Shalom,
Charmaine and Linda are on their way back to Canada and other adventures. The boat feels empty. I looked at two mugs in the strainer and realized I will always think of them as Charmaine and Linda’s mugs. But lots of good memories.
Randal says he hates shopping at the supermarket here. I don’t love it either. The lines are really long and not so orderly and there are no baggers so it takes forever. We have decided to go everyday and buy "10 or less" to get through the really slow "quick line." The security man recognizes us now so doesn’t check our bags when we go in, and the fruit guy is becoming a friend too. He tried to talk us into a water melon the other day, as it was on sale but we were walking so there was no way. The line at the big post office we visited was too long and slow to bother and so was the line at the "driver’s license office." We did find a small, much friendlier post office nearer to us and tomorrow we’ll be at the license office when it opens at 8 am. We also found a great chicken doner place. They make it on a baguette rather than pita. They slice a crusty baguette and spread it with humus. Then you take it and stuff it with chopped veggies. Next they fill it with the slice grilled chicken. In our favorite Marmaris doner restaurant they slice the chicken with long sharp knives. In this place they used what looked like an electric hair clipper! Randal and I split a baguette and that was plenty. Tomorrow is the "open air market" on the beach so we’ll go and get some fruit and veggies. I hope it isn’t too crazy like the big open air market in Tel Aviv. It was like being in a mall just before Christmas, or the supermarket just before Thanksgiving. Randal and I are used to shopping in Yeni Erenkoy! There are two grocery stores near us. One, you either speak Russian or Hebrew. Those are your choices. So I shop at the one where half the people know some English even if it means longer lines. But whose fault is it? I had every chance to learn Hebrew. Shoulda! When we were looking for the post office ( I now know the Hebrew for it) I asked one woman for help. She asked if I spoke Russian, Dutch, or Hebrew? Nope! But she made a valiant effort to point the way we should go and when we got closer, we actually did find it. Randal had to mail a boat thing to somewhere.
So that’s it from here.
Ru
Friends
We met Eve and her catamaran in North Cyprus. If you remember we had “Passover” on her boat and she made great eggroll with blintz wraps! Even lives across the dock from us here at Ashdod. When we arrived in Ashdod it was the manager Yoram Greenberg and Eve who caught our lines. We had all talked about falafel so Eve said she would make us a falafel dinner.
Eve’s catamaran named… Eve!
Making falafel balls……
Randal was checking out the spicy sauce that you can add if you dare. Humus, tahini, and an “Arab chopped salad.”
The pink bowl has garbanzo beans that you can add as well as some pickled vegetables in the white bowl.
Even demonstrates…
First you cut a piece of pita in half. Then you spread it with some humus. Next add anything from the table you want in your pita sandwich. Falafel is made from garbanzo beans (or you can use fava beans) and when you eat them as well as humus (from garbanzo beans) as well as garbanzo bean you are eating a lot of beans whether you know it or not. By morning Linda and I were rethinking our approach to eating falafel sandwiches. If you look over Charmaine’s right shoulder you can see the high rises across the road from the marina area. Lots of high rises in Ashdod. But lots of parks and green space too. But hardly any libraries!
In their dreams… Linda and Charmaine at the wheel of Eve’s boat…we’re tied to the dock!
Our time with Charmaine and Linda has come to an end. Today they are on their way back to Canada. It was a visit filled with adventures and stories to tell. They left us with great memories, an up-to-date and well organized medical kit, and…..a set of beautiful knives, forks and spoons. ( When they arrived they’d presented us with lovely unbreakable tumblers and wine glasses!) I’d been complaining about getting the really “awful fork” every time we ate. We had outfitted the boat in China where knives, forks, and spoons aren’t so important. Fancy department stores in Zhuhai had no silverware so we had to buy what we could at the small grocery stores in Jingan and Baijiao. They served their purpose and aren’t terrible. And along with them we’d picked up some odds and ends ones and that was the fork I hated. They just didn’t feel good in your hand and we definitely didn’t love them. Our last evening with Charmaine and Linda, they presented us with a lovely Thank You note and a gift.
Silverware from Neve Tzedek, Tel Aviv.
They are silver in color, the brown is the reflection of the flash or the wood drawer. We would have picked the same ones if we’d been there at the store! We love them. I even love washing them!
Good-bye to friends……..
Linda and Charmaine each arrived with 2 packs, their yoga mats which they used every day! and a computer. After their year on the round the world Odyssey bike trip, they know how to pack. But remember they arrived in Cyprus in March when it was cold but also had to bring clothes for the desert heat so it was a bit tricky. And they did buy a few souvenirs and collected some Herzliya rocks. But it was all packed up and the taxi arrived at 7 am on time to drive them to the train station. It would take two trains to get them to Ben-Gurion Airport.
Charmaine getting packed up.
Charmaine and Linda with their packs!
Our dock mate is a huge orange dredge. It makes it hard to see Linda’s orange front pack.
We received a last “Israel message” from them……
We are safely at the airport.
Lovely fast free wifi!!
It took only a few minutes to get to the train station, 2 hrs to the airport
by train….45 minutes to get through security …and not too busy out here
today. They didn’t care about liquids at all – not even the little bag of 100
ml or less!! Didn’t have to take our boots off etc. Our passports were
reviewed at 5 stations then the immigration control, makes 6!!