A day full of events

Day 3:

Today we had a really eventful day! After a short night we had breakfast and got ready for take off to Herzliya, the partner city of Leipzig since 2011. There we were expected by the major of Herzliya, To represent the DLRG and look good for the pictures we all went in our favourite clothing, red T-Shirt and red Bermudashorts. At that time we didn´t know, that the professional photografer would follow us all day long!

9:30 The mayor of Herzliya gave us a really warm welcome. He greeted us and told us about his visit to Leipzig three month ago, the excruciating heat he experienced there(it seems he got one of the really hot weeks we had this summer) and the things he learned about the educational system of Leipzig and its culture. Afterwards he told us about the projects he wants to realize in the future. There are going to be 32.000 new apartments for young couples, who cannot afford the current ones, 1.000 new office apartments, because every existing one is full, mostly with high-tech firms, and a new science and technology center where children are supposed to spend at least one of their school days per week. We also got to know the Chief of the Lifeguard department and his most important workers. Photos were taken, which you can see below, and we drove to the beach.

10:30 we arrived at the beautiful beach of Herzliya. Even more beautiful was the fact, that we were almost the only people there. In case you wonder why there is an empty beach on Sunday, water temperature 30 degrees, air 33 degrees…. Yesterday was Shabbat, the day off in Judaism, comparable to our Sunday. That means their Sunday is like our Monday, the first day of the week.

The lifeguards seemed really excited to see us. Gideon, who is going to come to Germany too, then explained about the topography of their beach, the dangers and their flagsystem, which is quite different from ours. White flags in the water means, it is totally safe for swimming, red flag means danger, bur you are still allowed to swim, black flags means it is prohibited to swimm, that’s where most of the surfers are.
They were very eager to show us their experience and expertise with their preferred rescue ways. First they showed us their really big SUP for two people, called hasseke (gesprochen: Chasseke!, an arabic word). You can see the full demonstration at “portfolio”. Afterwards they each took one of us with them to show us how to do it. We tried to look as good them and I think we gave our best! Following they showed us the really fast “jetskirescue”. Believe me, the sea was really calm this morning but in the first seconds I held on for dear life 😉 Almost like the first time on the IRB. In between Paul tried the resttube and showed the israelian guys our way of lifesaving. By the way, I can say guys, because even if every israelian woman has to do 2 years of duty in the army, there are no female lifeguards at the Herzliya lifeguard stations.

While talking to the lifeguards we discovered, that they nearly don’t do anything concerning first aid. There is a first aid station in the rear of the beach, with everything we have on our bagpacks too, and a guy sitting there the whole day, waiting for first aid casualitys.
13:00 Lunch with the major of Herzliya at the beach with our fellow lifeguards. A big thank you to the municipality of Herzliya to sponsor us this delicious and typical israelian meal. I loved it and I think I can speak for the rest of us, too. We had really interesting conversations with the lifeguards, who are going to join us in October.

15:00 where everyone would have liked t take a quick nap. But what followed was our visit to Appollonia. Look at the separate blog for this.
16:30 we returned to the beach for some coffee, a cold beer and for some of us another bath and the opportunity to swimm in the sea. When we returned to Tel Aviv everybody got something to eat. And now some of us are sitting in thr roof with fellow hostel guest, some of us are sittning on the balcony an some are already packing, because we will leave for Yerushalayim (hebrew for Jerusalem) an sleep at another hostel for one night. But more of that tomorrow.
Now all I have to say is, that I really enjoy, getting up early, going to the sea (1 minute) take a bath at the empty beach and enjoy the view!