Tel Aviv

 The busy, yet excellent Carmel Market Tel Aviv.

 Carmel, you would be welcomed here with open arms.  Your name is everywhere!

 More tat in the market.

 My meal today.  I had shakshuka.  It was tasty, just like I make it... but I didn't know it had a name!

 the only mosque I have seen, no churches yet and I don't know how to recognise a synagogue,  but I must have seen loads.

Sunset looking over at Jaffa Port.

 Yummy mummies and Hasidic Jews out for the sunset.

About 4pm.

 The med.

Catching the two Hassidic guys earlier in the afternoon.

 Jaffa again.

 Opposite the beach.  Parks and high rises.

 Just to prove I'm really here

Wandering around  

Looking down swanky Rothschild Avenue.

Well here I am safe and sound in Israel.  The flight was easy and totally stress free but the bus from Oxford to Heathrow was absolutely FREEZING.  My hands were numb by the time I got off and people were complaining.  I also found 20 pounds on the bus.  Lucky I hope!

British Airways were great, all of the air stewards were big fat guys in their 50s.  They looked like a load of night club bouncers...maybe they had hijacked the plane because they didn't seem to know what they were doing.  When I asked for my gin and tonic the guy said:
'Bloody hell love we are nearly out of them...everyone wants one.  I could understand  if we were flying to Scotland but this is to Israel, right?!'
Tried to watch a movie but I go stone deaf when I fly and the headset was shit and there was only Arabic subtitles, so just read and slept.  5 hours later I was going up my first set of escalators after getting off the plane and I was pulled aside for an individual grilling by the authorities.   Why are you alone? Why are you here?   Do you know anyone? Why?  Why?  Lots of looking at my stamps.  I kept smiling but my voice was going, yes, I was nervous...what the hell was this?!   She let me go and then the super grilling started at the passport control.  They wanted my printed booking of my hotel...which I didn't have but I had their phone number.  they called them and then they asked about my job and my Mum and Dad...so weird,. had to tell them about Dad working in a bloody car factory in Oxford.  Anyway, I got through and then a taxi to my hotel.   ALLENBY STREET is named after some famous English guy who invaded Israel and took it off the Ottoman empire. It's pretty grotty compared to the other swanky roads around here.( Maybe this is retribution for stealing the city off the Turks!)  But I like scummy areas and this wonderful Internet cafe is just a few blocks down. On this street there is everything, sex toy shops next to shops full of Jewish menorahs (the candle holders for shabbat). Posh women walking rottweilers...Dads with babies wrapped round them and lots of trendy young people on tiny sedgeways. last night I walked and walked but it was quiet because it was Saturday and I left my camera in the hotel safe.  I ended up at the Old Train Station.  Was really interesting with live music and lots of kids running around.  It reminded me of a far better version of Bicester Village with all the posh shops and well dressed people.  It was quite pleasant to walk back along the beach and come back to this more grotty and quirky end of town.

Today has been a beach day.  yes, the beach is great. No hassle, lovely clean sea and plenty of room to just lay out on your towel and read.  I slapped on the cream...yes, was about 28 degrees today.  My body feels like its going through temperature shock.   Gloves and scarves are like a distant dream!  Its lovely apart from the monstrously huge high rise hotels behind.   Tel Aviv is full of towers.  About 3pm I left the beach and wandered off to the Carmel Market.   Oh God, it was like I had died and gone to heaven.  Wonderful food everywhere with a PRICE ON IT.  I bought loads of nuts, persimmons, cranberries and a few olives.  I ate a load of hummus and  Shakshuka...eggs and tomatoes mushed up together.  I then wandered back to the sea for sunset which is about 5pm.   Ridiculously early!!  it's pitch black by 5.30pm this time of year.   Mental.  But still hot.  I then did more wandering and took some photos and finally ended up here.
So initial impressions are people are more friendly than I thought they would be and the city is very cosmopolitan and laid back.  It's safe and well designed and I think people have a good life here.  It's extremely modern though which is why tomorrow I am walking to Old Jaffa which is the oldest port in the world and is supposedly where Jonah (of the whale fame) left for sea and where the Phonecians and Egyptians did business and traded the wood to build the first Temple.

Oh , Tuesday I am not going to Jerusalem I am taking the train to Haifa in the North and seeing the sites up there.  It looks like an interesting place and I have booked a bed in a really well recommended hostel for a couple of nights.  The joy of having no plans is I can make things up on the spot. Right, back out for more wandering and maybe more food.