On the Other Side

We stumbled into an invite to Efrat for Shabbat. We were supposed to see all the friends who abandoned us during Friday, but seeing how Talia has been sad about what we have scheduled, we were pressured into staying for Shabbat so she could spend more time with the friends who abandoned her.

So we got picked up this morning and packed small bags into a car. Off we went to Efrat. It is currently over some line or another. Look, I'm not big on politics or geography but to fight over this land seems silly. There are established neighborhoods and long, winding roads. Plus, lots of completely uncultivated areas. To say that people can't find space to live peacefully here is kooky. But enough of my naive ramblings. Let's get back to what annoys me besides "everything."

We dropped our bags off at our friends' house and almost immediately went out to the local winery for lunch and a tour. Tour is a bit of an overstatement as all we saw was a bunch of metal vats in the huge garage. Some 40,000 bottles of wine are produced there and the owner has a really sweet Nash Metropolitan. I tasted a little wine. It was yummy but I was expecting a long walk through rooms of casks with varying flavors and vintages. In effect, I was expecting to get snoggered.

The food was really good. The adults mostly ate at the buffet (fresh bread, soufflés, salads) plus I had a double espresso. The kids had either fettuccine (how do you spell that? this computer doesn't have spell check built in) Alfredo or pizza. Both were fabulous. And we bought some liquor just to make sure that we had some liquor.

The community of Efrat is built on 7-8 hills. This means that someone can live in the same town and yet be nowhere near you, or live around the block and be a 15 minute walk uphill. Everyone here is in really good shape. I hurt all over. The parts that aren't expanding with the meals are throbbing from the exertion. And for every thing that we see as a real plus to living here, there is something that seems really annoying(the residents have to take their garbage to a dumpster a block or two away).

We stopped at a Rami Levi (like a Pathmark) on the way back and stocked up on milk in a bag and Parmesan cheese. We are going to get ready for shabbat -- this means, no doubt, that I had better start doing my stretching exercises so we can walk around the corner.