Tuesday 17/6

Our first day in Israel. It feels like the longest day of our lives. Like three days rolled into one. Left home at about 19 on the Monday evening. A taxi picked us up, we took a rather long detour via the Firm to collect the property we were going to bring, and then off to Heathrow. It went surprisingly smooth there. I, who had never done this before, thought it would take forever to go through customs (we had to declare the manuscripts and fill in tons of paper), but they were friendly and efficient. We tried being overly nice to the girl at the check in counter, to see if she would bump me up, so I could travel with Tim, but no luck there. We had dinner and some wine, and then rushed off to the gate. (And I managed to squeeze in the quickest tax free shopping of my life – a perfume.)

Boarding at the gate, the alarms went off and red lamps started blinking when they put my ticket through. I panicked a bit inside – I have experienced before security reacting to my name (there’s always something wrong. I made a really bad choice there. The combination of a Swedish ‘ö’, a hyphen and the longest name on the planet is not to be recommended). But I tried to act cool… Well, seems the girl at the check-in counter had listened to us, because I had been upgraded! Fair enough, I was not in first class with Tim, but they had put me in World traveller class plus (whatever that means, but it was definitely one up from the sheep at the back)! Wohooo! It couldn’t have been a better start to the trip!

I said bye to Tim and sat down in my super duper wide seat (and had two entire rows to myself!), and just enjoyed feeling special. Tim, at his end, worked for an hour (he had still not written the paper he was supposed to give), and then came to say good night to me before he went to sleep (he did after all, have a proper bed!). I, on the other hand, enjoyed loads of nice, free wine, and watched a movie. They had so many good movies to choose from that I had a hard time picking one. In the end, I decided to opt for one that Tim would never want to see with me, so I watched ‘the da Vinci code’. I also felt it would be quite a good theme, since we were off to the Holy Land. (And yes, the movie was rubbish.)

I did not sleep at all. When the movie was over, it was only one hour left of the flight. I did try and go to sleep, but every time I lent to the side, I accidentally touched the button that turned on my TV screen, and well, not long after the crew started announcing that we were about to land. We landed at 5.30 local time – 3.30 in England! I have never been so tired. And did I feel old!? I could definitely tell I am no longer a teenager, able to stay up all night. Tim looked just as bad, despite his 2-3 hours of sleep.

Well, we got the manuscripts through the Israeli customs as well, without any problems. The passport woman was amazingly rude to me, but what goes around comes around, I hope. (I was being asked all imaginable questions, why was I here, who did I know, where did they live etc etc.)

A car from the Firm picked us up, and drove us to the office, where a member of staff met us, and put the manuscripts in a safe. Then off to the hotel, finally. And man, are we talking hotel or what?! It the best hotel I have ever stayed in, and the same goes for Tim! They seemed to have bumped us up here as well, because we ended up on the Executive Floor. Amazing room, with the biggest bed I have ever seen, and pillows to die for (forget Wingnut and Stevo, this is a completely different league). Not to mention the view from the balcony: all of southern Tel Aviv, the marina, Old Jaffa, and the never ending sea. And then we were being showed up to the top floor – the Executive Lounge. Here they serve breakfast, snacks, afternoon tea, light dinner, and drinks – all inclusive. And the top floor of course have a panoramic view that is absolutely breath taking! We knew we would like it here!

We had a two hour nap (Tim just half of that, since he still had to finish his paper), before getting up to have breakfast. Tim then left for work, and I went back to sleep! At lunchtime, I went for a walk along the beach, down to the Opera Tower (see photo) and then the backstreets back to the hotel. All in all, the walk took about an hour and a half. When I got back, Tim was already back from the office, asleep in bed. I sat on the balcony, enjoying the girly magazine I had brought from England. Tim slept for about two hours, before we went off to the top floor for some afternoon tea, and then headed off to the Firm again. Tim gave his lecture, and was a great success, although it was not as big an audience as expected. Afterwards a few of us went out for a drink in the area, which was the oldest part of town, and rather pretty. Fell asleep within seconds once we got back to the hotel. Our body clocks being completely ruined.