Weekend in Tel Aviv

I just spend the weekend in Tel Aviv.

Yesterday morning, I picked up some pasteries from the bakery down the street for Linda and Shlomi as a little gift for letting me to stay over for Shabbat. Then I hopped on the group bus to Tel Aviv. The ride was quite uneventful. Once we got to Tel Aviv, the bus drivers got a little lost trying to find this place to drop us off. It was really awkward, especially that the neighborhood that we were going through wasn’t exactly nice and looked a bit ghetto like in downtown Rochester where Alexander and Union streets are.

We walked to this hill that gave a really nice view of the city of Tel Aviv. It was so beautiful to see the Mediterranean waters. I also realized that we walked on grass on this hill and I began wondering what was the last time I walked on grass! It was just an amusing moment for me. Then our tour guide gave us a history lesson of Jaffa and how this area used to be under ancient Egyptian control. When he said that “we were sitting on the ruins of the Egyptians,” all of us must’ve been thinking the same thing (“We’re sitting on a bunch of dead people!?”) because we all laughed aloud and said “ew ew ew.” It was really hard to imagine how huge the Egyptian empire must’ve been if it extended all the way up to Tel Aviv. Then he showed us some ancient ruins. Because of a massive earthquake during the anciet times, much of the ruins around Jaffa collapsed. Also, people back then did not care much for architecture as we do today so the Romans slashed and burned down the entire city as so did Napoleon. Yes, Napoleon actually invaded Palestine. There are actually comical statues in the old Jaffa square of a French military officer holding an arrow sign “Historian Information.” Napoleon came but did not exactly conquered the city because he was losing control in other parts of Europe and he wasn’t interested by what he saw. After Napoleon, the Ottoman Empire took over. They built old Jaffa as it stands today with stones and built housing and a church.

After some people used the bathroom nearby in which they had to pay 10 shekls for, we went down to the actual part of the city. It reminded me a lot of Toledo and the Old City with lots of narrow alleyways and steps. There was a cat that almost followed us down- I think he was kind of hungry. At the end of this pathway, we came face to face with the Mediterranean Sea. Then we walked for probably a mile or so to the south of Tel Aviv. The guide finished up his history lessons by telling us of the division between Tel Aviv and Jaffa. The day was beautiful with lots of sunshine warming our faces.

Finally, he led us to Ha’Carmel market area where people could grab food and do a little browsing before leaving. I was too busy calling Linda to really pay attention what was going on but it was good that I followed some of my classmates. I ended up with Jessica, Ben, and his friend Josh to a restaurant. I almost freaked out because I thought they needed to go back within 10 minutes. They said they were staying in Tel Aviv. The restaurant was okay- pizza wasn’t great as it is in America.

After lunch, we all split off… I wasn’t expected to be desert. Jessica didn’t seem so interested in making sure that I’d be okay (even though she knew that I had NEVER been to Tel Aviv) and the guys went off in another direction on their own. So I was left alone in middle of this busy marketplace. Linda had said it was fine if I wanted to stay in Tel Aviv for a couple hours when I told her that she didn’t need to pick me up because I was having lunch. So I decided to make the most of my time in the city.

Ha Carmel market is in a very busy pedestrian area with security fences. Merchants and artisans set up their tables to sell their goods. I saw several street performances including a salsa dance, a Mexican band, and something else. Each performance in different areas drew a lot of people, upwards of 40-50 crowded around to see free entertainment. I did not want to stay for very long as I felt that if I am in a busy area in Israel, I must keep moving around to be safe. I also had my guidebook out (Thanks again, Aunt Nancy!) to see what was nearby and to look at the map. It said that Ha Carmel interacts with Allenby and King George streets, and these streets make up some of Tel Aviv’s best shopping area. I went out of the market to see Allenby and then began walking down south since I thought I’d like to see Independence Hall. As I walked along, I suddenly remember Max Brenner’s, a very good chocolate shop. I got some directions from several women and luckily, I was in the right direction!

Allenby Street did not certainly remind me of anything. After several blocks away from that busy interaction, it became a little quieter. I noticed a lot of Russian signs- I’m surprised that I still remembered how to read in Russian! I even walked by a bookstore called “Halper’s Books.” Close enough. Unlike Jerusalem, the street was lined with trees. By this point, the sky had turned slightly cloudy. If it would rain eventually, I had better not waste time wandering into stores! I kept on walking to Rothschild Boulevard, a gorgeous street that housed one of Tel Aviv’s first neighborhoods. The avenue had a green strip in the middle where people could walk in between cars like the Avenue of Americas in Madrid. It had the first stoplight, the first coffee shop hut, and the first water tower.

I finally reached Max Brenner’s- only about two blocks away from Allenby and Rothschild interaction. It was actually a restaurant! So I went in and checked out the menu and decided to have something. I ordered a cappuccino with milk chocolate and read my book. The place had quite few children… including two women with a 8 month old baby next to me. I shouldn’t be surprise as children love sweets like this. I want to come back here to try the hot fudge sundae. The little box that my check came in said “Money for Life, Chocolate for the Soul.” I noticed that the place tacked an extra shekl and I asked the waiter about it. He said for the security. So it was not a tip so I went back to the table to leave a tip.

Then I walked back up on Rothschild to find the Independence Hall. It was nowhere to be seen, not even this other building with a monument. Puzzled, I stopped a woman (which I probably shouldn’t have…). She was a little crazy but seemed to really want to practice her English with me because she held me a little longer than I wanted and kept asking what would the Hebrew equivalent and what other English words I could use to describe “Independence.” Finally, I got rid of her by staring off at this coffee shop hut and told her that I’d rather try someone else with better English. After no such luck there, I resigned myself to walking back up on Allenby. The guidebook mentioned that Gordon street had some high-end designer stores, including American designers (I was thinking Ralph Lauren…). The walk was long but very, very worthwhile because it literally stretches from good part of southern Tel Aviv to the most northern part of Tel Aviv worth exploring (after there are residential neighborhoods and then Tel Aviv University). I was really amazed by how much Russian I saw on the way. I even stopped in a Russian market to see if they had any of the candies that I liked. Oh, also Allenby turns into Ben-Yehuda and this is actually Tel Aviv’s main line. Once I reached Gordon street, I walked down there. Hmm nothing. Even though it was after 4 PM, I still wanted to check the area out. Then my book said to go down to Dizgenoff Street, two or three blocks over on Gordon from Ben-Yehuda, which was supposedly be filled with designer stores. So I walked back down south. I saw a few things including Lee and a jeans store selling DKNY, Diesel, and few other city brands. I had enough and even though Tel Aviv “never stops,” stores were closing up soon. So I called Linda for her to pick me up. While I waited, I walked down the tree-lined street a bit further to see the city center. Oh wow, this is interesting. There was a large, raised platform with a water fountain that had all the traffic going underneath it. It definitely reminded me of Dupont Circle with entrances from many different directions leading to this fountain and benches all over. You could see some of Tel Aviv’s high rise buildings here. Around the area were pavilions for outdoor dining for some of the restaurants. It was a pretty cool sight. If I was here during the summer, no doubt about it that I’d be hanging out here to read my books!

Linda picked me up and took me back down to Rothschild when I told her of my difficulties. She showed me the sights and gave me a little history lesson of Tel Aviv in its early days. Then we drove back to the kibbutz where Shlomi, Maa’Yan and her boyfriend were hanging out in the living room. I was really happy to see Maa’Yan again- I liked her a lot because she’s sweet and helpful in giving me her perspective since we’re the same age. Then Maa’Yan and her boyfriend went off to his house for Shabbat (I was kind of disappointed that she wouldn’t be joining us). Ofir, the son, came home from his soccer game. The four of us sat around for Shabbat enjoying some chicken soup, chicken with cherry sauce (Linda was big on celebrating Tu Be’Shevat), some potatoes, and Israeli salad. We discussed a lot of NFL since Super Bowl was on Sunday. After dinner, we watched an Israeli satire show. It was a mix of Saturday Night Live and Jon Stewart. They impersonated Condi Rice, the Syrian president, and this famous Israeli musician who would not stop playing his guitar, even after a security guard took it away. Then he would take another one out. It was pretty amusing even though it was all in Hebrew. In the left bottom corner, there was actually little window for a woman signing the Israeli sign language!

This morning, Linda, Shlomi, and I went for a walk to see more of the kibbutz. I saw the mini-market and the dining room. They also showed me their real house where we saw the occupant frantically packing his stuff. The situation’s really amazing. This guy had put in a lot of money in his new house, which I saw a few minutes later, and he was frustrated with the slow construction project. The new house had a small second story with skylights in the bathroom over the Jacuzzi (according to Linda). He wants to move his family in there ASAP and so do Linda and Shlomi into their old house (Long story of how this came to be…). After chatting with the guy, Linda and I continued on to see the fields. She showed me where they plant winter wheat, harvest grapefruit, and picked avocados. Since a storm recently passed, many ripe avocados had fallen onto the ground so Linda picked up about 12-15. Even though the kibbutz grew food for the community, they still sell it to the public. They would not take avocados that had fallen to the ground. I still couldn’t understand why, even if they were perfectly good. Finally, we saw the horses! They were mostly beautiful, healthy Arabs- certainly not surprising since they originated in the Middle East. Unfortunately the horses would not come too close to the fence because it was electrical. But I did manage to reach out to touch a few.

For Shabbat lunch, we went over to another family’s house. Linda thought I should describe this whole affair as watching a reality tv show. This was how Israelis lived and socialized. The husband worked in the kibbutz’s family while the wife, from Bulgaria and rolls everything that she said, was a high school biology teacher. Everyone spoke mostly in Hebrew but that was fine since I wanted to listen and to learn. The conversations ranged from why Shlomi wanted to come back to Israel after having a good life in America to the current trial of an Israeli soldier accused of sexual harassment to the war to how the Army was dealing with a big problem of Maa’yam’s generation being liars to get out of chores to dominant/recessive traits in genetics (that was mostly the wife). They talked about everything that you could possibly imagine over the span of 3 hours. We also had a huge lunch of soup, salad with lots of appetizers, chicken/salmon with potatoes, and some dessert. Linda and Maa’yam tried to translate what was going on. I also learned that whoever could yell the loudest has the claim to be right in a debate. The host family didn’t speak very good English so they spoke with very heavy accents and slowly. Nevertheless, they were just a lot of fun and very loving even if there was a lot of good yelling going on. Israelis do debate with lots and lots of passion. I think they could outdebate my high school self when I used to debate a lot…

The kids- Me, Ofir, Maa'Yan, her boyfriend

Me and the hostess (rather affectionate..)

My "adopted" Israeli parents- Linda and Shlomi

Then Linda took me back to the bus station for a bus ride back to Jerusalem. Very uneventful except for the fact that it was absolutely pouring out once I got to the station. When the security showed me where Bus 23 stops were, I thought, “Hell, I’m not walking in this pouring rain with my sneakers.” So I grabbed a cab. It was worth the $7.50 fare back to Mount Scopus. Especially that the bus ride was only $4.