Tel Aviv - Day 2

Day two in Tel Aviv was just as great as day one. Tali had arranged for qus to take a bus tour of the city. Her neighbor drives a sightseeing bus, so he knew to be on the lookout for us. She wrote out instructions for the taxi driver to get us to where the bus would be, and we got there no problem. We needed to be there by nine, but she recommended that we leave the hotel at 8:15, just in case we ran into traffic. There was no traffic at all, so we ended up getting there really early. We walked across a bridge to what looked like a playground. Once we got up closer, we saw that it was exercise equipment. The kids played/exercised for a while. 

We saw a flock of wild parrots, and several other kinds of birds. 

When it was time, we headed back over to meet the bus. When we got on, the driver told us Obama paid for it and hands us our earbuds. I have no idea how much it was supposed to cost, but it can't have been cheap. We then had a two hour ride around Tel Aviv. It was quite informative, I'm really glad we did it. During the tour, the driver would occasionally pull over for us to take pictures. Most of the time when he did, he would also say 'right side or somehow otherwise point out what it was we were supposed to see. (The main body of the tour was a prerecorded thing). We had to take a picture of whatever it was, because he would stay pulled over until we had taken them. It took me a couple of stops to realize that. Every once in a while, he would also come in over the mike and tell us Tali would take us somewhere. There was another guy on the tour with us, I'm betting he was wondering who Tali is and why she was going to take him to a museum.

Yitzhak Rabin memorial

After the bus tour, we had instructions on how to walk to get to a place where we were to meet Tali's mother, who would then take us to the market. Shlomit had sent very specific instructions to h family on what we needed to see and do. One of the things was to go into Max Brenner on the way down the beach to get chocolate syringes for the kids. It took us a few minutes to find it. Well, we found the place right away, but when you look in from the street, it looks like a sit-down restaurant. So, we passed it and looked around. We found a couple of places that seemed to fit the bill, but they were closed. Finally, Em was so desperate to have her chocolate syringe that she agreed to go into Max Brenner and ask them where to get it. Once we walked in, though, it was obvious we'd come to the right place. It was covered in shelves and vats of chocolate. Em got a dark chocolate syringe, and Steven got a white chocolate. They are full on 60cc syringes that they suck full of chocolate. It was pretty fun. We didn't let the kids have all of it, though, because we knew there were probably many other desserts in our future.

Almost the entire coastline of Tel Aviv is lined with the promenade, a boardwalk type path. It's not lined with arcade games like a boardwalk in New Jersey, but it has a fair number of shops and cafes. 

We got to the place where we were supposed to turn inland, but we were half an hour early to meet Tali's mom So, we decided to stick our feet in the sea. We took off our shoes, rolled up our pants, and headed across the beach. Best laid plans, and all that. Within moments, the kids were wet above their cuffs. Within minutes, they were both soaked up to the waist, Em especially. Ah, well. 

It was about time to head up to meet Tali's mom, so we called the kids out of the water. Then, w heard somebody say hi, and it was Tali! Instead of her mom taking a cab to meet us, Tali had brought her. We all headed up to the car, where her mom was waiting. Her mom is great. Her name is Nira. Tali dropped us all off at Carmel Market. It reminded me a lot of the souks in Morocco. People yelling and pulling you into stores if you seem the slightest bit interested. It was great. I needed a menorah for home and one for church back in Maryland, and I saw one I liked. The guy said it was 50 shekels. I said it was too much, so he said 40. I couldn't get him to go any lower, unfortunately, but I bought it anyway. When I told him I needed two, he was reluctant. He said I could have 2 for 85. I told him no way was I paying more for two, when they would only be 80 if I bought them separately. He said that he would run out, and didn't want to sell me two, so I should pay more. I said no way. I got two for 80.

Oranges and pomegranates at a juice stand

We had lunch at some place with a cat symbol. It was pretty good! As with last night, we shared everything, but this time we each ordered and then shared. Em's couscous with beef was my favorite. Then, Nira ordered us this lovely dessert called malabi. It was a very light milky puddingy custardy thing. 

We named him Scar. He sat like this the whole time we were eating

We walked back though the market, where I wanted to get a couple of pieces of baklava. I love baklava. Nira talked to the guy, and ended up getting us a huge variety back of pastries! They fed us for days. 

A treasure trove of honey-soaked goodness

After that, Nira walked us back to the hotel, where we bid her goodbye. she was a wonderful woman, I hope someday I'll see her again.

Then it was time for some real beach-going. The kids put on their suits and off we went! Our hotel isn't far from the beach, but we wanted to find a geocache that mom had printed out, and we needed to find a place to exchange money. Tali had changed some euro for me the night before, but we didn't have enough to get us through for very long. We had been told at our hotel to try one of the big hotels. So, we did. We found one on the way to the cache, but the guy at the could her said his rates were bad, and the was a money place down the street. We went that way, but we didn't see it. We did see the park with the cache, though, so we went there. Then, we went to the beach. The kids had a grand time. We spent probably an hour and a half there. Then the sun went down, and it got cold! So, it was time to get back to the hotel. Tali was picking us up at 7 for an on foot tour of the center of town stuff that we had only seen briefly on our bus tour. 

We walked along the main streets and saw lots of Bauhaus architecture. As far as I can tell, Bauhaus is characterized by very clean lines. Tali also told us that you can't tear down the old homes in Tel Aviv, but you can renovate them. Sometimes, this means renovating by building an entire skyscraper on top of it. 

See the original house under there?

We had dinner at Cafe Noir, a place that Tali goes regularly. Then, we went for gelato at a new gelato place. They were anxious to show off, since they were new, and they just kept handing us sample spoon after sample spoon. Em ended up getting some goat milk frozen yogurt, I got gelato that tasted like some Austrian cake that I now have to look up, Mom got something with chocolate and berries, I think, and Steven got Madagascar vanilla. We were exhausted after that, so we walked back to the hotel and bid Tali goodbye. I really liked her, too.

Emma says -  The people here are really, really nice, and they showed us lots of amazing things. The ice cream and frozen yogurt were really, really good. Oh, and the chocolate syringe. If you go, you need to get those.

la