First Day in Tel Aviv

Hello Canadians!

It is 5:30 pm (7:30 am in Vancouver) and I just got home from a massive tour of Tel Aviv. Because of Jet Lag the four Canadians woke up at 7 am (if you know me this is highly irregular) and while we waited for Alex to arise from slumber we talked about philosophy, religion and monty python as well as planned out some of the Kinks in our Trip.* After Alex woke up around 11 am we went off to see the amazing City that is Tel Aviv. 

We first went to the Dizngoff Mall which is enormous and several stories high - there are no stairs but all of the stores are situated around a slanted path which twists up and down. Dizngoff was jam packed full of people yelling, laughing and trying to persuade shoppers to buy merchandise. In the halls of Dizngoff people can get their hair cut, receive full body massages, have their dogs trained AND their tarot cards read. On fridays and mondays there is a food market where local people will bring cuisine and sell it for good prices... or so we thought! The food was delicious and very interesting (Zee and I refused to touch the boile eggs with rice in brown sauce) but we later found out that they charged us double! — We must look like naive tourists to them (go figure). You can't drink the tap water in Israel so we stopped at a local market and bought two 2 litre bottles which cost 10 shekels (approx $3.50)

 It was interesting though because it cost the same amount for a teeny tiny water bottle of the same brand... I guess to the Israeli's size doesn't matter! 

After we were well hydrated we walked for a bit just looking at the stores and buildings. It is very very very beautiful here everything is bright and filled with color and sound. The traffic in particular is insane — the roads are either highways or tiny and drivers are not afraid to honk their horns to get your attention or part on half of the curb if they have to. There is also a very large amount of mopeds and motorcycles here which adds to the insanity. 

But finally we reached the Mediterranean sea which was superb, it was so beautiful and bright! (on Saturdays everything is closed in Tel Aviv so this will be our beach day.) Across from the boardwalk was a Memorial dedicated to the Israeli immigrants who came from british enemy territory to start over in a new land, this was very interesting and the first part of Historical Israel we had seen. As we walked along the beach we passed the American embassy which was in a beige stone building and guarded by Israeli soldiers. One of the things I mainly notice about Israel are the smells, it is mostly of food and dust and urine — as people generally release themselves on the street. 

Later we arrive at an open air market which went on for blocks! They sold so many different things — a lot of Star of David memorabilia i.e boxer shorts, necklaces, flags — as well as t-shirts, china, jewelry, toilet paper holders, pastries, flowers, fake cactus's, dragon puppets made from boa's and, the most interesting of all, street counseling . — We advised Omar to get his head checked but he refused. On the streets of Tel Aviv there are male orthodox jews who will tie a box with the torah in it to the left arm of any male who asks. This, we later learned, was in order to connect the head and heart to God, it is supposed to be done every morning, and females didn't need it as they were already there - Zee and I found this very pleasing.

The stores in the city are amazing and everything is really nice... it is also really expensive! We all went into this little boutique that was buried underground and tried on some gorgeous dresses, including Ryan. We all looked amazing and practiced our model walks in the change room. But we decided any shopping could be done in Nablus where it is supposed to be the same clothes for half the price.

The word most commonly used on the streets of Tel Aviv is "Slicha" (Slee-ha) which means sorry or excuse me and I have learned to use it like one of the natives! We have also learned "Do you speak English" "Yes" "No" "Let's go"  and most importantly "Where is the Washroom."

It is stifling hot here and very very humid (F.Y.I mom organic deodorant is powerless against the heat of Tel Aviv) so we were sweltering hot by the time we made it to Aroma, the Israeli version of Starbucks, and bought drinks — coffee for me (of course) and juice for everyone else. Tel Aviv is supposed to be one of the most expensive cities in the world ($6 for a medium Iced Coffee). Once we had cooled down we decided to forgo the bus and walk back to Alex's house where we have been for 1/2 an hour.

Tonight we will be experiencing Tel Aviv's diverse night life which is Infamous! It is particularly exciting as four of our Israeli friends will be joining us -  Gili and Gal who are currently in the army and got out for the night to see us, Alex whose floor we slept on last night, and Tom whose Birthday is today so were going out to celebrate. 

I'm Having the most amazing time guys please comment so I know your still with me!