for the want of a parking spot

It is now a little while later. I happen to know this because I wrote the post about arriving in Tiberias a little while ago. Therefore, it must be a little later. I want to put some thoughts down about dinner and what I have learned about the cultural idioms in Israel. First, dinner. We ate at a restaurant called "Galileo." If you are ever in Tiberias, eat there. Twice, at least. Instead of appetizers, we got loaves of bread with dipping sauces. Yum. Julie got salmon, which she said rivaled Benny's, Maddie got the schnitzel, Talia and Mikki shared the sirloin, and I had the entrecote steak. This is apparently a popular cut of steak here. Who knew. The beef was a tad salty and a little undercooked, but yummy. For dessert, the table had assorted chocolate things and I had fruit sorbet and fake vanilla ice cream. Hoe runs all around. We spent 15 minutes patting our stomaches and complaining how we couldn't move. In fact, I still think, 2 hours later, that I could throw up and still be full. Maybe that isn't the most appetizing thought, but there you have it.

Now, we had heard that there was a promenade downtown, and a laser light show. So we asked Mark our waiter, and I leanred another important Israeli phrase. So far I have:
"Ask anyone" = "good luck. no one will help you"
"five minutes away" = "half an hour if you are lucky, 25 minutes if you are a world class athlete"
and now
"plenty of parking" = "plenty of cards already parked so there are no spots for you"

The thing is, as much as we are in a relatively "big city" (relative to my living room, I think) this town is pretty small in some senses (sight and touch, for example). There is a single main road leading in and through, with 1.5 lanes in each direction. If something gets stopped up ahead by a traffic light or a goat, you just sit. There are no alternate routes. So as we slowly drifted through town with 4 lanes of cars working their way through 1.5 lanes of street, we couldn't get anywhere near a parking spot no matter what assurance we had that there was "plenty" of parking. So we gave up and mace our way back to the hotel. I see that as a victory; I found the hotel in the dark. There has to be some reward for that. So the girls are upstairs in the "suite" (a bedroom, and another room with a trundle couch) working on sleeping arrangements and I am trying to collect my thoughts in the lobby. Tomorrow we head norther, Miss Tesmacker. I expect to be hungry again next week.