Our trip to Israel began with flight changes that required us to make two stops – one in Atlanta and one in Paris. I was nervous about jet lag and lack of sleep because by the time we landed in Paris, it was midnight at home, and that only left a four hour trip to possibly sleep on, but I guess we did ok!
We got dinner and breakfast meals on the flight from Atlanta to Paris.
When we landed in Israel, Dave went to the rental car counter and Zachary got me my first Aroma Iced Coffee of the trip. When you enter the airport, you see this display in honor of the hostages.
We headed to my sister-in-law’s house and she had this sign for us on the door. Gabbie was already there because she was in Israel on a program before we came.
We greeted the family dog – the last time Simon and I were there, when he was 5, he was wrestling with his cousin and the dog bit him! But now they are friends.
We went out to get dinner and this was way too much schnitzel for me, but it was good.
Then we went to sleep. I had no jet lag at all and felt fine in the morning! We decided to head to Jerusalem for the day. Was it a mistake to do that on our first day? Maybe.
When we got there, I realized my camera battery was dead, so I had to take all of these pictures on my phone. We walked through the Old City to the Western Wall (the Kotel).
Family selfie
Next we did some food shopping for Shabbat dinner. And we walked to the very busy market area.
We had some fish and chips and it was really good. These were some hostage signs I was standing near.
We were supposed to pick up my sister-in-law’s mother-in-law and bring her back to my sister-in-law’s house with us, so Gabbie and Zachary went to catch the bus back so there would be room in the car. I took a few more pictures on the walk back.
We were almost back to the car when we were walking on a hill, with smooth stone sidewalk, and my left foot slipped from under me. I somehow landed fully on my right ankle. I knew right away that it was broken. At first, a woman tried to help me to my feet but I couldn’t get my left foot under me to support me to stand, and I started feeling extremely dizzy too. I told Dave and Simon I was going to pass out. Dave was talking to a security guard at a church that was next to where I fell and he was going to stay with me while Dave got the car, but I just got more dizzy until I passed out. It was a strange feeling when I woke back up (supposedly it wasn’t very long), and at that point we knew we needed an ambulance. Simon contacted my nephew, who sent over someone who spoke English and translated for me with the EMTs. I wanted Simon to come in the ambulance with me but he said he was scared, so he went with Dave to the car.
A few things I learned – they took my ID and translated my name directly into Hebrew. My middle name appeared to everyone to be my first name – and they way they wrote it was read as Rachelle instead of Rachel! Since they used my license number, that was the number they wanted from me every time. When I got to the ER, they said they needed my passport number and that they couldn’t treat me without it – but they just wanted my license number again. For identity purposes, they asked my father’s name. I didn’t know why they needed that so I said “my husband’s name?” and they said yes, so it was recorded that my father’s name was Dave. Even though people in Israel grow up learning English, there are some who really don’t know any. Need an x-ray? Get whoever is with you to bring you over and get in line, as no one else is going to do it. Everyone in Israel has health insurance, but as a tourist I was paying privately, so they liked that. (Our insurance will reimburse 80%).
Dave and Simon got to the ER and met me and Dave’s sister came as well. She does speak Hebrew, so that was helpful. She took Simon back home with her. There was a good deal of waiting time but eventually I was told I had broken both of my ankle bones and would need surgery. For the time being, I got a cast on and eventually was able to leave back to my sister-in-law’s house.
And that’s how our trip started – almost one normal day before I managed to add this one to the list of vacation disasters. I do think we made the most of things – more next time!
