To Jaffa And Back

So today I shelpt back up to Tel Aviv, we didn't really go so much to Tel Aviv save through it, and spent most of the afternoon and late evening in Jaffa. And boy was that an experience.

This blog entry will be a bit different, it's mostly going to formatted around the pictures. I've been wanting to try this out, but couldn't figure out how to sync my phone with my computer to download the photos. I will be the first to admit I'm pretty tech ignorant, so bear with me it took this long.

Our first stop was at 2:00 P.M. at the Palmach museum in Tel Aviv. It was actually a pretty interesting tour. But once again, another museum where you end up turning your head a lot.

It covered the elite strike force of the Haganah, the armed forces of Israel which would eventually become the Israeli Defense Force. It specifically focused on the elite unit of that armed force.

Turns out Harry Potter used a time-turner to fight in the Israeli War of Independence.

This is our guide, Dikla. She's really cool, and I don't think I have met someone who has been to literally everywhere. She took us through Jerusalem and Northern Israel. She's also pretty cool to talk to one on one. She's also extremely attractive.

 Here are two shots I took of the memorial to the fallen of the Palmach. The main reason we toured this facility is personal for Dikla and the director of our Ulpan; both of her grandfathers fought, and one died in the war of independence serving, while both of Ilan's parents were also active participants in the Palmach.

I couldn't decide which photo was better, so just decided to use both.

Afterwards we shlept to the interior of Tel Aviv, where we walked down Rothschild boulevard. It's pretty impressive how built up Tel Aviv is with a population of around 500,000.

Those are some of the photos I took of the buildings around the street. Thereafter we wandered through one of the first neighborhoods in Tel Aviv, even coming across the first kiosk built in the city;

Kind of neat, I walked by this last time I was in the city. It makes me think; how often have I been in D.C. or New York City and walked past something I thought derelict or crappy, and just ignored it, never realizing its history?

There after we traveled along the beach as we walked toward the ancient town.

 And then Jaffa itself;

We then went to the marketplace. There was a lot of talk about pickpockets, so I was extremely careful with my belongings. Perhaps too careful, because honestly it was the most interesting part of our travails that day. Because of that I didn't take my phone out, but let me tell what happened.

We went down the alleys, and I was accosted by numerous, in what I can only term 'desperate' merchants. One actually tried to pull me back by my arm when I tried to walk away. I can only laugh it off, but when somebody pointed out I should probably check my bag for my belongings, that gave me confirmation on just how aggressive that part of Jaffa is.

I mean, if you even look at an item with the mildest of passing interest they will do everything in their power to keep you there. To the point of pulling you back, or as a friend from the kibbutz experienced, stand in your path and do everything possible to block you from going forward.

As someone who practices self-defense and self-security, I felt extremely uncomfortable and had to leave the area. So I went back to the main street and walked around. I eventually ended up getting terrible Shwarma, and some kind of ice-drink akin to a better akin version to slurpee.

After this we walked toward the old city of Jaffa, and things took an entertaining turn. We basically went for the good views and brief recap of the old city. Since it was summer a lot of people get married, and we saw three weddings. I begged our guide to let us crash one, but we didn't end up.

Here we are walking up the first of many, many flights of stairs.

Here is a view of Tel Aviv from the Old City of Jaffa. The town is literally next to Tel Aviv, to the point you'd think you are just entering a kind of neighborhood. 

On one of the benches I found a kick-ass Flower of Life symbol.
You can find virtually every symbol within it.

A sunset I tried to catch in Jaffa. Maybe I can figure out a way to filter out the sun better in the future. Again, technologically retarded.

Dusk in Jaffa.

 And... the photo above is me acting out a brief skit where I pretended to be Perseus, and a fellow Kibbutzim pretended to be Andromeda. I found this particularly funny because the wig I am wearing looks identical to my actual hair. Redundancy can be funny sometimes.

Thereafter we ventured into the hills of Jaffa as we made our way from Jaffa, and there were still some cool things to see, at least to me as a history major. 

This photo is of the ruins in the old city dating back to Philistines. Jaffa is between 4,000-5,000 years old, and you can literally dig into a hill in it and find layers of history sandwiched on top of each other.

Now this piece of artwork is pretty awesome in my book. The Israeli artist Ran Morin tucked this artwork inside the old city of Jaffa, and it is an orange tree suspended and growing in the air. It says a lot honestly; but to me it said the most about how often the Jewish people have been uprooted yet still continue to thrive. Every year this tree blossoms and bears a very sour form of citrus.

After that we loaded back up on the bus after traversing a maze of descending stairs, exiting the city soon after. We were exhausted, but it was a pretty cool trip to see what was arguable the oldest city in the world, and certainly the oldest existent port-city.