My first truly first-class flight - lay down seats after relaxing in the Polaris Lounge for an hour. Taking an 11-hour flight halfway around the world, then having extremely minimal jet lag was incredible.
We stayed in a circular hotel, with a grand breakfast, then showed up to meet our hosts. We spent the days talking about tech, learning each others’ architectures, then the evenings checking out the nearby Sarona Market before eating at Malka. I woke up early the second morning to make sure I got the beach and Old City. It was quiet, walking through parks and next to old buildings.
Using Gett, I taxied there no problem - then spent 15 min waiting for a ride on the way back.
On our third day, the CTO of Dynamic Yield (DY) and his group planned a dinner out for the larger team - and we learned it was at Malka right after lunch. I hurriedly sent a message to the visiting group, telling them to keep it quiet that we’d been there previously, since finding kosher restaurants for large groups was hard.
Sitting down to dinner at Malka (again), our experiences were night and day - with the larger group, we had multiple courses and shared plates, versus the single meals we had ordered ourselves two days earlier. However, the conversation around the table turned to food, and a DYer asked Pan where he had eaten. Not wanting to lie, and with the “damage” already done, Pan said a few of us had eaten at Malka two days before.
The DY group’s reaction was as I expected - as the news trickled down the table, our DY host was gobsmacked we hadn’t mentioned it, then wryly indignant that we had “out-played” him, then impressed with our ability to “plot” against him.
Though we spent the next day in Jerusalem (where my haggling skills failed as I floundered with conversions and time), my memorable experience will be the CTO shaking his head at me for trying to keep the week on track and ultimately endearing our group to his.
