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Tel Aviv, and Home
2012-10-27 23:32Change of plans: I'm not going to Jerusalem today, I'm going to stay in Tel Aviv. I don't feel like making the long schlep to J-town again, and I do want to see a little more of TA, rest up, write and post, and get ready for the trip back home.
Pictures to follow soon.
Pictures to follow soon.
Tel Aviv, Again
2012-10-16 23:39After my last trip to Israel, I promised myself that I wouldn't let more than a year go by before doing it again. That was last November, this is October, and here I am.
I'm staying at a decent, budget hotel on Allenby Street in southern Tel Aviv, and I'm upstairs from a bar and two pizza shops. I get a kick out of this area because it's so much the opposite from the pictures of Israel that you see in tourist guides. Anyway, I'm not far from the bus station, and I expect I'll catch the 405 to Jerusalem in the next couple of days.
I've been sleeping intermittently since about 6pm. They had some loud music downstairs around 1 or 2am, I think the cops made them turn it down.
I'm feeling a LOT more comfortable getting around in Hebrew, this time around. Ate breakfast at the Bialik Cafe, on the hotel's voucher, then went back there for dinner. The waitress handed me an all-Hebrew menu so I really felt like a native. It's not a kosher place and I'm pretty sure Heh-Aleph-Mem spells "ham" (which figured prominently on most of the items), so I ended up getting a green salad, and that was pretty good.
It's probably safe to say there's not much that goes on in this neighborhood that's kosher, but if I can find a place that's K, or vegetarian, it'll make my life easier. Burger Ranch isn't vegetarian but it is K, and I'm thinking of checking it out. I'm going into carnivore mode for this trip.
But, no ham. Even if the menu is in Hebrew.
I'm staying at a decent, budget hotel on Allenby Street in southern Tel Aviv, and I'm upstairs from a bar and two pizza shops. I get a kick out of this area because it's so much the opposite from the pictures of Israel that you see in tourist guides. Anyway, I'm not far from the bus station, and I expect I'll catch the 405 to Jerusalem in the next couple of days.
I've been sleeping intermittently since about 6pm. They had some loud music downstairs around 1 or 2am, I think the cops made them turn it down.
I'm feeling a LOT more comfortable getting around in Hebrew, this time around. Ate breakfast at the Bialik Cafe, on the hotel's voucher, then went back there for dinner. The waitress handed me an all-Hebrew menu so I really felt like a native. It's not a kosher place and I'm pretty sure Heh-Aleph-Mem spells "ham" (which figured prominently on most of the items), so I ended up getting a green salad, and that was pretty good.
It's probably safe to say there's not much that goes on in this neighborhood that's kosher, but if I can find a place that's K, or vegetarian, it'll make my life easier. Burger Ranch isn't vegetarian but it is K, and I'm thinking of checking it out. I'm going into carnivore mode for this trip.
But, no ham. Even if the menu is in Hebrew.
I'm still digesting the impressions left by my 2-week visit to Tel Aviv and Jerusalem. By far the biggest thing, though, was meeting up with Paula, my ex of some 25+ years ago. It was an amazing and wonderful experience. I don't think we ever could have been compatible as a couple, but she is a very special woman and it was great to be able to renew this friendship.
I got to see lots of Tel Aviv. I traveled almost everywhere on foot, because I wanted to really see the city and build a mental map of the place. Didn't do much touristy stuff but got to see a lot of the city - Tel Aviv is not very big, and flat, so it's extremely walkable. You can get almost anyplace in the city within an hour or two on foot.
Visited Jerusalem four times. It meant a 45-minute walk from my hotel, down Ben Yehuda and Allenby, to the Tachana Merkazit (main bus station), then a 1-hour trip on the 405 to Jerusalem. From there, you can walk down Jaffa Street to the Old City.
More soon.
I got to see lots of Tel Aviv. I traveled almost everywhere on foot, because I wanted to really see the city and build a mental map of the place. Didn't do much touristy stuff but got to see a lot of the city - Tel Aviv is not very big, and flat, so it's extremely walkable. You can get almost anyplace in the city within an hour or two on foot.
Visited Jerusalem four times. It meant a 45-minute walk from my hotel, down Ben Yehuda and Allenby, to the Tachana Merkazit (main bus station), then a 1-hour trip on the 405 to Jerusalem. From there, you can walk down Jaffa Street to the Old City.
More soon.
I'm back in San Francisco after 2 weeks in Israel. I stayed in Tel Aviv and visited Jerusalem. Lots of pictures to post. I'm especially fond of the ones I took on Allenby Street, heading into southern Tel Aviv on the way to the bus station.
Here's a first look:
I'll crop these later to get rid of that time-and-date notation. Stay tuned for the whole batch.
Here's a first look:
I'll crop these later to get rid of that time-and-date notation. Stay tuned for the whole batch.
