Landing in Isreal

I have been in Israel 2 and a bit days and I am already stacking up a backlog of stories and finding it hard to fit in the writing up of my notes but here goes...

Jewish traditional dress

Let's start at the beginning: getting here. Unlike my recent experience with trains everything went smoothly. 5 hour direct flight from Manchester to Tel Aviv. However I did feel like I should have brought a hat to wear on the plane.

A Magritte painting

This is especially for my friends who asked if Israel was really that Jewish. The plane felt like it could have been a Rene Magritte painting. If Easyjet had existed in his day and his hats more Jewish of course. More than half the men on board we're bearded and wearing black hats. It was a little surreal.

Oh and Tel Aviv looks great at night! A thousand tiny lights scattered below you. Seems to be less blaring consumerism than Chinese cities anyway.

Anyway I arrived at the hostel and was met by the night manager who gave me a map and told me the good spots to check out. Local knowledge always welcome. Got settled in and went for a drink and food with the American girl who was staying in the same room at the hostel. Pretty standard few quiet drinks..it wasn't till the next day when things started to get interesting.