Day 1 Part 1

Soccer.
Soccer?? Isn't this meant to be about a birthright trip? Well it is.
For some unknown reason we were told to be at the airport 4 hours before the flight. Which meant that by the time we had our bags scanned, got questioned by El Al security, checked-in, went thru airport security and DAVENED, we had 2 hours to spare before our flight took off. We would have had about 3 hours spare had Yos showed up on time. At the same time, England and Germany we're kicking off their world cup round of 16 match. Fly Emirates were kind enough to have a screen up at the airport so that 40 bored birthright participants can pretend to care about England's soccer team. Unfortunately though, none of the bars were open at that time of the morning. This was also the time that we got our first taste of number 9. We did not know he was going to be number 9 - all we knew was that he was a little crazy and quite apparently an English fan. (I use the word fan and not supporter simply because fan happens to be short for fanatic.) The game was quite exciting until England got embarrassed by Germany.
Here is where I write about the flight.
Here is where I write about landing in Israel. (If you thought that I forgot to write about the plane ride I didn't. It was pretty uneventful aside for one of "members" polishing off the airlines wine supply. (Hello Laibel!)


So we land, do the passport thing, and the luggage thing, and the waiting around thing, and of course a little more waiting around until we get led out to our bus.
We are met by our bus driver Avi, our medic/guard (with a gun that looks about as outdated as "MALON MERKAZI"), and our tour guide Jonty (Pronounced Jawn ti.) After loading the buses badly, and getting our talk and steal phones, we proceed to get ripped off by the money changers. We then go DAVEN in the airport SHUL, this process takes 15 minutes, if you DON'T include the 30 minutes it takes for everyone to BENCH HAGOMEL. It’s back to the bus to get our numbers, and we’re off to see Israel.