Shalom, Israel! Sveiki, Latvia/Merhaba, Istanbul!

Post-Birthright Israel was outstanding!  I'm really sad to have to say goodbye to all of our friends in Israel, new and old.

For the first two days, we stayed in Haifa with Omri's family.  His family was so great and hospitable, not to mention Omri's mother is an amazing cook.  I slept well for the first time in weeks, and we did a lot of chill stuff.  We went to the mall, connected to all of our Sachlav friends on facebook, and ended up taking that day trip to Akko.

We were slated to see the Shwedels in Jerusalem after Haifa, but we got stuck on a train for an hour!  It would have been too late to make the two hour bus ride to Jerusalem (where the Shwedels were), so we changed plans around and booked it down to Tel Aviv to stay in the apartment that Sachlav-ers Toby, Shlomo, Will, and Michael Jordan rented.  We got there just in time for gorgeous dinner made by Shlomo, Shirli and Tal.  Dan and Rebecca also joined us for this lovely family dinner.

Then we went out to a nearby bar with live music.  Because our friends refused to accept money from Marco and me to stay in the apartment, we showed them our appreciation by icing them.  Mightily drunk, we walked in the sands of the Mediterranean to our next destination:  Lima Lima, a gay club with amazing music for dancing.  To my mystery Israeli dance partner who could lift me up and swing me around:  I hope we meet again someday.

That brings us up to this morning, where we headed to Jerusalem to meet up with Danny, Kenny, and Tete Shwedel for lunch.  We went to Danny's home to meet his wife Miriam and his two gorgeous boys, Avraham Zvi and Akiva.  We only got to spend a little less than an hour with Danny's nuclear family, but you could just feel the love and warmth that they feel for one another.  Mazel tov, Danny and Miriam!

Now, Marco and I are at Ben Gurion Airport waiting to board our flight to ISTANBUL!  We have a six hour layover in Riga, Latvia, so we might try to head to the center of the city for breakfast.  I hope it works, but I definitely won't risk missing my connecting flight just to have spent the morning in Latvia.  I'm certainly crazy tempted to do so because the story would be hilarious, but this blog post kind of spoils it.

SHALOM!