This morning started with a text from my friend Norman who told me that he wanted to head down to Ben Yehuda and try to find the book that our tour guide used. I had been to an AWESOME bookstore yesterday at Ben Yehuda, one of the only ones with english books, and I had raved about it to him so we went on a mission. I didn’t realize it was the first time he had been to Ben Yehuda so we spent some time just walking through the street and checking out the various stores.
We realized we could go on our search for the book store without first getting some food. After looking at various restaurants, we decided to go to the restaurant I went to yesterday because it had been so incredible. So we ate at “Rimon Bistro” and had a great meal. As usual talking about both serious and frivolous matters, like whether Arabs are second rate citizens in Israel…and admiring the beautiful Israeli women around us.
After trying to find out where the book store was on Google Maps, we eventually found it using my good old fashioned gut memory. The name of the book store is “M. Pomeranz Bookseller” If you are in Jerusalem, go there. There are chairs, couches and thousands of incredible books in ENGLISH to read. All the books have something to do with either Judaism or Israel. The best part was that I had already talked to the proprietor last time I was there and we had a great conversation. So this time when I went with a fellow teammate, he was overjoyed. Norm and I spent a good 30 minutes at the bookstore, skimming books and discussing them.
After that I told Norm that I had to see my friend Josh in Jerusalem and that I would meet up with him later at the Maccabiah soccer finals game with USA vs. Argentina. I spent some time shopping in Ben Yehuda because I still had one more gift to get for my nieces. I found a hilarious onesie, chatted with the other Israeli couples and laughed about some of the ridiculous slogans on the baby shirts and onesies. I love Ben Yehuda, I could seriously spend an entire day there. It’s very easy to tell which stores have beautiful Judaica and which ones are for thrifty tourists. Some of the Judaica is jaw-droppingly beautiful.
After that I took a cab and met my friend Josh for lunch at the intersection of King George and Agron in Jerusalem. We ate at this beautiful little cafe. It was gorgeous outside and I loved catching up with Josh and hearing about his Ulpan and how he’s planning to study for five years in New York to become a cantor. That’s awesome.
I took a cab to the Hebrew University soccer field, found Norm and watched an incredible soccer game. The 2 hour long game ended in a tie at 2 – 2. Then there was an overtime with two 15 minutes halves. Still no score. Then came penalty kicks to decide the winner…and USA won!!! Woot woot!! Norm and I cheered “USA USA USA!”, “MURICA!” and “AMERICA FUCK YEA!”
It was a lot of fun.
We may have done something that night, but it’s been two days and I can’t remember 🙂
