What do you do when you don't go with the Church to Israel?! Adventures in the holy land full of night parties and armed soldiers

Since the Romanian Tourism Fair is opening, and Israel is one of the participating countries, I thought I would share with you my very recent experience (February 13-17, 2019) in the holy land. If you have the time and patience to read to the end, you will also discover things that I have not found written about these places before. The vacation was on my own money and my own beard 🙂

Israel was never on my radar, but the cold in Romania pushed me to look for a destination just two or three hours away by plane and where you could enjoy your coffee on the terrace. For a few days I kept looking for tips about life in Israel, I called people who had been there, I browsed blogs, but unfortunately, I found little information and a lot of generalities. Try a google and you will find hundreds of pilgrimages and that's it... No one tells you that Israel is a pretty expensive country, with prices sometimes higher or at least equal to those in European capitals, that you will go through interviews to enter the country, but even more to be able to return home and that English or Russian are almost official languages.

Let's start with the airport! When you arrive at Ben Gurion Airport, you will realize that you have an electronic passport for nothing because you cannot use the special devices. Go until you come to the border crossing point: look for the sign with Foreign Citizens and sit nicely in line and try to be patient. Now it depends on the customs officer whether he wants to keep you for tens of minutes for an interview or not. We were lucky because we found a Ukrainian who actually asked us more about Romania and less about us. We received a three-month residence permit in Israel: you must keep the document in your passport at all times (during the four days we did not even take our passports out of our pockets). If you arrive in Tel Aviv at night, I recommend that you choose the taxi option. On the 4th floor you will find a taxi stand where you will find out the cost of the trip before getting in the car. For 10 km, we paid 140 shekels (1 Israeli Shekel = 1,16 Romanian Lei). You will pay depending on the number of people, but also on how much luggage you have! Although we are fans of renting cars, especially in new destinations, in Israel we did not want a car even though it cost us 48 euros/4 days. All cities are so crowded that you have nowhere to park your car, and the cost of a single day of parking is between 60 and 140 lei. Returning to the cost of the taxi, it was the same as the hotel told us. We hear from the taxi drivers in Romania! Do not try to exchange shekels in Romania because you will find it extremely difficult. At the airport you have the first fairly good currency exchange, and if you get to the city you can use your card to withdraw shekels. Not too many! The banks' exchange rate is not exactly the best for the customer! We had dollars (because that's what I read on the tip blogs), although it would have been better to have gone with euros.

Tel Aviv a mix of young people, fun, flying markets, crumbling buildings, skyscrapers and an amazing seafront

If you want to go to Tel Aviv until the middle of May, I recommend you not to choose a hotel near the beach because you will pay tens of euros extra per day without it being worth the cost. You can't sunbathe yet, and their spring comes with strong winds and cool evenings. And if you thought that you would wear your shoes dancing in clubs or bars near the beach, then you clearly did not choose the right season. In the cold season (yes, that's what they say when temperatures are below 20 degrees) the nightlife and fun moves to the city. And what a night life!

We arrived around 11:00 PM and stayed near the Florentin neighborhood , two kilometers from the beach, one of their main Rothschild boulevards and close to Carmel Market – a place full of all the world's necessities, fresh vegetables, dirt, tourists, but also extraordinary food. We were very surprised when we discovered that right under our room we had two terraces full of young people with good music, although we saw Tel Aviv as a fairly religious city. The next shock was when we went out to eat! All the restaurants and fast food were closed. We said let's see where the young party people of Tel Aviv go to relax and that's how I came to find out that English is actually the second official language in Israel. The first young man I met explained to me in the language of Shakespeare where we could eat at night! 20 shekels cost us two beef pastrami sandwiches prepared by a 60-year-old gentleman, plus a bar full of all kinds of seasoned, cooked, fresh, pickled vegetables....

And also on the first night we realized that Israel is an expensive city: two beers = 52 shekels (83 lei) And no, we didn't drink beer on the top floor of the Hilton hotel, but on the youthful terraces next to the place in where we stayed. Get used to the fact that a beer is between 25 and 40 shekels, and a gin and tonic even 60 shekels.

How to eat like a local in Israel, the country where fried chicken wings and frozen burgers went bankrupt

Let's get to the food, because Israel is a culinary destination! Breakfast can start with a pomegranate juice, followed by poached eggs with rosemary, olive oil and tasty vegetables.

Close your eyes and imagine the tastiest tomatoes you eat in summer in Romania. Now multiply the taste 100 times! This is what you will discover if you eat at any restaurant in Israel. I think it was the only place I visited where I can say that I liked everything I ate, although sometimes I chose from the pictures because I didn't understand the menu written in Hebrew. And yes, hummus has a different taste!

I talked to two locals about food and restaurants and found out that you will rarely find places where the food is not tasty. "The Israelis are very direct and fair. No restaurant will survive if two locals say that the food of a certain restaurant is not tasty"!

When it comes to money, a lunch at any restaurant frequented by Israelis will cost you around 80 shekels per person. You will exceed 100 shekels per person if you ordered a main course containing fish or lamb. The cheapest option is to eat from the street vendors in Carmel Market.

Unfortunately, I can't say how much it will cost you because there are no posted prices and everything is negotiable. For example, we chose a box of 500 grams of strawberries for which we paid 10 shekels.

And if you want the urban food market version that you might have discovered in Lisbon or Barcelona, ​​then go to Sarona Market . A portion of 16 pieces of sushi and another Japanese specialty with tofu, but with a complicated and hard-to-remember name, cost 110 shekels.

And not to forget why I said about wings and hamburgers! You probably understood which fast food restaurants I'm talking about! They were the only places where the tables were free, the employees were more concerned with the phone and there was no sign of customers.

Jerusalem, the Dead Sea and the Israeli desert

Even though I didn't go on a trip with the Church (my mother is still convinced that I actually went on a pilgrimage), I didn't miss the city of Jerusalem. The first thing I learned from the locals is that two days should be avoided: Friday and Saturday. Friday is extremely crowded, although we went on Thursday and it was already crowded, and the locals said no, and on Saturday, a holy day in Israel, everything is closed.

We left Tel Aviv by bus from the Central Station, line 405 - you have trips every 15 minutes, and the cost of a ticket is 15 shekels/person round trip. Even if you have rented a car, try not to use it if you want to go to Jerusalem. From the bus station in Jerusalem you can reach the holy city on foot in 32 minutes, just follow the signs that you will find everywhere.

Whichever entrance you use to visit the fortress, stop at a tourist information point because you will receive a free map that replaces any guide.

The only area I didn't have access to was the Muslim quarter: guarded by dozens of soldiers who nicely explained to you to visit other places. Otherwise, be careful what you wear: we walked 20 km in the citadel alone.

As other tourist spots that you should check off, I recommend a visit to the Dead Sea and the Ben Gurion Complex in the desert. If you want to go on Friday afternoon or Saturday then you have to use a rental car or choose a trip with an agency: from Friday evening to Saturday evening you will not have public transport.

The eternal question: how safe is it to travel in Tel Aviv?

I never had the feeling that I was not safe! For three days since we returned from Israel, all our friends have been asking us if we weren't afraid. No way! There was never a moment when we were afraid that we were after midnight in a more marginal part of the city. I saw hundreds of policemen, as many armed soldiers, but at no time did I have the feeling that someone wanted us harm.

Believe and do not research the degrees of holy water!

And to end on a "religious" note, I leave here the picture of the three Romanian monks who met again after the duty free pilgrimage. "And you also took Chivas? For 15 years!”