Our first days in Israel

We arrived in Israel on the 20th of April. It was Easter that day, so we thought it would be quite special to arrive on this day in this amazing country. 

When we just got off the plane in Tel Aviv, a lady from the airport already asked for our passports. She asked us some questions about our internship and was quite suprised we were going to be staying in Tamra for the next six weeks. After we passed this lady, another interview was waiting for us. Everyone who arrives in Israel has to answer a few questions about their stay in the country. Joachim and Gerlinde had a quick interview but the lady who was interviewing me wasn't that easy. She checked everything. For a few minutes, I was afraid my acces to the country would be denied. Luckily, after ten (very long !) minutes, she gave my passport back to me and said 'Welcome to Israel'.

The hostel in Tel Aviv

In Tel Aviv, we checked in at a hostel. When we just got out of the taxi, we were speechless. The neighborhood of the hostel wasn't that ... spectacular as we thought. The hostel looked rather abandoned and everywhere where we looked, there was garbage. Nevertheless, the inside of the hostel was great. We had airco, food and clean showers. We stayed in this hostel for two days. During these two days, we visited Old Jafa and New Tel Aviv. We really liked Old Jafa, but because we visited New Tel Aviv on the day after Easter/Pesach, there wasn't much to do. We decided to go sunbathing instead. Even though we got burned, we really enjoyed our two days in Tel Aviv. 

Selfie from Team Israel with New Tel Aviv in the background

Yesterday, we took the train from Tel Aviv to Akko. In Akko, Khaled, the man who we are staying with during our internship, was waiting for us and took us to our hometown for the next five weeks: Tamra!
Aisha, Khaled's wife, was so friendly to give us a quick tour of some very good local shops, restaurants, ... . During this tour, we met some people in Tamra. It's amazing how friendly the people are here. Everyone wants to know our name and offers something to drink or to eat. We are just settled, but I already like the athmosphere of this place...except for the fact that the moezzin of the mosque woke us at 5 a.m. to call the faithfull to pray. But I quess that has its charm as well ;).

Thanks for reading our first blog! Leave a comment if you want to. We will keep this blog up to date and will upload some news very often. Check out our little movie we made about our trip to Israel as well!

Nathalie