Testicles, Fireworks, and Eilat more!

No, this post isn't sexual.

I'm a bit tired right now, after shabbos, so I'm going to try and condense as much information here as possible. I might expand later if people show interest.

We're back in Jerusalem again. We had a great time in Eilat. Special thanks to Michael's Aunt Helen for her amazing hospitality and warm reception.

We had picked up the car in Jerusalem. The drive was long. Surprisingly for me at least, there wasn't much on the way. We took the 90 and drove past the Dead Sea and Ein Gedi. After that, we made a slight pit stop in Arad, which had absolutely nothing interesting to speak of other than a toilet and a felafel place. We reached Eilat, after a 5 hour drive, around 6:30 at night and had some snacks at Helen's house.

Next day, I took the most amazing shower! It was so nice to have a nice shower because in our apt in Jerusalem, the shower has much to be desired, let's just put it nicely. It floods, is tiny, and runs out of hot water rather quickly. The shower at Helen's house in Eilat is a REAL shower! With a tub and hot water! After a light breakfast, we walked along the beach and scoped out a kinyan (a mall).

We had dinner at Achla, a restaurant that serves traditional Israeli faire; lots of salads and meats and the food is amazing. So amazing that we went back the next night, after doing much the same things we did the first day.

This was New Years Eve and I brought the camera to Achla. We also had Micahel's cousin, Ilan video tape the extravagant parts of the meal. You see, Achla serves several animal parts that are hard to find. I had two of them: Turkey testicles and Beef tonsils, served up skewered and grilled.

Here is the final video, edited for your viewing pleasure:



Photographs and more are up on the flickr set, of course.

We also visited the Egyptian border and later that evening saw fireworks from Egypt, Israel, and Jordan; live and in person!

Friday morning, we got up at 4:30am and loaded up the car and I drove us down. We got stuck behind a cow truck for a bit and the entire front of the rental car got "painted" with cow presents. That was fun! We gave the car back as is once we got back to Jerusalem. Needless to say, it smelled like cow. We quickly scrambled to the shuk and got some ground beef and other supplies. I rustled together some potatoes and made some meat burrekas. We also went to Michael's cousin Karen and Roberto once again for Friday night and we are deeply indebted to them for their warmth and hospitality.

That's about it for now.

Tomorrow, we head to Tel Aviv to visit Michael's Nana.