Thursday, April 2, 2009

"Evacuate the Hotel Immediately"

This Israel trip has not been without stress so far.

A little while ago at 2 pm, Michael and I were awoken to a PA announcement in our room that kept repeating the phrase, "all guests and staff need to evacuate the hotel immediately." When you're in a country where terrorist attacks are not infrequent, that message served as about the most effective alarm clock I've had in my life.

Thirty seconds later, we were clothed and out the door. The hotel is basically a giant atrium. While rushing towards the elevators, I looked down and noticed not the slightest sense of urgency from anyone who was loitering in the lobby. Once we made our way down there, it was clear that there was no imminent threat to the hotel.

"What was up with that evacuation announcement?" I asked one of the staff. "Oh it's just a drill, we do it every three months." Lovely.

Though to be fair, it's probably good that it happened. There's no telling how long we would have slept. Despite going to sleep at midnight, we were both so horribly sleep deprived that it wouldn't have been absurd to think that we might have slept until 6 pm or so, thereby really screwing over our sleep schedule for this trip.

Last night, we watched the Israeli National soccer team play Greece at a sports bar with a few people we know. Israel kept it interesting for most of the game until letting Greece pull ahead 2-1 on a penalty kick somewhere around the 70 minute mark.

As for today, we're just going to take it easy and do some light shopping and exploring around Tel Aviv. Hopefully by tomorrow we're fully recovered from the travels enough to enjoy a day trip to Jerusalem.

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