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Israel
Impressions
& Musings
Many of our impressions are
scattered throughout our journal entries, but for other generalities or oddities, see
below. These are not meant to stereotype all of Israel, these are simply things we
observed during our travels. $1 = 4.23 Shekels
Cybercafes: $6 - $10 an hour
Bottled water (1.5L): $1.50
Typical Breakfast: $2.50 "stretched" out bagel-type bread, yogurt
Typical Lunch: $2.00 - falafel sandwich in a pita
Typical Dinner: $2.00 - falafel sandwich in a pita (we lived on that here)
Accomodations: expensive. $20 min. for a private room without a sink.
Coming here from Egypt,
everything seemed very quiet, clean, and expensive.
The security was the toughest
we've ever seen. The border from Egypt to Israel included 3 baggage scans, excessive
questioning, and lots of waiting. When we would enter a mall or a Jewish area of Jerusalem
(like the West Wall) we were required to walk through a metal detector and have security
check inside our bags. The bus from Bethlehem (which is in the West Bank) to Jerusalem was
also heavily patrolled by Israeli guards--one pulled a guy off and took his I.D. card.
It was a stark contrast to go
from seeing Egyptian women, wearing gallibiyas and head scarves on one side of the border,
to Israeli army women in uniforms and carrying weapons.
Most items in stores had
fixed prices, but on the street or in the souq we still had to bargain for things. We
discovered if we would just hand someone a small amount of money for something and acted
like we knew what we were doing, we could get by paying "local" prices.
It was a shock to see so much
skin when we first got to Tel Aviv. It is on the Med Sea, and a lot of men didn't bother
wearing shirts, and a lot of young women wore tight little midriff-bearing outfits. Again,
it would have seemed more "normal" coming from the States, but arriving from
Egypt it seemed quite risque.
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