Shalom!

And they really say this on a daily basis! I don't know why I was so surprised, but I wasn't expecting my one word of hebrew to be come in so handy. Shalom doesn't only mean 'peace' but it is a common greeting used in place of a simple hello or goodbye. I loved saying it and hearing it in all the shops!

So I joined my husband in Tel Aviv after his 'work trip' to the Beer Academy event hosted by the largest brewery in Israel (Goldstar) in Eilat last week. Yes, that is what he claimed...that there is this "beer academy" (surprisingly it doesn't come up in my google search, hmm). It was here though that he claims to have presented to ~800 beer 'academics' (bartenders/managers), wearing his traditional Bavarian Lederhosen and making jokes about his own unusual-looking outfit compared to that of another, more famous German who arrived that same day wearing all white and red shoes... but creating a security nightmere for this beer-drinking German who had a more thorough search at airport security than he cares to share.

While sharing and comparing beer stories, Goldstar (who apparently invented this 'Beer Academy' event) threw in a performance by one of Israel's most popular bands, Infected Mushroom - a psychedelic trance band. Ever heard of them? We're not really up on our trance bands, but it's kind of cool how they perform- if what he told me is correct. They use recordings of themselves as well as other musicians when they play/mix live sets. The sound reminds me of Depeche Mode back in the day, or maybe it's just because Depeche Mode seems to be pretty popular in Israel too. Anyway, here's a video clip from this event. My husband is somewhere in the crowd and swears he only drank his German beer, Paulaner. I don't think we can say the same for the others..



I do hope all this talk about beer and mushrooms doesn't overshadow my true purpose here of documenting the trip I took to a such a fascinating, interesting country. I guess that will be in my next post!