[Israel] Eilat to Sde Dov
May. 28th, 2008 09:01 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
magidThe last day of the ride was two days ago, as we descended to Eilat and jumped into the Red Sea.
Yesterday, I flew from Eilat to Sde Dov, a municipal airport in Tel Aviv, my first non-international flight in Israel.
The airport in Eilat is pretty much downtown, and very small, so check-in was fast despite the many questions at security (usual things like was this my first time in Israel, and others such as where I'd learned Hebrew, and my parents' first names, whether they've been to Israel, and so on). After the screening (no nonsense about shoes, gels, liquids, etc, though I assume that if I'd had anything more classically dangerous in my carry-on bags, that would have been a problem), it was downstairs to wait in the lobby that had three doors for the three gates (numbered 2, 3, and 4, of course). When the flight was called, we trooped out door number 4, onto the tarmac, and up the stairs at the back end of the plane. I couldn't fit my backpack in the overhead compartment; luckily it fit under the seat in front of me. We were four across, so my having an aisle seat still meant I could see the desert and the sea as we flew.
45 minutes later, we landed in Tel Aviv. It felt strange that it was such a short flight when it had taken me a workweek to do the same trip by bike (not exactly the same trip, sure; next year's ride will start from Tel Aviv, though, in honor of their 100th anniversary). Of course, we didn't take the most efficient route, but still.
We walked down the stairs and onto waiting buses, which drove us a long way through lots of parked small planes an helicopters, most locked down and partly shielded from the sun in some way. The bus stopped by a small roofed area with one conveyor belt (just one trip for bags, not an endless loop of luggage) that eventually started moving, once the truck with our luggage arrived on the other side of the window. I watched the men unload the luggage as it came out to us.
And I watched as the two soldiers who'd been in window seats had their handcuffs put back on. I had been surprised to see the handcuffs while boarding, each soldier with a minder, and glad that they'd come off during the flight. The one offender I could see was obviously on his first flight: he seemed impressed by the fold-down trays, and avidly watched through the window as we flew. Neither of the handcuffed ones seemed at all dangerous to me, and I wondered what they might have done.
I had directions to the friends of my parents' where I'm staying now, but it involved walking and two buses, which felt like too much with my luggage and in my still somewhat over-toasted state, so I took a cab, and got the most loquacious cabbie ever. I asked him about why the soldiers might have been handcuffed, and didn't manage a whole sentence for the rest of the ride! Among many many other things, I learned that it was likely these were young men who'd run from the army, and been away for at least 18 days (when the jurisdiction for this offense changes, for some reason I don't understand). He said they'd brought two others up from Eilat earlier in the day, and I realized that this was never mentioned when I learned about the Israeli army. Not that I learned much about it directly, but the implications from learning about the Sinai campaign, 1967, the Entebbe raid, etc., all lead to this larger-than-life image. Even in recent times, with more morally ambiguous military actions, I hadn't heard about this before. (And then I got to hear about many other things military, and political, and historical, and so on.)
Taking the cab was definitely the right choice; navigating the buses while still somewhat spacy from the sun would've been a pain. I made it here, had a lovely welcome including fresh (unsugared) lemonade from the trees in the back yard, and showed the photos of my niece and nephew. (Note to the parents of same: I have given the two printouts to my hosts, and they're very very happy to have them.)
I'm using their computer, and the back, forward, and refresh arrows are in the top right, with the 'back' arrow pointing right. It takes a little getting used to.
Yesterday, I flew from Eilat to Sde Dov, a municipal airport in Tel Aviv, my first non-international flight in Israel.
The airport in Eilat is pretty much downtown, and very small, so check-in was fast despite the many questions at security (usual things like was this my first time in Israel, and others such as where I'd learned Hebrew, and my parents' first names, whether they've been to Israel, and so on). After the screening (no nonsense about shoes, gels, liquids, etc, though I assume that if I'd had anything more classically dangerous in my carry-on bags, that would have been a problem), it was downstairs to wait in the lobby that had three doors for the three gates (numbered 2, 3, and 4, of course). When the flight was called, we trooped out door number 4, onto the tarmac, and up the stairs at the back end of the plane. I couldn't fit my backpack in the overhead compartment; luckily it fit under the seat in front of me. We were four across, so my having an aisle seat still meant I could see the desert and the sea as we flew.
45 minutes later, we landed in Tel Aviv. It felt strange that it was such a short flight when it had taken me a workweek to do the same trip by bike (not exactly the same trip, sure; next year's ride will start from Tel Aviv, though, in honor of their 100th anniversary). Of course, we didn't take the most efficient route, but still.
We walked down the stairs and onto waiting buses, which drove us a long way through lots of parked small planes an helicopters, most locked down and partly shielded from the sun in some way. The bus stopped by a small roofed area with one conveyor belt (just one trip for bags, not an endless loop of luggage) that eventually started moving, once the truck with our luggage arrived on the other side of the window. I watched the men unload the luggage as it came out to us.
And I watched as the two soldiers who'd been in window seats had their handcuffs put back on. I had been surprised to see the handcuffs while boarding, each soldier with a minder, and glad that they'd come off during the flight. The one offender I could see was obviously on his first flight: he seemed impressed by the fold-down trays, and avidly watched through the window as we flew. Neither of the handcuffed ones seemed at all dangerous to me, and I wondered what they might have done.
I had directions to the friends of my parents' where I'm staying now, but it involved walking and two buses, which felt like too much with my luggage and in my still somewhat over-toasted state, so I took a cab, and got the most loquacious cabbie ever. I asked him about why the soldiers might have been handcuffed, and didn't manage a whole sentence for the rest of the ride! Among many many other things, I learned that it was likely these were young men who'd run from the army, and been away for at least 18 days (when the jurisdiction for this offense changes, for some reason I don't understand). He said they'd brought two others up from Eilat earlier in the day, and I realized that this was never mentioned when I learned about the Israeli army. Not that I learned much about it directly, but the implications from learning about the Sinai campaign, 1967, the Entebbe raid, etc., all lead to this larger-than-life image. Even in recent times, with more morally ambiguous military actions, I hadn't heard about this before. (And then I got to hear about many other things military, and political, and historical, and so on.)
Taking the cab was definitely the right choice; navigating the buses while still somewhat spacy from the sun would've been a pain. I made it here, had a lovely welcome including fresh (unsugared) lemonade from the trees in the back yard, and showed the photos of my niece and nephew. (Note to the parents of same: I have given the two printouts to my hosts, and they're very very happy to have them.)
I'm using their computer, and the back, forward, and refresh arrows are in the top right, with the 'back' arrow pointing right. It takes a little getting used to.
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no subject
Date: 2008-05-28 09:17 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2008-05-28 07:30 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2008-05-28 11:41 am (UTC)(Begin here.)
no subject
Date: 2008-05-28 07:32 pm (UTC)Should I forward the link to my hosts?
no subject
Date: 2008-05-28 08:29 pm (UTC)Jumping into the sea sounds like a refreshing way to celebrate immediately, and sitting with fresh lemonade sounds like a refreshing way to relax after a bit more removed from it all.
It is a pleasure to read your detailed descriptions and reflections, wistful as it makes me.
no subject
Date: 2008-05-28 09:37 pm (UTC)I was a little tardy on jumping into the sea: I had had enough sun, so I had to dig out a sun hat and get a towel to put around my shoulders. It was still great to get into the cool water and see the amazing fish right there.
Perhaps you will be able to visit here soon?
no subject
Date: 2008-05-29 02:54 am (UTC)(When I saw the subject line I thought "wait, and she biked all the way back?!". Glad I was wrong about that. :-) )
I was in the Eilat airport on our congregational trip. Instead of taking the bus back from Eilat to Ben Gurion they decided we'd fly, which was supposed to be faster. There was only one flight that day and it wasn't the best timing, so no, flying actually wasn't faster, but oh well.
no subject
Date: 2008-05-29 08:14 am (UTC)There was one guy who thought about biking back (the one who'd brought his suitcase along as a trailer behind his bike the whole way), but people convinced him not to.
To Ben Gurion there's only one flight, but to Sde Dov there's a ton, at least one/hour, and the taxi ride between them isn't so long. Of course, there's the added schlep factor...
no subject
Date: 2008-06-02 12:26 am (UTC)Israelis really don't have the Vietnam era pro-rebel vibe that Americans had, pre-Bush.
no subject
Date: 2008-06-02 05:37 am (UTC)