Leaving the Cruise and Traveling to Israel

 We left the cruise ship in Barcelona, took an Uber/Bolt to the airport (I practiced my Spanish one last time with the driver), and flew on Bluebird Airlines to Israel. We were very early for our flight so there was a lot of waiting around. We heard loads of Hebrew on our flight and those Israelis did not stay in their seats. We were able to take the train from the airport to Jaffa Street in Jerusalem. We then took a Gett (Israeli version of Uber) to our new home on HaRav Haim Berlin Street in a part of Jerusalem officially called Kiryat Shmuel but widely known as either Rechavia or Katamon. 

When we arrived, the father of the woman we are renting from was here to welcome us. He showed us around and gave us the keys, and we were finally home. We stayed up late unpacking, making the bed, making a list of all the things we want to purchase to make the apartment feel more like ours, and we went to the local makolets, small grocery stores, for some food and supplies. It was very tiring and we stayed up very late.

On our first day in Jerusalem, we walked to Machane Yehuda, Ben Yehuda Street, and searched for and found an Ulpan on Bezalel Street called Beit Ha'am. We rested, I called my mom, I met with Gail Hammerman, my co-chair for the National Hadassah Educators Council. We had a delicious dinner at Pizza Flora including some fresh burrata for me. Yum! We are still searching for salad dressing for Mark, and we have enjoyed watching some Giants baseball. When it's an East Coast day game, we can watch. 

This first week and a half here has been full of two Shabbats, one chag, and seeing visitors. Sandy and Dawn Margolin were here visiting their grandchildren (and their son and daughter-in-law of course), and we joined them for a lunch at Caffit on Emek Refaim. Yesterday we saw Amy Wittenberg and Talya Bornstein and Ari Bornstein for a burger near Machane Yehuda. We have eaten some wonderful food out, and I've also prepared chicken soup, matzah balls, charoset, and matzah brie here in the apartment. We enjoyed a long and very educational and musical seder at the Swidlers, and the night before Pesach we took all 8 of them out to dinner at Pizza Hut which was super fun and a little yummy. For the end of the chag, we are traveling to visit Brenda and Steve Ganot in Bet Shemesh. Blog post to come!