Shabbat

Shabbat. Also known as Friday/ Saturday. It was very interesting to say the least. You would think that an international hotel in a large metropolitian area wouldn't follow the local religious customs. But they do. So does much of Israel. Our first clue was a sign on the elevators that on Shabbat, you can only use one elevator at a time. We rolled our eyes and thought it was weird, but moved on.
It starts Friday at sundown. The automatic door at the entrance is no longer automatic. We attempt to go upstairs in an elevator only to have the doors almost squish Lena. A man next to us explained that it's Shabbat and they set the elevators to only allow one to work at a time. So apparently they try to reserve use of electricity. The next morning the same thing with the elevators. We had to wait a while to get one. Downstairs in the breakfast buffet, they can not make a latte because they cannot use electricity to heat the milk. Okay... Oh, they also signed us in with paper rather than turn on the computer. We head up stairs to see if I can use the internet to check email, the computer is off. The entire town is shut down. Stores are closed. Some arab owned places are open, but the majority is closed.
Very interesting, especially coming from a 24 hour/ 7 days a week state. People work 5 1/2 day work weeks, 7 hours a day. Still comes out to be 40 hours.