Israel

This is probably one of the strangest blog entries I will make for the entire trip. Neither one of us was on an excursion and neither one of us went sightseeing.  We had two stops in Israel, Ashdod and Haifa, and we saw virtually nothing --- by choice.  And there are no pictures. 

DAY 1

Last year we went to Jerusalem and did quite a bit of extensive sightseeing there. We also toured  Haifa.  So this year we chose not to repeat things that we did last year, and neither one of us was motivated to go on any tours this year.  So what exactly did we do?

I had my nails done on the ship and I must say I have never had such a poor job done.  I thought today would be a good day to go into Ashdod, where they have several malls, and find a place to get my nails done.  Michael is in need of a haircut, so this would also be a good day for him to get that done as well.  We took the shuttle from the ship to the mall. The first thing we noticed was that there is security to enter the mall, and the security people had guns.  The next thing we noticed was that all the signage was in Hebrew.  It makes for a very difficult shopping experience when one cannot read the directory or the name of the store.

Not everyone in Israel speaks English, so I had to find somebody who did speak English to inquire where a nail shop was located.  I got the location of one and followed the directions; the nail shop happened to be right next to a hair salon.  Perfect!  Except there were no hairdressers on duty that day and the nail shop was too busy to take me.  Rats!  A client in the nail shop gave us directions to another nail shop.  We traipsed across a street into another building and the same thing happened there: no time for nails, no time for haircut.  

There was another mall on the other side of the intersection, so we headed over there.  I was not in a particularly walking mood because I woke up with a very stiff and sore left knee and leg.  I had taken a pain pill before we left and I was having difficulty making my leg work.  By this time, I decided that I can just live with my nails the way they were thanks to superglue and Michael decided he could live with his hair until we got home.  We picked up a few things that we had run out of and then took the shuttle back to the ship.

We had a most enjoyable afternoon floating in the pool and lounging in the hot tub.

DAY 2

I had a restless night due to pain in my knee. When I got up this morning I could barely stand on my left leg as the knee wanted to buckle.  I really don't understand why I have more pain when I sleep then when I walk.  I went to see the acupuncturist because that's the closest I can get to any kind of therapy on the ship.  He determined that was there was a lot of swelling and fluid around the knee and down the entire leg.  It seemed a little less stiff after the treatment.  He told me to spend some time in the hot tub, which I was glad to do.  This was a day to take it very easy and rest as much as I could. 

Michael, on the other hand, did get off the ship and had a most interesting "excursion" as he reports below:

MICHAEL

It turned out that Adrian had a severe earache and needed to go see a specialist at the hospital.  Lillian was still ailing with her bronchitis so I offered to escort Adrian.  He and I, along with the ship's second officer, were picked up by the port agent and taken to B'nai Zion Hospital.  Here we discovered that hospitals in Israel are absolutely no different than hospitals in the United States, other then being unable to read any of the signage.  For some strange reason, everything is written in Hebrew.  LOL Anyway, after the paperwork at the front desk was completed, we were escorted into the emergency room and told we would have to wait our turn.   And wait we did for about 45 minutes until our escort somehow, someway got us around the emergency room and into the ENT clinic, where we needed to be in the first place.

Here, we got to wait another 45 minutes until it was time to see the doctor.  Both Adrian and the second officer were examined at the same time, although by different doctors.  Ironically, they both had exactly the same problem and were treated in the same way.  They even received exactly the same prescription.  Our escort then directed us to the front desk so that Adrian could pay his bill, which was outrageous, and then put us in a cab.  We got to stop at the drugstore to pick up the prescriptions and then return to the ship.  It turned out that both the trip to the hospital, which is located on top of the largest hill in the city, and the return trip were both quite enjoyable.  And best of all, I got to see the inside of an Israeli hospital without having to be sick.