Observations of Israel

Sitting here at Ben Gurion airport and taking advantage of the free wireless....

It's pretty easy to get by in Israel with only English.  It would be very hard to visit here if one didn't speak either Hebrew or English.

Most fast food places seem to have the menu only in Hebrew (or sometimes also in Arabic).  Jeff asked me to mention that the airport Pizza Hut's menu was only in Hebrew but the trash can thanked him, in English and out loud, for using it.  I think today was the only time either of us ate fast food.

Bus stops are well marked.  They're Hebrew on the side as the bus drives up, but English on the other side.  Most of the time.  But the buses themselves are only in Hebrew.

There are tons of cats.  Everywhere. 

I am not good at geocaching solo in Israel.  I managed to find 4 caches, but looked for quite a few more than that. On the other hand, the caches are in worthwhile locations.

We managed to spend ourselves down to less than 1 shekcl in coins.  With the exchange rate being about 3.8 shekels to the dollar that means we ended up with less than 25 cents in coins (unless of course one of us discovers more coins when we unpack).  Yes, we have some bills, but those can be exchanged at home (or sold to family members who are planning to visit here in the future).

Today I got to speak French for the first time in Israel.  There was an older couple from Paris on the free tour I took.  While we were waiting for others to finish up I started chatting with them.  Once again the "poodle theory" applied -- any time an American is able to hold a conversation in another language it almost doesn't matter how well they do, it's the fact that they do it at all that's remarkable, sort of like it doesn't matter how well the poodle walks on its hind legs, it's noteworthy that it's doing it at all.  Anyway, they were gracious enough to compliment my French when even I caught some grammatical errors.  With the exception of Scandinavia last summer, every time I've left North America I've spoken French at least once....

So I'm glad I've been to Israel.  It was never on my "short bucket list" of places I really want to see.  I'm not sure that I need to come back even though there were some things I didn't get to do....like go snorkeling in the Red Sea. 

I'm not sure if this is a sign-off for this trip or whether there will be another entry after returning home.....