Tel Aviv and Jaffa

I arrived in Israel in the afternoon before Shabbat began on Friday. I checked in to my hostel, which was very nice and the messianics there very welcoming.

On the Shabbat evening they had a congregation meeting with singing, prayers and games. They also served a number of sweets and dessert breads afterwards, as the new year was only a couple nights away, and custom is to eat apples dipped in honey as well as other sweets while wishing each other a good and sweet new year!

The next morning I was sitting outside the hostel, when up walked an older Russian guy. We got to chatting and he asked me why I was in Israel, so I told him I wanted to see how people live, or something like that.

That got him pretty excited til he insisted I come on a journey around the neighbourhood. He pointed out to me a women’s residence, artist residences, and then we walked to a neighbourhood cafe for a quick minute before he started to run hastily around the street  showing me all there was to see.

We walked across the street to a little synagogue, where an orthodox Jew had already wrapped his tefillin and was in the middle of morning ritual. My Russian friend looked around, made some quick prayers, ritually washed his hands 3 times and then we walked out.

Before we made it more than 10 steps from the door the man who had been praying inside called us back and poured us shots of a sweet liqueur. Something like sambuca or uzzo. It was not even 10 am, but who was I to refuse such a righteous religious offering?! Shana tova v’metukah!

 !שנה טובה ומתוקה

(Happy and sweet new year)

We then ran across the street to a parking garage and snuck in before the doors could close. My Russian friend explained to me how expensive the homes were there as we found an elevator and rode it to the top floor so we could walk onto the roof, where I was privileged to this great view of the sea and the city.

This was the height of our little adventure, which was definitely a sweet way to begin my travels in the holy land.

After this I walked to Jaffa. 

Jaffa, or Yaffo as the Israelis call it, is a rad old city. Ancient even! The city shows up as early as 1470 BCE in a document from Egypt, regarding it’s conquer by one of the pharaohs.

As with much of Israel, it was conquered by the Assyrians, Babylonians, Greece, Egypt, the Maccabees, and then fell to the Arabs for a good chunk of time around 636 CE. Then the Crusaders came and captured it in 1100 CE. The Mamluks (an army of former slaves) ruled Jaffa for a good long time except for a brief period when Salah al-Din made a deal and handed it to Richard Lionheart. From mid 1500’s the Ottomans took it, and basically held it until their empire collapsed, excpet for a brief period of Napoleon’s rule. The famous Frenchman sent messengers to order Jaffa’s surrender, but the Turks in the city didn’t take him too seriously and beheaded his messengers. Long story short, as a result of this insult he sacked the city, and killed almost 2500 men.

Below are some cannons from the era.

The city is small, but gorgeous. Most of the architecture dates from the 1800’s, when it was built up by Muhammad abu Nabbut. 

Walking these streets is reminiscent of being in a castle, and it brings up memories of old soldier and crusader stories...which is funny, because these bricks are only a couple hundred years old.

I ate some awesome food here (the Arab food in Israel is just the best) and had a swim. I managed to get stung by the only damn jelly fish left in the water, which was a first time event, and a real shock. Literally. I was swimming, and suddenly i felt like I got an electric shock - then again! So I swam away like a scared child, and asked one of the locals on the beach if there were supposed to be jelly fish here, and was told that they all left a month before. I guess this last one was just hungry for some good Canadian flesh.. damnded patient little blob of goo!

Okay, here’s some more pics. These are taken not far from the old city, on or near Jerusalem Road, which is the border between Jaffa and Tel Aviv.

When i went walking around, I was constantly surprised about how quiet the city was. There are times when people are out hanging around, but around the dusk the streets were commonly very empty.

Drinking alcohol in a Tel Aviv pubs is costly, so I only did it once. But the second hostel I stayed at had ‘happy hour’ between 9 and 11 pm, where I could get 2 half litres for 15 shekels, which is about $8 Canadian. Not too bad! But I do miss the Vancouver craft brews.. that is one thing the east could really do some work to catch up on. But I guess they put their efforts into vineyards. To each is own, right?

The video below starts in Tel Aviv, and I mention in it the water fountain that is pictured above. The second half of the video is in Jaffa, a little bit east of the old city and the coast.

A lot of this neighbourhood is run down, or at least not maintained. But what I didn’t show is the northern part of Tel Aviv which I went to later, where it’s a lot more fresh and upscale.

I visited there a couple days after taking these photos and video, with a young guy named Tamir. I met him by doing a mitzvah! (good deed) 

The mitzvah story goes like this: I rented a SIM card from an Israeli who I met in Vancouver a number of years ago, an older Sephardic guy. After renting the SIM card, he began texting me to see if I could deliver things that people wanted to send to Israel. So after a few conversations I ended up with a beret that Tamir had left at his parents place in Vancouver. Straight up, I was happy to be taking a soldier his hat. Like, what’s a better way to meet people in Israel than by saving their hide? 

He was very greatful, and a really decent guy. Decent enough to be honest with me about how bad my Hebrew speaking skills are - and then to help me out a bit! 

All in all, Tel Aviv/Jaffa was a great start.

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