Yeah for Yom Kippur!

So I officially dig Yom Yippur. The holiday started on Wednesday afternoon-ish and went until the following evening. Technically it was from sundown to sundown the next day. And unfortunately I made the huge mistake of waiting until Wed. morning to do my grocery shopping. I'll never do that again let me tell you. I'm lucky to have made it out alive! You see the whole entire country pretty much shuts down on the afternoon the day before the holiday. And I mean, completely shuts down. Absolutely nothing is open except for the police and hospitals. Not a single store or restaurant is open. No 24 hour convenience store, no 24 hour pharmacy, nothing. Nada. Zip. Zilch. Thus if you do not shop and prepare before hand you will be officially screwed until the holiday is over.

So the best part of the day was that all driving in the entire country ceases for 24 hours. That's right, there are absolutely no cars on the street except for the occasional police car or ambulance. So the tradition is that everyone goes out and walks and rides their bikes all through the middle of the streets and even out on the highway. So of course we had to join in and set out for a walk on Wednesday night. It was so peaceful and calm outside. Not a single car horn to be heard! We walked all over the city in the middle of the street but still had to dodge all the little children on their bicycles! But the air felt crisp and clean with the absence of car exhaust and I must say it has been my favorite holiday here thus far.

Now granted we didn't actually observe the holiday because well, that includes fasting for those 24 hours as well(no water even!), and well, let's just say that there is no way in hell I can go that long without eating! A fast for me=approx. 5 hours. Then I just get cranky. So instead we spent Thursday at our friend's house (they also do not fast) where we had brunch and spent the day watching movies and walking around the city some more. (FYI--don't waste your time on the new Indiana Jones movie....it's totally ridiculous. Stay old school and stick with the first three.) And even the weather seems to have turned and it actually almost felt like fall had arrived. Woo-hoo! I actually wore my jeans outside during the middle of the day and I didn't melt into a pile of goo or anything! It was quite a fabulous indeed!

We found this store as we were wondering the streets...



Enjoying walking in the streets with no traffic!

Can you even imagine the US declaring a day when nobody drives?!?!?! It could never happen I am sure. Even here I'm not quite sure how they manage to keep enough hospital staff on when nobody can drive or take public transportation. I can only imagine that if you are within walking distance then you are the one stuck covering the holiday! And I'm sure they had to close down the airport for a day as well, otherwise people coming in would be stranded at the airport! I suppose it would be a little impractical to impose such a day in the US but it's an idea to entertain anyways. Like for Earth Day or something. Just imagine the amount of carbon emissions that would be cut if nobody drove for 24 hours!

October has been a crazy month here so far. There are about a zillion holidays in October. First there was Rosh Hashanah, then Yom Kippur and next week is Sukkot which we will not be here for. Everybody loves it because there is at least 2 days off of work every week for the entire month. I swear I think it's made people less stressed and a little friendlier too. Gosh darnet, people on the street actually smiled at us the other day. We were so beside ourselves we didn't even know what to do!

Today we have Phil's cousin Jonathan visiting again and then we leave on Monday night for the US!!!! I can hardly believe it's here! We've been planning and thinking about it so long and now it's finally time to go! We'll be busy getting ready for our journey the next few days so I may not get another blog out before we leave. Until next time!