The flight was long, but I slept through most of it. Despite the constant noise, I was so exhausted, I barely noticed the time passing. The airline, in its wisdom, seated everyone alphabetically, leaving friends who wanted to sit together frantically trying to switch seats. A few regular passengers somehow ended up sitting amongst all us Birthright people – I felt sorry for them.
One memorable moment: being rudely awoken by a wine bottle falling out of the overhead compartment… and right onto my head. Ouch. It left a bump but no real damage – not to me, not to the wine.
We had a stop in New York on the way to Toronto. There was no plane change, but some passengers got off and others got on. Before we could leave, the flight attendants had to count the passengers to make sure the number was correct. They kept losing count and it took them over an hour, leading to a lot of “how many El Al flight attendants does it take to count a planeload of passengers” jokes.