My trip to Israel, around Tel Aviv.

I am finally getting around to writing some longer posts about my trip to Israel, which I promised a while ago. To be honest, I spend most of my day at work on the computer (I now have a little over a month until my thesis is due), so coming home at night at doing more typing has been extremely unattractive. But, this past weekend I had a little more time, so I thought I'd force myself to get caught up.

On my first few days in Israel, we were mostly in and around Tel Aviv. One of the first days, we walked along the sea to Jaffa. The weather was really nice, and I love the sea!

Me with Tel Aviv in the background.

In Jaffa.

The old city of Jaffa was cute and fun to walk around.

Streets of Jaffa.

The port of Jaffa.

View of Jaffa at sunset.

We also had a Israeli-style brunch one weekend morning, which was pretty fantastic. Fresh juice, fresh-baked breads, salads, coffee, eggs, etc. Coming from Switzerland, where eating out is expensive enough that I just don't (for the most part), it was really fun to eat out and try new things for affordable costs.

There was one really funny interaction where I ordered a falafel, and I thought the man said that it would be 60 shekels (about 15 CHF). I didn't bat an eye, but started handing him the money. He freaked out and started saying, "...16! 16!..." Apparently I had misunderstood the price, and it was only 16 shekels (4 CHF). Given that the falafel place near my work in Zurich charges 10 CHF for a smaller falafel, I was totally not phased when I thought he was asking me for 60 sheckels! He just had a good laugh at me, I guess.

Another day, we walked along the sea to Namal, which is the port of Tel Aviv (and is the opposite direction from Jaffa). As we were walking, we ran in to people dancing. Apparently every weekend this hotel plays music, and people of all types come to dance. They're not the same every week, and everyone looks like they're having a great time!

I really do love the sea! It was great to be staying so close (Jessi and Brian live maybe a 5-minute walk away), because I was able to walk down by the sea almost every day I was in Tel Aviv. It wasn't quite warm enough to swim, but I did enjoy wading.