Kosher Food And Booking Passover Flights, Hotels and Seder Night Meals When Travelling

Kosher Food For Passover And Seder Nights
In Singapore I booked a Friday night meal at a synagogue. They did not take money on the Sabbath so I had to pay in advance. Sometimes the solution is to make a donation by arriving before Sabbath starts, and putting it into a donation box.

Early arrangements are even more essential for communal Seder nights worldwide. One solution is to book a kosher meal at a synagogue, a kosher hotel, a ship offering kosher food, or go to Israel to visit family friends, or a hotel there. If you are planing to travel at Easter or Passover, like Christmas and Chinese New Year in Asia, you are likely to find flights are full and you need to book early to get a seat at a good price, or to get a seat at all.

Israel
One year I went to Israel and found a Jewish friend who had a relative. After a flurry of correspondence I was invited for a Seder night.

Gifts
If you are looking for a gift, online shops are full of gifts suitable for special occasions. For an engaged or married couple, you can even get an embroidered cover with the first names of the man and woman.

In addition to Israel, you might find kosher foods in many other countries, including the USA, UK and South Africa and Australia. Where there are smaller communities, you could check with a synagogue or a free publication in a kosher shop. Look for advertisements in newspaper in areas with Jewish populations.

Photo from Pretoria Travel in Wikipedia article on kosher food.

With Eurovision in Israel after Netta's win with the song Toy, expect renewed interest in travel to Israel.

Useful websites
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kosher_foods

https://www.amazon.co.uk

visitbritain.com
visittheusa.co.uk
visitbritain.shop.com
visitsingapore.com
www.lonelyplanet.com/Australia
https://new.goisrael.com/
Author
Angela Lansbury, travel writer and photographer, author and speaker. I have many more posts on Kosher food, Israel, food worldwide. Please share links to your favourite posts.

Holidays From Hell - Stories For You To Tell in Traffic Jams

Problem
What do you do when you are stuck in a traffic jam or stranded on a plane runway for hours?

Answer
Tell stories of other holidays from hell.

Stories
My Travel Disaster Stories
Fire Alarms
In Scotland at the Achiltibuie hotel, a fire alarm went off in the middle of breakfast. We all had to abandon our buffet breakfast and go down the steps onto a terrace lawn. We could hear the fire engine blaring up the steep hill to the top of the hill where our huge hotel commanded a great view. The chefs were also evacuated, standing on the terrace in a group with their white hats. Also evacuated, a bride and groom - the bride in a long while - night-dress.

Flood
At Swanwick Writer's Holiday in Derbyshire, one year the site was flooded after heavy rain. The accommodation blocks were separate from the main blocks with classes and evening entertainment and the lounge and bar. Going back your feet were up to their ankles in muddy water and frogs were jumping about.

In Germany our car was broken into in Koln (Cologne).

Another car was broken into in Prague.

A third in the zoo car park in Madrid - after a group had mugged us in Marbella stealing my leather handbag and contents.

I was stuck in mid-air on a three person chairlift in a ski resort in the USA.

Worst of all, in Corsica I was on a bus which broke down on the way to the airport to go home. We were all closing the road from the broken down bus when a car came over the brow of the hill and knocked me down. 1984. I had multiple injuries including ribs broken in two places, a broken collar bone, a cracked shoulder blade, a head injury which left me bleeding from my ear, with everything spinning around more than 100 times when I tired to sit up. I ended up in a hospital in Corsica where they did not even speak French, my only other language, but Italian dialect. I tried talking to the woman in the next bed fro a day. She said nothing. Eventually I asked somebody to translate. He explained that she could not talk because she had had an operation on her jaw.

Theft
Singapore - my shoulder bag was stolen, containing a British passport, a Singapore citizens card, money, my new UK iPhone and my Singapore handphone.

Here are some fearsome photos from the internet in the Daily Mail online newspaper. My favourite is the frogs in the toilet. But that was after a flood.

Tips
If you like to convince the family or friends that your problems are not as bad as you thought, print out a copy of one of these photos, keep it concealed, then bring it out as a distraction. When your car breaks down, you can look at the picture of the elephant straddled across a mini car.
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/travel/travel_news/article-4283256/Hair-raising-capture-travel-scenarios-gone-wrong.html

Angela Lansbury, travel writer and photographer, author and speaker.