After months of haunting the halls of world famous museums and cathedrals, trudging along historic battlefields and beaches, and sifting through centuries of history at World Heritage archeological sites, we spent our first day in the Holy Land at…the mall. While it’s a major city and a financial and technological hub, Tel Aviv has a much less crowded feel than the last city we visited, and we enjoyed walking the streets of our neighborhood in the warm sunshine. We enjoyed eggs and fresh fruit for breakfast and struck out strolling down Dizengoff Street just to see what we could find. Our apartment is located on the corner of this major boulevard in the northern section of the city with markets and restaurants all around, and the Mediterranean Sea is a ten-minute walk to the west.
A two-kilometer stroll brought us to the area of the Dizengoff Center, Israel’s first mall and one of the coolest shopping plazas we’ve seen. The mall spans both sides of the street, connected by skywalks and rises several stories above the boulevard full of stores from Nike to American Eagle, and everything else one could possibly imagine. We weren’t in the market for anything in particular, but we enjoyed visiting the shops and immersing ourselves in culture from the current century for a change. On the way back, we found a Super Cofix supermarket where everything costs five shekels, and we loaded up on groceries to hold us for a couple days. Israel is expensive compared to the places we’ve visited recently, and we need to get back into the careful budget groove.
Back at the apartment, we had a simple lunch of hummus and pita bread and still feeling a bit tired from travel ordeal the day before, we rested for a while listening to the world pass by our balcony. By mid afternoon, we were ready to go again and walked to the beach passing by the David Ben-Gurion House on the way. Israel’s first prime minister lived there for twenty years, and it still houses his library of twenty-thousand books. The sidewalk was lined with small cafes and apartment blocks tucked back into groves of palm trees. At the end of the boulevard, the residential area opened up to the vast sky above the expanse of the Mediterranean Sea, its water turned flinty blue by the low angle of the late afternoon sun. We spread out a sheet on the sand and spent a couple of hours dozing in the sun and strolling in the calm surf. Somehow in all of our travels, we manage to find ice cream, and today was no exception as we munched chocolate cones and watched the sun set on another day on the road.
Next day we were set to tackle the Tel-O-Fun rental bike station to secure transportation to the ancient port city of Jaffa located just six kilometers south of our apartment. The city is called Joppa in the Bible, and it’s the city where Jonah bought passage and set sail for Tarshish in his attempt to flee from God. It took a few clumsy attempts at the video kiosk, but we finally managed to free four bikes from their docking ports much to the amusement of the locals sitting on nearby park benches sipping coffee. The lime green bikes were sturdy and easy to pedal, and we were soon on our way to Jaffa, traveling on a bike path that ran parallel to the beach. Tel Aviv is very bike friendly, and many of the locals use the dedicated lanes and wide sidewalks to get around town. The sky was cloudy as we pedaled toward Jaffa, but there was a steady breeze coming off the Mediterranean, and we had an easy trip to the town.
A nice man helped us return our bikes to a station in Jaffa, and we were off and wandering the old streets of this historic city. In addition to the story of Jonah, the Bible mentions Joppa as the entry port for the cedars of Lebanon as they were cut and sent for the construction of Solomon’s Temple. The Apostle Peter was staying in Joppa at the house of Simon the Tanner where in addition to raising Tabitha from the dead, he had a curious vision before being summoned to Caesarea by the centurion Cornelius, and the events that followed changed the history of the world. I wonder if thousands of years from now, people will come to North Carolina for the purpose of seeing the traditional site where the house of Mike the Painter still stands—I have my doubts.
The narrow streets of the Old Town rise up the hill from the sea, and they still have the mysterious look of the ancient Middle East, and we had a lot of fun exploring the twists and turns of the alleyways. The hill at the highest point of the city offers a great view of the coast all the way back up to Tel Aviv, and we stayed there for a while reviewing history lessons before finding the alley that contains the house of Simon the Tanner. The house is owned by an Armenian family that takes care of the lighthouse and small mosque on the property, and there is no entry past the gate, but I felt that familiar thrill of standing near the area where exciting events took place thousands of years ago.
Simon the Tanner's house
Simon's house with minaret
Looking out over Jaffa
From Simon’s house, we descended into the streets of modern Jaffa where we ate a delicious lunch of falafel and shawarma prepared by “the Doctor,” a local sandwich wizard operating on the main corner in the clock tower square. A popular, permanent flea market occupies a multi-block area just off the main square in town, and we spent a couple of hours there just wandering and trying not to get snared by the master salesmen populating the booths. After a fun day in Jaffa, we took a taxi back to our neighborhood and finished the afternoon with a visit to the local juice bar and had an amazing concoction of freshly squeezed orange, pomegranate, and grapefruit which only cost sixteen shekels. After only a day in a half in Israel, I already have a good understanding of the currency, and my shekel game is strong.
Modern Jaffa
Jaffa Flea Market
"Shekel game..."
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