Wednesday, June 11, 2008

Day 01 - the journey

Finally the day has come!!

Wake up time: 3:50 am !!!

The truth is that it felt pretty healthy to be physically active carrying luggage.

After being extorted a lot of money (I mean a lot of money!!!) for excess weight from the air company and getting a rough treatment for trying to negotiate, it is time to get on board. The Dutch crew is happy because their country won a football match against Italy yesterday in Euro 2008.

It is a weird thing to be passing through Amsterdam before going to Israel. My dad escaped from the Nazis from there and my cousins are/were Dutch.

My sister's husband who is Dutch too will be submitted to an important operation today.

My wish is that everything goes well for both of us.

At the airport in Amsterdam I'm still pissed off about being ripped off in my extra weight. The stay passed fairly fast, unfortunately there was no time to go into Amsterdam for some fun...

Soon I see some security guards by a gate with machine guns and think: hmmm... I guess this is the gate, and, surprise surprise, I was right..

The flight is finally called, I get in to the security, when it's my turn the girl talks to me in Hebrew I say I don't understand and the she asks in english: did you do the security check??

-What???

- Security check!!!

-No

I go down to take the security check which I think is going will include a rectal search and mental torture, but no, everything goes smoothly. My “million dollar” luggage is the only one that hasn't boarded yet and the plump security guard who interviews me is simply relieved to see the last of the luggage board..

In the plane everyone is speaking Hebrew, Hebrew newspapers, Hebrew newspapers, adds in Hebrew on the screen, as one would expect. I still can only understand one word or another although reading it is not a huge problem. This causes some hope and a bit of frutration.

Two noteworthy events happened in the plane:

The air hostess comes up to me and asks if my name is Richard Klein, I say yes and she says they have found my one and only cash card on the floor by the security check machine, can you imagine my relief??!!!

The film that I worked on but had been refusing to see because everyone said it was rubbish: 10.000 BC, was shown during the flight which was a bit weird in terms of fate. Actually I did not find it that bad.

On arrival the fear of being questioned in a dark room preceded by a rectal search comes back but everything goes very smoothly again.

I am finally in my hotel room. The hotel (Dan Hotel) is pretty good but it is still a hotel... the driver who got me here was not at all likable, I hope all Israelis are not like him.,.

I went for a walk nearby the Hotel which is on Hebron Street, it was already night but I found it very pleasant. It's great to be here, I have a sensation that it would be great to stroll down these streets with my deceased dad, both of us would have enjoyed the moment very much.

My day ends at the Hotel I phone Libia and Renata and finish up by writing these words.

2 comments:

Rafaela said...

gande rrrrrrrdddddd!

jerusalém nunca é a toa na vida de cada um! que esta oportunidade te seja incrível

beijo grande,
Rafa

Richard in the Holy Land said...

Valeu Rafa. Sou da mesma opiniao, vou tentar ficar a altura do presente.