The Wandering Israelis

It’s August, extremely hot, and yet we keep getting phone calls from people who want to vacation in Eilat. You see, our phone number is very similar to that of a popular youth hostel in Eilat, and we keep getting callers who making the same dialing mistake. It gives me a great indication of how many people are looking to book a vacation within Israe. Our own personal seismograph of Israel internal tourism!

I still remember how last year, come the last two weeks of August, we were on the phone trying to arrange a last-minute get away in the north of Israel. It was unbelievable. Prices shot through the roof, and still you couldn’t get a bed almost anywhere!  And don’t get me going about the main tourist attractions here. We went to this nature reserve in the upper Galillee last August, and we could hardly move around, I swear. It was so crowded with people swarming along the narrow paths alongside the streams.

The amazing thing about this, is that most Israelis seem to be abroad, this time of year. Half of our friends and relatives are out of the country. India, Thailand, Holland, Italy, you name it. Everyone’s on vacation. Which makes me wonder, who are all the people crowded in the local tourist joints? I think I figured it out though, after giving this a lot of thought. No political innuendos intended, but Israelis seem to occupy more space than other people. It’s our national character, I think. Israelis tend to shout, wave their hands, and just very much “be”, taking up more space than ordinairy people. (Note to any potential hosts of ours: of course, myself and my family are different… we’re all polite, quiet and take up very little space!)

With so many Israelis traveling to India, this is an old joke by now -

Local Indian: So, tell me, how many Israelis are there?

Israeli tourist: About 7 million of us.

Local Indian: No, I meant in Israel, not just the ones in India.