Hi everyone! I am back with part 2 of my Israel blog post! I will be talking about how we spent our memorial day and how we went to a ton of barbeques and other parties. So first of all, we celebrated memorial day by going to a ceremony similar to that of the Holocaust memorial and we heard stories about multiple veterans who died during any war. The next day, we were with Savta and then a massive siren went off for two minutes around Israel that was to honor the fallen veterans, which was the same thing as before but one minute longer. The next day, we went over to an Independence Day party where I bought a giant inflatable hammer and had a delicious pizza. The party was cool because we listened to a live performance and there were fireworks everywhere! The next day, we visited Saba’s grave, which made Savta very sad because he was her husband and because he was a cool guy. We had a barbeque at Oved’s house where we also watched Spiderman: Into the Spiderverse, which was as good as always. The next day, we went out with Oved and Arielle to Nazarus and another city called Aco. There was a giant church in Nazarus which was very cool because it looked more like a fortress and had art from all over the world in it. In Aco, we did a VR experience of what the town was like in old times, and honestly, it was a cool experience for me. We also went to explore the Bathhouse there, which was cool because people went there for literally everything! After our day of touring was over, we drove to see the concert of an Israeli singer called Rita, who also sung at the Eurovision a while ago. The concert was actually very great and although it was freezing, we came back home and had a good night’s rest.
Hello everybody! I am back with the third part of my blog post for you! So the next day after the Rita concert, we went to an awesome escape room with Oved, Maytal, Mattan, and Noah. It was based on the classic film Peter Pan and we went through amazing trials with very well hidden puzzles in order to finally get out of the room. I always like escape rooms because they are so cleverly designed and the next day, we went to the pre-Eurovision party. For all the people living in the US who don’t know what Eurovision is, it is a singing competition where countries from all over Europe(with exceptions like Israel and Australia) gather to sing for glory. The reason this year’s contest was hosted in Israel was that the winner of last year’s Eurovision was from Israel, so yay us! When we went to the party, we went with Moti and Ronit and they also brought their dog, Tuco, even though he wasn’t allowed. We ate a very good hamburger at the party and then we saw a few representative bands from countries all over Europe performing for us! Russia had a very hilarious performance and even though it was fun to see everyone sing their hearts out, we went home to see the real deal in Savta’s TV. On the TV, 17 countries performed and 10 of them won to go to the semifinals on Thursday. The countries were Cyprus, Australia, Greece, Iceland, Slovenia, the Czech Republic, Serbia, Belarus, San Marino, Georgia, Montenegro, Belgium, Finland, Portugal, Poland, Hungary, and Estonia! Although being completely fair, they were all terrible except for Australia and Greece. Iceland had a wild performance and I personally thought that Georgia was great. It was very interesting to see and the winners were Cyprus, Australia, Greece, Iceland, Slovenia, the Czech Republic, Serbia, Belarus, San Marino, and Estonia! The next day, we didn’t do much either although we went to another escape room with Oved, Maytal, Mattan, and Noah. This time though, it was Aladdin themed and the decorations were off the top! There was the giant cat gate and the beginning which looked awesome and then we saw the statue that Abu stole the diamond from(which was very well crafted) the flying carpet, and the Genie lamp(which was actually a literal lamp shaped like the Genie lamp, but it lit up in different colors)! There was one instance where Ella and I spotted something that looked suspicious, but Noah said that it was nothing. Literally 3 minutes later, we discovered that it actually had significance and then we made fun of her for it. I am having so much fun here in Israel and I hope we have a good time for the rest of the time here.
Hi guys! I am back today with my 4th blog post for today and is my second to last Israeli blog post! So to start off this section, we didn’t do much the day after the escape room, although we did meet some very good friends of ours, named Nadav and Serena, and they took us to a fun part of Yafo, where we got to explore a small section of the town and ate delicious turkey hot dogs! We also went to an art auction where they sold the flags of all 41 countries participating in the Eurovision and they were very cool because they were painted in an elegant way. To commemorate our trip, we bought Israel’s flag which was awesome! The next day, we watched the second semifinal where the other 18 countries battled against each other, without the 6 automatic countries. The countries battling were Armenia, Albania, Sweden, Malta, the Netherlands, North Macedonia, Ireland, Denmark, Norway, Latvia, Lithuania, Austria, Croatia, Azerbaijan, Russia, Switzerland, Romania, and Moldova! The winners of those countries were Sweden, Malta, the Netherlands, North Macedonia, Denmark, Norway, Azerbaijan, Russia, and Switzerland! The songs were all terrible again except for Norway and Russia and it was fun to see the suspense some countries had when they were waiting to get see if they passed. The next day, Oved took Ella and me to go visit a prehistoric cave where cavemen lived! We saw how they lived there and the evolution of the cave, like how it was originally filled with water but then went down over the years. We started to do a hike afterward, but it was way too hot so we went back home and waited until everyone came in order to watch the final Eurovision. When everyone came over to watch, the final countries where all of the previous winners of the two semifinals plus Germany, Spain, Italy, France, the UK, and Israel. In an obvious twist of fate, the Netherlands won the Eurovision, even though their song wasn’t that good. It was the popular vote and everyone said that it was going to be the winner, so it wasn’t that surprising. The next day was our last day and after having my last Spanish lesson, we went over to our favorite restaurant for the last time and ate the delicious turkey hotdogs! Later that night, we said goodbye to Savta(Which was very sad) and then Oved, Maytal, Mattan, and Noah took us to the airport. Once we said goodbye to them, we flew all the way to Ethiopia and then all the way to Cape Town. I had an incredibly fun time in Israel and the next time we go there will be right before our trip ends in July.
