Twelve Days In The Middle East

We are flying back to NYC today, we’ll be in the air all day. I’m wishing we would have chosen to take the overnight flight last night and skipped the last dinner/evening in Tel Aviv, but that’s not the call we made six months ago.

It has been a fantastic family trip. Here’s the basic outline of what we did, courtesy of foursquare and google maps. If you click on that link, you’ll get the details on all 57 checkins I did on this trip, in reverse chronological order.

Middle east trip

The Gotham Gal has blogged the entire trip, twenty-two blogs posts in all, two and a half pages worth of blog posts full of pictures and descriptions.

Twelve days, breakfast to dinner every day, is a lot of face time with three young adults who value their time alone and independence. We had a few moments on this trip like we always do, but all in all we seem to have survived it.

We’ve been meaning to do this trip for years and I’m glad we finally did it. I suspect that all of our kids will be back in Tel Aviv soon enough. And the Gotham Gal and I are certain we will be back soon too. Given how much technology stuff is going in here, it’s hard to ignore Israel as a center for technology innovation and venture capital investing. If only the flight was shorter and they had in air wifi. I’ll be back on the grid in the new year.

Happy new year everyone.



#Blogging On The Road

Comments (Archived):

  1. Ronen Mendezitsky

    I’m always am happy to hear that people travel to Israel and find that we have some pretty awesome technological ventures here and lots of potential. I have seen this much lately, that investors travel worldwide in search for the next big thing and not just stay cooped up in their own nearby scene. I assume the Internet is yet again bringing the world together on many ends.

  2. Abo0odi Gm

    Israel is terrorists

    1. kidmercury

      i would phrase it a bit differently, since it’s such a controversial topic. i would say that like the united states, the powers in control of the state of israel have engaged in terrorist activities. i.e. mossad involvement in 9/11.http://www.infowars.com/mor…unfortunately a rational discussion of this is even more impossible than a rational discussion of america’s involvement in 9/11, as there are too many people who falsely equate criticism of israel with criticism of judaism, and thus will dismiss you as racist hater of some sort. getting to the truth of what is going on and has been going on in the middle east is virtually impossible as well, given the amount of propaganda there is. but that problem will need to be solved, and soon. and fortunately i think it will be as the collapse of the current world structure continues.

      1. Aviah Laor

        “unfortunately a rational discussion of this is even more impossible” … I would start with other places, anywhere but the middle east, if you seek rational discussions πŸ™‚

      2. RichardF

        a bizarre thing happened today Kid, someone posted a dvd through my door with the hand written title “the truth about 9/11 and the twin towers” – you are not alone, you obviously have a compatriot here in the UK.Happy New Year!

    2. fredwilson

      I didn’t see any evidence of that

  3. Danny Strelitz

    Happy to hear you enjoyed Israel, and to see you were well fed (Gotham Gal pictures are very good). There was an AVC meetup when you were here in Israel and we expected you (joking). I do really think you should come over just to smell the israeli tech scene. Well, next time. πŸ™‚

    1. fredwilson

      I’m bummed I missed it. Next time for sure

  4. RichardF

    Best wishes for the New Year, Fred and all of the AVC community.

    1. Dave Pinsen

      Happy New Year to you too, Richard. I’ve enjoyed reading your comments here over the year.

      1. RichardF

        likewise Dave πŸ™‚

  5. aveeck

    Happy New Year, Fred!

  6. awaldstein

    Happy New Year Fred and safe travels.Having international wifi would change a lot of business and travel patterns. I fly redeye all the time to sleep when I can’t work crossing the pond.BTW..you missed the storm in New York but the cold and slush await you ;)The storm in my neighborhood @ http://bit.ly/ePSBOz.

  7. Tereza

    Happy New Year’s, everyone. Let’s go gangbusters in 2011.

  8. MattCope

    Nice.I’ve been hankering for a Daya’a shawarma for 5 years.

  9. William Mougayar

    Your trip was a whirlwind. I was tired just thinking of you packing/unpacking every 2-3 days, moving around, and blogging at the same time. Gotham Gal hinted that you may need another vacation after this vacation, lol. On the bright side, you’ll soon look back and say We did a lot in 12 days. So, this reminds of me of The Twelve Days of Christmas…Here it goes:On the twelfth day of our trip, My readers sent to me Twelve Comments drumming, Eleven Shares piping, Ten Likes a-leaping, Nine Tweets dancing, Eight Replies a-milking, Seven Check-ins a-swimming, Six? New York is waiting, Five Jordanian rings, Four Tweetie birds, Three Egyptian hens, Two Israeli doves, And a partridge in a pear tree!HAPPY NEW YEAR EVERYBODY πŸ™‚ πŸ™‚ πŸ™‚ πŸ™‚

    1. fredwilson

      You are the poet laureate of the AVC community although Tereza couldchallenge you for that role

      1. William Mougayar

        Tereza, Bring it on..

        1. Donna Brewington White

          The thing is, she can. But you’re a tough act to follow! ;-)Of course, T would do it in Haiku…Poetic sparringWith eloquent MougayarTrΓ¨s formidable!

          1. William Mougayar

            Lol. En francais?

          2. Donna Brewington White

            haha — Je parle un peu Francais — anyway “en francais” would mess up the syllable count — had to check the French dictionary to make sure “formidable” didn’t lose a syllable with the French pronunciation.My goal is to become fluent — beginning this year!Bonne AnnΓ©e!

  10. OurielOhayon

    Glad you enjoyed it. Be sure that the whole high tech community goes with your wish of shorter flight, which is even worse when you fly to the valley (no direct to date!)ps: i see you visited all the great hotspot, include the place i got married πŸ™‚

    1. Dave Pinsen

      “Be sure that the whole high tech community goes with your wish of shorter flight…”So why not make it happen? Why not resurrect supersonic passenger air travel? The technology already exists, after all. And if the whole high tech community wishes for shorter flights, there’s a built-in demand for it.

  11. Aviah Laor

    Happy new year everybody. To the pay window.

  12. Ovi Jacob

    Great trip. Great spot for tech entrepreneurship. Shout out to my man @hilzfuld whose interview you linked last post, a top dog in the TA tech scene

  13. ShanaC

    Happy New Years(PS: if your kids want to go back, they can go for free. Or get seriously scholarship money to study there for a semester or two when they hit college. Might be interesting if your son decided to become an engineer – he could hang around the Technion for nothing)

    1. RichardF

      Happy New Year Shana

      1. ShanaC

        Happy New Year and Binary Day Richard. May this year bring you closer to your goals.

  14. Mark Essel

    Happy new year AVC folks πŸ™‚

    1. RichardF

      Happy New Year Mark, best wishes for 2011

      1. Mark Essel

        Thanks Richard, so far so good

  15. Donna Brewington White

    Happy New Year, Fred! Thank you for all that you do! You rock.Happy New Year AVC Community! You truly make my world more fun and have educated, enriched and amused me immensely. Thank you.The best of everything in 2011 for each of you!

    1. RichardF

      Happy New Year Donna, hope you’ve had a great holiday.

      1. Donna Brewington White

        Thank you, Richard. Started the new year by sleeping a full 8 hours…am still in shock from the experience!A wonderful, happy New Year to you and your family.

  16. Kelley Boyd @msksboyd

    Globalization is an important aspect of innovation, and we (Americans) certainly do not have a lock on leading the next wave of meaningful innovation. Myopic perspectives and lack of diversity is a limiting factor for innovation. Fostering a measurable change to diminish the ism’s is a good goal for the coming decade. Whether it is sexism, racism, ageism, or elitism we, as thought leaders in what could be the most rapid evolution of social change in our history, must get ahead of these to breed the “best of” for ourselves and our progeny.And BIG thanks to GothamGal for the engaging and entertaining journal of your holiday. Though I have yet to visit Israel, I have worked with a number of Israeli’s and companies born from military technology in my history and have had really really good professional experiences. In fact, I am happy to have welcomed the new year with my closest friend in NY, an Israeli. We talked of lives lived so differently, yet we are so similar. I think it speaks to the way that the culture differs. I am an oddball here, but I fit right in with what I have come to know as the “traditional” Israeli woman…assertive, confident, tenacious, opinionated and outspoken.Since that is how I roll, that means you will keep hearing more from me, and about me, and hopefully from all of you as progress is made on the agenda for balance in leadership. Happy New Year Fred, and the people of the list!

  17. ilan peer

    I wish trans-Atlantic flights will be as snappy as the internet connects us (all).If only the aviation science would had developed as fast as other technologies… hmm… Happy new year!

  18. Jan Schultink

    You acquired the Tel Aviv restaurant expertise of a local. Happy New Year to everyone!

  19. paramendra

    I have a new admiration for FourSquare for the visualization. Now I think I can go brave reading all of the Gotham Gal’s posts from the vacation. I have skimmed them but so far have been too intimidated to plough through them all: my declared intention.