The Weekend in Tel Aviv

This past weekend I went to Tel Aviv with 5 friends, and experienced an entirely new version of Israel. It’s pretty incredible how starkly Jerusalem and Tel Aviv contrast, and it was really fun to see the “second personality” of the country. We stayed in a neighborhood called Florentine, which apparently used to be a terrible area but is now the hip up-and-coming place to be, where lots of artists, musicians, and other young people live. (a family member told me: “You’ll love it and really fit in, although look out because someone will probably try to give you drugs. DON
’T TAKE THEM”) There was really cool graffiti all over the place but the street our hostel was on was SUPER sketchy. I’m talking broken windows, trash everywhere, run down storefronts, bars on the doorways….not looking like the nicest place. But, our hostel ended up being really great, and the people were very helpful and friendly and awesome, and it actually was on the edge of a great neighborhood with lots of fun bars.

(the street leading up to our hostel, courtesy of Dana)

Anyway, so on Friday we wandered mostly just in Old Jaffa, a region that, like so many other places in Israel, has been significant and seen influential characters throughout a plethora of historical time periods. Jaffa is very pretty: all the buildings are made of the same stone, the streets are paved with the same stone, and there are really quaint accents on all the houses, like flower boxes, shutters, and windows all painted the same color. It was gorgeous; I just wish the weather had been nice (it was misty and windy and nasty all day). There are lots of art galleries in Jaffa so we wandered through a few of those and saw some really beautiful jewelry, paintings, etc. The man who runs our hostel co-owns a really nice Mediterranean restaurant in the heart of Jaffa and offered us 2 for 1 drinks and free appetizers if we went. So we said absolutely. Although it was mostly sea food on the menu, I really enjoyed the place. I had pork (in Israel, on Shabbat, good thing I’m not really Jewish) and it was incredibly delicious. And some kind of drink called a Jaffa Breeze, which was also amazingly delicious. As you have noticed I do a lot of talking about food on this blog because it is all. so. good.

Anyway, the restaurant was quite the experience in and of itself because there was a table of very stereotypically Greek folk next to us who were clearly on their very high numbered round of drinks, and kept yelling “Opah!” and getting up from the table to dance with each other. At one point two people stood up and started making out in the corner of the restaurant. They went at it for a good 15 minutes while the rest of the table was packing up and leaving. It was hysterical.

So after dinner we hung out at the hostel for a bit (where we met Pepe from Madrid who thinks all people in Arizona are conservative and talked about his friend dying of a heroine overdose while in Vietnam during Semester at Sea, among other uncalled for topics). We then hopped around the bar scene in Florentine a little, where we may or may not have accidentally wandered into a Lesbian bar. The night was full of surprises. Anyway, around 1 AM we decided to attempt to find a club, because “when in Tel Aviv”, but at this point it was pouring so we were all drenched. After shopping around a bit we ended up in one that had decent music and was playing an episode of Power Rangers on the big screen TV on the side of the room. I don’t want to know why. But that indicates a keeper. Perhaps the highlight of the music was Spice Up Your Life followed by a techno remix of Cotton Eyed Joe. That was quality. Anyway, after allowing all of the inhabitants of Sublime (the club) to witness my sweet dance moves we headed back to the hostel. Before going though, we asked the guy at the door to take our picture. He was very obliging and struck up a conversation with us. Turns out he was the owner of the club and tried to convince us to come in, even though we had just left. I think he was confused. Anyway, he told us his name was Amir and for some reason I felt it necessary to tell him (in Hebrew) that I have an uncle named Amir. This triggered a good 5-7 minute conversation between the two of us, completely in Hebrew during which I feel I fared myself quite well. I walked away feeling proud and accomplished and delighted that I had made friends with such a nice man. Maybe we’ll go back to his club next time we’re in Tel Aviv (actually, probably not. They didn’t give me the glow stick bracelet I wanted).

The next day, after trying to be creative with the space heaters and fans provided by the hostel to dry our wet clothes, we headed out to explore the Tel Aviv side of Tel Aviv (as opposed to the Jaffa side the day before).We had been told about a place called Benedicts for breakfast which despite waiting an hour was unbelievable. The upside of the long wait was that it gave the weather time to clear up so by the time we went out there was actually a blue sky! It was wonderful. We went down to the beach and spent the next several hours strolling in the sand, on the rocks, feeling the water, taking pictures, people watching, etc. It was relaxing and heavenly and I can’t wait to come back when it’s warm enough to swim. I miss the beach so much. Another highlight of Tel Aviv was the Messiah. Yes, you read that correctly. We met a man on a street corner who legit thinks he's the Messiah. Apparently he's famous in Israel, and known to be on that street corner. He had me convinced.....not so much. I don't think the Messiah drinks Shoko.

So that was my weekend in Tel Aviv. It was fairly uneventful in terms of the things we did but it was filled with interesting people, gallons of rain, delicious food, and all around good times.

This week is the last of Ulpan and then real classes start on Sunday! It’s crazy to think it’s been almost a month already. Thanks for reading this super long post!! להתראות for now!!