Tuesday....October 31

We are heading to Tel Aviv today....well, actually, Yafo.  These 2 used to be separate city/towns, Yafo and Tel Aviv, but gradually over time they have melded into a city entity.  Looking out over the cityscape, you can see the high rises of Tel Aviv towering to the north and the low rise landscape of Yafo to the south.  Yafo seemed, to us, to be different than the big city of Tel Aviv, so we opted to stay there.  Again, we chose to stay in an apartment. 

We left the apartment in Jerusalem around noon to catch a sherut to Tel Aviv.  It worked out quite well.  The sherut was filled up shortly after we arrived and then we were off to Tel Aviv.  Bill explained that Israelis thought that sheruts were safer than buses, but I can't say from a terrorist point of view, however, the way that many sherut drivers drive scares the bejeezus out of me.

We were dropped off at the central bus station in Tel Aviv and then had to figure out how to get to the apt.  We flagged a cab and shortly we were at the apt.

The apartment that we rented was in a very nice modern complex with broad grass spaces defining the grounds.  The apartment came with the largest cat Bill and I have ever seen...I mean enormous.  This guy probably weighed a good 35 or so pounds.  He wasn't particularly friendly, but wasn't a hisser either.  Neither of us could get over how damn big it was.  Watching the cat negotiate jumping up on the couch was pretty funny.  Back legs coiling for the leap, ears twitching, and then the leap--and he was then clawing his way up onto the couch, scrabbling with his hind feet to get purchase.  Hilarious.

Bill on Promenade

After settling in we headed out to explore and find something to eat.  We walked into the flea market and were underwhelmed.  It is billed as an attraction of the area, but it's just kind of sad.  Realizing that we were hungry we settled on Dr. Shakshuka.  Shakshuka is a national dish of a tomato-based stew/sauce onto which are put 2 eggs to poach.  We had it in Jerusalem, and I thought that it was good, I was not prepared for this place.  It was AWESOME.  Rich and chunky, redolent with onions and red bell peppers with 2 perfectly cooked eggs sitting on top.  It's served with pita on the side, and you yearn for more bread to sop up every last drop of that sauce.

It seems that the chef is a celebrity!  People were coming through and having their pictures taken with him.  He is a cherubic man with a jowly face and round body that speaks to enjoyment of food.  We found out later that he was a celebrity judge on Israel's top chef or was the winner of it...not sure.  But he certainly did not shy away from his customers!

After eating our fill, we wandered out to the beach front promenade and walked up to the edge of the high rise buildings in Tel Aviv proper.  There were all sorts of people out and about.  Children attending a surf school, sun bathers, pensioners, trendy sorts, trendy sorts with obvious surgery resulting in almost duckbill lips...hilarious on the one hand, and creepy on the other.

We wandered back to the abode and tried to figure out what to do for dinner.  Ultimately we settled on __________.  If I’m drawing a blank as to where we ate, it must not have been memorable.

This was the view from our apartment in Yafo looking west towards the water.  We crawled into the loft bed gently skinning our knees, and Bill said, enough, and opted to sleep on the couch.  I bravely remained in the loft, scraped knees and badly bruised toes and all.

Mr. Kitty, began wailing around 2 or 3 in the morning, we both talked to him and he eventually calmed down and settled back to sleep.  On arising and feeding time, he was my best friend once again!