Just a collection of things. I learned the term LifeBytes from Jonathan Klinger, who updates his Hebrew blog more frequently.
One evening I was walking back from work, and I realized that I was getting close to a party. As I got closer, I found out that it wasn’t a party, but rather a spinning class that a some gym took outside. About 30 people were riding a bike to nowhere on a sidewalk on a rather busy junction in the city with loud music that was definitely too much for the speakers. Is that your idea of healthy sports? I couldn’t help pulling out my camera, and then I heard the instructor shouting: “Faster faster, you’re going to see yourselves in the paper tomorrow!”.
I’ve also been to cold Jerusalem to visit some friends. Walking through a street named Emek Refaim in the German colony (one of the busy streets at night I guess), I could hardly hear any Hebrew. So many people were speaking English! I couldn’t tell if they were mostly tourists or immigrants, but they were all American Jews. Even the guard at Caffit cafe spoke only English. I really liked it. It felt like being a tourist, and I can also understand the language. No need for sign language, like in various places around the world.
And finally, last Tuesday I’ve been again to the (original) free hugs in Tel Aviv. I found out that there is another group doing the hugging thing on Fridays on Rotschild boulevard, and that a group of students from Ben Gurion university in Beer Sheva did the hugging thing on the first day of school. It is spreading around, also after the media is gone. The original guys, that I got in touch with, aim to reach 10,000 hugs before quiting. They still have almost 8,000 to go. I didn’t take pictures this time, but I met a fellow Israeli English-blogging guy, Idan Gazit, who did take photos. Superb photos. He has the equipment and the talent. After Some other people and myself asked him a few questions about it, he put up a serious post about it. I’m looking forward for his next photography lessons.
Anyway, the next hugging event is as usual, this Tuesday, October 24th 17:00 – 20:00 at Rabin Square. I’ll be there from around 19:30
Two months after the war, northern Israel looks (almost) like there was never any war. The damage made by 4000 rockets, courtesy of Hezbollah, isn’t seen.
We started in Safed (Tzfat), which is an ancient Jewish center. Located in the mountains, and holding so much history, it could be a great tourist attraction. Lots of old synagogues of different styles and narrow walkways are seen in the old city. The authorities probably don’t care too much. Many buildings are in a shabby condition, and too much garbage is seen on the streets. This is not a result of the war. It can be blamed on years of negligence. When asking some locals about the war, they said that it was scary, but almost all the damage was fixed, and the rest is being fixed right now.
We then headed to our “Zimmer”, or guesthouse, at a small place called Harashim. Our host complained about too much competition, a problem that began already a few years ago. War? Well, he said that during the war, he had only one guest, a settler from the West Bank. Afterwards, the regular crowd came back, like in the days before the war.
This time it was in Rabin Square. These great guys got lots of media. Two TV crews, radio, a few newspapers, etc. They will also be on air tomorrow morning in an early morning show. It’s amazing how it 
The 
At first I was embarrassed. I just came for a peek, and suddenly I was offered a few hugs. I must admit that I turned red, but afterwards I also joined the hugging and also took some pictures before running into the air conditioned mall.
Hi, I’m back. My girlfriend and myself got back from Budapest a few days ago. It was great! Beautiful city, kind people, excellent weather, nice beers. I excepted more from the food, but it was ok.
many for 5-6 days. I uploaded “only” 137 of them, and they are all available 
much about the scores of monuments, palaces and churches. I’ll focus on more personal experiences and impressions.
speaking tourists. The streets are clean and tidy. Also outside Budapest, in Szentendre and Esztergom (which is on the Slovak border), everything looks fine. I haven’t spotted the gloomy and suspicious faces that I’ve seen 
that were there a few weeks, ago, the protesters attacked the Russian monument representing the independence from the pro-Nazi regime. A sign also compared the monument with a hypothetic monument for Nazi soldiers in Jerusalem.
pro-Nazi Arrowcross party, and later on by the secret police of the communist regime, it has a huge tank in the entrance. The museum didn’t succeed in shocking us. Maybe it was the lack of English translations. Maybe after being to Yad Vashem museum in Jerusalem (and I’ve also been to Aushwitz), nothing could really shock us. Tortures of hundreds of political opponents? Exile in Siberian Gulags? The Jews, including some distant family members of mine, had a much worse fate.
Nowadays, the Jews are back in business. The big 
as $1.25. This was sometimes accompanied by live music which I was happy to discover in so many places. We once went to an enjoyable performance of a Polish Jazz group called Musika Therapia, held on an Ukranian ship on the Danube.
Hungarian food, and I was quite disappointed. It was no more than ok, and it wasn’t spicy at all. Maybe compared to Polish, Czech and German food it was spicy, but quite dull in comparison with Israeli food, or food from the far east. Some of the dishes reminded me of dishes at family gatherings when I was a child. My taste has developed since then. At least they have surprisingly good coffee.