1. Most apartment buildings are dark, mostly. There are these little switches all over the hallways of the stairs that you push to illuminate the public spaces. After about a flight’s walking time, they go off. But there’s always another one just a foot or two away, so you push that one and the lights go on again. A rather inspired way to save energy on a large scale (as basically every apt. building I’ve been in is like this), I think.
2. Seeing the names of lots of people I know–either personally or in the book-geek sense–on street signs everywhere. Besides Ramban, Ha-Ari, Bruria, Reish Lakish (etc.) there are Mandels and Lewinskys and even:
3. Pomegranates are such a central part of the cultural, er, aesthetic that they wind up popping up just about everywhere:
This is a sign at Hebrew U.
4. Pear yogurt. Fig yogurt. Rum Raisin yogurt. Passionfruit yogurt. Date yogurt. Coconut yogurt. Happiness is the dairy section of every Israeli supermarket.
5. Magic stairways! Off of lots of the main streets, you can find little stairway passages that wind up being fabulous shortcuts. It always seems like you should have to knock three times on the bookshelf to make them manifest, but maybe it’s more like that room in Harry Potter that appears whenever you need it. If you don’t know the city very well and/or exactly what you’re doing, though, it’s very easy to get lost trying to use ’em. But I’m just a stupid Muggle, what do I know?
