Tel Aviv

Tel Aviv is a strange city. There is a little bit of everything: Huge skyscrapers stand in the middle of unfinished ground level houses, large streets like in most American cities and little ‘Europeanish’ roads with Asian and African smells. People are good looking, easy going and a lot of American English is spoken on the streets. All the people we met during the day were extremely cordial. Through Couch Surfing, Meike got in contact with a guy who hosted us for two nights allowing us to be a little more ‘insiders’ and to save the money for a hostel. He is an interesting guy who plays in 3 bands and works in the oldest bar of Tel Aviv which, he tells us, has been in business for 20 years. He has a serious look when he is in standby but his smile is very warm.

The day went by super quickly. We walked to the beach that is only ten minutes away and walked around for the rest of the day. We are catching a shared Taxi to Jerusalem in a few hours and I cannot sleep. I ended my day in the bar next door which reminds me of one of the many coffee shops in New Orleans. I ordered a beer which will probably be the first and last one this month and read the first twenty pages of Thomas Friedman’s ‘From Beirut to Jerusalem’. Reading about the Middle East’s history in Tel Aviv is a whole other story.