I received several e-mails this morning, and each of them either opened or closed with "Don't ride buses!" and "Be careful!" This post is to let you know that I am staying off buses and being very careful here. However, I don't often feel like I am in danger because there is so much security. You can't walk into a grocery store, restaurant, cafe, or gift shop without passing through a metal detector and often having your bag searched as well. It's treacherous to walk around the shops with Tova, because she has a pacemaker and therefore can't walk through the metal detectors. As a result, for every shop we have to ask the shopkeepers to turn off the metal detector momentarily so she can pass.
Several people here have given me directions places, starting off with "Take the Number 4 bus to ..." When I respond that I don't ride buses, people roll their eyes and give a little speech about how the buses are perfectly safe, everybody rides buses, there hasn't been a bus bomb in years, etc. So I say, "I promised my mother I wouldn't ride buses." This is not entirely true, since I promised not only my mother but everyone else I know in the States, and also I don't particularly want to ride a bus myself. It's very effective, though, because it seems that no one wants me to break a promise I made to my mother. So I take taxis everywhere, spending $5-15 per trip depending on where I'm going. The downside is that I don't learn my way around at all, but I am slowly venturing out on foot from the hotel, and it's an easy walk to both the German Colony and the Old City. I try to stay away from the edge of the sidewalk, because I think I am in more danger of getting hit by a car in the crazy traffic here than I am getting blown up by a suicide bomber.
mmr
