Month: May 2011

Kilgore stayed in bed.

Neil and I met at his college, Merton, celebrating its 750 year this year.

We are going to the airport bus soon.

Time to return home!

Hi

Arrived in Oxford. Warm welcome by all, including Kilgore.

Bus to London. The Tube, the Apple Store, Libertys, Carnaby St, delicious Indian Food, Hatchards.

Fortnum & Mason – amazing displays.

The Imperial War Museum – excellent!

The London Eye, other sites and comedy at the Lyric in Hammersmith.

Hi

Arrived in Istanbul at 8am and took a cab to Neve Shalom Synagogue to attend the service. Security was very heavy.

Sephardic service. 

The saw the other Ashkenazi synagogue nearby from the outside.

Had another delicious fish roll, walked through the Spice market again and the busy narrow streets to the amazing Grand Bazaar.

Waited in line for over an hour to get tickets for the Topkapi Palace where the Harem was the highlight for me.

Flew to London at 5:30pm

The Ashkenazi Synagogue

Walking the Streets

The Grand Bazaar

Topkapi Palace and the Harem

Hi

Phillip and Rochelle said goodbye at Kefar Saba station and I took the train to Tel Aviv University

I met Elissa Rosenberg, my third cousin who discovered me on the internet a few months ago while doing a roots project with her daughter Hadass.

We visited the museum at Beit Hafutsot.

We then met her cousin Ruth Heymann (nee Rabinowitz) at Gillys at the Port for a delicious “afternoon” brunch. It was lovely meeting them.

At 5pm Ruth dropped me off to meet my cousin Bertha Berger. Bertha and I went to the Marina at Herzlia Petuach and then to cousin Hannah and Isaac for dinner. 

I met Saul Issroff, his girlfriend Sally from England and Miriam Lazarus.

Saul edits the SA SIG group on JewishGen and was the one who put cousin Feri and me in touch with each other in 2001. That led to this big adventure!

Eytan and his girlfriend Brenda took me to the airport at 1am and my flight to Istanbul was at 6am

While I was showing some photos of my Mom found in the Riga archives, this is the message that came up in iPhoto – amazing!

Hi

Today I took s bus from Ra’anana to Jerusalem.  Chatted all the way to Eli from Long Is about Poland and Central Europe.
In Kiryat Moshe in Jerusalem i fortuitously bumped into my cousin Nachi.

Nachi helped me purchase a becher at Hazorfim, but we also had Jill, Dean, Les and Jons in Sydney help us via skype. It must must have been an unique sale for Hazorfim – having two groups in Jerusalem and Sydney discussing the options and deciding!

We then went to his apartment for lunch and met the family before going across to Feigele Gold and her family to look at photos of Orla and to talk about my visit there.

After returning to Ra’anana, Phillip, Rochelle and I had a delicious Israeli supper.

Hi

Here are some photos of family and friends

Sorrel, Gidon and family

Aunty Sarah Stepansky, Hadara and Nachi

Aunty Rae Gurland and Diane

Phillip Levy and Eytan

Tony Sachs

And one photo that Aunty Sarah found of her uncle Moshe Rabinowitz taken in Orla in 1920. He is the man on the left side of the photo with the school children.

Hi

Here are my images of my walking tour of Istanbul. Fascinating city.

The Galata Tower, Neve Shalom Synagogue (they wouldn’t let me in!), Jewish Museum, Fish Sandwich opposite Spice Market, Underground Cisterns, Atasofa, Blue Mosque, Topkapi Gardens, Spice Market and dinner with Mehmet.

Local team won nstional soccer tournament – great excitement!

Hi

Here are images of our walking tour of Buda, on the other side of the Danube.

We first started off at our hotel with a great breakfast, visited the market and then crossed over one of the bridges.

The Gellert Baths, the memorials and the Castle Hill areas were very interesting to visit. Great views.

We met Feri back at our hotel, before visiting his nearby apartment for drinks, where we met the rest of his family and looked at books, photos and a very interestingly painted room.

Hi

Flew to Istanbul yesterday afternoon. Seated across the aisle from my cousins Mehmet and Billur.

I am staying at the Point Barbardos Hotel on European side. Excellent hotel.

They picked me up around 8pm and we drove down to the Bosphorus. With them was Yasemin, their charming daughter – my second cousin once removed!

We waited for the restaurant boat and crossed to Asia where I met Mehmet’s brother (and my 2nd cousin) Ahmet and his wife Pinar.

I had a lovely evening with them. Catching up on our pasts kept us talking all evening!

Ahmet is also an Economist, so I was able to discuss Lipsey and Steiner and Samuelson, which was fun.

I enjoyed talking to someone who understood the term “ceteris paribus” as opposed to my numerous accountant friends who love to fox me with their debits and credits!

Interesting and delicious food.

Here are some photos. Some taken on the restaurant boat are blurred.

The last photo from left to right is:

Eli, Pinar, Ahmet, Billur, Mehmet and Yasemin