tel aviv and back
just thought i’d share the last little leg of my journey; a 5-day
escapade to the party town of tel aviv, to decompress from the
fast-paced group trip, and collect ourselves before the next chunk of
adventure. i was with a group of 4 other girls (all of whom extended
their Fellowships tickets), 3 of whom decided to indulge in an
upper-class hotel, and the one trooper who may or may not have felt it
her duty to humour me in my shoestring budgeting. we arrived
unannounced at a youth hostel (apparently the best in tel aviv), and
they only had room for us on…the roof. turns out, the rooftop
lodging accomodates about 10-20 people at any given time, and it’s
every man for himself as we grabbed matresses and [clean] sheets and
vied for the more “private” corners. the first night, as is usually
the case with a new location, was restless and sketchy; we were
surrounded by people from all walks of life, gathering together in
hostel no-man’s-land to drink, smoke, and share travelling stories—of
which we had no part in, as we were too focused on praying that we get
through the night without any of our stuff being stolen. thankfully we
woke up unscathed, and with this gained confidence in our cozy little
sky apartment, paid for the next night with glee (we even had a
complimentary breakfast, toast and coffee, not bad). we got used to it
up there, and as the hot humid days burned off into breezy nights, we
were almost sad to say goodbye to the place which gave us shelter for
10 bucks a night. almost.
if the accomodations were cheap, the food was even better; there was a
godsend of an establishment right around the corner from the hostel
which provided us with free internet (yes you heard me. FREE. you
don’t know what joy that one simple word overwhelms my travelling
heart with), free water (again, elation), and fresh knishes (here burekas—not to be confused with ‘burkas’) and
pastries (as well as fruit and pita and tzadiki and veggies and
whatever else our stomachs desired) with pricetags comparable to those
i found once upon a time in mexico. so with my daily expenditures
rounding out at about $15-20 a day, i happily joined my gaggle of
girlfriends to laze away the days on the beach.
the sand is like butter there; never before have my toes felt such
smoothness, and it’s only mildly scorching hot come midday. we staked
our territory under a wooden hut thing (and despite spending the
entire time in the shade, 4 out of 5 of us got burnt…myself
included. and i re-applied!!), and read our respective novels, wrote
in our journals, and fended off unwanted advances from lecherous old
men (they are to tel aviv what the cats are to jerusalem). after a
particularly unnerving confrontation with one of said perverts, i
decided that there might be something to those separate religious
beaches after all. but the company was not all disconcerting, as we
spent a few hours in avid conversation with a cute french couple we
met in the adjoining hut. it was great to speak french again, and they
stroked my ego by gushing over how great and un-quebecois my accent
was. i’ve also gotten to practice my
spanish with a couple of wayward argentinians i bumped into…no such
luck with my german though, and my hebrew to date is basically
non-existent. but it will come…i hope.
other highlights included a solo stroll down to the artist’s market
(which consists of blocks and blocks of stands, no generic tchotchkes
in this bunch, all genuine hand-made stuff sold by the artists
themselves…my kind of place), a friend’s birthday celebration with dancing on the beach (in a very chilled out club with giant
lounge-atmosphere-inducing red lamps interspersed in the sand—so
soothing, in fact, that i fell asleep right in the middle of it. i am
a wild party.), and a very successful haggling job done by yours truly
with the falafel lady who overcharged me the first time but made such
a damn good falafel that i had to go back, but i told her straight up
that she ripped me off (by a whole 50 cents), and she wasn’t convinced
but conceded and made me dinner anyway…victory was mine.
well that about brings us up to speed, i am now back in jerusalem
crashing a nice young religious couple’s apartment for the weekend
(michal is a year older than me, and she’s great—she showed me how to
make my first challah today, a 6-strand braid—all those years of
doing gimp at camp finally paid off, mom you’d be proud; her husband,
gavriel, is also great, a spunky new yorker—they have taken me in
like their own). after shabbos i plan to meet up with my friend
adrienne (my fellow roof-mate) and see where the road takes us at that
point. too many options, so little time…i’ll be sure to keep you
posted on whatever direction i point my feet towards.
