Israel – A Retrospective – Part 2

Arriving in Tel Aviv, in the bright morning light was very welcome after the nightmares back in London.

The airport was interesting and just as informative as the one in the UK. No, they didn’t mind that she didn’t have a passport, nice letter, get a new one while you’re here and have a nice holiday.

For those who boggle at all this, there is no (or wasn’t) any legal requirement to have paperwork to enter or leave your own country. After all, what can they do? Deport you? Every so often , a journalist tries this in the UK and normally succeeds. It all changed with the times of course. I would not care to do it again.

I cannot remember the first meeting with her parents though, not any of her relatives. It is all dim and misty now. What does come into very sharp focus was driving in Israel for the first time. My cousin had lent us his second car which was very nice of him. At the insistence of my partner’s Mother, he took me for a test drive to make sure the stranger could cope with such a complicated piece of machinery. Yes, it was a Subaru.

We now went to visit Schmulik’s parents. Schmulik hasn’t appeared before so here’s his part in the story.

He was a typical wheeler-dealer Israeli, out to make some money in the Big Smoke. We’d met him in a Jewish club in Finchley. Unfortunately, his passion to make some money lead to a disagreement with a business partner, harsh words and an attempted holdup. Schmulik was now doing three years at Her Majesty’s Pleasure and we’d visited him a lot, taking food parcels in the main. Now his parents wanted to say thanks.

I do remember screaming at one time during the drive south. I also distinctly remember stopping once to let the trembling subside from my legs. This was my first encounter with Israelis on a main highway.

Well, we got to their apartment in Herzalyia, parked the car in the underground car park and stayed the night. In the morning, the Subaru threw a fit and flatly refused to climb the ramp out of there.
Finally we abandoned it and hired a car. Next stop, Jerusalem.