Riding the Bus

A soldier with a big gun is just part of the Tel Aviv bus station crowd.

Departure gates for all points out of town.

Busses leaving every 15 minutes for Jerusalem (a.k.a. ירושלים)

The big board of departures.

This morning I traveled to Tel Aviv via taxi and returned via bus. The taxi ride from Jerusalem was more than fourteen times more expensive than the bus ride home but the trip home was much more adventurous!

Once I was done with that which I had to do in Tel Aviv, I made my way in the direction my cab driver had told me was the bus station. I walked and walked and asked a few people to confirm I was headed in the right direction.

Eventually, I followed the trail of busses to find a run-down neighborhood that seemed somewhat seedy. I saw a building that looked like it could be a bus station and walking closer, I saw a sign that said "Bus Information" with an arrow so I followed it and didn't see many people on the way.

However, I ultimately ran into a threesome of junkies sitting on the concrete floor, shooting heroin (I don't know what shooting heroin looks like except from the movies, but these three were in the process of injecting needles into their veins, maybe they were insulin-dependent). Anyway, I decided that this was the wrong bus station.

Across the street from the needle-fest was a motorcycle police officer who pointed the way to the bus station once he finished his personal phone call on his cellular phone. So, I walked some more and asked people where the bus station was and realized that I was being directed in a variety of directions. I was fed up with my lack of Hebrew skills with the local so I found a bus stop and studied the map and realized that if a bus stopped at that stop, it would take me to the bus station. Seconds later, a bus pulled up and I boarded and paid.

The bus traveled a whopping two blocks and arrived at the bus station, which I (fortunately) could not see from my earlier vantage points. Once inside the incredibly busy bus station, I found a ticket booth and paid the 17.7 shequalim ($4) for a bus to Jerusalem.

The bus station is like an airline terminal with a plethora of gates. To find the bus to Jerusalem, you simply look for gate 605 and wait there for the bus to pull up and then you board. The busses run every fifteen minutes and the sign above the gate indicates the next departure time. There's even a large board listing departures for the next hour (see photos above).

The intercity busses are like the huge touring busses - the seats are comfortable and there's great air conditioning. Trains don't connect this country but busses do and there are many intercity routes. The military uses busses as a primary form of troop movement so there were many soldiers at the bus station and on the bus, too. Ultimately, I arrived at the Jerusalem bus station and took a cab to our apartment, no worse for the wear and excited to know how to use the intercity system.

By the way, the intercity busses are incredibly safe because they don't stop between the departure and destination and all passengers passed through tight screening upon arrival at the bus station (bags are even x-rayed!) So, don't worry, it's very safe. Very safe! Really! Would I do something unsafe?!?