I was so sad to be leaving Palestine and going to Tel Aviv! I decided to leave a day before my flight just in case I had any problems ...

Tel Aviv

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I was so sad to be leaving Palestine and going to Tel Aviv! I decided to leave a day before my flight just in case I had any problems crossing the border from Palestine to Israel.


Tel Aviv was beautiful, I really enjoyed the walk along the water and the modern feel of the city... 




 Walking through the market was pretty nice...
And also the retro vibe in Jaffa!




I was quite low energy so I slowly walked around, enjoyed the view, an amazing sunset and a so so dinner of shakshouka.






The next day I explored the city a little bit more and then headed to the airport. Silly me thought that the exit would be just like any other country, you go to the counter, check-in, go get your passport stamped, go through security, and then to the gate but no… Not in Israel, not for me!!!

The first step on getting out of Israel is to get through a 20 minute questioning about what you did, how you did it, who you did it with, where you stayed, why you stayed there, and the usual questions about all the stamps in my passport with details about every destination while the girl asking the questions turns EVERY SINGLE page of my passport over and over again! As if new stuff will show up if she goes through the 20 empty pages for the 50th time!
After that I was able to check-in and go through the exit booth where they gave me an exit piece of paper and went to security. Once there I was asked to go on the side and another girl started doing the exact same thing the other girl did, asked the same exact questions, and took even longer! I was already annoyed by all the questioning and then asked me to go on a separate security line. The line was specially for all of those being questioned and took more than 30 minutes for 3 people to go through! So annoying!
Finally it was my turn and OMG! they made me take all my electronics out, including all USB wires, chargers, batteries, absolutely everything! They went through the scanner and then they dumped everything from the bags in several bins, they made sure that everything was in one single layer and put everything back in the scanner. When things came back they decided to open my backpack and dump absolutely everything into bins! Everything went back through the scanner and when I saw it come out I took a deep breath! I had forgotten that at the bottom of my backpack was my Persian dictionary with a hole in it from Hamed! The security guy saw it and took it, asked me what it was and I (in a super nonchalant attitude) said “dictionary” and then he asked me what language, I said “Persian” and I just saw his face! haha I knew this was not going to be pretty!

They called a girl, probably younger than me, that came with attitude to ask me questions. I was kind of giggling inside because it was so ridiculous but then she got more and more serious and aggressive. She wanted to know who gave it to me (I had to lie! If I said an Iranian gave it to me I don’t know what they would have done), WHY he gave it to (because he felt like giving me a gift), why in a dictionary (I don’t know, he thought it was cool), why did he do a hole (to put the ring in it?!?!) why the ring is not in it (because I wear it), where is the ring (in my toiletry bag), why did you bring the dictionary to Israel (because it was a gift and I have been traveling), so you haven’t gone home? (no!), why not? Oh my! I literally thought I was not going to make it to my flight!!!! I had arrived more than 2 hours before the departure, I had to wait only for one person to go through the first security and I arrived to the gate only 10 minutes before departure! 
Oh my! After all the time in Israel and what I experienced I know that I do not want to come back here again! Glad to be going to Greece now!


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About Post Author

Hi! It's me... Andrea! In 2016 I decided to drop everything and take a year to enrich my life and travel around the world. It turns out the world is just too big for 12 months! Still on the road and sharing my experience as a solo female traveler around the globe!

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About me




Hi! It's me... Andrea!

In this blog you can live vicariously through my journey around the world!

Please feel free to share tips or places to go!
Contact me: andreaheartstraveling@gmail.com