Jet Lag

Asha once described jet lag as having your aura smeared across the ocean along the path of your plane's flight, and that it takes a few days for it to catch up with you again. Isn't that a great description?

We arrived in Tel Aviv three days ago (I think), and stayed in an airBnB a block away from the beach on the eastern edge of the Mediterranean Sea. I didn't see much of Tel Aviv because my smeared aura was still trying to catch up with my disoriented soul. Dambara was much more intrepid, and gave himself the task of hunting and gathering our meals from nearby restaurants, bringing them back to our apartment to tempt me into consciousness.

Local yummies

We came a few days early specifically to allow us time to retrieve our smeared auras, to be fresh and alert for the pilgrimage itself. Dambara has been to Israel before, and wanted to spend more time this trip in Tel Aviv. Our apartment was perfectly located for plenty of wandering, but a blustery storm descended, somewhat truncating his outings, so we both ended up spending quite a bit of time inside our apartment, watching movies, being awake during sleeping hours and sleeping during awake hours.

However, we've made great progress toward adjusting to our new time zone, and today heartily accomplished our trek from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem.

Afternoon view from our hotel room

We took a bus, after considering the train option and the taxi option, and it was an enchanting journey, with surprisingly green scenery and plenty of sunshine. The only tricky part was navigating the central bus station in Tel Aviv, a multi-story monstrosity, but we had the invaluable assistance of Ashtara, newly arrived from Ananda Village, resettling in her home town, Tel Aviv!

She texted us about an hour before we were leaving our airBnB, and we quickly organized an impromptu lunch together. After trading stories and munching yummy sandwiches and a chocolatey, flakey concoction, she wisely accompanied us to the bus station, expertly got us through the correct entrance, up to the correct floor (7th!) of the station, coached us through the process of buying the correct tickets, out through the correct departure doorway, and onto the correct bus.

Navigating the Jerusalem bus station was easy peasy, and now we're comfortably ensconced in the beautiful King Solomon Hotel, up on the sixth floor, with a vista that entices us to the window again and again.

Sunset's glow

Dambara is once again out hunting and gathering, a pastime that he thoroughly relishes, and I am putting words together in semi-coherent sentence structures, connecting with all of you while my smeared aura lets me know that 5:09 pm is quite late for any traveler's brain to be expected to function coherently.

My goal is to fend off unconsciousness until 7:00, when Dambara will most likely have returned, dinner in hand, and stories to share. A couple more days, and my aura will surely have coalesced back into its functional whole, and I will be fully equipped to marvel at this wonderful world, Israel.