Traveling....

Yesterday was another frustrating and aggravating day in terms of traveling, but ...

We got up very early to go to the Kotel (Western Wall). Since the bus changes, the early bus no longer goes up to our house, and we had to run down the hill to catch the bus well before 6am. Just a little extra stress. The good thing was that it made great time. We got off in Ramat Eshkol, walked to the #6 bus to the Jerusalem Municipality complex (where I visited the wc, luckily already open at 7am), and then we walked to the Kotel via the Jaffa Gate.

At the Kotel we met up with our nephew and family for his Jerusalem Bar Mitzvah, which was really special. Then after the generous brunch at their hotel and visiting with them more, I realized that I had time to go home for a couple of hours before leaving for a wedding. I played hookey from work!

And since "there's no place like home," I decided to take the 1:30 bus which is the only daytime bus going all the way up to my house according to the new schedule. I took it just the week before and got home just after 2:30. Perfect. I went to the bus station, just like I had done then and saw the same announcements at our gate and expected our bus to be announced after the 1:20 left, and then... it wasn't announced. At 1:40 to somewhere else was posted!! So I quickly checked the large announcement board and discovered that the next bus was only at 2:15. Very strange. So I ran to the Information Desk and discovered that there had been a bus at 12:45...? Gevalt!

That was too late for me, so I ran out of the building and caught the bus to the "trempiada" and waited for a ride home. I didn't have to wait long to get to the main road/junction to Shiloh and then soon after a ride to my neighborhood and then a short walk home. Believe it or not, I ended up arriving home just after 2:30!

But that's not the end of my story...

I had a wedding to go to, right? After "relaxing" at home (wasting time) I got ready to go to the wedding, went across the street to the neighbor who was driving, and perfectly on-schedule we started on the way to Beit Shemesh via Jerusalem.

I know that all the real estate people who market Beit Shemesh claim that it's only 15 minutes from Jerusalem, but I've always found it much further. Honestly, Shiloh is closer to Jerusalem! Well, we picked up my husband on the way and everything was fine until we turned off the main Jerusalem-Tel Aviv Highway and thought we were just a few minutes to Beit Shemesh. Suddenly traffic stopped and periodically crawled. Almost an hour and a half later we finally saw the wedding hall! That was just after passing the scene of some smashed/crashed cars at the entrance to Beit Shemesh, which apparently caused numerous drivers to stop traffic to take a good look.

Obviously we weren't the only ones who were late; the wedding was delayed of course.

So, to all those who think that my traveling problems would be solved by getting a car...

But it was a beautiful wedding with a gorgeous bride and great music, and I danced. I wore my black Easy Spirit #3 sports shoes, not elegant, but at least I can dance in them, and that's more important than looking like a lady.

Shabbat Shalom