Turns out I'd never actually experienced a real Shabbat until I made it to Jerusalem.

The streets in the western part of the city literally empty out. Just this morning (and the evening before), they were bustling with traffic—tons of cars, buses, massive crowds of people. But by sunset, everything just vanishes. All that's left are the Orthodox rushing to the Western Wall and the occasional tourist.

I have to say, I'm oddly impressed by these 24/6 supermarkets. The cafes are closed too, by the way. If you don't stock up beforehand, you could actually go hungry. Though I'm exaggerating a bit—there are places run by non-Jews who aren't worried about losing Jewish customers, but there aren't many of those (observant folks won't go to a place operating on Shabbat).

Nothing like this existed in Tel Aviv. It's honestly pretty mind-blowing to see.