, sin free but thought that it was appropriate that my trip would end on a day in which reflection on one’s life played such an important part. I can reflect over the past few months with all that I have seen and done and everyone that I have met and consider myself a very lucky person. I am going to write a summary entry tomorrow on the plane but for today, I am going to remind myself often that I was given an opportunity that most people, in the US particularly, do not get and be thankful for every moment I have experienced.
Since there is absolutely nothing open in the entire country, it was a nice excuse to do nothing but lay on the beach all day long. We spent time swimming in the Mediterranean, body surfing, napping, reflecting, and not much more. It was a very lazy day and perfect for the last day of the trip. At one point, Maria got very bored and decided to spend about an hour making a sprawling sand castle. Being from Colombia, her castle was complete with Bull Fighting Arena and Soccer Pitch. She was so proud of it. No sooner did she finish her masterpiece then she went swimming and a dog came by and relieved himself in her castle courtyard.
After sunset, as the city slowly awoke from its Yom Kippur slumber, Maria, Brian, Karen, and I walked the 40 minutes or so down to the old neighborhood of Jaffa which is the site of the original port here. We had a good dinner and it was a perfect end to an incredible trip.
Right now, I sit in the Tel Aviv airport around 3AM local time ready to board the first of my flights that will take me back to Kansas City. The peace and tranquility that was Yom Kippur in Israel was shattered with the security process here. I completely understand why they have to have the tightest security on Earth here but I also believe that they could make the process a little friendlier. At best, I felt like a common criminal while going through the 2 ½ hour security process. At worst, there were times that I didn’t feel like they were going to let me out of the country. It was a very intense few hours. Israel was at or near the top of my list of places to revisit before I had to go through the airport but now, I am not so sure. I don’t want to go through that again!
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