On Friday morning, the University took us on a tour of Jaffa (pronounced "Yaffo") and Tel Aviv, which lie about an hour north of Jerusalem on the coast of the Mediterranean Sea. Jaffa is an ancient port city, which our tour guide said has been conquered by "every conqueror in history." Nowadays, Jaffa is something of an artist colony, full of galleries and high-end restaurants. Jaffa is a prominent location in ancient literature. Popular tradition links the city's name to Noah's son Japheth. Jaffa also is the setting for a famous Greek legend (more on this below). Additionally, St. Peter travels to Jaffa in the Acts of the Apostles (here he performs an important miracle and receives a revelation from God).
Tel Aviv, conversely, is the modern city (only about a century old) which expanded out of Jaffa. If Jerusalem is the heart of Israel, Tel Aviv is the brain--it is a large, mostly secular city which is famous both for its beaches, as well as its importance as a political and culture center. I've already mentioned Tel Aviv once or twice--it is the location of the Ben Gurion Airport. Due to its accessibility from the Mediterranean, Tel Aviv was the route by which most of the early aliyah immigrants entered Israel. Below is a picture of me in Jaffa, with downtown Tel Aviv in the distance.
Here is a picture of Jaffa. The building on the left is most likely a gallery or restaurant, built in the same chic architectural style as most other Jaffa buildings. The building on the right is a mosque. In the water, you can see several stones above the surface. According to the Greek legend of Perseus (the hero who is more famous for beheading Medusa), the Jaffa residents placed a beautiful maiden out on these rocks every year, to be eaten up by a sea monster--that is, until Perseus slayed the monster.
Due to the bad weather, many of the Tel Aviv attractions--the shuq, flea market, craft fair, etc.--were pretty much closed. However, in the city center we DID come across this man who claimed to be the messiah. Two things are funny about this picture: first, the messiah is drinking shoqo (the Israeli term for chocolate milk); second, look a the girl's face! (She's thinking: "how did I end up here?")
Here is our group next to the Mediterranean. From left to right: me, Dana, Brittany, Shiri, Andrea, and Zach.
We stayed in a hostel on the outskirts of the Florentine neighborhood. The street on which the hostel is located looked very sketchy and run-down, but the hostel was actually very nice. The hostel manager is the co-owner a restaurant in Jaffa, so we received free drinks and appetizers for dinner. Here is a picture of our group at the restaurant. The food, as expected, was really excellent (I ordered lamb), albeit pricey.
We spent Friday afternoon admiring the Tel Aviv sights and graffiti art (in the future, I will be uploading an entire post about Israeli graffiti). We saw the Israeli equivalent of Independence Hall, where the State of Israel was signed into existence. The building looked more like a bomb shelter than a national monument--I didn't take a picture due to the rain. That night, we sampled the Florentine area night-life, although I turned in early due to a major stomach ache.
Thankfully, on Saturday, the weather cleared up, so we spent most of our day on the beach (see below). First, however, we took advantage of one of the best features of Tel Aviv: the highly secular population does not keep kosher. At breakfast, I ordered eggs benedict with bacon! (The bacon was actually pretty disappointing, but the point was that I was able to order it.)
Lastly, here are two pictures of me on the beach (I think the second one looks like a senior photo).
This weekend was a fun first excursion to Tel Aviv; I will definitely be returning there to hit the beach once it gets warmer. In the meantime, however, the Hebrew language ulpan is almost over. Proper classes start next week--yikes!
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