Just back

May 12, 2005 - 3:04 PM by

from the obligatory Yom Ha’atzma’ut (Independence Day) picnic. Being the sotzyomatim we are, we did not opt for a big event with the Hevr’e (what hevr’e?), but we did something we’ve never done before.

Can you believe that I’ve lived in Tel Aviv for twenty years and I’ve never seen the Yarkon River on Yom Ha’atzma’ut? It’s sort of out of bounds for snobby North Tel Avivis like us on Yom Ha’atzma’ut. Well today I saw it. My daughters finally got to see how most people spend Yom Ha’atzma’ut.

We did try to go to a real Yom Ha’atzma’ut picnic one year, with other people, but after crawling in a traffic jam for two hours and only reaching Ben Gurion Airport, about a third of the way, we gave up and headed back home, where we proceeded to have a lovely picnic on the living room carpet. Other years, we had picnics with friends on the roof of our previous apartment, and before that we used to go to a friend’s place near the beach to watch the air force and navy demonstration they used to have there.

Anyway, back to today, I made us all a nice little picnic, picked it tidily in a wicker basket (no barbeque for us), and off we rode, all four of us on our bikes, to find a spot on the bank of the river.

It was a bit of a shock at first, the park was scattered with dozens of little groups of people, all sitting around little tables amid clouds of smoke from burning meat (We’re vegetarians, in case you hadn’t cracked on yet. We don’t begrudge anyone else their animal flesh; it’s just that we don’t enjoy the smell or the sight of it ourselves), but being there on our bikes was great. We didn’t have to find parking. We didn’t have to get there early to save a spot. We could just cruise along till we found somewhere we liked. We settled for a lovely grassy spot under some eucalyptuses that we only had to share with one nice, quiet couple who had put up a tent. And the breeze from the river meant we couldn’t smell anyone else’s food.

The river itself wasn’t at its best. It was full of people on those little boats with the motors, and that had brought up all the mud. But the people on the boats seemed to be enjoying themselves no end, and so were the people barbecuing their meat on their ‘mangal’s, for that matter.

Another plus was that we didn’t have to stay all day. In two hours time we were home again, happy and well fed. Quite enough, thank you very much. Mind you I stink of barbeque smoke. Time for a shower.

This post also appears on my NEW BLOG! (That was a shameless bit of advertising if ever I saw one)

Tags: • Category: Food, Holidays, Israeliness 

Comments

One Comment on Just back

  1. Links for Yom HaAtzmeut (Israeli Independence Day) « Thoughts from a Rabbi on Wed, May 26th 2010 4:37 AM

    2. [...] day I Dream, Therefore I Am Israel21c [A site with much about technology and life in Israel.] Israelity: Life Beyond the Conflict Jerusalem Wanderings Normblog The View From Here This Normal Life & Brian’s Family Tiyul [...]

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