26 December 2013

israel: tel aviv and jaffo

the next morning my breakfast was leftover salad, YUM...(it's going to be really hard to go back to ukrainian food)...i took a bus to the train station, then caught the next bus to tel aviv...that bus didn't take me to the correct bus station in tel aviv, so i hopped on another bus...from the last bus station i was able to walk to the hostel i'd booked...the neighborhood wasn't exactly touristy, but it turned out to be a pretty good location...
it was warm enough that i changed into shorts, yahoo!!! it'd been a looooong time since i'd worn shorts...
after resting up a bit, i used the map given to me by the hostel to walk to old jaffa with another guest of the hostel...we bought shakshuka on the street, soooo good...it's kinda like pizza, but not really...i'm not good at describing food, you'll have to look it up...i also convinced the girl to buy sahlab...not quite milk, but so darn good...
we watched the sunset over the port, it was beautiful...this is on the 'must do' list of tel aviv...i'm glad i saw it, but i don't know i would put the experience on the must do list...we then walked through the whole old jaffa area, including ducking into a church on the top of the hill...
this was the first time i'd stayed in a dorm room of a hostel in quite a while...i feel like i'm old enough that going as cheap as possible isn't as important anymore...howeva, when i looked at prices around the entire country, i quickly realized i wasn't going to be able to afford single rooms very often...a room in a hostel dorm room was $35!!! craziness...one of the other ladies in my dorm room was a bit of a snorer, but it wasn't bad...
breakfast the next morning was included in my hostel price, yay...tomatoes, cucumbers, brown bread, hummus, and tea...heaven :)
i followed two itineraries suggested by tripadvisor for the rest of the year...i got to see the older parts of the city (art deco style!) and the spot where the city was founded...i also got to see independence hall, shopping streets, and a long beach...people who live in tel aviv go to the beach all the time...
the difference in atmosphere between tel aviv and jerusalem couldn't be bigger...jerusalem is religious, tel aviv is closer to agnostic...jerusalem is old, tel aviv is modern...jerusalem is conservative, tel aviv is more on the liberal side...
i was greedy at lunch, and ate two sandwiches...YUM, even though my stomach was ready to explode afterward...the first was sabbich, which is basically fried eggplant...then i had falafel...dessert at another time was a kids portion of ice cream...i'm glad i got the small portion, as it was still huge...a 'normal' adult portion wouldve been too much...(if such a thing is possible)
on the way home i realized i had to buy a plug adaptor, as i had no way of plugging in my camera battery charger...it was entertaining for me to figure out where to go...
i didn't have enough time to spend exploring this city, i need to come back!


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