Shavua Tov (A Good Week)

We have been in Jerusalem since last Sunday, staying with Adena’s parents at an apartment they are renting in the Baka neighborhood. The drive down from Haifa was uneventful, and we arrived in time to have breakfast at the Garden + Home Restaurant around the corner.

The food was good and we explored a new park not far away. Adena and I helped set up the sukkah at Uncle Paul and Aunt Laura’s house while the girls hung out with their grandparents at the apartment. Here are a few photos of me with Paul and his son-in-law Ziv.

Later that night, we all walked over from the apartment in Baka to Paul and Laura’s house for dinner and ate in their sukkah.

Adena’s friend Mindy (from college) and her family are also in Israel right now and they joined for dinner. It was a fun evening with a chance to talk and lots of tasty food. Later that evening, we walked back to the apartment with Mindy and her family (they were staying in a different neighborhood). As we passed by apartment buildings on the way, it was nice to hear people entertaining in their sukkot, which was a lot different than the experience in Champaign where we are always the only house on the block with a sukkah. Here are a few photos of sukkahs on balconies, in parking lots, and sloping ground.

On Monday morning, we walked to services, but arrived late. Stuart joked that he wished he could say that was the latest they had ever arrived for services, but… Adena and her dad had an opportunity to participate in the service and the punch served afterwards was yummy. We had lunch at Judy and Benjy Siegel’s house and ate in their sukkah. Two friends of Adena’s parents were also invited and the food was (again) delicious, including homemade, non-dairy ice cream!

On Tuesday, we had breakfast at the Waffle Bar down the street (Millie’s pancakes came with ice cream), then drove to the Stalactite Cave Nature Reserve west of Jerusalem. We met Mindy and her family and one of her friends there.

It was fun, but the drive there was a bit harrowing (windy roads).

There was a street fair on Tuesday evening and we met up with Adena’s cousin Noa (who lives in Jerusalem). The kids played with soap bubbles, there were local bands playing (one group of teenagers played “Zombie” by the Cranberries twice while we were there), and massive servings of cotton candy.

That night, Adena and I went with Mindy and her family to a comedy show near the Old City that was organized by and featured another of their college friends. Honestly, it took me a while to warm up, but it was pretty funny.

On Wednesday, we took the bus to the Israel Museum and met up with Adena’s friend Avi (the comedian). The museum is huge and the girls really took to the arts activity in the Youth Wing where they drew and painted full-length self-portraits.

Wednesday night was dinner at a “stekiya” or Israeli steakhouse near the Hadar Mall. Each person ordered a meaty entree (skewers of chicken, spicy sausages, etc.) and the staff brought out a variety of sides (beans, falafel, rice, beets, cole slaw, etc.) and refilled them as needed. It reminded me of “family style” barbecue restaurants in North Carolina.

On Thursday, we went to the aquarium, but I took the bus because there is only room for five people in the Kia Picanto. That part of the city is hard to get to, and the bus stop was actually about 25 minutes from the aquarium by foot. It was the hot part of the day, but I made it and would have been on time if the bus was not eight minutes late. This is the large goldfish pond out front where kids feed them pellets for a shekel.

On Friday, Adena and I went to Yad Vashem and the girls went to First Station with Stuart and Nancy. The Holocaust museum was overwhelming and we spent three hours walking through the main exhibit and grounds.

The Memorial to the Deportees consists of the train car shown above that sit on a track cantilevered into the open sky, which is really powerful. The Valley of the Communities lists the names of Jewish communities that were lost during the Holocaust on massive stone pillars like those shown above. We found the name of the town (Olszany) that Adena’s maternal family came from in Poland in the group of stones for places near Vilna/Vilnius.

Saturday night Adena and I took the bus down to the Shuk. We had heard a lot about it as a trendy spot for people to hang out at night, which is apparently a new development. I liked the art covering the doors of shops that were not open and took a bunch of photos.

We got drinks at Roaster’s and played backgammon while a steady stream of 90s hip-hop played in the background. I tried the Shapiro pale ale and it was really good. Definitely better than what is available in the supermarket here. From there, we stopped by Marzipan on Agripas for rugelach and walked over to Ben Yehuda Street. We browsed the shops and watched people dancing at a Chabad-sponsored party near the end of the pedestrian mall.

Adena had a solo breakfast with Mindy this morning and we had an uneventful drive back to Haifa. We walked down to the Simchat Torah service this evening (yes, the holidays are still going strong) and later listened to the band performing in the park near our apartment as part of the Haifa Film Festival. I’ll need a few days to fully recover from this week, but it seems like we are finally enjoying our time here on a consistent basis. Nancy and Stuart will be coming up to Haifa on Wednesday and spending a week with us, so stay tuned!