Goodbye Tel Aviv

I woke up early, due to Mr. Rooster and could not really fall back asleep. Jeremiah woke up at 6:00 and did his morning routine. I figured he was leaving soon as it was earlier then usual. I was wrong though, he told me later that he was due to leave at noon. By the sixth time that he reentered the room, I had given up on even pretending to be trying to go back to sleep.



I got up and headed to the bus. It was a foggy and humid morning, which meant interesting photo op. and frizzy hair. I caught a sherut into Tel Aviv and got off a couple of stops before the central bus station. Why would I do that? Because that is when the second to last guy got off and it looked familiar enough... of course I got off and had no idea where I was and walked in circles for ten minutes until I got my bearings straight.



I headed to Jaffa. Along the way I walked through the Levinski market, which thoroughly amused me. Perhaps because it was all about the nuts there. I mean how can you have a whole street, where everyone sells the same thing? Every once in a while I found a rice or tea shop but mostly it was about the nuts.



I wound up at the clock tower and thought to myself... "this is where my Tel Aviv map stops...where am I going?" I hoped to run into an AM/PM mart to get a map of Jaffa but that did not happen and was not really needed. I wound up at the flea market which was awesome. I am not into flea markets but it was so middle-eastern that it was amusing. I even went into one shop to look for a trinket for my sister but the only thing that I could focus on and thought she might like was a ring that would not fit her.



I knew that the best shwarma of Tel Aviv was across from the clock tower and so I headed back there. It was only 10 though so I headed towards the beach. I took a couple of pictures and then my battery said it was low (about an hour ago it was full...) I carefully selected a couple of more shots and even got to see some music video being made. It was a guy singing, one playing guitar and one recording. I am thinking he was not well known, but what do I know?

I headed back to where I was told the best shwarma was. It was a sit down place and I did not want to sit down or pay for a tip or buy a drink when I had a perfectly good bottle of water in my bag. I skipped that place and kept walking. I asked some store owner where good shwarma was and he just pointed in the direction that I had come.

I wound up walking all the way back to Tel Aviv and then decided I should just go to my favorite falafel place. I knew they had shwarma and thought it would be as good as the falafel. An hour and a half later I was there and starving. I enjoyed an eh shwarma and was nice and full. I decided to head back to the farm but I had to get my fruit drink!

I passed the same fruit stand that Jackie had gone to and figured I would give it a shot. The guy at the counter was a lot nicer then the one that she had dealt with and I asked him for a cup of his favorite, whatever it was. He made me try it in front of him and it was YUM! I asked what it was and he said banana, date, something. I said how delicious it was and the guy who made it popped out of the back and said "I made it!" I said it was tres bien and very good and they both were amused as I walked to the bus station.

The goal was to have it for the ride home as I was full from lunch, but it was so good, it did not last until then. I caught a sherut back to Tel Aviv and hoped Jonathan had not bought challah for dinner.