yup, that's right, GREECE. We think our stuff may be re-routed to Greece, Cypress to be exact. ugh. Isn't that what happened to the Jews on the EXODUS many years ago when they were trying to make it to Israel???
Backtrack...........rewind...........let me explain myself.................
On June 19th, before we left the states, we had all of our belongings including beds, dining room furniture, our bicycles, the kids' toys, books, clothing, kitchen stuff, a new bbq grill, some bookshelves, a new patio furniture set, oh wait, new pots and pans, a crock pot, (aargh, stop me, it's too painful!) etc. all loaded up on a big truck.
This truck took our stuff to the port, I assume in Miami or Ft. Lauderdale, where it was reloaded onto a container with someone else's stuff (separated by plywood between our shipments). [This is what is called shipping LCL, or less than a container load.] I think our container left the port in the US around the 22nd or 23rd of June, and we had an estimated date of arrival to the port of HAIFA (yes, good ole haifa) today, the 21st of July.
"But wait," you say, "isn't Haifa a bad spot these days due to the situation??"
And yes my friends, you are correct............the situation has put a damper on so much.........
[here is where I put in a disclaimer............I do not want this post to sound selfish, like who am I to complain about my stuff when people in Haifa and around the north are living in their miklatim (hebrew for bomb shelters)?..........and really, I don't want to sound like that. But in reality, I have heard over and over, and I agree, that if we let this stop us, then they will have gotten the better of us, and we do not want that. What we want most, for us, and for all of the region, is for the normal people to get on with our normal lives]
Anyway, back to the whole Haifa situation.........as it turns out, as I mentioned, our oceanliner was scheduled to arrive in Israel today, the 21st, into Haifa. Apparantly, since the Haifa port is closed (go figure), many of the ships are being re-routed a bit further south to Ashdod. But, since Ashdod is a smaller port and is not used to handling such a heavy load, things are getting backlogged. As a result, and even to completely avoid this and being in any part of the 'situation', many oceanliners are bypassing Israel completely and dropping stuff off in Greece.
The problem is that we have no clue at the moment whether or not our stuff is on one of the Souvlaki ships, or on a ship with loyalty to felafel!
So we wait while our stuff takes the Medditeranean cruise we've all dreamed of..........
>>>update, or addition............hubby just called, he's out (went to meet his friend S., they've been friends since they were like 9; they also went to high school together). Anyway, it turns out S. has a connection with the owner of the shipping company that it just so happened that we used. small world. S. is going to call motzei shabbat for us to see what he can find out.....aizeh olam katan! (what a small world...)
