First Impressions

They say first impressions are fairly accurate, well we'll see. Tel Aviv airport is large and modern, with more security than most, but not oppressive. I noticed the concrete work outside the airport, it wasn't good quality, functional, but not as good as I would expect. The Madrid airport was really big and quite a architectural and engineering feat, probably the nicest airport I have ever been in, so that might have hurt the comparison. I noticed most of the taxis had dents on the sides. Driving in Tel Aviv it seems a lot more like the U.S. than anywhere else I have been. Our van driver might have learned to drive in Liberia though. This is not a very old city so the buildings are newer, some real nice, but a lot are run down and in need of repair. It was Sunday afternoon and the traffic was said to be light, but it seemed pretty heavy, so rush times must really be bad. I said it was like home, except for the road signs. They are all scribbles, however most of the store signs are English. Our hotel would be a four star in Liberia, but just an average motel at home. Our dinner was included in our package and it was excellent with quite a few strange dishes that tasted great. We met our tour guide, Daphne, maybe late 50s, with very short dyed red hair. She was born and raised in Jerusalem and assured us that we would be safe where ever we went, she encouraged us to go out any time we wanted. Our group will be 23 people, the average group is usually around 40, so she told us it will allow us to do a few more things. There are a few more people coming in tonight, but the ones that I have met so far seem pretty nice, there might be one person who might be hard to take. I hope that first impression is wrong. We're going to head out for the Sea of Galilee in the morning so I better head to bed.