Tel Aviv

It took 31 hours from when I left home in Canberra to when I arrived in Tel Aviv... It was a massive journey - the worst of which was a 5 hour stopover in Amman, from 5am local time. Luckily I made friends with a pair of Irish sisters returning from a holiday in Thailand and we chatted about travel and work and the economic downturn for a while, then I attempted to sleep on a bench (but really just closed my eyes). Amman airport has this weird disorientating layout where each end has the same cafes with one or two slightly different, then you walk through a duty free section to the other side and it's exactly the same, so it is most confusing... And that whole time Amman is 80km from Tel Aviv, yet would take so long overland via border checkpoints at the west bank that it's not at all worth it.

From Israel

eating hummus

So I finally arrived at Tel Aviv, and Amit was waiting to pick me up at the airport. It is so amazing to see him after 3 months of talking and chatting and emailing. I arrive at about midday and we walked a bit around the city. It's a great place, so vibrant with people everywhere enjoyng the bars and cafes. It's so hot though, especially coming from a canberra winter! We had hummus for dinner, it was tasty, but my favourite was the fresh falafel. I don't think I've ever had such yummy felafel before... I'm loving the food here so far! Yesterday we went around the city on Amit's scooter, driving along the sea, which looks very blue and pretty (might go for a swim today), to the old port of Jaffa, which is the original arab area here. It has beautiful winding narrow streets only wide enough for people winding their way down to the old port. It was gorgeous, and we stopped in on some interesting artist's galleries there. Yesterday evening we met up with some of Amit's friends for some beers, they are really lovely, and it was so great to see how excited they were to meet me. We also caught up with Ido, who was with Amit in Vietnam. He's great, just the same as I remember him.

From Israel

Jaffa harbour

So Amit is taking me round Tel Aviv again today, and in the next few days we'll go to the dead sea and masada. It's all so different and interesting...