3/4, Tuesday. Herut, during lunch, kindly offered to take me out after work, which I declined. There're only 2 concerts this week, both happened to be this evening. I picked the one at the Opera House, because it is only a 10-15 minutes walk from my hotel. Titled Comeback. Ruben Gazarian, conductor (Armenia) Guy Pelc, baritone Elisha Abas, piano Haim Permont "Nabucco Blues", words by Roni Somek, première Beethoven Piano Concerto no. 3 Khachaturian Gayane and Spartacus suites The Israel Symphony Orchestra Rishon LeZionThe concert itself was quite nice. The poet Somek (informed by my neighbor) went up to the stage after the first work: it was his poem. The pianist is very expressive. He did one encore after ~4 rounds of applause. Getting the ticket is a bit weird. First, there's no way of purchasing a ticket online, nor is there a price list. You can call them. I double checked with my Israeli colleague: not possible on Hebrew website either. The Opera House has no English sign on nor inside the building (I had to ask where the toilets are). I used Google Maps for the location. There are two other buildings in the complex: the library (has an English sign) was closed for the evening, people were leaving the art museum (has an English sign). I walked into the one with the most people and light. Once I was in the lobby, I inquired at what looks like a ticket window, because there was a seating chart. He told me to to buy at the ticket pickup tables. So, at my turn, the will-call lady turned me to the comp ticket lady. She told me 100 Shekels. I asked her if there're other price levels. Answer was again 100 Shekels. So I gave her money, and she fished out a ticket and handed to me. It's a comp ticket of course, no where there is 100 printed on. She probably pocketed the money. Since I couldn't read what's on the ticket, I asked her where I was supposed to sit, and she dismissed me with a wave. I turned to the guy at the ticket window. He showed me where. It was on the 2nd tier on the side. I went back to the comp ticket lady requesting a better seat. She fumbled around her envelopes for a bit, and then gave me another ticket, and said "good seat". So I went to the auditorium asking an usher for my seat. True, now I was sitting in the very middle of the orchestra level. No one gave me a program. I wouldn't be able to read any way.
3/5 My demo. Last day of work. Walked to the beach (not pretty. some are learning surfing in wet suit.) and continued north to Sidna Ali Mosque. There was a guy fostering a camp fire. He let me in the court yard, once I covered my hair. Then I went to a Bit Coin meetup. But left because I was told it's in Hebrew only, even though the event was posted in English, and I asked whether the two talks were in Hebrew or in English. Heck, the organized didn't bother to answer (or even read) the questions. There are quite a lot of meetup activities in Tel Aviv and Herzliya, with all the high tech companies close by. I saw one at Microsoft, one at Google in the same week. I did post a question about the language on the Google meetup (same, no answer). But after this unsuccessful experience, I dropped my sign up, and won't bother looking for others.
3/6 Thursday. Caesarea National Park is not easy to get to by public transportation. I took a train to Binyamina. On the other side of the track, you can find bus 9, which goes to within 2km from the park. The problem is bus 9 runs every 30 min or an hour. I happened to see it leave, and the next one was an hour later. So I started walking. Out of many vehicles passed me, one truck gave me a 5 minute ride. So, it took me about an hour to get to the park. On my way back, I got 2 lifts, still walked a lot. The park is NIS40 for individual. Within a group, each only pays 32. The short movies are quite good, provided imagination of the grandeur it once had. Not the best Roman ruins (fallen or sunken) I've seen. The Roman amphitheatre is now used for performances, and the higher seats were blocked from the tourists. The Roman aqueduct is grand and quite a bit north of the main ruin.
Acre is more interesting to me. It's walled old quarter is mostly Arabic. Narrow streets. Houses seem to build one on top of another. Looks ancient. Lots of tiny shops, closing or already closed by sundown (or when I got there). Its grand mosque is not grand at all. 10NIS allows me to peek inside. The central plaza and the harbor is lively and picturesque. 
Train fare in Israel is cheaper if you buy round trip ticket, or travel without stopping on the way. Tel Aviv - Binyamina is 26 Shekels, Binyamina - Acre/Akko is 38, Acre/Akko - Tel Aviv (passing and stopping at Binyamina) is 41.5.
3/7. Took a free city tour offered by Israel Diamond Center. Twice daily. Its map and ad is probably in every hotel. The tour is pretty bad. No getting out of the bus. Long wait to start. The driver drives to Jaffa and a few places in the city on the way, and plays recording (everyone gets a receiver which plays in your language). However, I often had no idea which one it was talking about. The goal, of course, is the last stop: a diamond shop. I left soon.Left my suitcase at the hotel, I bought some food, and took 2 days of clothing, headed to Tel Aviv's own Dov Hoz airport. Small, convenient, more flights, small planes (4 seats per row). Plenty buses go within walking distance to the barn-looking terminal. The ID check took quite awhile. Two officers came to ask me questions: what's my purpose in Israel, where I am going, why I'm traveling alone, why not joining a packaged tour, why my co-worker didn't come, ... My lunch: a small apple and 2 persian cucumbers, 2 energy bars, some pastry, was deemed dangerous. But I can check them in. I was allowed to eat them, but not inside the building. So I had to go through security check again, after I consumed my apple and pastry. Then everyone board on a bus for quite a few minutes to the plane. Flight to Eilat is less than an hour, but checking-in took 2 hours. Flight between Eilat and Ben Gurion is less frequent, bigger planes (6 seats per row, 40 rows). But no convenient way to go to Ben Gurion domestic terminal.
