How to pay for parking in Israel

People say it is tough to find a parking spot in Tel Aviv, but I never had trouble finding a spot. There are many curbs painted blue and white, and it is legal to park next to a blue-and-white curb as long as you pay. Good luck figuring out how to pay.

There are no parking meters. You could pay at a pay station, which spits out a receipt that you put on your dashboard, but pay stations are surprisingly rare. Most parking spaces are not within line of sight of a pay station, and I am unaware of any good method for locating nearby pay stations.

Israelis use smartphone apps to pay for parking. The two popular ones are Pango and Cellopark. Just put in your teudat zehut* number or connect your Israeli credit card, and you're all set. If you don't have a teudat zehut number or an Israeli credit card, you cannot use these apps.

The best (only) method I found to reliably pay for parking as a non-Israeli was to buy an electronic device called an EasyPark, which is basically a do-it-yourself parking meter. You put money on the EasyPark the way you would a prepaid debit card. When you find a spot, you turn on the EasyPark, tell it what city you're in, and hook the device onto your window so parking attendants can see that you're paying. The device deducts money from your prepaid account until you turn it off. Add money to your EasyPark account at any gas station.

Where can you buy an EasyPark? The post office of course! Post offices in Israel function as many-purpose municipal outlets. If you get a parking ticket, maybe because you didn't know about EasyPark yet and couldn't find a pay station, then you can pay the parking ticket at a post office. I've been told you can also open a bank account at a post office. Israeli post offices keep strange hours. The post office I tried in Tel Aviv was closed at 2pm. But the post office at Ben Gurion Airport--yes, there's a post office at the airport--is open nearly 24 hours a day.

* National identification card for citizens = תעודת זהות

Is there a map?

My Israeli sim card from Cellcom was too large for my Galaxy S5 phone. A friend told me that cell phone stores can clip the sim cards to fit different phones. Neither Cellcom's website nor google maps was helpful in identifying a Cellcom location, so I went to the Ayalon Mall, which I assumed would have an outlet. Seeing no map at the entrance, I approached a woman at a nearby kiosk.

Me: Excuse me, is there a map?

Woman: Where do you want to go?

M: Is there a Cellcom store?

[She points to her right.]

W: Go all the way to the end of this wing, it will be on your left.

I felt this interaction was pretty typical of my experience in Israel. I often don't know how to do something or where to find something, but usually there's a person around who can help if I ask. On one hand, it's nice that somebody is there who is willing and able to help. On the other hand, why can't there just be a map?