First Day in Jerusalem - an experience!

Not an easy start to our holiday. Because we departed Toronto at 1 pm, neither Nimi or I slept on the plane. We arrived at midnight Toronto time/ 7 am Israel time, so it was just the start of the day. We were frustrated waiting for our bike boxes that were stuck on the oversize luggage belt that just wasn't moving. I needed to get someone to call down to the loaders to start it up. Yossi, our prearranged ride, met us at the terminal and drove us first to Beit Halochem in Jerusalem to leave our bike boxes - we would take our bikes with us so we could use them this week. Yossi was not willing to put our bikes in his new $200,000.00 Range Rover as they would dirty his leather upholstery. I convinced him they wouldn't as they were disassembled and wrapped.

 A little surprise when we got to our apartment. It was filthy. The previous dental volunteer and his family left it in a disgusting mess and the cleaner was AWOL! We needed to get our essential groceries before all the stores closed for Simchat Torah that afternoon and then we could tackle the mess ourselves. We contacted the clinic secretary and arranged for fresh linens and towels but with no one to clean the apartment, we washed floors, dishes, bathroom and kitchen. Not a nice way to start our stay and we were wiped. With our sleeping schedule messed up, I was up at 4am, Nimi at 5 - we had some breakfast and then sacked out until about 11am.

Feeling better, we did a bike ride along the new Jerusalem bike trail and then did the climb up Yad Kennedy, an impressive memorial site honouring JFK at the top of a high lookout overlooking an awesome valley.

Back at the apartment, now in great shape,  we were too tired to go out for dinner, and Nimi thought she would make eggs but wouldn't you know that the clicker on the gas stove was broken and there were no matches to light the element. She improvised using the microwave - and it actually worked out well. That night, being the conclusion of the festive holiday, everyone in the neighbourhood and their kids were up to all hours of the night celebrating with lots of singing and dancing which is nice, but not right outside our place. Kids were yelling , riding noisy toys on the stone walkway right under the bedroom window. We finally fell asleep around 3 am.