Tel-Aviv and Jaffa

After leaving Jerusalem, we headed up to Tel-Aviv, which isn't actually very far away.  By all accounts Tel Aviv is nothing like Jerusalem - it's a modern city which actually looks very European in a lot of ways- for example, there is one promenade that is primarily built in Bauhaus style, and modern skyscrapers dominate the horizon.

We haven't done a lot of sight-seeing in Tel-Aviv.  Our hostel is a block away from the beach, so we've spent a lot of time relaxing, beaching, reading and swimming in the Mediteranean Sea, which is amazingly warm.  We've also wandered through the Carmel Market and through Old Jaffa/Yafo, which is south of Tel Aviv and which you can reach by just walking down the beach for about half an hour. Jaffa is a beautiful and quaint place, and we enjoyed wandering through it, seeing the sights, and going into all the artisan's galleries there.  My favorite was the Frank Meisler studio - go to his website at www.frank-meisler.com to see some of his work!

A lot of the people we met in Jerusalem wound up here as well, so we spent some more time with Jamie, Candace, Ari, Zach and Daniel, who we'd met previously.  Our hotel, Hararkon 48, has a massive kitchen, so we've done our own cooking here, and had nights of drinking wine and beer either on the roof of the hostel or at nearby pubs or on the beach.   We did also go skinny-dipping one of the nights!

Rose's parents also hooked us up with old friends of theirs, who they had met because they both were professors at the U of A.  Ran and his wife took us out to lunch at a lovely place overlooking the beach near Jaffa, and then took us on our very own private sight-seeing tour of Tel-Aviv.

We've also had some interesting experiences here quite aside from the travelling element.  One of the nights we went swimming on the beach we foolishly left our things unattendedand one of the guys had his bag stolen - it pretty much contained everything important (passport, bank cards, cash, camera, key to where he was staying, etc.) and its absence made his life a misery until his mom, Western Union, Visa and the Canadian Embassy got him sorted out - oops!

That stroke of bad luck led inadvertantly to our second interesting story involving the 45-year-old woman who was staying in our dorm room who kept her bible conspicuously on her bed.

The night Dan's things were stolen, he came back to our hostel (he was staying some distance away, with friends) to make phone calls and to crash until it got light enough for him to check the beach more thoroughly.   He made his calls and then crashed in the room Rose and I were sharing with another woman.  After a couple of hours he dragged himself out of the bed we were sharing (which in any other circumstance would have felt way too small- but we'd had enough wine to make it seem comfortable) and went about his dealing with his misfortune.  The next night Rose and I again found ourselves stumbling into bed very very late (this time at 7 or so in the morning, after having first passed out in the common area in front of the television and having been asked by hotel staff to please go to our rooms since it was time to serve breakfast.)   The upshot of this was that the woman in our room came back that day and the conversation between us proceeded something like this:

Crazy Bible Lady ("CBL": So, are you going to be moving into the mixed dorm today?"

Me (sensing that this was going to go somewhere awkward): Uh.... no... we hadn't planned on it.

CBL:  Really?? Why not?

Me: Uh... we're settled in here...

CBL: Well, I don't know why you wouldn't move, since you seem to enjoy the company of men so much!

Me: Huh?

CBL:  You've had men in here both nights so far!

Me: What?

CBL: You had one guy staying with you that first night, and you told me he wasn't even staying at this hostel! (I had explained the story of Daniel losing his things to her that at the time).  And last night, you brought a man to the door and you were all over each other and then you told him you couldn't let him in because of me and then you went off and obviously got laid somewhere else and came in here at whatever time...

Me (very confused because no such thing had happened the previous night- the only person I had gotten very close to was Rose):I don't know what you're talking about, I don't remember anything like that, I never brought anyone here for any purpose like that, if anything I ended up fending off advances last night...(then realizing she deservedno explanation) and anyway, I don't see how my sex life is any of your business! 

CBL:  And you shouldn't make it my business... you certainly had a man in here that first night!

Me: Um, no, well, our friend slept in here one night because he lost his things on the beach (I tell her the story again.)

CBL:  Well, that's all no concern of mine, is it?

Me: Well, no, but I thought you would have some sympathy for him and understand why he stayed... but look, I'm sorry if it made you uncomfortable, I didn't plan that and I'm sorry.

CBL (totally losing it): No you're not!  You're not sorry!  You don't give a shit! (Shaking her head fericiously and moving closer to me) YOU DON'T GIVE A SHIT!!!!!

Me (backing up and trying to disfuse her): I'm sorry you feel that way, but whether you accept my apology or not or think I mean it, I really am very sorry and nothing like that will happen again. 

CBL:  Well, if you want to be with men so much, I don't even know why you're in Israel, why don't you just go to Ibiza and go get laid there, I mean, why are you even here?

Me: I'm sorry if I offended you.

CBL: Why are you here.  Just leave.

Me: (Said nothing further.)(Subtext running through my head underlying the silence): You are a crazy,crazy lady with anger-management problems and a bad case of misanthropy and who clearly has missed out the portions of the bible dealing with forgiveness, despite the fact that it is lying there on your bed...you have some seriously warped ideas about male-female relationships ....why the hell are you staying in a hostel for mostly 18-year-olds if you can't handle the partying that goes on here anyway?... and we are tame indeed compared to the 18-year-olds...

At this point, Rose came in, and CBL, feeling outnumbered perhaps, left the room.  I told Rose what happened and she also apologized to CBL later. CBL ignored her completely, and complained about us to the hostel staff, who spoke to us and to whom we also apologized, whereupon they made the 'cuckoo' sign as regards CBL.  CBL left for good the next morning, but first of all she slammed the door as hard as she could each time she entered and left the room to shower and get ready (Rose and I were still in bed) and yelled "fucking bitches!" at us with the final door slam.  Then she was gone, along with her bad karma and negative energy, and all was good again.

So much for Tel-Aviv.  We went from there to Nazareth, which was fabulous, and which shall be saved for another day.