Our wonderful trip over or why you should never fly Israir with kids

June 13, 2007

It’s early morning for us here, though it really isn’t that early. I think it’s about 7 am, but we all had insomnia last night. It’s our second morning in Israel and if the rest of the stay is this terrible, we’ll be back in boston very soon.

The flight over was probably one of the worst flights I’ve ever had. We got to the airport late on Sunday morning –entirely our fault, and we were the last people on the plane. The Jet Blue flight was uneventful except that we had miscounted our luggage and had nine pieces instead of eight. We got a sky cap to help us move our luggage from the Jet Blue terminal to the international terminal, and he brought us to wrong spot in the terminal. It was where I had checked in last time, so I thought it was the right place.

We dropped our luggage in a stack and Debra took the kids to explore a little while I repacked. I managed to move one of our smaller bags into one of the larger, and repack the computer into my carry on backpack so we ended up with two less bags. In an example of Israeli customer service, I went up to the ticket counter, which was deserted but for one woman doing something on a computer, and asked if I could have a few name tags for my bags. I thought I could at least take care of that while I was waiting. She looked at me and said “no”. Perplexed, I asked her where I could get some to which she replied that she had them, but she wouldn’t give them to me until later. And all this with a very warm, patronizing expression on her face. I was so shocked, I didn’t even argue.

As people started to line up, I moved our bags into the line. Luckily we were fifth in line, because as soon as we got to the front of the line, we found our we were at the El Al line, not the Israir line. Debra had actually read the monitors and wasn’t surprised by this, but I had believed the skycap. Debra took the kids and the two strollers and went to stand in the correct line. I found a cart and piled all of our luggage on it (a precarious pile) and followed after.

We waited there another 20 minutes for them to start checking passengers in, and after about 15 people were waiting, they decided to change to direction of the line by moving the rope barriers. This meant we were suddenly in the wrong place! Luckily, one of the security personelle checked us through and we went up to the counter. She had me lift all my bags onto the scale, take them off, and then re-stack them on our cart. She checked our bags in, then we had to bring them further down the counter to actually put them through security and onto the plane. She did comment that the weight of our bags was very low for people who were going to Israel for two years. Made me think we should have brought more stuff.

At that point my brother in law Erik, and his family came and we had a wonderful visit. We rode the airport train to another terminal looking for food, than rode it back to the international terminal where we actually found some food. But the kids had a great time together never the less. It was the probably the best part of the trip. We ended up talked so much we were again the last ones to board the plane.

We got on and found two problems: there were people sitting in our seats and we were seated near a birth right Israel tour group. The first was easy to solve, the second more problematic. I think Debra put it best when she said that we were really flying steerage. The seats were cramped, the plane was loud, and the service wasn’t really very friendly. The television showed movies the entire flight, which meant that people never really settled down to sleep. At one point we looked up and saw the entire birth right tour passing around a vodka bottle and toasting each other. It was right about the time we were trying to get the kids to sleep.

I immediately went back and told the flight attendant, who came out and told them to put it away, and then I told the kids myself that it wasn’t cool to do this. They were not very receptive to me, but quieted down for a little bit. I still think they saw nothing wrong with having a party on the plane.

The flight was a little under twelve hours. We left NYC at about 3 pm. I think we finally got Miriam to sleep about 10 pm. Silvia was fascinated by the TV and refused to sleep. She just sat there watching the picture. She finally fell asleep in my arms about 11 pm. At midnight, they turned the lights on the plane back on. Not just a little, but the full daylight settings. Why you ask. Well, to serve us breakfast of course! The Israelis behind me wanted more room to eat, so they kept pushing on the back of my seat and asking the stewardess to get me to move my seat forward. I told her Silvia had just fallen asleep and I was going to be very angry if they woke her. And fifteen minutes later she was awake. I think she slept an hour and a half on the plane. I slept an hour and Debra slept maybe a half hour.

When I pressed the stewardess about why they needed three hours to eat breakfast before we landed she told me there was lots to do. And, of course, for the last hour and a half of the flight, the stewardesses were just standing around the back of the plane talking. I flew Israir when I came in March and I thought it was ok. But this was a terrible flight. My advice to y’all if you are by yourself and can deal with a night of no sleep, this is a good choice. If you are flying with kids, NEVER take this airline! I don’t think I will ever fly it again. Though they should make there motto: “We make the customer’s need last!”

When we arrived in Israel, we were pleasantly surprised to find someone from the ministry of absorption waiting for us. The sign was misspelled, but they were there to help us get our bags, get through customs, and get a ride to Jerusalem. Not that they were very helpful, but it was a nice gesture. They spoke to me in Hebrew, but when I told them Debra didn’t speak Hebrew, the looked a her and kept speaking in Hebrew. As we walked to the baggage claim from the gate, it became apparent that they were in no rush and had no desire to talk to us at all. They walked at a snail’s pace, did not take the moving sidewalks, and talked only to one another. Not very welcoming for a welcoming committee.

They kept telling me to get a skycap for $25, and when I told them I would manage, they reluctantly helped us push a second cart. At this point, the one pushing picked up the pace and kept walking even as Debra and I fell behind. I’m not sure she actually looked at us once during the walk. We breezed through immigration and customs then went upstairs to her office. There, she spent 20-30 minutes filling out the form to get us a taxi. Why she couldn’t have done this ahead of time, I don’t know. The kids and I played chase while we waited.

Finally we got in the cab and headed for Jerusalem. Debra and the kids slept almost the entire way. Tammy, the old tenant in the apartment was nice enough to meet us at the apartment, give us the keys, and show us around. What we found was a wreck. The refrigerator was broken. The place was incredibly dirty. The internet connection which I had arranged with the tenants in March was not present and may be difficult to replace. There were closets full of things, many of which it appeared had never be touched since Gila left here eight years ago. The kitchen was filthy. Many of the cabinets looked like they would fall apart any moment and the handle on the cold water was broken completely.

The list of household items we thought would be here and weren’t grew every moment. I thought we would have a first week of exploring Jerusalem, but we are spending all our time shopping. It got laughable last night after I had to let the water run in the tub for five minutes before the water turned clear from rusty brown and then I went to open the window in the laundry alcove and the handle broke off in my hand.

We had a very nice lunch yesterday at a local restaurant, and the leftovers were dinner. We are getting to know the local shopping mall quite well. Last night we went shopping and bought eggs and butter to fry up some breakfast knowing the new refrigerator doesn’t arrive until this afternoon. I remember this apartment fondly, but I think the past ten years have not been kind to it. But the one saving absurdity is that we’ve found four irons so far. We are thinking that God is giving us a message that our clothes are too wrinkled!

And now it’s time to wake up everyone else so we will be on the Israel schedule. Then I’m going to go to the bakery to buy some good bread. And then more shopping and a relaxing trip to the interior ministry to learn about Israeli bureaucracy. Wish me luck.