Two weeks left

There's a well known Rabbi in town, Beryl Wein, who has a lecture series on Saturday nights in the winter. We've attended several in the years we've been coming here for an extended stay. The topic this year is 100 years later - how World War 1 continues to affect the world and the Jewish people today. I wish we were staying longer (for all kinds of reasons) to be able to hear all 10 lectures. He's a very good speaker, another one who doesn't use notes which seems to be de rigueur around here. 

As our time here winds down I've had to pack a lot of things into the calendar that I've more or less put off. This week it was getting together with Timna, an American-Israeli friend from Chicago who came back to Israel after 20+ years in the States. We met for coffee and then went to a play that a co-worker was in. The play, surprisingly well written and acted by an amateur theatre group, touched all the points on the emotional scale. 

Everyone knows The Hunt for Red October. This week it was The Hunt for Colonia. The first question is: what is Colonia? I've been hearing about it for years. It's supposed to cure everything. My friends swear by it. It heals cuts and bruises. It helps an upset stomach. It's good for aching joints. Etc. If it's such a great product you'd think you could find it everywhere. Actually not. There is one little hole-in-the-wall store in Tel Aviv that sells it. So on Wednesday Batsheva and I hopped on a bus to Tel Aviv (the sleazy part) for a little shopping trip. 

Tel Aviv has two central bus stations - the old one and the new one. Duh. The old one is really something to see. In its heyday, which wasn't so long ago, it was a destination in itself. It's 6 stories tall and was essentially a big shopping mall with a bus depot attached. Unfortunately it's in an unfortunate part of town. Up till a couple years ago there were a lot of homeless squatters who made camp in a park outside the station. It's not the sort of place you'd want to walk around at night. But during the day it's fine, and that's where the Levinsky Market is. The market neighborhood used to be mostly Turkish, and that's where you go for authentic Turkish products, of which Colonia is one. Then it was a matter of finding the shop. We looked into a couple of the small stores, and finally had to ask someone. Where can we buy Colonia? Everyone knew, of course. Go to the shop next to the bakery.  

The shop owner was typical of the small businessmen of a generation that I thought died out a long time ago. Surly. Unfriendly. But he was the Colonia guy, so you just have to put up with him. We asked for 8 one litre bottles. He had 7 on the shelf. He tried to sell us one of the larger bottles. We said no, we want 8 of litre size. He made a big show of looking for an 8th bottle and then miraculously, on the shelf below, he found an entire carton full one one litre bottles. We had to bargain, of course. After all we were buying in bulk. So he agreed to lower the price by 2 and a half shekels, to 35 shekels per bottle. 

Levinsky Market in the sleazy part of town

The shop, the ONLY shop, that sells Colonia.
Behind the owner is a shelf full.
The only other things he sells are large cans of anchovies, lots of olives
and some smoked and pickled fish.

From Levinsky we went to another market, the famous Carmel Market. It was a quick bus ride away. We walked around for a while and then went to get something for lunch at a great Yeminite restaurant called Mangana.

Busy, bustling Carmel Market

After lunch we made our way to the new bus station and caught the bus back to Jerusalem. Fortunately the traffic flowed and we got to Jerusalem at 430PM, a bit later than I wanted because I had to meet my friend Bevie at Hebrew University for a harp concert that started a 5. Traffic was pretty congested so I hopped in a taxi. We went a couple of blocks and then it was a parking lot. Traffic jams in Jerusalem are legendary, and this was epic. Long story short, I got there with 5 minutes to spare. The concert was lovely. It was the first time I'd seen a harp played from up close. Who knew there were foot pedals?

Hanukkah starts Sunday night. On Monday everyone is coming over here. I should think about what to make. On Wednesday we're going to Madrid, not something I'd recommend in the winter. But Batsheva is turning 70 and instead of a party she wanted to go abroad. I don't think she cared about the destination. No one consulted me; I would have said somewhere warm-ish like Greece, Sicily, Malta or Cyprus. The kids decided on Madrid, which is what happens when the kids are in charge. I'm not taking my laptop to Spain, so next week's post will be delayed by a few days.

Shabbat shalom and Hanukkah sameach from Jerusalem,
Peggy and Sid