Travel Day

May 19th

What. A. Long. Day.

Our travel day seemed like it never ended. We left Madison at 2 am. We got to Chicago with plenty of time and our flight went just fine. We then had a seven-hour layover in the JFK Airport. We were sitting down to eat lunch and this woman asked me if I was America. After finding out that I was in fact from the country we were currently in, she walked away and sat in a different cluster of chairs. It was less than a perfect start to the day.

We met up with our group in the airport and proceeded to get our tickets. This turned out to be more of a hassle than expected and we had to wait in line for about 30 minutes to talk with a representative. We finally got to our plane and then the trials of the trip really began.

My seat on the first flight was tight to say the least. My knees pushed into the chair in front of me and that was before the kid in the seat decided he needed to recline the chair to eat his meals. I ended up straddling his seat for the seven-hour flight. We had individual TV’s, which was great, but the screens stopped working half way through the flight. The meals were sub-par and almost impossible to eat with the narrow seating arrangement.

We got to Madrid and I immediately went to the Duty Free store to buy some refreshments. Coffee with Bailey’s and screwdrivers made our four-hour layover manageable. When we got to our gate, my jaw almost dropped because our next plane was even smaller. I got to my seat in the second-to-last row and couldn’t sit straight. My legs literally cramped as soon as I sat down. The flight attendant witnessed my struggle and promised to find me a roomier seat. He signaled for me to move a few minutes later and I ended up in the exit row. This was the ONLY way I would have made it through the five-hour flight. I got to my new seat and immediately passed out. I woke up a while later and we were still on the ground. I was sitting next to a Catholic priest from Miami who told me the plane before us took off just in time for a flock of birds to fly through their engine. They had to circle and do an emergency landing and all other planes had to wait. We took off and I slept almost the entire flight.

When we landed, we worked our way through the airport and got a border pass for our stay. As we were waiting for our bags, we were informed that the lobby after customs was packed and we would have to wait for a bit. The Tel Aviv professional basketball team had just arrived back after winning the European Championships. I saw a buch of tall guys with a big metal trophy walk past us into the cheering crowd. There were about 2,000 fans waiting in the lobby waving flags and singing songs. I pretended it was all for me and soaked in the glory.

We pushed our way through the crowd and found our bus. We were then informed that we had a three-hour drive to our hotel. This drive will take us from Ben Gurion Airport, just outside of Tel Aviv, to the northern border. Our hotel for the first few night is within a few miles from Syria and Lebanon. The coach bus is tight and sitting straight is not going to happen. I am writing this as we finish our drive on the winding Israeli highway system. I thought road construction was bad in Wisconsin but it is nothing compared to here! The landscape is gorgeous and there are a lot more green plants than I expected. When we finally arrive at the hotel, our travel will be complete after more than 36 hours in transit. It will be worth it in the end but at the moment this trip is nothing but tiresome.

Dinner was amazing. We had an Israeli salad with fresh tomatoes and cucumbers, hummus, tahini, chicken schnitzel, seasoned green beans, sautéed peppers and mushrooms, and filo dough filled with a potato puree. They had pitchers of water and hibiscus water on the tables and then brought out some popsicles for dessert. I had a strawberry and banana one but they also had passion fruit. After dinner, we did some ice breakers. It really helped me get to know some of the members of my trip. We then got to shower which was glorious. I have never appreciated being clean as much as today. We start tomorrow at 7:45 so now it’s time for bed.