The Globetrotting Geek

Tuesday/Wednesday – Day 26/27

August 16, 2012

Tuesday was the start of the goodbyes, which for Israel weren’t nearly as hard. Probably due to the feeling like I’m constantly going back there. Aside from that, today marked the completion of Sarah’s education, as we finally finished “The Return of The King”, the third in the Lord of The Rings trilogy.

For dinner I went out for a last meal with my cousins the Slonims and Adi to Black n Burger, an upmarket burger joint well known for it’s excellent fare. Which though neither of us quite showed it openly, we both knew that we’d miss each other substantially.

Wednesday I took the first train from Jerusalem to Tel Aviv with my Uncle. Seated in the last carriage so as to avoid the noisy children in an early carriage I started to nod off too sleep.

When I woke up however I was greeted by a surprising sight.

After passing Beit Shemesh, it turned out that the last carriage becomes a prayer service every day, organised by their community. Loud chanting followed and I stood out of respect at the appropriate points. When the cohanim (priestly caste) got up the back to where my Uncle and I were, he made the comment that they’d conveniently chosen a place so that we didn’t have to move to join them, both of us being cohanim ourselves.

After that it was a final cheese sandwich from Fromagerie Basher in Tel Aviv before catching a bus and train to Ben Gurion Airport. Amazing this time I was quickly waved through security!

My flight with Israir was short and sweet. I watched some TV off my phone, listened to Warren Zevon’s ‘Excitable Boy’ and saw ‘The Rise of the Planet of the Apes’ before landing at 9PM in Berlin. It took some effort to orient myself and to find the train and U-bahn   I needed but before long I made it to Rosenthaler Platz where I waited with baited breath for Theresa, my German friend, to pick up her phone and help me get to her place where I shall be staying for the next week.

Friday/Shabbat – Day 23/24

August 14, 2012

Friday Sarah and I said bye to Or after a delicious breakfast and, were on our way to Jerusalem.

Unfortunately due to some poor planning on my part, we hadn’t arranged accommodation for either of us for the weekend. Thus, in the Sherut (group taxi) Sarah and I planned to book rooms in a hostel for the weekend.

When we arrived at Jerusalem Central Bus Station we collected our belongings and started walking up to the market, only to run into Nadav Prawer; the charismatic husband of my cousin. He inquired as to where we were staying for Shabbat and when he heard that our plans were as yet unset, he immediately invited us to stay with him. Disappointing him, I let him know that we were due for dinner at a family friend’s place in Jerusalem and thus would be staying here. Not taking no for an answer, he whipped up his mobile phone and began dialing through all his friends, looking for someone to take us in. Eventually a lovely mid twenties lady, Terri Gar, said she’d be delighted to take in Sarah and with that settled I rang my cousins, the Slonims, to find a bed for myself.

Lunch was had in the shuk (market), Machane Yehuda, and was a delicious plate of hummus with pita.

Afterwards we visited my favourite shop in the Shuk, Fromagerie Basher, an emporium of fine imported European and Israeli cheeses.

We bought food for Shabbat lunch (Challah and Jam) and were soon off for the evening.

Dinner at the Waimann’s was a delight. The company was spirited and engaged in lively intellectual discussion. Gila’s cooking was superb, and David’s selection of wines matched the meal perfectly (like I know). One interesting idea raised was the possibility of splitting Israel into a canton system, much like that of Switzerland, in order to resolve issues regarding governance of the land.

Following dinner, I decided to walk Eden Akiva, a cousin of the Waimanns home. By this point my legs were starting to tire, having done a good number of kilometers walking back and forth between areas of Jerusalem. Arriving back home at about one in the morning, sleep took me quickly.

Shabbat morning was a bit of a sleep in followed by, you guessed it, more walking! Lunch was a quiet affair with Sarah, with a nap following immediately. The afternoon held, again, more walking, trying to catch up with a dear friend; Merav Blum, who didn’t hear the knocking on her door.

When Shabbat came out Sarah, Daniella and her friend Channie, and I, went to see one of Israel’s biggest musical acts, Dag Nachash (Fish-Snake) perform live at the Sultan’s Pools as part of Chutzot HaYotzer, the Jerusalem International Arts and Culture Festival. With entrance costing a mere 50NIS ($11AUD) it was a bargain for a top evening!

I didn’t notice, but, two rows away from me in the stands, Merav Blum was in fact seated with her friends. As the crows cleared away, we managed to find each other and the rest of the night was spent deep in conversation with her as I walked her home.

Tuesday – Day 14

August 3, 2012

Today had a real adventure. One worth writing about and worth reading.

The day started slowly with a late wake-up. At ten to eleven I woke up, breaking the shower head in an attempt to wash off the sweat. Oops. Five to eleven I was out of the house, meeting a girl, Shachar, from ISSI 2012 who I had met at the dinner a few nights previously.

Following that was a decent falafel with Naomi Elstein, an older friend from my gap year in Israel. She took me to an artisan chocolatier on Ibn Gvirol and I sampled a few of the many delicious truffles.

However, the real adventure began later that afternoon when I noticed a ‘Garage Geeks’ event on Facebook, which was slated to start in Holon at eight thirty that evening.  I had heard of Garage Geeks from my uncle previously as a community run group that runs start-up, tech and entrepreneurial events. This one was a talk given by Kara Swisher (founder of All Things Digital blog) and Megan Smith (VP of Google BizDev) who were married to each other. Searching up for bus routes on Facebook I came up blank, and looking up the address on a map revealed only a large industrial zone with few roads and many warehouses.

 

Thus, I posted on the event page, asking for directions. About one minute later a guy by the name of Haggai posted a reply with his phone number, letting me know that though public transport to the area was almost nonexistent, he might be able to help given he was travelling through Tel Aviv on the way down. I gave him a call and a few hours later I was in his car on my way to the event! Haggai was a lovely guy with experience in networking and entrepreneurship, having recently secured a good deal of support for a venture in data security.

After being briefed by Haggai on how the night was going to function and having picked up a few networking tips, I entered the venue which was packed with hundreds of eager entrepreneurs, tech enthusiasts and even a tech writer or two. The talk and subsequent Q&A was most interesting however the highlight of the evening came in the form of networking opportunities.  I engaged momentarily with Megan from Google, who proved a most pleasant person and she referred me to a guy named Eyal, who provided some helpful support in my ongoing quest to find an internship placement. Following that I met a few young individuals involved in the scene from all around the world, from Singapore to NYC.

Haggai, the other youths and I stayed around to help pack up and by the time we were ready to get back on the road it was already eleven thirty. Haggai was most thirsty so we stopped off at a petrol station someway along the road where we both grabbed a drink (by his courtesy) and he dropped me off right at Adi’s place. A most successful evening.