Was greeted by passport control officer who joylessly cross-examined me... my complicated and somewhat evasive replies were met with a frusturated plea/assertion of authority: "you know, I am the customs officer, so it is MY job to ask YOU the questions." She then proceeded to take my boarding pass (I later returned to retrieve it).
The "new" Ben-Gurion Airport is quite impressive, I get the impression that the number of carriers which now fly to Israel has doubled or even tripled since last I was here in 2003.
This was an Israeli arrival unlike any other: in previous trips, i'd been with a group from a New York El-Al Flight: this time I arrived alone, from Poland.
After an hour or two of wandering around the airport, I took the first morning train to the Tel Aviv Bus station, and walked a few blocks to board the 35 bus. The bus moved through a working class neighborhood (an Israeli later referred to the area as slums, the first time i'd heard this phrase uttered in Israel), with morning commuters who treated me and my suitcases as tolerable nuisances. They moved me around based on the boarding and exiting of other passengers, and the bus driver pointed out Kfar Macciabiah, the site of the conference.
I arrived at roughly 7:30am, checked into the lovely hotel, took a shower, and went promptly to bed.
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