Taliaglit

Day 1:

The first 10 days I spent in Israel were under the supervision of Taglit, the name that Israeli's have for Birthright trips. Over the next 4 days, I spent time with a close friend (and prom date!) Talia. Talia, who moved to Israel a year and a half ago, made Aliyah (joined the army) in the early months of 2016. Currently, she is on a 3 month "summer break" due to the timing of a certain course she is taking. This gave her the time to give me a personal tour of local life in Israel, which I so aptly named "Taliaglit". Here is a recap of what those days consisted of.

After parting ways with the group (which was much more difficult than I expected it to be), Jenna, Emily, and I made our way to the nearest coffee shop to get some wifi so we could contact Benji, a friend from Pitt who is living in Tel Aviv for 5 months for an internship. After a few minutes of confusion, we were able to communicate our whereabouts to him, and he showed up soon after to walk us back to his apartment.

Once there, Jenna and Emily got to repacking all of their stuff in preparation for their 5 week hike across France and Spain which they were leaving for early the next morning. Since we had so recently said our goodbyes to everyone on our Birthright trip, I wasn't prepared to do it again so soon. I told them to wake me up when they were going to leave (around 4:30am) so I could give them a proper goodbye. When I woke up I decided I would walk with them to the train station so that I could spend a few more minutes with them before parting ways. It was fun to walk through Tel Aviv that early in the morning, as the streets were practically empty. We arrived at what we thought was the train station and we finally said our goodbyes. I later discovered that I actually left them at the BUS station, and the train station was a few more minutes down the road, but I'm pretty sure they managed to figure everything out so I think we're OK.

A little side note before I continue the recap: I invited Jenna and Emily to write about their travels and send it to me. I don't know if they actually will, but if they do expect a guest post!

After walking back to Benji's, I decided to do a little writing before going back to bed since I was already awake. Afterwards, I slept for another hour or so, and then went to a nearby coffee shop while I waited for Talia to arrive. Once she got there around noon, we embarked on a bit of a walking tour of Tel Aviv while she ran a few errands.

Our first stop was at a bar about 15 minutes away to buy tickets for a club we would be going to that night. Usually there was free entry to the club, but there was a big show that night (Richie Hawtin was playing...neither of us had ever heard of him, but we had heard good reviews), so we had to buy tickets if we wanted to get in before 4:00am.  From there, we went in search of a camping store about 15 minutes away that Talia had found online. It ended up taking us an extra 10-15 minutes to find the damn store, as it was hidden in the middle of this weird warehouse/apartment building thing. I still have no idea how that place manages to get any business, as it literally could not have been any harder to find. Anyways, Talia bought a tent for her upcoming stay at an ashram, so we then headed back to Benji's to drop off some stuff and grab some much needed water.

By the time we got back, it was a little before 2:00pm (so we had been walking for about 2 hours). After a short rest, we went to go meet one of the staff from Taglit, Avinoam, for lunch. We had told Avinoam to meet us at a restaurant called Benedict, which was about two miles away from us according to our phone. The phone also mentioned that it would take an hour to walk there, but we shrugged that off, assuming that there would be no way that a 2-mile walk could take an hour.

Well, it did.

When we finally arrived at the restaurant, dripping in sweat and breathing heavily, Avinoam had already been there for about half an hour. We apologized for keeping him waiting, and he was forgiving enough, saying that he had just read his book in the meantime. We went on to order some delicious food and mimosas. At one point we did a cute little love triangle of mimosa tasting, which I think really sealed the deal on a great overall lunch experience.

After parting ways with Avinoam, we caught a bus to the nearby mall to finish the last few errands that Talia needed to run. She bought a charging cable and a memory card for her new camera, both of which were used plenty for the rest of the trip. From the mall, we decided we could muster up the energy to make the 30 minute walk back to Benji's. We got back, took a short rest (I think I showered?), and then headed over near the train station to meet some of Talia's army friends. We hung out there for an hour or two before heading back one last time to Benji's to eat dinner and prepare for the club that night. In total, according to Talia's phone, we walked 14 miles that day. This was all on about 7 hours of cumulative sleep over the last two days, and we were still planning on leaving for the club at around 1:00am. After a nice dinner on the roof, we took a quick 45 minute power nap (which was not nearly enough) before heading out to the club.

The club we were going to was called "The Block", and the event of the night was supposed to until 7:00am, with the headliner coming on at 3:00. It was a cool little venue on the side of a building. As soon as you walk in, you get the feeling that you are in this secret underground club. We weren't allowed to take our phones out as to "respect the vibe", and it actually made the environment a lot better without all the annoying LED screens shining in your eyes. There were two main rooms, both playing some great techno-y/trance-y music. We danced until around 5:00 before deciding it was time to call it a night. When we got back to Benji's we decided to go to his roof to watch the sunrise, where we ended up talking for a while. We finally went to bed around 7:30, knowing that we had to wake up at 9:00 in order to go to a birthday brunch for a friend.

Day 2:

After sleeping through several alarms, we were woken up by one of the friends we had met the day before, Jaren. We were supposed to meet Jaren at the train station at 9:30, but we had woken up at 9:20 so it wasn't looking good. We quickly grabbed our stuff and ran out the door to jump in a taxi. We managed to get to the train station by 9:45, and got on the train just as it was about to leave.

From the train station we took a short bus ride, followed by a short walk to the friend's, Gal's (I think I'm spelling that right), house. We were treated to an amazing array of breads, cheeses, salads, and other random dishes that I'm not sure what they were. We hung around for a while talking to the other people that were there, all of whom were in the army. For a large portion of the time they were all just speaking in Hebrew, so I found myself smiling like an idiot sto show that I was still having a good time, even though I couldn't really verbally communicate with a lot of them. It was an interesting experience to be surrounded by so many people all around the same age as me, that lead such different lives. While lots of them had many of the same hobbies and interests as I do, the majority of their conversations revolved around the army. There were people who had moved to Israel from all over the world to make Aliyah, and it was eye opening to see the different paths that people take.

After leaving Gal's house, we took a bus to a grocery store near Talia's aunt's house, which is wear Talia lives while she is in the army. We bought a few ingredients for dinner, and then were picked up by her aunt Hela, who was on her way back from a swimming lesson with 1 of her 4 kids. We got to their house and started making dinner as Talia's family got ready to go out for a separate dinner. We made a delicious vegan meal (Talia is mostly vegan) which consisted of rice, sweet potatoes, lentils, some veggies, and tahini. After dinner I took a quick nap (I was still exhausted from the day/night before) while Talia prepared some stuff for the upcoming night.

After her family came back, we got a ride to the kibbutz that Talia lived on for 5 months to learn Hebrew in preparation for the army. The kibbutz was huge, with around 2000 people living there. We brought the tent that she had just bought, and set it up on the beach. While we were unpacking some of our stuff, we were met up with one of Talia's friends Rachel, who was on the kibbutz the same time as Talia.

After putting everything we needed in the tent, we headed to a mutual friend's house to drink a bit before going to the local pub. We made makeshift mojitos using rum, mint lemonade, and pineapple flavored seltzer. They were delicious and we probably drank a little more than we should have...oh well.

Finally, we headed out to the pub, which was practically a club. There was a big dance floor, a light show, and a DJ who was live mixing popular music. We stayed for a while, dancing and talking to people that Rachel and Talia knew, before deciding to head back to the tent at around 4:30.

Day 3:

Our last full day together was fittingly on Shabbat. We took the day of rest to our advantage, catching up on some much needed at the beach. The next several hours we spent sitting on some couches under the shade, listening to the waves roll in. We were picked up by Talia's aunt in the afternoon, and headed back to their house for a few minutes, before leaving again with 2 of the kids for the local pool. We spent a couple hours there, reading and relaxing, before heading back for dinner.

Dinner consisted of an amazing cabbage salad, as well as some eggs and toast. Afterwards, the kids were put to bed, and we stayed up for a while talking to Talia's aunt and uncle about my travels, school, and whatever else. At around midnight Talia and I decided to watch a movie, but I almost immediately fell asleep once the movie started.

Day 4:

Still recovering from the last few days, we slept in again on Sunday morning. Originally we had planned on getting breakfast at a local store, but due to our late start we decided to do breakfast at the house. Afterwards, I packed up all my stuff, and it was time for our final voyage together. We took a bus towards the train station, stopping along the way to get a smoothie. We ran into another one of Talia's many army friends when we got to train station, so they started chatting as we sat on the train. Talia, who had a dentist appointment in the north part of Tel Aviv, got off a few stops before the airport. We took a quick picture of the two of us (almost forgot to!), and said our goodbyes. About 20 minutes later, I arrived at the airport where I would spend the next several hours before my flight left that night.

The few days that I got to spend with Talia were incredible. It was a nice change to go from ultra tourist mode to getting to live a life more similar to a local. Talia was as good of a tour guide as anyone could have asked for, and I wish her all the best in her travels and next few years in the army. She is spending the next month or so on an ashram in the middle of the desert, and I can only imagine how awesome that will be.

Stay safe Talia!

Thanks for reading,

Ben