The Medusa Incident, Tel Aviv, Israel 06/30/06

Shalom! My vacation started! What better place than Israel. I had to get up super early to catch my 7am flight, but it was worth it. I AM in the land of Israel - Eretz Israel! It was a mix emotion. I was so excited, happy and over flowing with joy when I touched Israeli soil, but there was no one to share these feelings with. Suddenly, I felt lonely, and sad. I had teary eyes and a nudge on my stomach as I felt like I was back home once again. As I said a prayer, my spirit was lifted up and was determined to enjoy every second of my stay here in Israel.

I rented a car! At first I didn't think it was much of a car. A little black Sirion Daihatsu. It was soooo small. But most of the cars here in Israel and Europe are small. As the days went by, I learned to love the car because it is great in gas, and you can park it in any hole that you can find.

Looking for my hotel was not that hard. What did give me a little hard time is that Tel Aviv has many one way streets. If you don't know the streets well, you will end up driving around and around. I found my hotel, quickly checked in, changed, and headed for the beach, which was just a couple of blocks away. The Mediterranean Sea!! What a sight! Simply beautiful! As usual, I took several pictures and videotaped a little.

As I walked towards the water, the soft beige sand was a soothing sensation on my naked feet. I walked by the water for a while. There were the usual sun worshippers, little kids building sand castles, the joggers, and the casual beach goers who enjoy a nice conversation by the beach with their family or friends. There were also some people playing beach soccer and the Israeli Beach Paddle ball game. It was fascinating seeing girls and guys playing this game because they were hitting the ball very hard back and forth for such a long time.

I found a place for myself to lie down and maybe get a little snooze to make up for the 2 hour sleep that I had had the night before in Istanbul. I decided, instead, to leave sleeping for the night and enjoy the Mediterranean waters as much as possible. I looked up and thought that it was strange that there were so many people at the beach, but hardly anyone in the water. Had the lifeguard told everyone to get out for some reason? Since I noticed about 5 people in the water beyond on the right, I decided to take my chances. I slowly started creeping in the warm salty sea. I looked around to see if anyone was about to tell me to get out or something. Nothing! I kept going and before I knew it, the water came up to my chest. I dove in! What a feeling! I got on my back and started slowly paddling backwards. Suddenly I felt something warm touch my right arm. I looked around and saw something kind of white transparent. A jellyfish!! I was sooo out of the water like a flash. I had this burning sensation on my right arm. I got a little nervous as I remembered the time when one of my sisters had been bitten by a jellyfish in this same sea, but in Nahariya (a town north of Israel). I recalled that she was hurting for about two weeks. A man by the beach told me in Hebrew that it was a Medusa. He also told me that they were here for about two weeks. So I understood why hardly anyone was in the water. The burning sensation didn't last. I soon forgot about it when I bought a grape ice popsicle. I hadn't had one since last year in March (2006). I love them. In fact, I had two of them. Later on, I went back into the water, but this time I was more careful.

At 6pm, I went to the bar of the hotel, where I had been told the game between Germany and Argentina was going to be broadcasted. It's amazing how the game of football (soccer) brings people together. There were Israelis from many nations. You could tell where the Argentinians were because, like Cubans, they were very loud. Also, they were yelling out, "Boludo, Que haces?!" and some curse words. It was quite an experience because the German supporters were pretty loud as well. The game ended up in a tie. Eventually, it went to penalties. Argentina was sent home by Germany.