Our very first Shabbat Shalom in The Holy Land. Simple, yet very special. It’s so warm (75 degrees) right now at 6:45pm. Perfect night to sit outside and hear all the people in the neighborhood celebrating Shabbat.
It's really interesting that Friday (in the day) begins the weekend in Israel.
When I was chatting on Facebook Messenger with Ann (an American from River Heights, UT), who lives in Haifa, she warned me that we needed to get to the store early today because they close at 2pm for Shabbat.
So Devon and I gave the dogs a day off and walked down to the the Haifa Zoo, so we could see where all the banks are and write down their hours. We also found some drug stores (aka pharmacies). We're beginning to note prices for things we may or may not need.
By the time we got to the grocery store it was about 1pm and you could see pandemonium setting in. I told Devon that it reminded me of Saturday afternoon at Macey's in Providence, Utah. Where it always felt like people were preparing for a blizzard instead of just the normal Sunday closure.
We bought a few groceries and some tea lights, mini challah, and even some red wine.
Much to our delight, our Air BnB hosts invited us to have dinner with them. We were treated to all sorts of interesting foods - pasta with free tomatoes, salad, cooked cucumber, and some sort of bean dish. No meat because they are vegetarians, and no bread. Maybe they are gluten free?
Unfortunately, the wine I bought earlier in the day, which we decided to share with our hosts, did not go with the meal. One of the family explained that the Hebrew writing on the bottle said "Sweet" red wine. It would be more appropriate for Passover... or a Bris.
Oh well. Luckily, they had some white wine on hand - which went swimmingly with dinner. Devon was sure to grab a snapshot of the good wine, so we'd know better for next time.
We had a nice time eating and visiting with our hosts - Dorit and Moaz. In addition to us, was their daughter, who had recently been in Japan), their son and his girlfriend (who live in Haifa).
At the end of the meal we decided to turn in early. Shabbat Shalom.
