We finally both have our Israeli driver’s licenses! When you come here, you’re allowed to drive for one year on your American (or wherever) license, then you have to take a Conversion test, which is shorter than the one given to new drivers, and has no written portion. Luckily for me, it also has no parallel parking portion :-)

Last week we attended the beachside Beta Ship Party for TMG/UAG. I couldn’t decide between all the pictures, so I inserted an album below. There was a really good buffet dinner, followed by presentation of some achievement awards, a performance by Ivri Lider (quite good, in my opinion!), and a DJ for dancing. It was a fun evening!

View Full Album

Last weekend Dave and I set off for Bucharest, Romania; part of our continuing quest to explore parts of the world easy to get to from Israel. We met up with our friends Monica and Mihai; Dave worked with Monica about 5 years ago so it was great to see them again!

The first day, I had booked a tour guide for a walking tour of Bucharest. There are a few areas that were saved from the huge communist apartments blocks; they are charming, with a somewhat Parisian feel.

Today these areas are being treated as the national treasure they are. Older unsafe buildings are hollowed out and the shell is reinforced internally preserve it before a modern building is build inside. This building had no backside and was only about 6-9” thick!

Next we saw the remains of the ancient castle of Vlad Tepes, the man behind the Dracula legend. While most of the legend was a product of Bram Stoker’s imagination and Hollywood magic; he was a much-feared ruler who effectively kept the peace through his legendary methods of execution (warning: not for those of weak stomach!) His bust is in the center of the courtyard below. He also pioneered the use of subterranean construction for living and storage spaces.

We also visited quite a few Romanian Orthodox Churches, which have beautiful frescoes inside that were originally used to teach the stories of the bible to worshippers since many in the lower classes could not read. The walls and ceilings are covered in beautiful illustrations, with gold leaf highlighting the woodwork.

We also visited two synagogues, the Coral Temple, which was under renovation at the time, and the United Holy Temple, which now houses a Jewish history and Holocaust museum.

The tour wrapped up with lunch at a restaurant called Caru’ cu Bere, meaning “wagon with beer”, apropos since it is the site of an old brewery (they still brew, just offsite.) We had mititei, much like the ground meat kebabs we get here in Israel, with mustard and tiny pan-fried whole potatoes; paired with a frosty mug of the house draft beer – the perfect apres tour meal!

Dave and I set off to walk the 1/2 hour back to the hotel and ended up getting lost much better than any previous attempt! 3 1/2 hours later we hailed a taxi and discovered we were 7 km away from where we thought we were! After freshening up, our friends took us out for a local dinner at Terasa Doamnei. I had stuffed cabbage rolls with polenta – delicious. We drank a local wine that our tour guide had recommended earlier in the day, a Feteasca Neagra from Dealu Marae (also known as Big Hill, the English translation of the winery’s name.) There was a show during dinner; at different times the performers wore costumes representing each of the different cultures and regions of Romania. The clip below is from the gypsy portion of the show:

The next morning Mihai and Monica picked us up bright and early to head north to Transylvania. We toured Bran Castle and did a bit of souvenir shopping. The funny thing was that while the local merchants have capitalized on the Dracula legend, the castle itself has stayed refreshingly true to history, displaying artifacts from Queen Marie’s time.

After a snack of donuts and a jam-filled crepe (yummy!) we headed south to Peles Castle in Sinaia. Monica had arranged a private tour with an old friend working at the castle. I was able to get a photography pass to wear around my neck, allowing me to shoot the amazing interior without flash. It is kept fairly dimly lit inside, but thankfully my Sony Alpha takes amazing low light pictures!

I loved the fairytale exterior! The castle was originally built for receiving guests, and it shows in the welcoming design and grand interior spaces. It was fully electrically wired when it was built between 1875 and 1914; the stained glass skylight below is actually a sunroof that opens on a metal track to refresh the air in the great hall below. There is also a built-in vacuum system that is still functional to this day; which pains me greatly since the one in my rental house here, built in 1992, is completely worthless!

The grand dining hall. What a spectacular table setting! Our guide said everything in the castle gets dusted once a week, from the china to the woodwork.

This whole room was done with an Asian theme – of course I was ready to move right in!

The Queen’s private study. Above the doorway I stood in to take the picture was a balcony library. I think I could blog much better in these surroundings!

After the castle we had a late lunch at a ski-chalet themed restaurant and headed south through the Prahova Valley back to Bucharest. Along the way we stopped to check out several locals selling honey, but couldn’t find any that was labeled. I couldn’t see El Al letting me carry an unmarked jar of viscous liquid onto the plane, even in my checked baggage. Dave managed to find the stinkiest wheel of smoked cheese known to mankind; which we had to keep on the window ledge outside the hotel room because it was smelling up the room!

When we got back to our hotel (the JW Marriott) we decided to explore the casino in the basement. To our surprise, it was full of Israelis! After a few drinks, I got up enough courage to try out my Hebrew on a group that we were playing blackjack with and we ended up having a fun time!

The next day we got up quite late and caught a taxi to the Village Museum – it was really neat to see all the old machinery and buildings that have been moved from around the country to save them from new construction. Below is a wine press:

For lunch we headed to our home away from home, the Hard Rock Cafe.  They had one of Tina Turner’s fur coats on display, as well as some early Michael Jackson stuff (remember the jacket with the silver mesh shoulders?) We walked partway back to the hotel, part the Arcul de Triumf, which looked strangely familiar :-)

We caught a taxi the rest of the way back and took a nap before checking out of the hotel. Our flight home wasn’t until 9pm, so we killed some time in the American-style sports bar in the hotel, and found a dress for me to wear to the upcoming wedding of some friends of ours (paid for with blackjack winnings!)

The chauffeured Mercedes that the hotel sent as our ride back to the airport was a nice ending to a wonderful trip!

My pockets are full of dog leashes - I have not developed a beer belly!

We ended up with 3 bags this size completely full. Indy and Moshe were pooped from running around finding stuff for us. There's still plenty of work to go - we'll be back out there the next weekend Dave's in town (too rare lately!) and hopefully other people will decide they like the idea too.

My cherry tomatoes aren't fully established yet, so they're only producing two or three ripe ones per day. If I waited, I might be able to gather enough for a salad, but they're so good right off the vine, still warm from the sun! The basil is growing nicely, though; so on my way home from the gym today I picked up some baby mozzarella and cherry tomotoes at the market. Here is the resulting salad:

The purple bits are the purple basil, and the little whole leaves are the greek basil - the slugs seem to like the regular basil best so I was only able to find one useable leaf from it. I don't mind if it keeps them away from the fancy stuff! That is not chocolate syrup on the picture below  I found a balsamic vinegar reduction that I like to use on salads like this because it sticks to the wet ingredients better than standard oil and vinegar.

Can anyone tell me what the fruit below is? I was at an Independence Day BBQ last week and was offered one, but no one knew the name in English.

Here's what it looked like after I bit into it. The two pits inside were like flattish smooth brown marbles (like the ones you use in vases to make flowers stand up straight). Please email me at cowprintrabbit@hotmail.com if this fruit looks familiar to you and you know it by a name other than שסק (shesek). 

Apologies for the delay, I had an unexpected (are they ever?) laptop meltdown. Everything is good now, and I'm happy to report I fixed it ALL BY MYSELF! I guess I'm learning by osmosis

 The morning after the party was another early start; as we were headed for the Valley of the Kings at Luxor. This was another place we couldn't have cameras inside the tombs. Such a shame - you wouldn't have believed the brilliant original colors! Below is a model of the locations of the 63 discovered tombs in the valley - it was hard to believe they never ran into each other.

It was fascinating because excavations are still going on (the most recent discovery was just 1 year ago!) Experts believe there are still 8 tombs undiscovered. Here are some of the local laborers carting debris out of one of the areas under excavation. They were using baskets made of recycled tires and you could tell the loads were heavy.

 On the other side of the same mountain, we visited the temple of Queen Hatshepsut. Much of it was destroyed by her stepson after her death, but ongoing restoration work has made it a magnificent sight. We couldn't figure out what this guy was doing; it turned out he was removing the head of the statue for restoration and eventual replacement.

In the afternoon we went into downtown Luxor to visit the Luxor Temple. This is the only known location of heiroglyphics denoting Alexander the Great as a pharoah and a god. 

The temple is joined to the temple at Karnak by the Avenue of the Sphinxes.

 We stayed there until the sun began to set and then returned for our last night aboard the Nile cruise boat. After dinner we were treated to another whirling dervish and belly dancer show. The dervish was on par with the one in Cairo, but you could see the more conservative moral influence of the southern part of the country in the belly dancer's costume and routine.

The next morning we slept in prior to debarking for The Old Winter Palace hotel in Luxor. The hotel was built in 1886 as the winter residence of the royal family prior to the revolution. Once again our suitcases went straight to the hotel while we went to see the sights.

The inside was amazing - truly like spending a night in a palace (although the service left something to be desired.)

 (Photo credit Wikipedia - I was so tired I forgot to shoot the interior in my haste to get to the room and take a nap!)

We visited the Karnak temple, which is at the other end of the Avenue of Sphinxes. At this end they have the head of a ram rather than the human head we are accustomed to. These were some of the best original colors we had seen outdoors!

This obelisk is another one erected by Queen Hatshepsut from the red granite quarry we saw at the beginning of the tour. It is much smaller than the one that cracked. The funny thing about all these temples was that successive pharoahs added their own touches, so you find statues of one added to the temple of another, with obelisks of a third. Hatshepsut's stepson came behind her and built a high wall to hide her obelisk - talk about a dysfunctional family!  

Walking around this scarab statue 6 times is supposed to bring you long life. We tried it and will report back on our 75th wedding anniversary.

After returning to the hotel, we went for an evening stroll with Hazem, our guide and then had a very nice Italian dinner in one of the hotel restaurants out by the pool. We joined a large table of our tour mates and I have to say it was the funnest meal of the trip.