Day 19 - They're So Civilized

Yesterday, I questioned whether I would be able to find an Internet Cafe in Israel that sported computer keyboards in English.  As a result of that, I began to wonder if being unable to speak Hebrew is going to be an issue? 

I was happy to discover (after doing some research on a Ministry of Israel Tourism website that the answer is "No!".  Apparently, English is spoken in Israel and most signs are written in Hebrew, Arabic, and English.  Even better, it seems that Israelis are interested in practicing their English, so they are happy to speak from visitors from North America.  Hurray.

With regard to finding WiFi access in Israel, that is not going to be an issue either.  Israel has over 800 "hotspots" that provide wireless Internet services to mobile computer owners.  And, every year the number of hotspots in Israel doubles.  So most visitors can surf the Internet for a small fee or free of charge.  Egged (Israel's main bus line) allows all of it's passengers to surf the internet for free.  How cool is that?  They say that iPad owners make out the best in Israel, in that they can seamlessly access the Internet from almost everywhere - even in the middle of the desert.  

The only "catch" for logging into a hotspot is that on Shabbat, Friday sundown to Saturday sundown everything in Israel shuts down. This includes access to the Internet - which I am sure is very frustrating to Secular Jews and non-Jews.  Oh well, it is the "Holy Land" after all.

I find this all to be so refreshing.  When you compare Israel to other countries in Europe, such as France - where the locals can be quite rude if you don't speak French and they don't allow tourists to use computers at their public libraries.  I think that the Israelis seem so civilized.