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Published: August 15th 2006
I have been spending lots of time in and around Tel Aviv this last week or so. As I mentioned, I've been staying at my friends apartment. I was also at my cousins house for a couple days in between. But I've been going all around the city, to the different neighborhoods, and really enjoying it. Tel Aviv is a great city on its way to being one of the best cities in the world (in my opinion). Its like a mini NY, and it definately is a city that never sleeps. Even during the week, in the middle of the night you will see tons of people about, and not just young people.
One of my favorite things about Israel is the markets. They have markets (shuks) for everything. This one street has a market full of pretty much everything, fruits and vegetables, breads, souveniers, cheap clothes, hair stuff, shoes, cds and dvds. Its open 6 days a week, and gets super crowded on Fridays, right before Shabbat starts. Another street, right next to it has an arts and craft fair market 2 times a week where local artists sell their latest masterpieces. They've got some really nice stuff,
tallest skyscraper in the middle east
tallest skyscraper in the middle east, around the corner from the apartmentand if I had money, and a house, I would be buying a lot of things there. They've especially got a lot of jewelry. And some artists/musicians/street performers are always hanging around, doing whatever they feel like. Its a lot of fun.
Today I went to a museum of a famous Israeli painter called Rueven Rubin. He's an oil painter, and was one of the original pioneers in Israel, moved here I think the beginning of the 20th century. So his paintings are mostly of what Israel looked like while the young Jewish pioneers were developing it, before it became an official country in 1948. There are some really beautiful paintings of Jerusalem, and Jaffa (the arab part of Tel Aviv, which was the main city port for generations). He was the same generation as all the historical pioneers of Israel, such as Ben Gurion, and there were tons of pictures of him with these famous people. The museum is in what originally was his house. When the house was built, there were nothing but trees and the sea around, now it is in the busiest part of the city. Funny how cities grow so quickly.
Hmm what else can I tell you? The sunsets have been absolutely beautiful here, reds and pinks and purples. I have a great view of the sunset over the city from my balcony at the apartment I've been staying at. And today I watched the sunset on the beach.
My friend will be returning to his apartment this coming weekend, so I'll be going back to my cousins on the weekend. My program officially starts sept 3, so i'll have about 2 weeks I think until then. I have plans for the rest of the week of things I want to do. I plan to keep exploring the city and its surrounding cities. Hopefully, sometime soon I'll be able to do some real traveling in the country as things are calming down and returning to "normal".
Keep emailing me folks! Especially if I send you a personal email, I hope to hear back from you😊
LOVE
Leah
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N-Dogg
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Was that last comment directed at me? I don't understand... Well I am so happy that you are touring the city with an avid passion. Let me tell you, I spent about an eighth of my time in England drinking and about half of it traveling. I remember two things from drinking (both cool stories) and almost everything from traveling. Time well spent? Absolutely. I plan on making a return trip within the next two years.