Israel
When we crossed the border from Taba, Egypt to Eilat, Israel it was such a strange feeling to arrive in Israel by foot, and not by plane. Once we got through the security check we breathed in the Israel air and felt at home. We rushed to the bus station and caught the next bus to Tel Aviv. We couldn’t wait to get to Safta's apartment...the only problem was that Safta did not know we were coming because we did not have a phone to call her from! Thankfully someone at the bus stop let us borrow his phone, and she was so excited to hear we were only 15 minutes away!
Our first day in Israel we walked around Tel-Aviv. We went to the Azrieli Towers and the Ramat Aviv Mall, where there was a kosher Burger King and McDonalds. When we got to the food court, we were disappointed to find that Burger King was replaced by Burger Ranch. We later found out that all Burger King's were replaced by Burger Ranches. As disappointing as that is, we were quickly cheered up with a supersized order of Big Macs and Mcnuggets!
The next morning Ima and Aba Katzourin arrived in Israel, and we had a nice Shabbat together with the family (including Morey). The next week in Israel went by so fast- from checking out the family's new apartment in Kiryat Ono, to going to Jerusalem for Saba Avigdor's yeirtzeit. We spent all Wednesday and Thursday walking around Jerusalem, Meah Shearim, Ben Yehuda, Machane Yehuda, and of course the Kotel. We stayed at the Kotel until the first Channuka candle was lit.
We also got to spend some time visiting family and friends who are here in Israel. It was so nice to see my good friend Shira- who I have not seen since our wedding! Okay.. fine... we also spend some time shopping... but most of the time in Israel was spent eating, of course!
This is now Joey - filling in a few details from Danna's entry above. Israel was a blur (the eating part was definitely true - see our other story on the food). But just to clarify one point, "some time shopping" could be replaced with "some time NOT shopping."
Israel was a fun family vacation and now the trip really begins... off to Jordan.
