Leaving Israel turned out to be way harder than getting in.

I arrived at the airline counter an hour and a half before my flight. I was confident that was plenty of time (they usually close check-in 40 minutes before departure). But when I got there, it turned out I was just a couple minutes before they shut it down.

Then things got interesting at security. They pulled me aside to a separate area for a detailed search, and I spent over an hour there. The officers went through all my belongings, basically examining every single document individually. They even literally searched inside my pants with some kind of explosive trace detector (this happened in a closed booth behind a screen).

It all ended when my laptop triggered some kind of sensor. After a million clarifying questions, I was told that according to protocol, my laptop would have to go on a different flight. They packed it up right in front of me, sealed it, and even gave me a receipt like it was extra baggage so I could track it if needed. Then they wished me a good flight.

I finally made it to the gate about 5 minutes after departure time. Luckily the plane hadn't left yet and they hadn't even finished boarding. The last passengers were casually scanning their boarding passes.

Well, I didn't get my laptop in Belgrade (shocker), and on top of that, they forgot my luggage at the connection in Istanbul. They promised to deliver everything to my place tomorrow. We'll see how that works out.

PS. I'm back in Serbia, but there are a couple more things about Israel I want to share. I'll write about that a bit later.