We had two options: Visit two museums and have Oranim pay for our transportation, or visit four and find our own way.
I was the only one who picked the 2nd option, and now that we are done, I was right..
Our first excursion was back in December. Nir had told us about this great museum in Tel Aviv called the Palmach museum, and it sounded great. It wasn't till I got there that I realized I had been there before.
But regardless, it was a great museum. Nir met us at our house and we got in a Sheruit, and Ron and I rode in Nirs car. (reason #1: my ride was free anyway).
The Palmach museum is very cool. It tells the story of soldiers before the start of the IDF in a story. You walk through different rooms as you watch a story about soldiers, from the beginning to the end. You are introduced to a unit and all its members and then as you walk hear different parts of their lives.
I loved it. I'm pretty sure I'd recommend that to anyone heading to Israel. But it was after that became annoying.
Since we were already in Tel Aviv, Nir had planned us to meet one of Oranims tour guide, Yariv, and learn a little bit about Tel Avivs history.
Now it was around 4pm when we exited the museum. Yariv was supposed to meet us and drive over 5, while Nir took the rest. But Yaris was stuck in traffic and this wasn't going to happen. So Nir took half of us, saying he'd be back for the rest.
But around 45 minutes later, as Ron, Erica, Taylor, Jackie and I waiting outside, sitting on the ground, Nir called. He told us traffic was to bad and to find a taxi. He said he'd pay for it when we got there.
At this point, none of us even wanted this Tel Aviv tour. So annoyed and tired we attempted to find a taxi. Around 30 minutes later we finally found our first Taxi. Ron, Erica and Taylor got in.
Jackie and I then sat and pretended to look for another taxi, which wasn't to bad because none actually came. Around 6 a taxi finally came and we got on in! We figured by the time we all met up, it'd be to late for our tour.
Well, things got even better. As we drove along the streets of Tel Aviv all of a sudden, our taxi stalled. It was a manual, and something went wrong, and we literally rolled down the street. He finally pulled over and stopped, after he realized rolling down the street is not a safe way to drive, and just dropped us of.
We had no idea where we were. We were in the middle of Tel Aviv, and our taxi rolled away. Lucky for us there was a cute furniture store right there. One of those that sells ridiculous things that no-one really needs, but who can resist a chair hanging from the ceiling? So Jackie and I went in and played.
Finally we called Nir and he told us to walk!?! Apparently we were on the street and were to find another taxi, but walk as we did.. 60 blocks later and we saw Nir waiting for us.
It turns out Ron, Taylor and Ericas taxi had got lost, and they were also just arriving. Its not around 8pm.
So, our Tel Aviv tour got cut short, really short! We basically walked a block to Ben Gurians house, and heard a little blurb. Then Yariv took us to "the best ice cream in Tel Aviv." And we went home. End of museum story.
Until yesterday, when Museum number 2 happened. I'm not sure who picked it, but we ended up going to the Israel Museum.
We woke up at 8, met Nir at 8:30, and spent an hour and a half in horrible traffic as we became car sick. Most of the time there were 3 lanes, but one seemed to only be used by buses and taxis. I could not figure out why our taxi driver wasn't taking this obvious much shorter route. It was like he would rather see us vomit?
Regardless we finally arrive and meet our tour guide. A cute little "grandma" from Minnesota, who had made Alliyah years ago. At first we saw this replica of the old city. It was pretty cool, but we sat there for an hour hearing stories, and then continued to walk around it and hear more stories. An hour and a half later and we're wondering when we get to go into the actual museum.
That's when we found out the museum itself was closed. It has been for the past 3 years and is planning to open in July.
REALY? How come no one figured that out? So after 2 hours being lectured and dozing off, we got to see a room filled with the dead sea scrolls.
Pretty cool? Except the fact it was literally just a photograph of them, because apparently the original were off being preserved.
That's it. We then left. No museum to see.
There are tons of other museums here in Israel that I plan to visit before I leave, but it's going to be a journey. After all, the other ones seemed to be! If anyone has a good recommendation, that'd be wonderful!
