Advertisement
Published: July 21st 2014
The Beach
Looking northwards along the beach from Jaffa.The shuttle ride to Tel Aviv was over before I knew it, such was my exhaustion. To this extent I almost fell asleep on the Orthodox Jewish chap next to me. That might not have gone down well.
Our first impressions of Tel Aviv weren’t great – we were dropped off at a decidedly dodgy looking bus station in a decidedly ropey looking area, while having to work out between us which bus to catch, where to catch it from, and in which direction, all while the type of creepy men who hang out at dodgy bus stations were eyeing up Anna’s blonde hair and blue eyes. The bus driver seemed particularly interested in Anna as well, being extra friendly and helpful in telling us were to get off.
Also helpful and friendly was the lovely girl at our hotel reception when we arrived.
One thing that I have generally found about the local populace here in Israel is that they can be quite rude, particularly the older folk. Is it because they aren’t the most popular bunch in the world? The younger Israelis tend to be friendlier, as if more in tune with the tolerant and accepting views prevalent
Sunset Over Tel Aviv
From our hotel room window. in most Western countries these days.
Which brings us to the most striking difference between Tel Aviv and Jerusalem; a billboard of a woman in just her lingerie in Jerusalem? No chance. Judging by the amount of skin on display here, Tel Aviv is to Jerusalem what the US is to Saudi Arabia – Western and liberal, obscenely so in the eyes of some.
There are two other main reasons for the relative abundance of exposed skin here – the heat and the beach.
With about 150km of coastline on the eastern shores of the Mediterranean, Israel has plenty of beaches and Tel Aviv is right on one. With flashy high-rise hotels and apartments right on the beachside boulevard, the imagery looks something more akin to Miami than the Middle East. Such a contrast to
Jerusalem.
Alongside the flash towers was our rather more modest hotel, the obviously-named Beachfront Hotel. Modest it might have been, but it had everything you needed – clean rooms, a view overlooking the beach, and a rooftop bar playing early 2000s RnB (most bars and restaurants in Tel Aviv played early noughties RnB for some reason) where we enjoyed our nightly free glass
Tel Aviv Or Miami?
The flash beachfront apartment and hotel towers could easily lead you to believe you are in Miami rather than Tel Aviv. of sangria while watching the sun set.
The discounted breakfast next door was also great value, where you could enjoy your
shakshuka with bread, salad, freshly blended fruit juice/pulp (including melon and strawberries) and the ocean breeze gently fanning your face.
Speaking of food, the culinary scene in Tel Aviv is outstanding. Anna is more of a foodie than I am and even she was agreed that we had excellent fare on all three nights.
On our first night we rocked up at the famed and popular restaurant North Abraxas. Anna had spoken to a few friends who had been to Tel Aviv and North Abraxas was a common theme among all of their testimonies. Unsurprisingly, the place was busy so our 12yr-old-looking maitre d' ordered us a bottle of Israeli red wine (an excellent drop) which we enjoyed like hobos as we sat on the park bench outside waiting for a table. Going off on a tangent here, but if you ever find yourself bored, simply look at the people around you and think of a celebrity they look like - hours of fun, especially if you have people with you playing as well.
When we were finally
North Abraxas
Excellent restaurant we dined in on our first night. We were sat at the bar we you could see right into the kitchen and which provided a very interactive dining experience as our waiters were the barmen who were always on-hand to serve us or to have a chat. seated the food definitely lived up to the hype. The steak was delicious and rather surprisingly, so was the buttered sautéed cabbage. The highlight however was the lemon-soaked green beans and roast cauliflower - for this meat eater, vegetables have never tasted so good. We were sat at the bar where our Jake Gyllenhaal and Vincent Cassel lookalike barmen took our orders and served our food. Right behind them is the kitchen where you can see your food getting prepared and with upbeat early noughties tunes banging in the background, the atmosphere is lively, fun and interactive. The food presentation is innovative, inventively folding paper to create dishes to save on plates. The only negative about the place was that it was a little snobby, which is perhaps to be expected at somewhere so trendy and popular.
Perked up by our experience, we went into the club next door which was pumping out some old skool jams. Weirdly and surprisingly, the place had an older clientele where most of the patrons looked around 40. It was Cougartown a bit and I'm sure there were a few ladies of the night in there too. It was good fun though.
On
Carmel Market
Weaving through the heaving crowds at Tel Aviv's most famous market. the way back to the hotel we passed through some of the cool bars around Lillenblum and Rothschild before passing an open-air rave at a massive disused warehouse right on the water.
It was Thursday night and with
shabbat on Saturdays, Thirsty Thursdays are like Fridays here so there were plenty of people out. There is a youthful energy and exuberance about Tel Aviv, a liveliness and a creative vibe that really makes the city's character - a bit like
Berlin - that I was really liking.
The next day we went on an explorative walk of the city, where we squeezed our way through the heaving throngs of people at our first stop, the Carmel Market. A food market is a food market so there was anything particularly unique about it apart from the miniature pineapples, piles and piles of Israeli dates (which are delicious), and interesting looking local snacks on sale.
Where a lot of European cities are fairly walkable - and those that aren't usually have fairly a good public transport system to get around - Tel Aviv is quite spread out. The annoying thing about Tel Aviv is that it is just small enough for
Neve Tzedek
Craft shop typical of the arty yet upmarket boutique shops in the area. it to be walkable but spread out enough for the walks to be long and exhausting, especially with the hot Middle Eastern sun beating down on you.
Like most cities, Tel Aviv has its different neighbourhoods, each with their own distinct characteristics.
After the Carmel Market we found ourselves in Neve Tzedek, which is the arty yet affluent neighbourhood of Tel Aviv. A lot of residential buildings were new or newly renovated and there were a lot of quirky clothes and craft shops. Like most of Tel Aviv, shops and residential buildings are intermingled in Neve Tzedek and almost all the shops and cafes were boutique and independent which was great to see, as it adds to the hip and cultured reputation that Tel Aviv has got going for itself. It was really refreshing to see, given the chain store tedium that rules over most places in Europe.
We then strolled along the beach down to Old Jaffa, the ancient port city mentioned in ancient Egyptian letters and in the Bible. Much like
Budva in Montenegro, much of the old city of Jaffa has been rebuilt and refurbished but still manages to keep its medieval charm albeit with old alleyways
Medieval Jaffa
Staircase in the ancient port city of Jaffa. Although much of the old city has been rebuilt or renovated, it still manages to keep its ambience. shining as if they have recently been sheened and polished. The old city has a more Arabic feel to it, given its mainly Arabic population over the years.
The neighbourhood to the north of the city centre but south of Ha'Yarkon Park is a fairly rich area and has a clutch of funky neighbourhood bars and cafes, one of which we dined in that night. Eating semi al fresco, we enjoyed eggplant carpaccio, cerviche, stewed calamari and roasted vegetables washed down with Israeli sauvignon blanc. I then had to eat the biggest and richest chocolate fondant ever for dessert. All in all, another excellent dining experience.
On the way home, we- OK, I - enjoyed the 1930s-1950s Bauhaus architecture that is so common in the city and especially in this area.
The old port area of Tel Aviv has a Auckland Viaduct feel to it except that the bars and restaurants are replaced with shopping and factory outlets. We took a walk up this way the next day passing the "gay beach", the marina, and the grand 70s-style beachside hotel complexes lending Tel Aviv's beach a real
Copacabana feel.
Walking around in the hot sun is exhausting work so
Swimming Prohibited
Not that it stopped anyone in Tel Aviv. Still not entirely sure why swimming was not allowed. we whiled away the rest of the day on the beach, cooling ourselves down in the Mediterranean. Not that you were allowed to - there are signs everywhere and announcements on the speakerphones prohibiting you from doing so - but it wasn't stopping anyone. The waves were quite big and really frequent - relentless almost, because as soon as you ducked one the next one was onto you - and made for a fun last day on the beach. A popular pastime on Israeli beaches is bat and ball - basically each player has a wooden tennis bat and are hitting something very close to a squash ball at each other, trying to keep the ball off the ground. Anna and I decided to get in on the act, purchasing a set from one of the beachside shops. It is quite fun! Not so fun is walking along the beach trying not to get hit by the hundreds of said balls
Anyway, so much for a relaxing day on the beach as the swimming and bat-and-ball tired us out even more!
We spent our last night in the "Shoreditch" of Tel Aviv, the neighbourhood of Florentin. Most of the
Dalida
Awesome restaurant that we ate at on our last night in Israel. Located in the hip neighbourhood of Florentin, the restaurants exterior and surroundings are typical of the area. old residential Bauhaus buildings here are old, crusty, disused and full of graffiti - which along with street art and manky cats, is a very common sight in Tel Aviv - but they have been taken over by students and artists meaning loads of cool pop-up bars and restaurants (in another parallel with Berlin) in what is definitely the hippest part of the city. There were loads of youngsters out drinking in bars that looked like house parties which had spilled out onto the street and turned into block parties. When you combined these parties with the relatively poor, dishevelled and dimly-lit surroundings, you had the feeling that something cool could randomly break out at anytime.
Nowhere encapsulated the essence of Florentin better than
Dalida, where we enjoyed our last meal in Israel.
And what an experience it was.
Our waitress was super-cool and super-friendly - she had visited New Zealand and loved it, which probably endeared us to her a bit more - and she did free shots of Aperol and vodka with us before the start of each course. She reckons that she doesn't get as trashed as you'd expect because she was always moving around - we
Florentin
Florentin is a run-down area of Tel Aviv that has been taken over by artists and students, some of which are drinking at the hip and grungy bar in foreground, which looks like a house party spilling onto the street. A typical scene from the neighbourhood. certainly hoped so as we saw her cycling back home after work! The food though, was heavenly - corn polenta with mushrooms and parmesan; lightly crusted and spiced roasted cauliflower which was probably the highlight; an ox-tail sambusa (like a pie/pasty); goat cheese and lamb
kanafeh (a threaded and very flaky pastry); finished off with a "deconstructed" lemon tart.
The food has been surprisingly cutting-edge in every place we have eaten in Tel Aviv - it has been very creative and has taken local and Arabic influences as well as European staples, to create some mouth-watering combinations that were new to our very extensively well-travelled taste buds.
The atmosphere at Dalida was relaxed, youthful and vibrant. With its 1930s arty chic decor, you definitely felt like you were hanging out with the cool kids - except that these cool kids were friendly and welcoming and weren't too-cool-for-school. So much like
Alon in my last blog entry, I don't usually plug things on my blog but will make an exception for Dalida - a must-visit (along with North Abraxas) if you're ever in Tel Aviv. It isn't currently ranked #2 on TripAdvisor for Tel Aviv restaurants for nothing.
After getting
Cool Cafe
This café that we stumbled upon in Jaffa had a wicked interior and 1920s décor. back to the hotel we had time for about an hour's sleep before our taxi picked us up to take us to the airport for our absurdly early flight back to London.
We arrived at the airport at 2.30am for our 5.30am flight with good reason - while we were spared any sort of inconvenience coming into Israel, we were not to be spared the wrath of Israeli airport security on the way out.
We needed the whole three hours as we were interrogated before checking in - I was quizzed about who I knew in all of the Muslim countries that I had visited - and then put through a special security queue where our bags were both completely unpacked with all items being examined and swabbed. Anna was also almost completely undressed as she was led behind a curtained booth where female security staff snapped on the rubber gloves - the high-tech metal detector had detected the wire on the inside of her bra. We were far from the only people going through this so the wait was painstaking and it was the last thing you wanted to be doing right in the middle of the night.
I
Frame It
The view from of the beach from our hotel rooftop. found it interesting that all the security staff were very young - I would almost suspect that these were soldiers going through their compulsory two-year military service. To be fair, they seemed aware of the inconvenience they were causing and all were very friendly throughout the process in spite of the circumstances.
You almost can't blame the Israelis. Given the political situation and the fact they are surrounded by their enemies, every precaution has to be taken - including reducing the amount of liquid allowed in hand luggage from 100mls to 50mls, which very annoyingly meant my Polo Ralph Lauren cologne which I agonised over when I bought it, was confiscated.
Considering the number of cities that I have visited, to say that Tel Aviv is one of my favourites is quite the endorsement in my humble opinion and Anna very much shared the same thoughts.
It has everything - the beach, great weather, shopping, an outstanding culinary scene (amongst the best I have experienced ever), fantastic nightlife, a youthful energy and vibe, and it has an amazing creative buzz to it. The only thing that it perhaps doesn't have is much to see in the way of sights.
Bauhaus Architecture
Tel Aviv is rife with Bauhaus architecture. Look at those beautiful curved balconies! If the political situation improves (which sadly looks like it won't any time soon) and more cheap flights are put on, I really think that Tel Aviv can take off as
the next big destination. Perhaps the secret is already out; most of the holidaymakers I noticed over here were American, along with French, German and Russian tourists - perhaps not surprising given that these developed countries have some of the largest populations of Jewish diaspora in the world.
There seems to be so much underneath the surface of this city that I feel as if that it is almost a better city to live in rather than to holiday - like London, I think that you really need a lot of time in Tel Aviv to really experience it.
And with that came an end to one of the most interesting trips I have done - where I will be blogging from next is not yet known although the Lake District, Minsk, Scotland and Bilbao are all on the hit list for this year. With a steady job, I now have the time to do some proper holiday planning - but until the next trip...
Shalom!
Derek
Advertisement
Tot: 0.129s; Tpl: 0.026s; cc: 11; qc: 19; dbt: 0.0275s; 1; m:domysql w:travelblog (10.17.0.13); sld: 1;
; mem: 1.2mb
Erica
non-member comment
Such a stunning place, I am traveling with expert Israel trips. So excited, can not wait to experience whole feeling.