First full day in Tel Aviv

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On our first full day in Tel Aviv we woke up at 6am and had breakfast---the most amazing breakfast---traditional Israeli breakfast is yogurt, fruits, cucumbers, tomatoes, olives, breads and cheeses and this breakfast had all of that plus waffles, pancakes, pastries, sushi (yes, sushi) cereal, salads, soup, eggs, potatoes, cassaroles, about 6 types of juices....it was unbelieveable! Then we walked throughTel Aviv to Independance hall where we heard about the day where Israel was declared a state and how Golda Mier had traveled to the US to fundraise to support the war they knew was being threatened on them for becoming the state of Israel and how she raised twice as much as all of the men had set as the goal...then the day they declared the State of Israel Egypt bombed them and how you could hear the planes flying overhead during the ceremony,trying to find them! The security was to be so tight that they sent out only 300 invitations and theysent them out the day before the ceremony and on the invite it said "this is to be kept secret" but what happens when you tell 300 Jews to keep somethinga secret?? It was in the world news all over the next day and thousands of people came and filled the streets....after Independance Hall we walked to the crafts fair and shopped and had lunch then we went to Yafo and saw the old town full of artists and muslims and then up to Rabin Square where we put a yartzit candle at the monument where Rabin was shot. That night some of us went out to eat at a yeminite restaurant which was very yummy and them walked back to the hotel in what was starting to get pretty rainy weather...that night it was crazy windy and from our hotel on the beach we could see thewaves coming over the playground on the beach, almost to the street!

(Big sad note is that this evening I went to us the computer in the business center of the hotel and put my memory card in to download some photos and then couldn't get the computer to work and went to get help and by the time I had gotten back mymemory card was gone---someone took it and it had ALL of my Istanbul photos on it which were soooo amazing and I am absolutely crushed. I have called every day to see if someone turned it in but no such luckand I am really crushed. my few that I have uploaded here are all I have now!)

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