We arrived in Tel Aviv to find a beautiful sunset over the Mediterranean and a scramble to navigate one-way streets and mysterious parking signs to find a budget hostel. Most signs are in English, except the ones you really need. Matt reads Hebrew quickly and knows a few modern vocabulary words and some handy torah passages. I read Hebrew slowly, confuse some of the key letters, and recognize "please, thank you, chocolate, I, we, kosher, excuse me, and okay." Because many people in Israel speak beautiful English, we've had trouble increasing our vocabulary but no trouble at all amusing the locals with our attempts to communicate.
I thought that Tel Aviv was a lovely (yofi!) city--modern, interesting architecture, friendly people, cozy bars just waiting for hipsters to arrive. We had a great time walking down the beach to Jaffa, north to the old port, enjoying the sunshine, and trying out bars and restaurants in the different neighborhoods. On Friday morning, the Carmel Market was packed full of people buying groceries for the weekend and we elbowed our way in to a hummus place where they ignored us for a bit then said, "We'll give you something tourists like." To the left is a view of Tel Aviv from Jaffa. I know, looks like California.
We were concerned at first that things would shut down for Shabbat, but apparently this city just keeps on going. We found a great restaurant in the Yemenite Quarter--Hamitbachon. Simple and filling food, one of the most amazing desserts I've ever had. Halvah Parfait. Some variation on Halvah (sweet sesame past candy) + cream + frozen. I wish I could take some with me for everyone at home to try it.
We found ourselves in the Neve Tzedek neighborhood one evening and stumbled on the Tel Aviv brewery. Beer in Israel seems to be hit or miss, and this microbrewery was no exception. But for the sake of Matt's happiness, I was glad to see that the idea of good local beer is on peoples' minds, and there's room to grow. Reminds us what a special place the Pacific Northwest is. And that it takes some practice in creative nonfiction writing to avoid ending sentences with "is."
From Tel Aviv, we took the train up to Haifa. I have a childhood friend there who I wanted to visit and we were curious to see Haifa. Lonely Planet makes it sound like Utopia. My friend Dorit and her family lived in New York for a year when we were both in the 7th grade, which makes it almost 20 years since we've seen each other (though we quickly discovered that neither of us has changed much since we were 12--not sure exactly what that means about us). Despite having almost no idea what kind of person I'd turned into other than clues from Facebook, Dorit and her husband Eran offered to put us up and happily showed us around their part of the world. Haifa is one of the most livable places I've been, and the surrounding area was also beautiful. We went on a hike on Mt. Carmel through rocky hills, cow pastures, ancient stone foundations, F-16s flying overhead, and meadows of irit and calenit flowers.
View from Mt. Carmel over olive tree farms.
Eran, Dorit, Amanda and Matt--Valentines Day double date (by accident--surprised to see that Israeli restaurants and businesses are pushing that) at an Irish Pub in downtown Haifa.
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