White Night

Wednesday 5/27 is White Night in Tel Aviv. This once a year event happens in Tel Aviv and Jerusalem where every shop, club, bar stays open for 24 hours. I read about a dance party at a club called The New Train Station but Noam tells me I should just plan to walk the street and celebrate spontaneously with the locals. This is going to be crazy!

On the note of partying - this is a party promoting group that supposedly has the scoop on great music. They're called Pacotek.

Shabbat Shalom

So on a more positive note, a majority of israel citizens and the country in general considers itself to be secular but that doesn't mean shabbat isn't an amazing day of rest celebrated by families across the land. In tel aviv today i was invited to shabbat lunch at Noam's house in Herzilya. Her father BBQ'd, her mom made onion quiche, grilled veggies, an amazing salad and great spiced sweet and regular potatoes.

Shabbat goes from Friday early in the day to Saturday evening. That means people in tel aviv head to the beach, the outdoor greenmarket or the bar. Shabbat on Saturday is a combination of a Spanish siesta and New York City Sunday Brunch. Families and friends gather around 1:30pm to eat for hours, drink, rest and laugh. We didn't say a single prayer but at this gathering there were women from London and Israel and I was able to join representing New York. Then Sunday is a regular workday.

Israel - The first post

I've been in Eretz Yisrael for eleven days now and I\ve already traversed most of the northern half of the country, swam in the dead sea, rafted on the Jordan River (with its one timid rapid)slipped a note of peace into the cracks of the western wall, haggled for figs at the market in Jerusalem, salsa danced on the beach in Tel Aviv and today picked lemons on an organic farm outside Netanya.

I've been journaling in my notebook, created a facebook travel group and have taken so many photos and videos I'm sure I'll be here all night uploading but I'll try and be as insightful as possible here. Stay tuned for cultural revelations as the months trickle on.