Israeli travel

December 17, 2009 - 3:39 PM by

Strauss in Cape Town Pick 'n Pay

Strauss in Cape Town Pick 'n Pay

Welcome back to me from the land of South Africa. We just spent a very happy ten days in Cape Town and along the Garden Route, visiting friends, seeing wild animals — even along the highway…baboons! — hanging out on the beach and improving the sandal tan lines on my feet. I didn’t think I’d appreciate warm weather after such a short stint of Israeli winter, but it’s actually kind of fun to be back in the sun in December.

But what’s also amusing about travel, something I hadn’t embarked on since doing this mother-of-twins thing, is the inherent Israeliness of long distance travel. On one hand, you have to travel beyond Israel in order to leave Israel, and it’s just very enjoyable to travel among other nationalities. We flew Lufthansa, and it wasn’t a bad thing to fly on a non El Al flight. People stay in their seats when they’re supposed to, the lines for the bathroom are shorter, and there isn’t a minyan taking place in every empty corner.

While we were in South Africa, we heard no Hebrew, except for our very last day, on the top of Table Mountain, when we came upon another Israeli family — that is, a ‘real’ Israeli family, not former Americans like ourselves — although we didn’t make ourselves known to them. But there were moments when we found ourselves missing the Israeliness of our usual life, and when we sought out the bits and pieces that are so familiar to us. One day, it was the sighting of the Strauss dairy symbol on an ice cream freezer. Granted, it’s the logo used by Unilever, which owns 51% of the company but still, exciting to see the familiar red-and-white heart on a freezer full of Magnum bars. On another day, it was the shelf full of Israeli products in a local grocery store, and we found ourselves picking up a bag of Osem pretzels and animal crackers, in spite of our pleasure in discovering and eating local products. And while we certainly don’t schlep Elite coffee or soup nuts wherever we go, we did proudly present a box of Krembos as a Chanukah treat for our hosts’ kids. And of course we spoke Hebrew to one another whenever we needed to speak without being understood by those around us.

And then, as we packed up to head home and made our way to the airport, there were the snatches of Hebrew heard when we reached Frankfurt, our more-than-halfway mark home. It was surprisingly comforting to hear that familiar language, and to lapse into it with fellow passengers. We exchanged travel stories, found out where we’re each from back home and helped one another out wherever possible. Given that we were flying Lufthansa, there was no clapping of hands when we landed in Tel Aviv, but we all glanced at one another, those in the know, and gave each other wide smiles. It’s good to travel and it’s great to come home.

Tags: , , , , , • Category: A New Reality, Food, General, History and Culture, Immigrant Moments, Israeliness, Life 

Comments

One Comment on Israeli travel

  1. iGuide on Sun, Dec 20th 2009 8:24 AM

    2. I always thought of the best gift of travel (at least the kind of travel we’re talking about here) was cultural exchange. The world is still much more segregated than we care to admit, and probably will be for the rest of our lives. Why not go out and spread and take in as many ideas as you can, after all, only a small potion of the developed world has the privilege and drive to travel. It’s our responsibility to make those walls just a little bit more porous.

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