Stamps anyone?

So you want to mail a letter? First you need a stamp. I have never found any way of acquiring them other than going to the post office. In my town, nobody sells stamps. But the post office won't talk to you without an appointment. Yes, an appointment. You can't just stop by and use a vending machine. They don't have that. You have to go online and make an appointment which is never less than half a week away. You must arrive within a ten minute window or you missed your chance. So you come on time, wait, and then go to the service desk and deal with the grumpy, scowling Israeli clerk.

OK, so you got your stamps. If you took them home to say stick them on several letters, you now have to go back to the post office because there are no mail boxes in town and the postman surely isn't taking them from your house. Yes, you can only mail letters from the post office itself, at least in the town where I live. Since I don't have a car, I have to wait for the bus, or take the 10 minute walk to mail a letter. Sometimes, letters sit with me for weeks because I didn't have a chance to schelp to the post office.

This is episode 25 on the "they have all the modern conveniences" sham. 

Update: today I was in Jerusalem and passed the main post office. It appeared to be open so I thought let me go in and get some stamps. I went to a window and she directed me to the machine in the corner. Well, they have a machine there but  the credit card functionality isn't working now. So I tried to buy 1 with cash and that didn't work either. The clerk saw me struggling and called me over. At the clerk window, they didn't have international stamps. So after some struggle with the Hebrew English, they got me small stamps, five of which have to go on each envelope to add up to the international stamp. I will say that in their Israeli way the clerks were helpful in the end. Although they handed me a batch of stamps without a bag to carry them in. But as for Israel being a high tech country, I don't think so.