Arrival Day Blog | Shorashim - Israel with Israelis

Arrival Day Blog

Eric Drell

Monday December 21st: I woke up around 10 am at my friend Matt’s apartment. I went to the same local deli I went to the day before and had a really good pastrami sandwich. I went back to Matt’s apartment and got picked up by a local cab service which dropped me off at JFK. Once at the airport I met with my group right away. I met Brandon, Ben, and a few others. As more people showed up I learned more names. I introduced myself so many times that I forgot what I said to whom. After putzing around the airport for a few hours we finally got on the plane at 5:30, took off at 6pm. Apparently the El-Al pilots went on strike so some of the other trips got postponed. We were flying Austrian Airlines so we were good to go. Poor Souls! Their trip was shortened by at least a day so my group lucked out. Sitting on the plane to Vienna, Austria. I chatted with Chris for a while and then watched/napped through Bridge of Spies with Tom Hanks. It was meh. I read the whole Star Wars magazine. Now waiting to land in Vienna. Barely got any sleep at all.

Tuesday December 22nd: We landed in Vienna ~8am. 2 hour layover. Talked to Ashley, Nathan, and Sarah while at the airport in Vienna. I got a nice Viennese Latte. We flew to Tel Aviv and landed around 3:30. We met the Israelis, and a fun intro dance thing too. We exchanged American dollars for Shekels and got our phones for the trip. Now I’m sitting on a bus traveling north from Tel Aviv waiting for what comes next! I can’t wait!