Tag Archives: beaches

Best Countries For Expats Part 2

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Best Countries For Expats Part 2

“You are never too old to set another goal, or dream a new dream.” C.S.Lewis

Australia seems like a perfect place to live – beautiful weather, shrimp on the barbie and kangaroos. Australians speak English and they are friendly and helpful. They have good health care and the outdoor lifestyle is similar to California. Australian TV is like American not British TV.  Some of the natural beauty, plants and wildlife are only indigenous to Australia.  Sporting events are easy to find but outside of Sydney and Melbourne, theatre and ballet are scarce. There are 1500 species of spiders, 6000 species of flies, 4000 species of ants and 350 species of termites in Australia. Finding creepy crawly things in your home is common. I can not picture myself eating or offering a vegemite sandwich.  The cost of living like in New Zealand is very high. Flying back to America is expensive and a  long flight. LIving so far away, I will miss my friends and family and a lot of events here. 

Costa Rica feels like California with a rainforest. It has a steady democracy that spends its money on education instead of the military, A million Americans visit every year, and they have put those dollars back into infrastructure — reliable airports, deluxe highways, huge conservation districts — that make the country easy to get around and easy to enjoy. It has volcanoes, mountains and beaches. It is closer to the US than other countries we are considering which makes travel easier. My Spanish would definitely improve. Crime is a problem. If you have nice stuff or appear to have nice stuff, someone will try to steal it. There are no addresses, so if you need something mailed down, you might have to wait for a friend to bring it in a suitcase. Tourist visas are a cinch but residency can be slow going for anyone who’s not working for a big company. Foreigners have already snatched up most of the property bargains.

Warm weather, great food and “La Dolce Vita” are all good reasons to move to Italy. Every Italian city is basically a huge museum with historic buildings on every corner. The midday siesta is still a thing which is great for me because I can nap anywhere at 3:00 PM.  Real estate prices are good for Americans though many of those old beautiful houses are “fixer uppers”. Italy is not the best country for people who like big cars. It is easier to navigate the narrow cobblestone streets with  a small car or motorbike. The cost of living in the cities is expensive but there are many towns that aren’t.   The health care system is good  and if you can get into the public system, good healthcare is free.

Living in Spain sounds like a dream. I imagine a sunny climate, natural beauty,  cobblestone streets with flamenco music playing in the background, while I sip sangria and eat tapas at a local bar. The cost of living is lower than other parts of Europe. Things move slowly in Spain. When going to the post office, bank, restaurants and shops expect to wait.  Spanish bureaucracy is notoriously slow.  The regional politics are complicated and everything shuts down in the afternoon. Don’t plan on getting anything done in August. The whole country is at the beach.

Israel’s economy is very strong and the standard of living is high. There is amazing food and beautiful weather as well. Any Jew can move to Israel freely. Tel Aviv is the most expensive city in the Middle East and the cost of real estate is high. English is widely spoken here and health care is great. For a small strip of land, the cultures in different areas are diverse.We have already spent a month living in Tel Aviv so I know I could do it.  Everybody smokes which is a problem for me. Everything is closed from Friday sundown to Saturday sundown so that takes some getting used to. Sunday is Monday.  Living in Israel is living in constant fear of terrorist attacks. Lately living in America is the same with constant fear of random shootings. 

Stay safe,
JAZ

Picking The Right Country

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Picking The Right Country

“When you move from one country to another you have to accept that there are some things that are better and some things that are worse, and there is nothing you can do about it.”Bill Bryson

If you are planning to live abroad by choice and not by a job posting, it can be an overwhelming decision where to live. When I fall in love with a place, I often ask myself if I can live there.  A lot of times the answer is no. It’s beautiful but it gets cold in the winter and I am way too used to California weather. I love hot tropical climates – but would  I want that all the time? They are usually accompanied by rainy seasons.  Beautiful places can be too isolated, too crowded or too many  tourists in the summer. While it’s fun to use hand motions, in an emergency wouldn’t I want someone to speak English? I’m getting older so I do not want to be a day’s drive from the nearest hospital. Will not having a support system in place be too hard? 

We will definitely rent something big enough to have guests so our friends and family can come visit. Making friends in a new country without work or school will be hard.  Quarantine has prepared us for that. 

There are some places I can rule out right away. I’m allergic to smoke and pollution so Southeast Asia and China are out. 

I would definitely like to live somewhere where the cost of living is less, not more than Los Angeles. Most of the countries on that list have cold winters so they were already out. Switzerland, Norway, Denmark, France, Iceland and Japan were not a consideration. Unfortunately. Australia, New Zealand, Israel and the Bahamas are taken off here as well. 

I do need access to a city. One of the things quarantine has taught me is that I don’t have to be busy all the time. Living  in a beach town could work now. I can’t live my life without access to culture – museums, theatre, good restaurants but I don’t need so much of it now. 

It’s going to be hard to pick the right place. The “grass  is always greener” mentality plays in here. Running away from home rarely ends well so we have to research and try to make the right choice for us. Luckily, I have plenty of time now, to do this.

Stay safe,

JAZ

To Mask Or Not To Mask – That Is The Political Question

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To Mask Or Not To Mask – That Is The Political Question

“Nothing is more real than the masks we make to show each other who we are.” Christopher Barzak

i was unprepared for the quarantine. I was still packing the weekend before for a trip to Arizona. Yes, we were in the empty market and getting help from more prepared friends and family.

But what I did have were masks. I am allergic to smoke and pollution. I have always been told that masks won’t save me around a fire because the particles of smoke are too small and get through the masks.

The only thing paper masks are protection for, the doctors would tell me, are germs. That is why doctors wear them. I still have them because they are a line of defense against smokers and pollution. I have different kinds, including N95, in the hopes that someone invents something besides a gas mask that will work for me. It looks like, I have been preparing my whole life for this virus.

If  you have a cold or allergies in Japan, you wear a mask so you don’t pass it on to other people. I was there during the bird flu scare and everyone wore masks. There were no laws or fines, you just put on a mask out of of respect for yourself and others

. I didn’t get the bird flu nor did a lot of people because everyone was taking precautions. (They did kill a lot of birds.) I’ve seen first hand that masks work.

Trump doesn’t wear a mask. He gets tested every day for the virus and it is a test where he gets the results quickly. We had to wait several days for results when we needed testing. I’m sure there is a ventilator and a doctor on call at the White House should something happen. He does not have to worry, as most people do, if there is room in a hospital for him should he need that.

Now he is taking hydroquinine preventively. My chemical and smoke sensitivities are autoimmune related. My doctor recommended hydroquinine.  He said it had a 10 or 20 per cent chance of working on what I have and I had to be on it for a year to see if it worked. I got some more medical opinions. I decided the odds were too low and the side effects too many to be on it for a year. Hydroquinine is also a malaria drug. The fact that the president would take a strong immune illness drug with side effects, that might work in case he gets the virus, instead of suggesting masks is crazy to me.

The beach near where I live opened last week. Three quarters of the people who come here are not wearing masks. It feels unsafe to me now on the weekends so I don’t go out.

It is frustrating because most of the people don’t live here and may behave differently in their own neighborhoods. I’m sure they put on masks if they visit their parents.  They are biking and jogging, not wearing shirts and sweating. The bikers are not social distancing.

On the beach they run in and out of the water unaware of people walking by. It certainly does not appear to be as mandatory here as other parts of LA..

The mask is being seen as a symbol of blindly submitting to government authority or taking a political stance to some, and a sign of safety and compassion to others. It seems to be about people’s age and individual tolerance of risk. Since we don’t know if we are carrying the virus and we don’t know what immune deficiencies other people have, why is it so difficult for Americans in this unprecedented time, to behave with politeness and kindness towards others and wear a mask?  We all want this to be over.

Stay safe,
JAZ

Corona Days

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Corona Days

“She refused to be bored chiefly because she wasn’t boring.”  Zelda Fitzgerald

It is twenty something days in. I often lose track of what day of the week it is as every day is the same. I’ve developed a bit of a corona schedule for my day. They are not always  in this order and sometimes I mix it up – nor do I always get up at 8. 

8:00  Breakfast and internet time. I try to work on my blog for a bit but not traveling makes it more difficult. Play some scrabble. 

9:30  ZOOM Yoga every Friday with Michelle Azar Aron or her face book yoga  on other days.  I haven’t done yoga in a year and a half and I can feel it. I try to switch off every other day with Pilates so it doesn’t hurt so much.

https://us04web.zoom.us/j/351065504?pwd=SnV3UzIxd2xVNS9ieUp0aGtHNkJWQT09

Meeting ID: 351 065 504 Password: 914811

11:00 Tai Chi / Qi Gong with Olivia Rosewood. Olivia is doing a 15 minute Qi Gong Tai Chi warm up which is a great way to start the day. 

https://www.facebook.com/oliviarosewood

11:30 if I can get it to work, I do another twenty minutes of QI Gong breathing  with Samuel Barnes on his face book page .

12:00  Spend time brushing my dogs hair because he is starting to get matted and dreadlocks are forming. After, we go out on the deck and run around. Today i spoke to a nice man at Mobile Groomers who told me what tools and shampoo to buy to detangle my dog and taught me what to do. This should be interesting.  He felt that cutting the nails and expressing  the anal glands was above my skill level. He was right. Soon I will learn how to color my own hair.

12:30 Lunch  is whatever we have in the house. It usually involves peanut butter.

1:00 I am taking this Yale class online.. It is an interesting time to be taking it but when do you have this kind of time? It is called The Science Of Well Being and I’m really enjoying it. I spend one to two hours a day on it.

https://www.businessinsider.com/coursera-yale-science-of-wellbeing-free-course-review-overview

2:00 This  is a good time to get  dressed or at least change into a different pair of sweat pants,  clean up the house and make the bed.

3:00 We go for a walk with the dog on the beach or  the Speedway. The Speedway is less windy but more crowded with bikers and skateboarders. It is easier to navigate the six feet thing there than on our less crowded but very narrow streets. Everyday we have more  and more quarantine gear. Almost everyone is wearing masks now. The bikers freak me out because they come so close. It feels good to get out of the house. 

4:30 Meditate for half an hour. 

5:30 Treadmill and some TV for half an hour. We don’t walk so fast because I have a little dog who likes to stop a lot.  I’m binge watching the Gilmore Girls- anything light  and mindless to avoid the constant corona virus news coverage. 

6:00 Check in on family and friends – some I haven’t seen in a long time but I find myself thinking about people and wondering how they are doing.

7:00 Dinner.  The BF has taken on the quarantine cooking challenge and our dinners are always creative and delicious. We have made it more interesting by comparing dinners with a couple of friends. It is not supposed to be a competition but…… We are also trying to support our favorite restaurants that are still open by doing some take out.

9:00 TV and Reading. Three seasons of Silicon Valley and Unorthodox. Now we are watching Top Chef.  I have read Angle Of Repose and currently Americanah. 

We have started Corona Catering for our respective kids. It is nice to do something for someone else during this time. There  is a lot of me time. But instead of hair, skin and nails it is more about calming my brain, being grateful and being in the present. I wonder what changes I will make in my life and what new habits I will  take with me when this is over. 

Stay Safe,

JAZ

Beaches In Bahia, Brazil

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Beaches in Bahia, Brazil

“May you always have a shell in your pocket and sand in your shoes.” unknown

What does it mean to be happy? 

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For me, it means to be on some of the most beautiful beaches in Brazil, drinking coconut water from fresh coconuts, picking up shells and rocks.

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I always come home with sand in my suitcase.

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 On our last day we go out to Ilha Dos Frades We Anthony Bourdained it and instead of the crowded boats with live music and people dancing (also fun) , it is just us. I’m the king of the world.

 

Fly safe,

JAZ

 

 

Staying Sane In An Insane World

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“The most insane things can become normal if you have them around you long enough. A mind can’t seem to hold anything too crazy for too long without finding a way to make it seem normal.” Deb Caletti

You can get used to anything. You think you can’t but you can. When I came home from New Zealand I had horrible anxiety every time I turned on the TV. There was another Presidential order that was always badly rolled out and more protests. There is way too much bad news bombarding us twenty-four hours a day.

A few weeks later, I just feel numb. I am becoming desensitized. Things were said today  that went almost unnoticed. A month ago they would have been front page news. What is going on in America is wrong and it takes all my sanity to get through the day. In the midst of all this I am trying to live a conscious life of kindness and intelligence. Just because America is going insane does not mean that I have to follow.

The cause of these external events have been a long time in the making. They did not just happen. There are no simple answers. Finding a scapegoat to blame sounds very fascist to me. It’s the Muslims. It’s the Feminists. It’s the Immigrants. It’s the Jews. It’s the NRA.  It’s the Whites. It’s the Blacks. It’s ISIS. It’s the Environmentalists. It’s the Left. It’s the RIght. It is so convenient to have someone to blame – especially when said in a confident, authoritative voice. It’s becoming really hard to separate the real threats from the manufactured ones.

Here are some real threats. There are 117 suicides in the U.S. each day compared to 43 murders. There are 129 deaths from accidental drug overdoses. Ninety six  people a day die  in automobile accidents (27 of whom aren’t wearing seat belts). There are 1,315 deaths each day due to smoking, and 890 related to obesity, and all the other preventable deaths from strokes, heart attacks and liver disease.

I need meditation and yoga in my life now.  I can’t exhale this out. Beaches and travel help. I allow a short time period to watch the news and take days off. It looks to me like all this fear mongering is illogical. We are the biggest threat to ourselves.

Fly safe,

JAZ

Things I Have Learned In Tel Aviv, Israel

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Things I Have Learned In Tel Aviv, Israel

“The only thing chicken about Israel is their soup.”  Bob Hope

Tel Aviv is called “the city that never sleeps”

Tel Aviv is Israel’s second largest city in Israel.The city is the center of economy, culture and the media of Israel.

The Tel Aviv Museum Of Art designed by Preston Scott Cohen is all beautiful light and angles.

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I loved the exhibition by David Tartakover.

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He is a famous Israeli artist who took on the county’s political history with his minimalist poster designs.

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There are over one hundred sushi restaurants in Tel Aviv…making it the city with  the  most sushi restaurants per capita after Tokyo and New York. I did not eat sushi there. It was very hot out and I was not feeling the raw fish thing. 

Jaffa is the old port city in the southern part of Tel Aviv.

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It is a big tourist attraction with Jews, Arabs, artists, galleries, a flea market (Shuk Hapishpishim), restaurants and bars all coexist in the historic buildings.

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Jaffa’s ancient past is still being excavated.Part of the fun of old Jaffa is exploring its winding streets and alleyways down to the port. 

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The port has been gentrified but  you can  see fishermen throw out their nets and  hear the call to prayer.

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It takes a little less than an hour to drive between Jerusalem and Tel Aviv (43 miles).

Tel Aviv is also known as the “white city”, for some old zones of Tel Aviv, with more than 4,000 structures associated with he Bauhaus style of architecture.

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Every Tuesday and Friday, hundreds of residents and visitors make their way to the  Nahalat Binyamin Arts And Crafts Fair. 

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 Since 1987, this street fair has more than two hundred artists and craftspeople selling ceramics, jewelry, toys, wood art, blown glass, wearable art and recycled creations. There’s a committee selection process to ensure quality.

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The Carmel Market, known in Hebrew as the Shuk HaKarmel, is one of the must-sees in Tel Aviv. They sell everything from cds and clothes to fresh fruit and produce. It is one of the best places to try street food in Tel Aviv.

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Friday (when I was there) is the most crowded time to visit the market.

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Every one hundred meters in Tel Aviv there is a juice stand. They all somehow manage to make a living. In the last decade the city exploded with juice stalls. Pomegranate juice is my favorite.

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The city has thirteen official beaches.

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You will find in every declared beach, free changing rooms, toilets, lifeguard supervision and rescue station, chairs, umbrellas and sun beds for rent.

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Rescuers’ working hours are 7am -7pm.

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Tel Aviv’s climate could almost be interchangeable with Miami. Heat and humidity rule for most of the year and winters are mild.

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Eighteen out of Israel’s thirty five  performing arts centers are located in Tel Aviv.

The emblem of Tel Aviv was designed by artist Nahum Guttman in the 1950s and features seven stars to represent the seven-hour working day that Zionist thinker Theodor Herzl held to be the ideal work day.

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.Tel Aviv is the capital of Israel’s cafe culture.  Many of the cafes founded before Israel became a state in 1948 are still popular today.

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טיולים בטוחים,

JAZ

Things People Like To Do In Tel Aviv, Israel With A Little Help From My Friends

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Things People Like To Do In Tel Aviv With A Little Help from My Friends

“In Israel, in order to be a realist, you must believe in miracles” David Ben-Gurion

I like TA for the reasons I like any big city. I like to start at one end and just walk around and walk and get lost and learn a new neighborhood with each turn. TA is as varied as they come. And last time I was there, I got introduced to NAMAL, the sports center which now house restaurants and pubs,tons of music each and overnight of the week and has enough for little kids to do as well. They host an oneg shabbat apparently that gets thousands of people each Friday night. And you can spend time there, walk down the beach, through the gay area, down past the fancy hotels, where you might find Israeli Dancing and then keep on walking through ice cream spots for tourists and down right into Jaffa. A mass of odd delights and history. MA

Go to this gallery:  http://www.alonsegev.com/
Stay at the Hotel Diagalev if you can. Go to a concert or ballet at the big performing arts center. IT”S AMAZING THERE. SH

Shopping in Neve Tzedek.  Cute trendy stores.  I bought great sandals there.
Also there are fabulous museums.  The Palmach Museum is interactive.  Don’t know how far it is from Tel Aviv. JL

Though Tel Aviv has a number of attractions, sitting in an outdoor restaurant at the seaside eating fresh fish is one favorite. Also going to the flea markets and seeing what treasures I can find. HM

Falafel falafel falafel oh and hummus. it never tastes the same anywhere else. JZ

Tel Aviv is the most special city! I did a Bauhaus walking tour. I think it started from the Bauhaus center/bookstore/museum on Dizengoff Street. I also liked walking around Jaffa and visiting the different markets. Of course, the beach.RA

The Hacarmel market is a large lively market selling fresh produce, fish, meat, cheese, flowers and souvenirs. It gets very crowded with locals and tourists so go early.Its fun to pick up food and head over to Hayarkon Park for a picnic lunch. GP

I loved going to HaTachanah, the Ottoman Train Station. It is a delightful place to spend a day. I loved walking on the promenade at the beach at sunset/twilight.There are very cool restaurants like Hazaken v’Hayam for a great lunch (dinner, too, but we loved lunch there). Messa and Deca are both very hip and very cool spots! LOB

Tel Aviv has amazing beaches. There are more relaxed local beaches to the South and fancier beaches near the five-star hotels. SL

I love old Jaffa. There are artist’s workshops gardens,
restaurants, cool stores and flea markets. Tel Aviv is one of the best party cities in the world. There are so many clubs, bars and restaurants to try. EC

Fly safe,

JAZ

My Top Ten Instagram Photos This Year (travelwellflysafe)

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“Just give me a thousand words and you may make your own pictures.”
Erica Goros

I have been instagramming for about half of the year. I see the world in pictures anyway so it is really fun for me. I learn as I go. I have “internet brain” now. i think it’s going to be a real thing. It is getting harder and harder to immerse myself in a book or lengthy article. It is much easier to spend time looking at photos that have nothing to do with anything, places I want to go or have been or finding the perfect emoji to put on my comment. My topic hopping, time-wasting, hashtagging, bad spelling sessions have resulted in this blog. (No particular order)

#sunset (Yesilkurt,Turkey)

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#hiking in#redmountain (St. George, Utah)

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impossibly#wide #beach (Marajo, Brazil)

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Can you take a bad #Venice photo? (Italy)

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#car in#cuba (Varadero,Cuba)

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#streetart in #bogota (Colombia)

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Holding up the #mountain just noticed the #cross (Tilcara, Jujuy, Argentina)

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#cactus or #cacti  (Jujuy, Argentina)

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#sunset makes the best #photo (Izmir, Turkey)

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Another boring day in #marajo (Belém, Brazil)

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None of my LA photos made it into the top ten. Instagram likes me out-of-town, with mountains, a beach and a great sunset. I agree.

Fly safe,

JAZ