August 11, 2013

Last weekend was amazing! After class on Thursday, my friends and I took a little day trip to Jaffa (Yafo as the israeli's pronounce it.) Jaffa is a the little, old, city next to Tel Aviv. It used to be the only port city on the West coast of Israel. It was the only port in Israel from the Mediterranean Sea. When you go there today, there is the old city, the artists city along the shore with famous graffiti artwork, the Arab city with all the markets and  restaurants, and the boardwalk along the sea. We got there around 6pm, so we went straight to the original Abulafia bakery. Apparently it is the famous Arab bakery in Israel and the original location was/ is the one we went to in Jaffa. It was a rally interesting experience because as we were ordering at Abulafia, the waiters only knew Arabic, not even Hebrew. Also, my friends and I all got mean looks and we were pointed at and were called names because we were not covered up. My friend Alona speaks some Arabic so she was able to understand what they were saying to us and calling us. Other than that interesting experience, the food was incredible. We got a little nervous walking around this Arab section of Jaffa, so we went over to the boardwalk and the artists section. This was a whole new experience in itself. As we walked along the boardwalk, there were graffiti paintings and murals all over the walls. Apparently, a few years ago, there was a graffiti competition and graffiti artists from all over the world came to Jaffa to graffiti the walls of the city. There was also an area with artists selling their artwork and jewelry and sculptures, and art and jewelry galleries along the shore. It was really fun to walk along the boardwalk and see the whole Tel Aviv skyline and the different beaches. Once we walked the whole coastline from Tel Aviv to Jaffa (probably a 20 minute walk) we walked up a huge hill and tons of stairs to the old city of Jaffa.  The views from up there were incredible! We happened to be up there just in time to watch the sunset over the sea and beach. Unfortunately, the old city of Jaffa has become a major tourist place and now looks very touristy. It was still nice to walk around it and take some cute pictures of the four of us with the city of Tel Aviv in the background! We left Jaffa around 9pm and came back to campus to get ready and go out. We were planning on going to a fun Israeli bar but ended up going to La Mer. We got some wine and sat out on the beach, listening to pop Israeli music and hearing the waves slash against the shore.

After a long and tiring but awesome Thursday, I went to bed late and woke up late Friday afternoon. I woke up at about 1pm but didn't actually get out of bed until 2pm or so! It was a beautiful day so we decided to go to the beach. On our way to the beach, we passed an Israeli famous breakfast restaurant that is open for breakfast food 24/7. We have been waiting to try it since we got here, so we went in. The menu had international breakfasts, Israeli breakfasts and American breakfasts. The other weird thing about the menu is that every meal comes with your choice of an iced coffee (more of a coffee smoothie), juice, a hot drink, or a champaign cocktail. We all decided to get mimosas and it was a great choice! The food was really good and it was a fun and cute place! Although we got a late start on our day, we got to the beach at a perfect time! It was not too hot (which it typically is) and not too cold and not too crowded! We were able to lay out towels down really close to the water, so it made it easy for us to run in quickly to cool off. We left the beach after we saw another beautiful sunset. Because we had a late lunch, we were not too hungry, so we went to Tamara frozen yogurt for dinner. I have now had it twice and it is absolutely the most incredible frozen yogurt I think I have ever had! Friday night was another night to go out! We have heard of this place called Roof Top, so we wanted to try it! It was a club/ fancy bar on the rooftop of a building overlooking the whole city. It was so much fun because there was a really good DJ, fun people to talk to, a really cool light and smoke show and awesome views. In fact the theme of Friday night party there was an ice party and they were handing out popsicles to everyone. It was a great night, great day, and great weekend!