It was really interesting how a simple trip to the mall was filled with so many little differences. some of which I will tell you about, right now.
First, we walked there. This may not sound so interesting, but being a country girl, I've never been within walking distance of so many stores in my life. A ten to fifteen minute walk brings us to several shopping areas where you can find just about anything you want. My favorite stores so far are Roladin Bakery, this fantastic spice shop that I can't remember the name of right now, but trust me, there will be a post about it later, and the Cinema City theater complex that has at least 20 giant plastic dinosaurs and other fake animals out in front of it. It looks like a natural history museum, but nope, it's a movie theater. pictures forthcoming.
Second, security check and bag search. Before entering malls, markets, government offices,and certain other stores you pass a security guard that looks inside your bag and sometimes asks if you have any weapons. It's nothing invasive, but since I've only met security checks at airports it was a surprise seeing them in everyday situations.
Once inside the mall is surprisingly similar, until you look a little closer and find that Sponge Bob is Bob Sfog here. or that the Whack-a-Mole in the kids arcade is actually called Hitty Mouse.
Another difference was the food court. I have to say food courts in the states tend to repulse me. I've eaten my fair share of Panda Express Orange Chicken, but usually I'd rather go hungry than eat at a food court. but here everything looked just lovely. The shwarma shop (shwarma is a giant mass of meat on a skewer cooked rotisserie style. The outside is shaved off and put in a pita with salads and humus and tahini and all things good) was overflowing with wonderful things and all the other options looked to be a higher quality that i'm used to seeing in a mall. we didn't eat there however, I'm still too enchanted with Ziona's cooking to eat out.
there's also the difference that things like post offices and pharmacies and also found in the mall. Raz got his drivers license photo taken at a shop in the mall, and you can even go to the dentist in the mall. Here they've taken convenience shopping a step further than I've ever been used to. I'm starting to believe Raz when he says Israelis really do love their malls.
the one thing that eluded us however was the one thing we were actually looking for. it seems that hair mousse isn't nearly as popular as it once was, there were only one or two brands and not a one we recognized. so the search for a familiar brand continues, and I have had a brief education on the malls of Israel.
Are there any cool specialty stores that are unique to Israel?
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