Shalom Hartman this summer

[cellio]

I just registered for the Shalom Hartman Institute summer program in Jerusalem (after confirming a sane refund policy in case the region goes pear-shaped in the meantime). My rabbi recommended this program a few years ago and I've been eying it every year, and this year the stars aligned (dates, interesting topic, timely responses to email queries). It sounds like a great experience and I'm excited to finally be going.

I'm also kind of nervous -- not about the program, and not about the Iran thing (I can always bail), but rather about being a solo international traveler. This will only be my second time off the continent and the first time I went with a tour group so I didn't have to personally arrange anything, and somebody was steering us in useful directions. Those of you who've done this "foreign travel" thing, this is your enthusiatic invitation to tell me anything you think I ought to know, no matter how big or small.

Whee! Eeek!

Comments

[magid.livejournal.com]

Jerusalem is a fairly easy place to be a mostly-English speaker, actually. I've walked alone over much of the city and never had a problem (other than the usual irritations of traffic and whatnot:-), and it's an international-enough city that has whatever things you might forget in packing.

There are a couple of ways to get from the airport to Jerusalem; the train is pretty but slow, the bus reasonably efficient but requires a local hop at the other end; the simplest (and still cost effective) is a sherut (shared taxi)(NB: what sounds like the plural of sherut, sherutim, actually means bathroom). Once in the city, the bus system is quite good (there's some form of rail that may be open by now; I saw it under construction last time I was there, so haven't used it).

I don't know how much unstructured time you'll have, so feel free to ignore any/all of these ideas of things to see. There's the classic museum-ish destinations: the Israel Museum, Yad VaShem, the Knesset, the Shrine of the Book, and about a zillion smaller museums (like the Ticho House). Of course there's the Western Wall, but there's also the rest of the Old City. There are numerous walking tours if you'd like a guide (and tour guides have to be certified, and are very knowledgeable). I love walking through Machaneh Yehudah, an open-air food market, sometimes getting fresh pita or borekas. There's a promenade towards the southeast with wonderful views; I'm blanking on the name. If you have a day, you might consider a nature tour of some sort through SPNI (the Society for the Protection of Nature in Israel). There's also tours through Egged (the bus company), which is the way I managed to see some of the northern coast. And I just love walking around exploring; there's lots more nooks and crannies than the average USian city :-).

If you're going to have time to walk much, bring good walking shoes; the sidewalks can be stone, which can be hard on the knees after a while.

[cellio]

Thanks for all the helpful advice! I know there will be some unstructured time but I don't know in what block sizes, so knowing about options to fill them is good.