Yes my description is correct. There was a nightclub on the beach that was bombed out and now on Friday nights at sunset, locals brings their drums and continuously drum as the sunsets over the water. It is a cool setting with graffiti in the background and the Mediterranean Sea in the foreground. There was a little red headed girl there who was engrossed in her book reading as the drummers drummed around her, she was cute.
Now like I said the Bauhaus or White City (as they were all white buildings) is another attraction. These housing apt blocks were built in the 20’s to be completely functional and not aesthetically pleasing. Their original purpose was to provide housing to middle class people and now only the rich can live in them as they are now multimillion dollar apts. This sparked the protest around the world last year with sit ins in major cities.
We were given some interesting pieces of information on the walk. I am not sure if it is a wives tail or not, but a cute story just the same. Shutters have very interesting details. There are these pins that keep them open on the building. They have people on them and when the man is up you are welcome to come and visit. If the pin is down a woman is shown and it means no visitors are welcome and that potentially the man is busy with a woman. This was pre telephones and you didn’t call before coming over and this was a way to indicate if it was ok to call. Now you can take it or leave it, but just the little details on houses like this are interesting to find once someone points them out to you.
These housing blocks are being redone and are looking good; however there are some in need of some TLC. There are rules on refurbishing. The owners are not allowed to continue to build up with the same façade. The additional stories put on the top must be smaller than the bottom stories and set back so they “do not change” the original look of the building. We saw one where two owners combined their buildings to get more apts and then built up, utilizing the space. There also must be a safe room in the new build. It must be a concrete room with an iron door in the event that a war breaks out people will have a “safe” place to go.
I hit a chocolate shop and had a to die for, ok not that extreme, but, an amazing milkshake.
Karen’s friend Ester arrived in Tel Aviv and so we had a day with her, she is great fun, she even finished off the evening by reading our cards, and it was very cool. We had a great day roaming the streets of Tel Aviv and Jaffa. Jaffa a 4000 year old city is within walking distance of Tel Aviv and to think Tel Aviv is only 100 years old. We saw pictures and it was just a desert, now it is a thriving metropolis.
Jaffa was beautiful we could have spent days wondering there, but better for our pocket books that we didn’t. We each got a new dress, mine I say is the Jewish school girl look, it is cute and made in Tel Aviv. The experience in the shop with the clerk being our very own gay personal shopper was brilliant and a priceless experience. At one point I got stuck in a dress and he said don’t worry girl I will help you, I won’t look I am gay, gay, gay, and he had it off me in two seconds.
We went to an Arabic restaurant for dinner which came with 18 little salads and a pitcher of fresh squeezed lemonade to share.
I crossed the border and I am back in Jordan without an Israeli stamp in the old passport. If you are doing further travel in the Middle East it is recommended to not get the stamp. I will fly to Abu Dhabi for my visit with Jenn and Spencer tomorrow.
Goodbye Karen, we split today she is off to Crete, Ireland and then moving back to Australia. Good luck it was great traveling with you, until our paths cross again…
It took 6 hours and 5 busses/taxis to go about 200km’s today. It sounds crazy but it was actually a very smooth trip and easy to make the transfers etc. I gave myself lots of time and it was no problem. In the end it cost about $20 compared to a private taxi that would have been $264. The boarder closes early tomorrow and then will be closed for two days do to Yom Kipper, so I am very happy to have made it through and easily.
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