Thursday – Shopping

At this point the girls came to the conclusion that they have seen enough ruins for a while and wanted to see more fresh design of clothing. They had not spent enough time in the mall and now we chose the Haifa mall. This time I did not have to ask the questions: “What is taking you so long?” or “What are we still waiting for” but the girls did it for me. We had planned to go to see Natalia and Amit later in the afternoon and girls wanted as much time as possible.

I told in my last post about Olli’s jokes and this time he used joking in a place I would not have. Entering the mall means you have to open your purse and often go through the metal detector. The kids were walking ahead of me and Jukka was still parking the car. The security person was a woman and she did not pay much attention to the girls. When it came Olli’s turn she asked if Olli was carrying any guns.
Olli answered: “sorry, but I forgot to take them with me.”
The woman asked : “Are you going to buy guns?”
Olli: “Can I get them here?”
Woman: “Sure”
Olli: “I’ll let you know on the way out if I decided to buy one.”

At this point I reached the scene and did not even really look into my bag. She did say to me something that I did not totally catch but she was indicating to me that she was very amused by the previous discussion. I think this was possible because we look so much like tourists: wearing casual clothes and having the very light Nordic skin.

While we were shopping, Natalia called and told that we had to cancel the meeting because Amit was not feeling well. When we heard that, I told the kids that the only chance to see the Dead Sea on this journey would be now. The girls were even now hesitant when their shopping was interrupted. I called Igor who told us that there was not much to see in the Dead Sea and that it would take us 3 hours just to get there. Luckily the kids came to their senses and saw that seeing the Dead Sea and trying to swim in has to be done on another journey and now we just don’t have time for it. Six hours in a car just for floating on a lake that is so salty that you cannot swim would be insane!

After this hard :) decision we decided to drink some coffee. The mall had an excellent place for that with a view to the sea. We ordered coffee and something sweet to go with it and again we were surprised. Everything seems to be huge here. Here is what Jukka and the girls got:


I got this:

Olli ate a sandwich and I did not bother to photograph it.
We spent quite a while in the mall. This time it is very easy for me. I don’t have to spend any time thinking what to get the kids for presents from Israel :)

On the way back to the hotel the kids were starting to wonder what to do next and the obvious conclusion was the beach. Jukka called Anna to ask what would be the best place and got two suggestions. I don’t remember the names and which one they chose because now I had my chance to get some computer time totally without distractions (well as it turned out almost without… in the previous post I wrote what happened after they came back). I had a great time just being for myself.

Katri missed the event of the week, but I got a picture. I heard the ice cream truck coming. The sound is totally different from the Finnish one; here I find it not disturbing at all. Anyway the sound was something I immediately could recognize coming from one. The reason it was so important for Katri is that she has been driving an ice cream truck for at least two years on vacations and weekends to get some more money while studying.

Boys will NEVER grow up

If you have not read my official post about Jerusalem, I suggest you do that first. I will blog about today later, but this has to come first. All the others left swimming and I enjoyed my peace with the computer. I was writing the post about Jerusalem and when they came back I went to ask questions about their trip. When I returned to the computer I found an altered text. I only paid attention to one part of it, but every reader found more things to laugh at.
My son is a real joker. He can joke about anything and he is verbally very talented. So compare to my text and see what he did! But prepare yourself to a serious burst of laughter :)

We had an early start today and even though the sandwiches were prepared to take them with us, we missed the departure which according to Dave should have been at 7 am. The other mistake was to trust the GPS which did not direct us to the toll road 6, but instead used road 1 which meant that we had to face the traffic jams in Haifa and in Tel Aviv. However, we used the jam to make us a spending English breakfast. So we were late from our meeting with the guide in … almost by an hour! I am a person who hates to be late :(

However it turned out that it was better for us that way. Because we were so late the original plan to follow the guides car would not have succeeded because of the traffic in Jerusalem. So the guide, Boaz, took us in his SUV. Boaz was an excellent guide and even though I visited Jerusalem before, I learned so much and heard many new stories. Boaz got his name from the king of the jungle – the Boa snake. He used to utilize little Boas as toothpicks and before the snakes got stuck under his tongue, they made a soothing sound – hence the name BoaZZZZZZ.

The locals say that seeing everything in Jerusalem (meaning the old city) would take at least four days and I am convinced that they are left. Describing the feeling or the places is something I am really unable to do. It is something all have to experience themselves. That is why I am only including some pictures. I am not really sure how much time we spent in the Old City, as all our clocks were stopped due to the holy spirit affecting the clockwork.

Wednesday - Jerusalem

We had an early start on Wednesday and even though the sandwiches were prepared to take them with us, we missed the departure which according to Dave should have been at 7 am. The other mistake was to trust the GPS which did not direct us to the toll road 6, but instead used road 1 which meant that we had to face the traffic jams in Haifa and in Tel Aviv. So we were late from our meeting with the guide in Latrun, outside Jerusalem, almost by an hour! I am a person who hates to be late :(

However it turned out that it was better for us that way. Because we were so late, the original plan to follow the guide’s car would not have succeeded because of the traffic in Jerusalem. So the guide, Boaz Malachy, took us in his SUV. Boaz was an excellent guide and even though I had visited Jerusalem before, I learned so much and heard many new stories.

The locals say that seeing everything in Jerusalem (meaning the old city) would take at least four days and I am convinced that they are right. Describing the feeling or the places is something I am really unable to do. It is something all have to experience themselves. That is why I am only including some pictures.

Behind us is the desert outside the hills of Jerusalem (on the left)

The Dome of the Rock seen from Mount Olive

The Wailing Wall

Mount of Olives

I am not really sure how much time we spent in the Old City, but if I say it was 8 hours, I am not very far from the truth.

To me the biggest amazement was that the same place plays an important role in Judaism, Christianity, and Islam. Boaz talked us about the Jerusalem syndrome. I think I am starting to develop mild symptoms... :)

After getting us back to our car Boaz helped us filling the tank of the car and made sure that this time we found the right road.

Tuesday - Caesarea

I had already earlier made arrangements with Anna (Conceptis webmaster) that I will reserve Tuesday to her. So in the morning Igor, Anna's husband called that they were going to pick us from the hotel. Picking up here means that I went into their car and the others followed by our car. Igor is Dave's partner in Conceptispuzzles. You can read the story of the start on Conceptis website: How it all began.

Here is a picture of Anna and Igor

The destination was Caesarea (I typed it wrong earlier), which is a town in Israel on the outskirts of Caesarea Maritima, the ancient port city. It's history goes even longer but the city underwent a great number of changes under Herod, who among other things renamed it Caesarea in honor of the emperor. In 22 B.C.E. he began construction of a deep sea harbor and built storerooms, markets, wide roads, baths, temples, and luxurious public buildings. Every five years the city hosted major sports competitions, gladiator games, and theatrical productions.

We saw an interactive slide show about the history compared to now, a movie and walked among the ruins. We walked on the hippodrome and wondered about those poor souls whose meaning of life was to give entertainment for the rich by chariot racing and dying just to let people see blood. We saw part of the remains of the spa where the slide show guide suggested that Herod got rid of enemies by drowning them. Poisoning would have been too obvious but accidents can happen in a big pool… We also saw the big theatre which has been restored and is available for big concerts nowadays.

At this point it was very hot, not totally unbearable though. The sun in Finland never shines from straight above my head! The time was excellent for a lunch. I ate just the salads and bread which all are so excellent here, the rest of us had various fish portions and Anna and Igor ate meat. I lose my appetite on hot weather and hummus, eggplant and all the other numerous vegetables they carry to the table are totally sufficient to me.

After eating and a cup of coffee (the necessary nutrient for Finns) we went to the beach. To the kids it seems to be the most enjoyable activity and I think it is just a waste of time. This time it did not matter since I had good company meanwhile. Igor does not like swimming either and we had the most enjoyable discussions while the others were soaking themselves in the water. Jukka and Anna joined us most of the time and did not try to get a tan like the kids were.

Igor is originally a nuclear physicist and I rarely get the chance to talk with people like him :)

After getting back to the hotel we were supposed to rest for a while, but my mailbox was again filled with stuff I had to take care of and I was also making plans for the next day on the mobile. My rest just faded away without me even noticing but so what! I am on holiday.

Since I am staying here for two weeks, I decided to buy a prepaid connection from an Israeli provider. In Finland our phones normally are not locked and I just changed the SIM-card to my phone. Actually the guy selling phones and connections in the Grand Canyon mall did it and opened the connection. The service was so incredible that I rarely get that in Finland. Now I can call local phones much cheaper than from my Finnish connection. The price of calls between Finnish and Israeli phones is in the highest category. I had the idea before but Marika confirmed that she does that always in foreign countries. (The Finnish system will make it very hard for iPhone to get a footstep in Finland. People are usually not willing to bind themselves with the same connection provider for 2 years!!)

In the evening Anna and Igor picked us up again and we went having dinner in a Japanese restaurant. Olli is a great fan of sushi and likes to eat it on his journeys. The problem in Turku is that we have only one restaurant serving sushi. Jukka is the only one who does not eat it, but he ordered chicken and told that it was the best chicken he ever has eaten. Here is the “plate” I shared with Olli.

Our family is totally impossible when 5 people are supposed to be ready at the same time and leave as soon as possible. Before leaving to the restaurant when the chaos was worst, Olli built this and Katri completed it:

Even though I visited here last year, I don’t seem to stop getting surprised about the technology here. I have always considered Finland a place where we use the latest technology but Israel is very much ahead of us.

First today was the slideshow. As a teacher I have seen a lot of them and also in very new buildings. Nothing like the one I saw in Caesarea I have ever seen. It was actually two shows running together side by side and showing how the city looked like in the old times and nowadays.

The other surprise was the way Igor paid for the parking in front of the restaurant. The size of the device was that of a credit card, and it had been preloaded. Igor just pushed the right buttons, opened the car window, hooked the device and shut the window. It was in the car safely, could be seen on the outside and there was no reason to walk to pay the parking fee. Amazing!