Pishers' Guide to Jerusalem #41: Locked Out Of WC in CBS Until...

I'm sure that all of you can relate to my panic when I couldn't enter the Public Toilets in the CBS Jerusalem Central Bus Station on the departure floor.

Maybe I'm visually impaired, but I couldn't find any clear instructions, neither Hebrew nor pictorial on how to unlock the door. That's besides the fact that the space between the bars is awfully restrictive. A couple of people left, but they were too rushed to instruct me. And I did look panicked, besides obviously a senior citizen. 

Miraculously a much younger woman arrived, pulled out a "magic key" from her bag, pressed it onto something and the door suddenly opened for me. I was extremely grateful, to put it mildly. Then I followed the simple logo into the Ladies Room...

Men on the left, and Women on the right...

Thankfully the toilets were clean and reasonably well-equipped. I didn't photograph inside, because I didn't want to annoy anyone, nor have to explain about this series of blog posts. 

I used to consider the CBS to be a convenient and reliable location for those in need of the loo, but now I'm not sure. I'm pretty nervous about relying on them in the future. As you can guess, I was relieved and happy to make my way out. 

Pishers' Guide to Jerusalem #39, Wonderful Surprise-- WC at Bus Stop

Pishers' Guide to Jerusalem #38, Gan Sacher Room for All

Pishers' Guide to Jerusalem #37 Jerusalem's Safra Square's Renovated

Pishers' Guide to Jerusalem #36 Cinema City- Not Just for Intermission

Pishers' Guide to Jerusalem #35 Pleasant Surprise at the Jerusalem Central Bus Station

Pishers' Guide to Jerusalem #34 Binyan Clal Public Toilets Renovated

Pishers' Guide to Jerusalem #33, New Public Toilets Downtown

Pishers' Guide to Jerusalem #32, Har Chotzvim, Not The Gas Station

Pishers' Guide to Jerusalem #31, Good Deal in "Supersol Deal," Givat Shaul

Pishers' Guide to Jerusalem #30, Speedily Out of Order at New Train Station

Pishers' Guide to Jerusalem #29, Kotel WC, Prayer Come True

Pishers' Guide to Jerusalem #28, Machane Yehuda WC, Fright at First Sight

Pishers' Guide to Jerusalem #27, CBS Revisited, Worth The Shekel

Pishers' Guide to Jerusalem #26, New Kraft Stadium, Complaining May have Helped

Pishers' Guide to Jerusalem #25, New Park, New Loo

Pishers' Guide to Jerusalem #24 Horse Park WC Staff Horsing Around

Pishers' Guide to Jerusalem #23 For One Shekel in the CBS

Pishers' Guide to Jerusalem #22 "High Tech" Loo, Not for Use

Pishers Guide to Jerusalem #21, Perfect "Pit Stop" on Emek Refaim

Pishers' Guide to Jerusalem #20, Gan Hasus, Horse Park, Like Russian Roulette

Pishers' Guide to Jerusalem #19, Center 1 Has Gone Downhill

Pishers' Guide to Jerusalem #18, Shuq Loo for You Ladies

Pishers' Guide to Jerusalem #17, At Least It was Clean

Pishers' Guide to Jerusalem #16, Iconic Location-- Nauseating WC

Pishers Guide to Jerusalem, New Loo #15 Up Close

Pishers' Guide to Jerusalem #15, New Guy in Town

Pishers' Guide to Jerusalem #14, Mega Yuck!

Pishers' Guide to Jerusalem #13, Hadar Mall: What Public Toilets Should Be

Pishers' Guide to Jerusalem # 12, Center 1, Usually OK

Pishers' Guide to Jerusalem #11, Never Fear The Rami Levy WC

Pishers' Guide to Jerusalem #10, At Least There were Toilet-paper and Soap

Pishers' Guide to Jerusalem #9, Watch Out for Peep Holes!

Pishers' Guide to Jerusalem #8, Kupot Cholim to The Rescue!

Pishers' Guide to Jerusalem #7 A Supermarket to Avoid. Plus WC Tips

Pishers' Guide to Jerusalem #6, Bring Your Own Paper

Pishers' Guide to Jerusalem #5, Mamilla Mall Where Modern Stinks

Don't Be Afraid, A Pisher's Guide to Jerusalem #4

Historic Jerusalem Building, A Pisher's Guide to Jerusalem #3

A Pisher's Guide to Jerusalem #2 

A Pisher's Guide to Jerusalem #1

Bus Changes, Again, Finding a New "Pit Stop"

Pishers' Guide to Jerusalem #35 Pleasant Surprise at the Jerusalem Central Bus Station

This is a continuation in my ongoing series about public toilets in Jerusalem. Your input is very welcome, thanks.

See  #34,  #33, #32,  #31, #30, #29, #28, #27, #26, #25, #24,  #23, #22,  #21, #20, #19, #18, #17,   #16, , #15a, #15, #14, #13, #12, #11, #10, #9, #8, #7, #6, #5, Saved by The First Station aka #4a, #4, #3, #2 and #1.

Early this afternoon, after a roundabout walk through the Romema neighborhood to order accessories and furnishings for our major bathroom/showers plus renovations, I calculated that I had plenty of time for the "loo," aka WC or public toilets quickly entered the "side/secondary entrance" of the Central Bus Station. If you're coming from the direction of Sarei Yisrael Street or Machane Yehuda Market, it's the first door you reach, and it takes you to the floor with the "food court," lots of small restaurants and Israeli style fast food places.

It had been years since I entered through that doorway, but I needed to get out of the sun and had no idea what was new in terms of the building's loos. In recent years management has been fixing them up, but I definitely don't remember one near that door. 

Good news! After passing those shoes for sale, I looked up on the right and saw the sign with the very welcome icon, which you can see higher up on the page.

I checked for a machine that takes entrance money, since the public toilets in the bus station had always cost a bit. No sign of one. Very tentatively, I pushed the revolving door, and it moved freely, so I entered for free. Men to the left and women to the right, no foul odor. There was a cleaning crew and even toilet paper (not grade A) and soap. I didn't take any photos, since there were too many people around.

Glad to share the good news.

Newly Decorated "Tunnel"

Last night, when my husband and I got off of the bus that had taken us from Ashdod to Jerusalem, I wondered how we were going to cross the road from Binyanei Ha'uma to the area of the bus station. My plan was to use the time before our bus to Shiloh to make a "pit stop" in the CBS, Central Bus Station. In order to cross that wide, busy street, we'd have to walk quite a distance to either the right or the left.

I hadn't gone through the tunnel underneath for years. It's really ugly, smelly and unpleasant in many ways. But he insisted that would be the best way to go.

As soon as we got down there, I was in shock!  Not only had it been cleaned up quite a bit, but it has been painted in a very attractive way. Abstract is perfect there. Flowers would have looked silly.

What do you think?

Best Salad Deal in Jerusalem

The other day my friend and I needed a quick lunch before going to our "next stop/event." All I wanted to eat was a salad, and she was more flexible. We found ourselves in the Jerusalem Central Bus Station and checked out all the the options in the food court there. Even though there are about ten Israeli-style "fast food" places, nothing appealed to us, or at least to me.

Suddenly I remembered that there's a branch from the Neeman Bakery chain on the other side of the escalators. We went to check it out. They had a small custom-made salad for NS17, and it cost less than a shekel more to be able to eat at the table and be served in a regular bowl instead of the plastic container. My friend ordered soup. They both came with a nice-looking wholewheat roll, which she took home, since we didn't need to eat them. I was asked what dressing I wanted, and they were very generous with the olive oil.

My salad was fantastic. I had a choice of tuna and took the one that was plain. In addition, as you can see in the photo, I was able to get all sorts of cut salad until the bowl was overflowing.

This was a very pleasant surprise, and I plan on eating there in the future. I found the salad filling and the service excellent. You order at the counter, and they bring you to food to your table.

Pishers' Guide to Jerusalem #23 For One Shekel in the CBS

This is a continuation in my ongoing series about public toilets in Jerusalem. See #22, #21,#20, #19, #18, #17, #16,  #15a, #15,  #14, #13, #12, #11, #10, #9,  #8, #7,  #6,  #5, Saved by The First Station aka #4a, #4, #3, #2 and #1


I generally look only for the free loos, WCs Public Toilets, but sometimes there aren't any. That's the case in the Jerusalem Central Bus Station aka the CBS. The last time I was there, to meet a friend who was arriving from another city by bus, I didn't have time to check out all of the loos. I just went to the main one which is one flight down from the main entrance. You need to take an elevator by the front door and press -1. 

You'll find this revolving door gate* with a small machine that takes your shekel and lets you in. From there you'll find a hallway off of which are three types of loos, Male, Female and Handicapped. There was none of that awful urine smell which  is a sign that the cleaning has been insufficient.  I was pretty impressed. 

As you can see, the Ladies Room is nice and big with two walls of sinks and quite a few stalls. When I was there noontime there was plenty of paper.  

Apparently, Egged, the big bus company, no longer owns the bus station, which is also a small mall. The two shopping floors, which includes the Food Court, seem to be doing nicely.  

handicapped toilet

It's possible that people enter for commercial reasons, shopping and eating and not just to take a bus. Considering that the public toilets are near the main entrance, that's also a reason to go into the building. There was a time when everyone had to put their bags through the X-Ray security, but this is not all the time nowadays. There are guards who "eyeball it," simple profiling everyone who enters and only requesting further security checks, when they are suspicious of someone. 

*For those who can't get through the revolving door because of walkers, handicapped or baby carriages etc, there is someone who can open a wide enough gate.

Pishers' Guide to Jerusalem #19, Center 1 Has Gone Downhill

This is a continuation in my ongoing series about public toilets in Jerusalem. See #18, #17, #16,  #15,  #14, #13, #12, #11, #10, #9,  #8, #7,  #6,  #5, Saved by The First Station aka #4a, #4, #3, #2 and #1

Early on in this series, #3 to be precise, I reviewed the public toilet in the new section of Center 1, and at that time I could easily recommend it. Now I can't. The small one on the Yirmiyahu end is too small and almost always crowded. Last week a couple of friends tried going there. One just left, because she didn't want to wait on line, and the other went to the men's room. I had been counting on using the large one at the other end, near the Cafe Cafe. So, that's where we went, and if we hadn't been desperate, we would have tried some other one, not that I know where one can be found nearby.

And even worse, we were scheduled to be there a couple of hours for a party.

During the few hours we were there, the toilet wasn't cleaned even once. It just got dirtier and dirtier. It seems like the building's management is taking lessons from the people who decided to save money in the Jerusalem Municipality by cutting down on cleaning. It reminds me of the public toilets at Safra Square, except for the toilet paper, which the municipality rarely provides.

After years of struggling, Center 1 is finally full of customers and busy stores and restaurants. We customers deserve clean facilities. The present situation in the loo isn't healthy.

Depressing and Deteriorating Jerusalem Central Bus Station

The  Jerusalem Central Bus Station is relatively new, at least by my standards. It's barely fifteen years old. The basic design was good, with lots of shopping, a food court etc. After a few years, it was discovered that the airflow system was poorly designed, and too much dangerous bus fumes, carbon monoxide etc were getting in. So they had to make some changes for the health of the workers and customers. You'll see here that there are special "airconditioner-filters" over the doors to the buses.

Our Shiloh buses used to have it as its first/last stop there, so we commuters would greatly enjoy its facilities. But a few years ago, Egged bus company sold it and moved many of the bus lines out, including ours. Now when I go in, it's usually for a store or just to get indoors or because of curiosity or to go to the "RavKav" bus/train ticket office. I was there the other day to check out some of the stores. Of course I just had to see what had changed. The lower shopping floors and food court seemed to be nice and busy. But the big shock was that escalators going up to the third floor, where the buses leave from, was dead. People still walked it. I took the regular steps, more comfortable for the knees, and there's also an elevator.



Here are some of the pictures I took. The lighting is awfully dreary. Many eating places are closed and boarded up. The entire top floor is also out of use, as is the public toilet near the synagogue. At least I saw women praying or saying Psalms when I peeked in.  There are also fewer open ticket counters.

Greatly Improved Cafe Cafe in Center 1

Like many, I'd eaten in the Center 1 branch of Cafe Cafe in the past and decided that their awful service and lackluster food were good reasons to avoid it. So, for a couple of years that's what I did. But the other day, my friend and I spontaneously decided to eat lunch out together. We both needed a lunch, had limited time and were in Center 1 on the way to different places.

We looked at an inexpensive food bar near the Yermiyahu entrance/exit, but it wasn't very appetizing, nor all that cheap. So we continued to the Cafe Cafe, since she had a membership there, and we needed the nearby WC, even though my recent visit was disappointing. Yes, it had been cleaned up since then. That is what I had expected. The building management must take care, because it is near restaurants and is the best one in the area.

It did look rather inviting, so we sat down and checked out the menu. Her membership gave us a nice salad for half price, and I liked one of the appetizers which included mushrooms. We decided to order both and share them. They were both delicious, and the total bill, because of my friend's membership was barely NS60. That made it a much better deal than the salads in the "cheap" place at the other end of the building. They've opened up a new seating section, but since the acoustics there are awful, we sat in the older part.

I am very glad that they've gotten their act together and improved the service and the food. Prices were also reasonable for that sort of restaurant chain. They are in serious competition with Gregg's which has also has a branch in the building. We had a very pleasant meal, comfortable seats and quiet enough for us, at our age, to enjoy completely. The Center 1 Cafe Cafe is completely handicapped accessible. It's Mehadrin Kosher, open Sunday-Thursday from 8:30am - 11pm, Friday 8:30am- 2pm and then reopens about an hour after Shabbat until "the last customer leaves."

The Death of the Jerusalem Central Bus Station

I used to love the Jerusalem Central Bus Station, because it was a lot more than just a bus stop. It was/is a small mall, with buses and a synagogue (that even had a room for women to doven or say Tihillim (psalms,) shops and food places of all sorts. It used to be pleasant enough as a mall just to go in to shop or eat.

I had heard all the reports about the high levels of air pollution and the fact that it hadn't been planned well, but that was more a danger to those who worked there, who spent hours there day after day. For the traveler or shopper there was always less danger.

But just under a year ago we, travelers to and from Judea and Samaria were totally banished from there. OK, we can go and take a bus to Sderot or Tel Aviv, but we can't take a bus to Shiloh or Tel Tzion.

A few weeks ago, I had some free time and decided to walk in. I must say that I was shocked. Even though the bus station is relatively new, it looked like a dump.

Not even the clock works! A bus station should have clocks, working clocks, all over, in every direction.

And this electric board that used to give me information about buses to all over the country is dead. How could there be no basic maintenance in a building as important as the Jerusalem Central Bus Station?

In its heyday, when all the platforms were being used by a number of lines, the area on the right of this picture would have been lit up with information about the schedules. Now it's dark.

Fewer bus lines means fewer passenger which means fewer customers for the stores meaning that it gets harder to rent them out.

The CBS as the signs call it, looked dark and dreary. Maybe it had no future...

Bus Protest at Benjamin Regional Council, Psagot

Ramalla as seen from Psagot

I hadn't been in Psagot for years. It's a yishuv northwest of Jerusalem which is more a suburb or neighborhood of Ramalla in terms of its actual location. It was established around the same time that we moved to Shiloh in the early 1980's. For whatever the reason, the "powers" decided to make Psagot our "capital," and the local administrative offices are there.

As I had written yesterday on Shiloh Musings, the ordinary citizen of Mateh Binyamin, the Benjamin Regional Council are steaming mad about the changes in our public transportation. For that reason, yesterday a few dozen of us from Shiloh, Eli, Shvut Rachel and Ma'ale Levona went off to protest at the offices of Avi Ro'eh, the "governor" of our region.

This was not a very well planned protest, but it was certainly an emotional one. As we wandered around the building shouting and holding up signs.

חוזרים למרכזית Chozrim l'Merkazit, Return to Central Bus Station

Our main theme/demand was that we want our main Jerusalem stop to be returned to the Central Bus Station and not on the street of the outermost northern neighborhood Pisgat Zeev.



Finally, our regional head Avi Ro'eh agreed to talk and listen to us, but under his conditions, outside "as not to disturb the workers." We said our bit, and he listened. Avi said that they are already trying to get our earliest and latest buses to be from "the area of the Central Bus Station." It would require recalculating the schedule. Those buses will also be outdoors, at the same location that Beit El is protesting about.

I'll keep you updated, G-d willing.

Annoyed at the Jerusalem Bus Station

I don't go to the Jerusalem Central Bus Station aka CBS very often for various reasons. One is that I can pick up the bus to Shiloh  in other parts of Jerusalem. Another is that when possible I try to save money and tremp, meaning get a ride or hitchhike. 

Though I did go the other day, mostly because I needed to fill my "ravkav" prepaid bus/lightrail pass with more rides. I can get those at the bus station by paying with my credit card, saving me cash and the inconvenience of having to deal with money and change when traveling to and from work. 

When I got there, I saw that two out of three pay stations were closed, and there was a long line for the only open one.

This was very annoying. It also blocked access to the buses, so people kept breaking through to catch their bus.

I got to the back of the line and rushed forward when another opened. One woman was ahead, but she needed such complicated help it took almost as long as if I hadn't gotten on the newly opened one. At least the clerk was pleasant, and I had the time. Some of those clerks are awfully nasty. If I would treat my customers like they do, I'd be fired in a jiffy.

5 Shekel Food Made it to Jerusalem!

One of the big news items for Israeli noshers, meaning almost the entire population of the country, has been an everything for five shekel food place in Tel Aviv to bring down the prices of simple take-out food  such as coffee and pizza.  I'm not sure that the five shekel place I found in the entrance to the Jerusalem Centraal Bus Station is from the same businessman, Avi Cohen of Cofix, because this is strictly kosher and called פשוט טעים Pashut Taim, Simply Tasty.  None of the Cofix articles I found mentions kashrut, but the kosher market in Jerusalem is much larger than in Tel Aviv.

פשוט טעים Pashut Taim, Simply Tasty has a simply wonderful menu, coffee, salad, pizza, sandwiches soft drinks, pastries and even ice cafe.

In all honesty, at that price it hardly pays to brown bag it, if you're going to be in the area.  Now I must admit that I never got to sample any of their items.  I was going to treat myself to an ice cafe, but when I ordered one, I was told that the machine had just been refilled and it would take another ten to fifteen minutes until it was really icy.  I didn't have the time to wait.  But I could see all of the satisfied customers who had ordered other items.  Since I had just completed dental work, I couldn't eat one of their salads and thought that ice cafe would be a nice safe, even if calorie-laden, choice.

No doubt I'll be back there to buy.  If you spot any branches in other parts of the city or country, please let me know in the comments, thanks.