Parking – 11.16.10

I park illegally in Teverya every day.

Rafi, our landlord, assured us that we could park on the street in front of the house even though it has the RED and white stripes along the curb. He told us that if we ever got a parking ticket for parking there, he would pay it. So far, no ticket. We've also noticed that many other people park on our street.

We spent the past few days in Yerushalayim. Ester found a great vacation rental in Shaarei Chesed, which had plenty of space for our family and my parents who were visiting from N.Y. We knew that parking in Yerushalayim could be very difficult. There were some parking spaces on our street that required a "parking permit". These "permits" are purchased from the little machines scattered throughout the city. We had one of those machines on the corner. Permits were required (on this street) from 8am-6pm (or 18:00) Sunday-Thursday, and 8am-1pm on Friday. The cost is 5.20NIS for an hour.

Thursday - I made sure to be out of the house by 8am so that I could purchase a permit (with about 2 hrs. on it). Later that morning, we ventured out to the Old City. We parked in the Mamilla parking lot, which is not cheap. We returned to Shaarei Chesed after 6pm and parked the car for the night.

Friday – Again, I purchased a permit in the morning. Since driving to the shuk didn't seem like a good option (really – where would I park and who wants to deal with Friday shuk traffic?) we ended up leaving the car where it was and purchasing a permit that extended until 1pm.

Motzaei Shabbat – No need to move the car (or pay for parking). We walked to the midrechov (hadn't been there in 10 years!) and eventually made our way back to the house.

Sunday – Purchased the permit again at 8am. Later, we loaded everyone into the Hyundai – H1 and headed towards Geula/Mea She'arim. After navigating our way through the city (almost found our way into East Jerusalem), we found a parking spot on a side street in Geula. We purchased the parking permit and continued on foot into the heart of the Ultra-Orthodox neighborhoods (where it is posted on the wall that Zionists may not pass through.) We returned to our car, moments before our permit expired. Upon our return to Shaarei Chesed, at 4pm, I proceeded to the corner permit machine to purchase a permit for two hours. I placed the coins in the machine; the machine accepted the payment and then failed to print the permit. We called the "problem" number that was posted on the machine and informed the "problem solver" of the problem. He told us that we should put a note on the car, stating that we had paid for the permit but the machine failed to print it. He also said that if we were to be issued a parking ticket, we could call a certain number, fax in a form, etc. and the ticket would be thrown out. So, we wrote the note and placed it in the window of the car, where we would normally place the permit.

Monday – We found a parking ticket on the car. It was from Sunday at 4:46pm. So now we need to go through the whole process of having the ticket thrown out. AARRGGHHH! Apparently, the machine had been fixed, as we were now able to purchase our usual morning permit. Later on we drove to the "City Center" and parked in the Migdal Ha'Ir parking lot. That was really not cheap! We returned to Shaarei Chesed later in the afternoon and bought our final parking permit for our Yerushalayim visit. After loading up the car, we opted to go for dinner on Emek Refaim by the German Colony. It was pretty hard to find a spot there. Eventually we did find a meter. We fed the meter and then went to feed ourselves.

After dropping off my parents at the airport we travelled back to Teverya where I simply parked my car illegally as usual. No problem.