Exploration is really the essence of the human spirit!

The first few days I was here I didn't really do a whole lot. I was so delirious and jet lagged that I slept half the day and was up all night. Given that I am 6 hours ahead of EST this makes sense. Also a few days after I arrived was yom kippur so everything was closed half day on Friday and all day Saturday. By the time Sunday came around I had cabin fever for sure. I was ready to get out of the house and explore. Saturday night I was so bored I walked around the neighborhood for a bit alone at like 11:30pm. Before anyone panics it's actually pretty safe here to be out at night.

In moving to a new city I'm not one to sit around, I want to figure the place out, learn the culture, find cool places to shop and eat and just genuinely emmerse myself. Up until Monday of this week the only places I'd been were the grocery store, ikea and the mall. As much as I love to eat and shop I needed more. My first trip to the grocery store was so overwhelming anyway because everything is in Hebrew, I wouldn't really even call it an outing. It was more like a bad movie; basically torture!

My first trip to the mall was to get me a sim card for my phone. That ordeal took way longer than expected and ended up being quite frustrating because the system was down and they couldn't program my sim, give me a phone number or process my information. After a while they just took everything down gave me a sim and told me they'd call my roommate's cell when the system was up and assign me a phone number then.

My roommates and I smiling through the frustration

At the bus stop heading to Ikea

On Thursday my roommate Shoshana and I took a very long trek to Ikea to find me a bed. Again this trip that shouldn't have taken 6 hours was more torturous than anything else. The good thing though I took my 1st bus ride. We took a bus to Rishon, a city about 20 mins away by car from Tel Aviv, where the Ikea is. The bus however takes about an hour and little did we know, where we got off on the bus is actually the other side of town from the Ikea. We walked around asked several people what bus would take us to Ikea but nobody seemed to know. We finally got in a sharut, which is like a little bus/taxi, but cheaper, to another bus stop which a bus there would take us to Ikea. By the time we actually got to the Ikea we were about 3 hours into our trip, hot, annoyed and hungry. We whizzed through the store got what I needed, organized the delivery and headed back. The trip back was much quicker because we realized that at our 2nd bus stop there was a train station so we took the train back to Tel Aviv, much faster. At least now we know right?! From the train station we were too hungry and tired to walk, by the time we got back and the bus we needed to go back to our apartment required us to wait another 20 or so mins. We decided to catch a cab, yes it was a little more expensive but after that journey we just wanted to get home and get some food.

Neither of us was really in the mood to cook so we went out to eat and I had sushi from this place that's only like a 3 minute walk from our apartment and the food was pretty good! I think it might be our new hangout. lol I discovered one spot at least.

The next day was Friday and the start of Yom Kippur so Shoshana left to spend the holiday with friends and thankfully my Ikea delivery came before the holiday started, so I could sleep in a bed and not on the couch. From Friday to Sunday I felt pretty stuck. I was in the house the whole time apart from 2 short walks.

Thankfully on Monday we got out. We caught the bus to downtown Tel Aviv to this outdoor market they call "The Shouk", it's kinda like a flea market. They sell food, clothing, houseware, jewelry....all sorts of stuff. I got some sheets and towels there and a couple other things I needed. Just outside the shouk we had lunch. I had my first schwarma! It's basically the Israeli version of a gyro! It's huge.

Heading to the Shouk

My 1st Shwarma

On Tuesday Shoshanna and I went to the beach! My first dip in the mediterranean! It was pretty cool. The sand is so fine here. The water isn't the crystal blue water I am used to, but it's much better than the Pacific in my opinion. The water was still warm and it was wavy. We attempted a little surfing... well Shosh did, but by the time she came back in with the board, the waves were a bit took big for me to try to tackle. I am a beginner in surfing for sure!

All in all it was a good time though. I had my first Israeli beer, which was actually pretty good, and smoked some Hookah on the beach with one of Shosh's friends and his brothers. It was a nice relaxing time and the few days spent getting to see a bit more of Tel Aviv has been good for my soul.

Shoshana and Me

Me, Shosh and her brave surf instructor... lol

Well it's another holiday here and I am indoors again. I have a feeling I'll be going stir crazy again in a few hours! Time to find something to do! lol