On Purim

As legend has it, Haman once plotted to kill all the Jews (real original, dude), and came damn close to succeeding, if it wasn't for Mordecai and Esther, the heroes of this Jewish epic. They defeat the evil Haman by outdrinking him, or something like that, and that's why we drink ourselves stupid and dress up in costumes to celebrate Purim.

Farbrengen!

The first night of Purim was on Wednesday, March 7, but parties began earlier that week—eager beavers. On Tuesday, a few of us donned bloody makeup and talcum powder to take part in a massive Zombie walk down one of Tel Aviv's most affluent boulevards. It was awesome. We all got really into character, with all conversation being nothing more than a jumble of grunts, moans, and "brains". Things escalated a bit when the walk moved onto the asphalt part of the boulevard and we started climbing on top of moving cars and taxis. I'll repeat this now, it was awesome. The walk concluded with a dance party at the end of Rothschild.

Braiiiins

For the first night of Purim, I had my friend Jess draw all over my face with markers and I put on this trippy robe I bought at Jaffa Shuk and this feathered headdress and went as an Aztec God, or something like that. Festivities started early (or at least I did). I had a few people over at my apartment, we had some drinks, went to the next apartment, grabbed a few more people, had a few more drinks, and so on and so on. Jacob, Jake and Ari had made some friends through couchsurfing, and they invited them to a rooftop party, so I tagged along. The place was packed, and the whole roof was taken over. And, and, and, it was an Anglo party. Wahoo! I could actually communicate at a non-Aardvark gathering for the first time in six months. So we socialized, made friends, joked about costumes, and got increasingly and increasingly inebriated.

Eventually, Ari and I decided to leave and check out some street parties. As we walked around, we were drawn in by the booming sound of music and ended up at a party on Rothschild Boulevard, where we ran into some kids from Aardvark and partied there for a while. That's just about all I remember.

Street party madness

 I guess the party never stopped, as there were people walking around day-drinking on Thursday. Basically, the same sort of thing happened Thursday night, except this time I dressed up as a Jedi Knight, although the overwhelming consensus from strangers was that I was Jesus (apparently Star Wars was never a big hit over here). A lot of Aardvarks went too hard the night before and ended up throwing up (poor saps), so they didn't go out on Thursday. I hung out with Jacob and Shani that night a lot, and we went around meeting random people and checked out this street party on Nachalat Binyamin. Jacob met up with some of his Danish friends, so we left him in Scandinavian company. I went out later by myself and sat on Rothschild for a long time, taking some time-lapse pictures, and having some hilarious encounters with strangers. The energy that night was incredible, everyone was letting loose.

Jacob making friends

My mom made a pit-stop in Israel for the weekend on her way to Frankfurt, so I spent a lot of time with her. It was really nice. People were still costumed up on Friday and Saturday, but I was a bit too spent to keep partying. If you're ever visiting Israel for a week, come for Purim. It's really, really fun.