Dosvidania to Bali – Shalom to Israel 6-11-14

I spent my last week in Bali primarily working on a Bali inspired art piece. I decided with this long term traveling, I can’t always be on the move site seeing… I need some downtime to be creative, so even though I was in the beautiful Bali with plenty to still see, I was happy to hang out on my guesthouse terrace and work on some art… Admit it Eryn, you are just one of those creative types that needs to have a project going… Traveling is not conducive to carrying art supplies though.. Huh… Guess I’ll have to ditch some more clothes… Problem solved…

I’m still not done yet with the art piece, so you only get snippets of the process of it for now…

I drank lots of coffee hanging out painting…

Using Balinese newspaper for mixed media…

Meet Fluffy…  Chief art supervisor…

While in Seminyak, Bali, I stayed in a small guesthouse, like a one room detached villa, separate from a beautiful larger main house that was rented out to a family… We shared a pool and I had access to their large kitchen, so that was nice.  It was a husband and wife and their adult son with his wife and their 4 year old daughter… Super cute little Russian family traveling all together.  Luckily we all liked each other… LOL Eryn, how cool you get to hang out with some Russians and practice the language you studied for 5 years (that you’ve mostly forgotten)…  The first day with them, just about the only thing I remembered was, Ya ne panimayou (Russian for I don’t understand – LOL)  I had so much fun listening to them and picking up certain words and phrases and then attempting to talk to them… Really cool to spend time with my new Russian friends.  And the language skills really do come back when you’re in the environment. Who the hell chooses Russian as their language to learn anyway?  Ummm you do, Eryn, that’s who!!!

I decided I’d try to work work work on my painting and see if I could finish it before my Israel trip (and hopefully like it enough) to try and pitch it to a local gallery… May be a bit ambitious Eryn, don’t get too excited about it… I talked about it with the owner of the guesthouse and she hooked me up with an art gallery where she had attended some art parties.

Meet Jihad… Yep, that’s right, I said Jihad…  After all, Indonesia does have the largest percentage of muslim population…  Sweet dog…

I went over to the gallery to check it out and to introduce myself to the owner, a nice French woman… It’s this cool, hip, funky, eclectic, contemporary gallery – No Kincaide landscapes here… Long story short, we talked for a bit and she liked my Bali funk art and said she’d love to have it in her gallery if I could get her 4 or 5 pieces… She explained that they only do groupings of art, not individual pieces… Whaaat, whaaat, you’ll take my art??? Whoa, 4 or 5 pieces… Holy cow batman, that would be awesome!!! Except I hadn’t even finished with my first Bali piece – I’ve got some work to do… Holy serendipitous/fate/luck/karma/divine intervention getting me to that particular gallery which I actually liked, and they liked me. I had been brooding over how to even begin finding a gallery in Bali where we both meshed – and on a deadline to leave the country – and concerned about Balinese corruption I’d heard about in dealing with local businesses.  Wow, spaceba (Russian – thank you) universe… 

Now that I’d had a successful meet with a gallery, that took the pressure off to finish the piece and now I didn’t have to roam the streets talking to gallery owners before my departure…  I could relax and enjoy my last day in Bali… Just chill, Eryn, chill… You have one good day left! 

My last day I had a leisurely breakfast in a café where I met an adorable Australian fellow – we decided to spend the day together since I was leaving late that night. We strolled through town, had a few Bintangs (Bali beer) and then ended the night with sunset on the Indian Ocean listening to music in bean bag chairs under umbrellas on the beach… Wow, what a way to end my time in Bali… We took a taxi to collect my bags at the guesthouse and I said dosvidania (goodbye) to my Russian friends – man I’m gonna miss hangin’ out with them… Off to the airport I went to catch my flight to Israel… Bye bye for now my new Australian friend – we will meet again…

Ok, this picture is possessed – I’ve rotated it like 18 times in my photo editing software and it won’t stay rotated….  Grrrr…

Two long flights, about 30 hours of traveling via South Korea, (goofy connection) I landed in Israel – Shalommmmmm… I was greeted at the airport by my friend Carolina from Miami, who had also just flown in, and our local Israeli friend, Dalite who was collecting both Carolina and I, and taking us back to her house. Dalite and her husband Rannan have been the most gracious hosts and wow, they have really taken care of us.

Here we are, 4 women, who met in India in 2012 as strangers, now coming together in Israel – They had invited us to come visit them when we last saw them in India, but I never actually thought I’d be here in Israel, their home country…

Here we are with Dalite and her husband Rannan.  They took us to have real Israeli hummus…  OMG, you guys back home, go straight to your refrigerator and throw out whatever store bought hummus you have.  It’s all crap, I’m tellin’ ya…  It’s just not worth eating if you’re not eating the good stuff…  Love love love Israeli hummus… Yummmmy!!!!!

There’s so much to say about Israel… I’ve learned so much and seen so much and done so much, I don’t even know where to start. There’s so much history here for such a small country. And the sites and the stories are unbelievable…   I could post to my blog every day about Israel and not even scratch the surface of interesting things to talk about here. Except you’re too busy to post every day, then you’d miss all the cool stuff around you…  Yeah, yeah, but my people need some good Israeli info…  

I’ll get into the full Israel experience with you in the next post, but here are some pictures of what I’ve been up to so far… Enjoy!!

“South Beach”of Israel – Eilat

This is the Gulf of Aqaba at the northern tip of the Red Sea, east of the Sinai Peninsula and west of the Arabian mainland.  It’s coastline is divided by four countries:  Israel, Egypt, Jordan and Saudi Arabia.

We spent a few days in the southeast of Israel in a beach town called Eilat.  It’s kind of like the South Beach Miami of Israel.  The mountains in the distance are in the neighboring country of Jordan.  Dalite and Rannan were kind enough to lend us their condo for several nights…  Whaaattt what?  How lucky are we?

Huh, do I need to worry about that battle ship off the coast of Aqaba Jordan just across the way?  Naahhhhhh…

Camel Riding in the Israeli Desert

Ok, that’s all for now folks… I’m now full into Israeli mode, having been here a week now… I’ll be posting more soon about this amazing country in conflict…

Thanks to all my friends, family and strangers for keeping up with me and my travels… XXOO