A Night Out On The Town - R2BC

Flea market finds

On Thursday evening we were summoned to visit my youngest nephew who's touring Israel with a group of other 16 year olds in the summer after their GCSEs. It's a sort of rite of passage for Jewish kids. They call it "going on tour" and everyone knows exactly what you mean.

35 years ago, when his mother and uncle (my twin sister and brother) were on tour (although it wasn't called that then and it wasn't such a thing), I was finishing my gap year on a kibbutz in the middle of nowhere. They had a free Shabbat so the two of them left their group in Tel Aviv on Friday afternoon, took the bus to Bet She'an where I met them (all prearranged via pay-phone obviously) and they spent Shabbat on the kibbutz with me.

Shabbat, which goes out at sundown, finished at about 8.30 pm and they insisted on leaving that night. They got on the bus that came into the kibbutz at 9 pm and headed off into the darkness, to somehow arrive in Tel Aviv and then find their way back to wherever their group was staying.

By the time my older nephew did this same tour three years ago, the once six-week tour had already been reduced to a month and there was no free Shabbat. In our day the groups spent a week on a kibbutz volunteering. Nowadays kibbutzim don't need volunteers as there are foreign workers, much more automation, and much less agriculture, not to mention fewer kibbutzim that operate like traditional kibbutzim.

Older nephew (though not oldest who did a two-week tour without any visiting opportunities because he'd spent a whole school term here when he was 14) had a visiting couple of hours whereby Israeli relatives (everyone has Israeli relatives) met them in a shopping mall and were permitted to walk around with them and buy them supper. They were not permitted to leave the mall.

DD and her cousin
(the floodlights are the athletics stadium #MacabbiahGames)

Youngest nephew, on his three-week tour, is staying at a youth hostel in Jerusalem. We were summoned to visit them at 20.00, after their supper, and stay for an hour. They were not allowed to leave the building. Luckily there was a kiosk selling coffee and a large terrace with uncomfortable chairs and tables. We had a lovely visit for an hour and then we left. He's having a great time and I didn't tell him about 35 years ago when 16 year olds on tour could just leave the group and find their way around the country on buses to visit relatives for the weekend.

It was unbearably hot on Thursday and DD and I had both fallen asleep at 4 o'clock and slept until 6.30 when we got up, had showers, and dressed to go out. By 7 pm it was cool in Jerusalem and by 9 pm it was positively chilly. We weren't tired of course and we felt like the evening needed finishing off.

First we crossed the road from the Youth Hostel and were able to watch some of the athletics taking place at the Hebrew University stadium. This is my second encounter with the Maccabiah Games (the Jewish Olympics with over 10,000 athletes competing in events all over the country) and I don't even do sports. We couldn't make out the running but we watched the javelin throwing in the centre of the track.

Then we got a bus into town where DD had pizza and I had felafel for supper. We found a flea market and music and people dancing on top of buses. It was all very street party. (Shame we couldn't share it with Youngest Nephew.) We left town at about 10.30 and went home after a very satisfying night out on the town.

We were this close #MacabiahGames

I'm linking to Reasons 2B Cheerful over at Michelle's Mummy from the Heart.