I have no idea why I thought it would be cheap in Israel. For starters I was already disappointed in Turkey last April. There, a cup of coffee was sometimes more expensive than in Finland. Not mentioning prices in the hotel’s shop where the level of prices would make every central bank raise interest rates and labour unions go on strike and ask for higher salaries.

Israel seems to be a similar story. Examples? Considering that an exchange rate is roughly 1e=4.5 shekel – a small bottle of water: 5 shekels, a kilo of cherries in the open market: 24 shekels, lunch at the campus: 50.70 shekels. Don’t they subsidy university’s cafeteria? Do they have such harsh weather that fruits are so expensive? I was shocked finding out that a small bottle of water costs almost the same as in Finland, famously the most expensive country in the euro zone. (In Finland, lunch for students in universities’ cafeterias cost around 2.35-2.5e.)

These prices are not just for tourists. They are also for local students and local people. I saw a place on the tourist route where a sandwich cost 35 shekels. Is it with kobe meat and sprinkled with gold?

Surely, there is no doubt that it is worth coming here. But this ain’t a shoppers’ heaven.