I was excited for Yom Kippur, even though I found out my beloved bar Minzar was not, in fact, going to be open. Apparently they decided too many people had heard the rumor and so they figured they’d get caught. But still, I figured today would be fun.

Around 2pm, I parked myself on a park bench at a choice intersection: the entrance to the huge outdoor public market, the biggest boutique shopping street, and a major artery through town were all within view. I sat and read a book until sundown and watch the city slowly grind to a halt over the course of the next three hours. Sure enough, about an hour after sundown the streets started to fill with people. Literally, the streets themselves were full of people. It is considered rude, but not illegal, to drive on Yom Kippur.

I went to meet my friend Gal and wander the city with her. She keeps with the tradition of fasting and so doesn’t use any electric devices. Since she had neither phone nor clock (!), she told me to just stop by her house between 11pm and midnight. I tried, but she was already gone. Instead I met some strangers in the street and wandered around the city with them for a few hours. They took me down to Jaffa, where there are many Arabs, and we bought some beer at a corner market open in defiance of the law.

So that was interesting and fun. But then I just went home to read for a while. And then I read more. And I made it through most of a 500 page book, but now what?

And, okay, I was about to wrap it up, but then I just watched one of the many feral cats in this city kill a pigeon. The bird was just sitting there on the ground and the cat pounced on it and held it down and bit into it.

Um. Wow. Where was I? Uh, there’s still 8 hours left of fasting and I’m bored, or something. Except now it’s hard to do anything besides stare at the bird corpse 8 feet in front of me. So, so nasty.