First Post from Israel!

It is not without major jet-lag that I sit down to write this post. I arrived yesterday around 1:00 p.m. Israel time and was immediately greeted by an hour-long line getting through passport control. Supposedly right now tourism in Israel is down, I can't even imagine what security must be like at its height...

My first flight from Dulles to Charles de Gaulle was about seven hours long. I sat next to a woman who just happened to be from Bethesda - nice coincidence! She was also en route to Tel Aviv. I was in the window seat and she was in the aisle. We got lucky, the middle seat in our row remained empty the entirety of the flight.

The first meal served on the flight was this:

The hot dish was a yellow rice with tomato stew and veggies. The meal also included sugar-free applesauce, a piece of multigrain bread, a roll, some dried fruit, some fresh melon and a small green salad. The salad was DISGUSTING! Everything else was okay.

The second meal on the first flight was supposed to be a light snack. When the stewardess came to drop it off to me I was very confused because the tray had dairy yogurt on it and some kind of muffin that had egg. The stewardess informed me that Air France does not serve a vegan snack, just the meals. Kind of absurd for a seven hour flight if you ask me. When I flew British airways in June, we had two full meals on each flight, and everything served to me was vegan. If you request vegan meals, you should not be served anything non-vegan at all... Good thing I brought some Larabars with me!

The next flight was approximately four and a half hours. I sat in the aisle next to two very friendly older French men who I think were a couple. They reminded me that in French the words for "thank you" and "please" are "merci" and "s'il vois plait." There was one meal served and it was this:

Evidently my dreams came true and I can now die a happy person, for I was bestowed with the joy of not one, but TWO vegan croissants! They one on the left even had dark chocolate in it! The fruit on the top right tasted kind of like grapefruit. The pudding on the top left was made of soy and was vanilla flavored. It was quite tasty but after having two croissants I couldn't bare to eat the pudding. The "entree" on the bottom was almost like a burrito or a Hot Pocket. It was filled with veggies and a yellow sauce. It was.. interesting.

From the airport in Tel Aviv I took a taxi to my friend Amir's house where I am currently staying a few nights. The taxi driver and I spoke in Hebrew the whole time! Originally he is from Russia (I think?). I tipped him well for being so patient with my lack thereof Hebrew abilities :)

From there I was warmly greeted in Giv'at Shmuel at Amir's family's home. I will save the rest for the next post!