First Day, What a Day!

It's almost 7am again. I'm up and listening to the birds sing to the world outside. Michael is still in bed and I'm here in the living room so as not to disturb him with my keyboard clicking. I just had an easy breakfast of cereal and milk; a honey almond flake with Yotvatah 3% milk. YUM! I'm wrapped in a blanket and very relaxed.

I slept well last night. I forced us to stay up until 10pm in order to best combat any possible lag still abounding. For the most part it worked. Michael didn't quite make it to 10 though. He fell asleep around 9:30 and for that I can totally forgive him. By the end of the day yesterday we were both very tired.

After blogging my last post yesterday morning, we showered and got out the door in search of food and sightseeing. We headed to the Shuk and greeted many cats on the way who were enjoying the sunlight. It was actually pretty nice, warm, and outside. We made our way there and purchased a fried breakfast pastry to share. It was hot and filled with cheese. We also got some fresh orange and pomegranate juices which were exquisite.



And, of course, Michael had to have his choco from a bag.



What we couldn't pass up as dessert from breakfast (Yes, there is such a thing as dessert from breakfast ... more people should have it!) were those magical chocolate rugalach from Marzipan bakery.


An entire kilo was purchased and half of it is gone as I type.

We walked about the market and shopped around for things that we needed to stock the kitchen with. Things like baking pans and olive oil and stuff like that. Also picked up some yummie olives for munching. I got a few really nice shots of the market.

After this we headed back home to unload the pack from all our goodies and started feeling tired again. By this time it was about 1:00ish. Perhaps we weren't as over the jetlag as I'd originally thought. I refused to let us nap because that would mean we'd continue to be off, so instead we watched some American TV from the computer's slingbox.

Later, we went back out again to the shuk a second time to get milk and cereal. Home again to drop it off and then out for a walk around. We walked to Ben Yahuda St. and around Zion Square. On the way there, we passed a woman in the street. I did a double take and recognized her as a friend from circa 15 years ago! "Sofie?!" I turned as she was walking the opposite direction we were. It was, in fact her! Turns out, she is living in Israel now and was in a bit of a hurry to meet another friend. But we exchanged numbers and said we'd be in touch. What a small world!

We explored a bit more and tried to figure out what to have and where to eat dinner. We decided on Shwarma. It was SO delicious! And cheap! Dinner cost only $20 for the both of us and we got free fries and salads. The beef and lamb shwarma was huge in these really puffy and good laffas! YUM!

We walked around a bit more and noticed how things were changed from the last time we'd been here. There is a lot of construction, both on roads and there new buildings being built. A few buildings that used to be there were now gone and new construction is taking place. This morning, I got to thinking about it and I do believe that this is what the American and BBC newses are talking about when they complain about "settlement" activity in Jerusalem. Settlements my butt, if that is the case. To a casual observer who actually is here, it looks like urban improvement going on in an already vibrant urban environment. That would be like saying that building renovations in the East Village was some sort of "settlement activity." Political cat poo.

At any rate, we walked down to a city park and sat for a bit as the sun went down and it got colder and colder. By this time we had donned coats and jackets and several layers of clothing that had not really been necessary in the light of daytime until now. When it got a little too cold for comfort, we headed home again and relaxed some more. I did some laundry and Michael read on the couch. It was a fantastic first day.

Today, we plan to head to the old city. I'll be bringing along the medium format camera in addition to the digital slr. I'll probably be shooting in black and white today and am still going back and fourth regarding whether or not to bring the tripod. We have a couple of tours planned by the Kotel for later this evening so I'm not sure what I want to carry all day.

The sun is warming the apartment slightly now and I see it peeking through the windows. I now hear the workers outside working on some sort of excavation.



By the way, if anyone wants to see the photo set of these photographs and more, you should check that out here. It should grow with more and more interesting shots every day. For now, they're all digital for obviously I wont be able to process the film until we return to the states. I'll post the link again once those are up. I'll post it up in the links section of the blog too, but keep checking that every day as well because the photos you see here are merely the tip of the iceberg.

Have a great night, America, as we start our morning!