Good news! The boys are back on schedule and have had good nights sleep the last two nights. This makes for happy campers all around.
So since we haven’t really had opportunity to explore, I can only update on the day-to-day stuff. Let’s go with transportation today.
To date, I have had the opportunity to drive in North America (obviously), Germany, Spain, England, Australia, the Azores and St Kitts. If I would compare the driving here to somewhere – it would be America. Driving is obviously on the right (unlike Japan, St Kitts, England and Australia) and people generally drive with the same agressiveness.
The differences are very subtle. Israelis do use their horn a lot more and for a lot less, they also have the most annoying habit of never using their turn signal (don’t get me started), and are not allowed to turn right on red. (One of the locals told me that the right on red thing was started in North America because of the severe gas shortage in 1973 as a method to save money.) Similar to the UK, they never have any four way stops and instead use round-abouts or red lights. If you are turning left on a green light, the opposing traffic always has a red light. Don’t hesitate or you’ll hear 10 horns behind you.
As for vehicle choice, you would think you were back in North America. The most popular four car manufacturers appear to be Toyota, Ford, Chevrolet and Honda. Sound familiar? The cars do tend to be a lot smaller, but that is always the case when the fuel is expensive. You also see a lot of scooters that weave in and out of traffic like maniacs. I don’t think that any rules apply to them … 🙂