Friday afternoon walking in Jaffa

It is Friday afternoon in Tel Aviv, and for a short while, the life is slowing down, but just for a couple of hours. Everyone is getting ready to join the usual family gatherings of the evening, marking the start of Shabbat, the day of rest. There ae even less tourists on the streets, so quiet now that you can hear the waves of the sea nearby. For me, this is the perfect time to go back to Jaffa, walking slowly on the beach till I reach the area of the port, with its coquette shops hidden between ship repairing garages.

Especially in this moment, when there are not too many tourists and the shops are getting ready to close, the streets usually crowded with visitors can reveal their mysteries and stories, testimonies of the long and rich centuries of history.

Compared to other historical places, here in Israel or elsewhere in Europe, you don't have the overwhelming feeling of being in a museum of human history. The human presence integrated the rich past into through the colourful windows and the green alleys that spring from the millenial cobblestones.

Beyond each massive door mysterious stories seem to hide in their well locked wooden boxes. But right now, I can only hear my steps on the stones and the sound of intensive preparations in the kitchens.

Either there are private houses, art galleries or antiques shops, you feel invited not to buy, but to stay, hear stories and eventually take a decision while admiring the streets, with a glass of fresh lemonade or a big cup of hot black Turkish coffee in the front of you.

 

Every time I visit this part of Israel, considered as one of the oldest in the region, I feel that there are always so many things that I want to learn about: about the three different religions coexisting here, and the various religious symbols can be noticed on the streets outside the old city, about the history of architecture of the country, about its nature and beautiful trees, about its old and new traditions, visible in the variety of art styles displayed in the numerous art galleries.

 

Like in the old city of Jerusalem, there are so many short streets and houses that are so close that you can mistake them as part of the one and only block of buildings.

Besides the art galleries and antiquities shops, another important landmark in the area is Ilana Goor Museum, hosting an interesting collection of works, that can be eventually introduced by the artist herself who is often there talking with the visitors.

 

But today, I rather want to feel free, taking the advantage of a sunny December afternoon and walk as much as I can, together with my friend which wants to learn so much about the art, history and the controversies associated with the region. But when you walk these old streets and you see everything with your own eyes, you don't need any more to get your sources from the biased media.

The art courageously displayed on the antiques walls make me feel less guilty for not visiting too many art galleries this time. Only one every ten minutes. 

The artists and the gallery owners are there not only to help you take the right decision, but also to tell their and other people' stories. The beautiful pieces of jewellery from Yemen or Morocco are especially beautiful, displaying old crafts for ever lost in Europe. At one antiquities shop that is about to close, I am showed different Seder plates brought from Jews home from all over the world. My favourite is one made shortly after the creation of the State of Israel, provided with a little machine that sings for a couple of minutes Hatikva, the national anthem talking about hopes and love for freedom.

  

For me, nothing can represent better the spirit of this place than the 1993 work of Ran Morin - Oranger Suspendu ( in English, Hanging Orange Tree). Made of steel, artificial stone and orange tree, it can be read as a narrative about strength and resilience, that needs to fight against unexpected artificial problems but tempered and helped by the given natural destiny. This piece of art is considered one of the top photographic attractions of this area, so during the busy week expect to wait a bit in line till you will be able to take your selfie here. Morin, who lives in Israel, is the author of several full-sized living trees.

While my mind is thinking maybe too much for this time of the week, the streets are getting empty and I feel somehow compelled to find our way outside the area, maybe going back to Tel Aviv for the Friday evening meal with a view over the sea.

The streets are getting cleaned and the tables are ready to be set. The quiet stones are ready to hear more family stories.

 

According to the Biblical story, Jaffa was the location from which Jonah set sail before his encounter with the whale. A massive statue of a whale by Ilana Goor reminds the visitors about this reference. Another story says that the famous cedars used in building Solomon's Temple were shipped to the Jaffa port.

Right now, the port is quiet and the touristic restaurants serving fish dishes and the tasty local versions of Mediterranean food are ready to open. Far away, but still very close, I can see the lights of the beautiful city with its sky scrapers and creative high tech industry. This is the moment when past and present meet and I am happy to be here and hear this story of hope and resilience.

Hotel review: Gordon Hotel&Lounge Tel Aviv

The hotel industry in Tel Aviv is offering every year more and more pleasant surprises and new rising stars, the boutique hotels being one of the most dynamic offers. Situated at the corner of Hayarkon and Gordon Street, the newly renovated Gordon Hotel&Lounge is hosted in one of the famous Bauhaus white buildings. It used to be before only a small bar, that was maintained now, with additional 12 cosy rooms and a modern restaurant and bar space.

The entrance looks a bit poor and may misguide you about the simple and warm yet polished ambiance waiting from inside. As it is situated on a very busy street, minutes away from the beach, the high traffic can be a problem,  including during the night, for those looking for some perfectly quiet nights. But you are in the 'City that never sleeps' so don't expect too much slow life during your stay hee...

Once I arrived from Jerusalem to join my friend for a long weekend in the bubbling city, I preferred to go first to catch the sunset from the terrasse, with a glass of wine and the view of the beautiful Mediterranean sea in the front of my eyes. Altough the end of December, the weather was perfect not only for photographic opportunities, but also for enjoying outdoors on the comfy chairs the beautiful colours of the sky reflected into the water. For a couple of minutes, the time just stopped.

Indoors, I was welcomed with a smile by the personnel and given always good suggestions for the choice of breakfast (my constant choice, delicious black lentils and artichokes, hummus, red beet and cranberries). The decorations of the rooms and of the lobby are in the style of the 1970s, in light colours and transparent stickers, the warm contrast to the black massive doors.

The rooms are cozy, with simple functional additions and depth perspectives given by the discrete and romantic lights. The rooms are provided with technical facilities, plasma TV, mini-bar and Internet (during my stay, the wifi was not properly working, but I took it as a sign that I can use my time otherwise than checking news online). From the balcony, one can spend hours and hours looking at the sea and the fast city life.

The predominant white in the rooms gives you a feeling of quietness and peace and makes your sleep full of nice dreams. The only think that I did not exactly understand from the interior design setting was the curtain outside the bathroom glass wall. Maybe an opaque glass wall would have been a more practical and aesthetical solution. But spending time in the room - although the temptation to watch the international news on the huge tv is dangerously great, but I can stand it - is not on my to-do-list, and shortly after checking I am out to see, feel and smell the city.

On the way to the beach, I could not resist to make a stop to the tempting SALT Kitchen&Drinks Restaurant, and I am lucky to find a place and hang around chatting with the locals. The next evening, the bar is fully booked for a party, but from now on, I know that regardless how much I want to see new places in the city, I will make sure that at least once in a while I will stop here too.

For more images from Gordon Hotel&Lounge, check the dedicated Pinterest board: https://www.pinterest.com/ilanaontheroad/gordon-hotellounge-tel-aviv/

Hotel Review: Hotel Vital Tel Aviv

I arrived in the small loby of the boutique business hotel Vital on a very rainy winter day of January. In Jerusalem the roads were blocked because of the snow - one, two centimeters are enough to raise the emergency level to unbelievable levels, exactly like the 30 plus Celsius temperatures in Germany, while in Tel Aviv, the Delilah storm was putting trees on the ground. From the Central Bus Station, I just walked for 40 minutes and reached the hotel, part of a bigger mall and in the close vicinity of important medical centers. As it was too early for the check in and I may have been look prety pittiful after the long walking in the rain, I was invited to take a seat and relax at the 12th floor business lounge. Fresh pastry and juices, as well as coffee and free Internet were available and took my time to recharge but also have a look over the beautiful city.

Newspapers are also available and for the first time in a long time I had the chance to touch a print edition of Jerusalem Post. The hotel guests are also offered in the morning complimentary copies of the NY Times with Haaretz inside, in an elegant black and white badge...(Let's keep the politics outside the gates of this blog,ok?)

As I would be explained later during my complimentary tour of the facilities, there are more opportunities to relax offered during the stay to this boutique business hotel: the 200 sqm fitness center can be used for free. Tours and airport transfers are also offered which make the stay even more enjoyable, especially if you are for the first time in the bubbling Tel Aviv and for a short stay and you want to parcimoniously use your time.

The rooms offered are very diverse, and it answers practically every specific needs of the diverse tourists and visitors: single junior, executive room, executive room with kitchinette, club, family room, deluxe, superior suite deluxe, executive suite. Each of it is provided with basic facilities, among which a very fast wifi, electronic mini bar, TV, desk and work place, telephone and voice mail, safe, bath robes and sleepers. Laundry services during the weekdays are availble. In order to give the guests time to relax and enjoy their time, the payment is done upon checkout. Special facilities for people with disabilities are also available.

The diversity of Vital Hotel offer explains the diversity of guests: from diplomats to people coming for medical treatments or families with children.

The rooms are simply yet design oriented decorated, with modern furniture in warm colours. It gives you the feeling of being at home, with all those small facilities and basic comfort that you need,especially if you expect to be on the road for a long time. The design as such, too much IKEA-infused, did not impress me too much but the rooms are spacious and not over charged.

I enjoyed this homely feeling especially at the end of my day out, exploring the area around the Weizmann street where the hotel is situated. First, it is the mall nearby, with its many offers and coffee shops and small restaurants, all tempting you to stay more with their sales season. A couple of minute of wallking away, there is the famous Kikar Hamedina, with the most expensive houses and many fancy boutique shops. If you want more shopping, Azrieli shopping mall is also close. For culture lovers, Tel Aviv Opera House, Habima Theater - where extraodinary dance performances are regularly taking place, an advantage to taste arts without knowing the language - or Tel Aviv Museum are aso within reach. But most importantly for the business visitors, the hotel is in the vicinity of the Israel Trade Fairs and Convention Center or the Diamond Exchange. And if you love the sea, 5 minute away by car and around 30 by foot, you can relax at the beach, admiring the view while eventually sipping a glass of red wine.

In the morning, the energizing breakfast, with a lot of good dairy products, including the very delicious cottage cheese which always tastes the best in Israel, and freshly made pastry put you back on the good track. Looking out of the window of the 12th floor, the view of the bold city that never sleeps gives you a lot of motivation and inspiration. The pleasant background music helps you to return to normal life, one step at a time.

Before leaving, a last email checking and booking printing for the next leg of my trips. Everything works fast and I can do my things within minutes and spend the rest of the time till checkout touring once again the neighbourhood. Although I never heard about this hotel before spending here one night, given the big demand of accommodations in Tel Aviv and Israel in general, I am sure I will hear once again about it soon.

Disclaimer: I was offered a complimentary stay and tour of the hotel, but the opinions are, as usual, my own

Jerusalem like a local

This summer, I spent around 3 weeks in Israel, the overwhelming part of the time in Jerusalem. Although all the travel dreams I had did not materialize, at least I had the chance to live as a local. Here are my old and new discoveries of a very uneventful travel life in Jerusalem.

Since its opening, the First Train station remains the main gathering point for both locals and tourists. You can find here food and various events like concerts and book festivals and small artisans displaying their paintings and jewellery works, and a playground for children. From there, you can reach within minutes the Emek Refaim street, with its special designer stores and a lot of good foodie choices, such as the Waffle Factory. Another advantage of this place, especially if you are a tourist, is that it is open also on Shabbat - the Saturday is officially the day of rest here and most of shops and restaurants in Jerusalem, as well as the public transportation cease to work from Friday evening until Saturday evening. If you are looking for organic stores, you can find here a quite big one, overpriced but with quality products. There is another one in Moshava Germanit and another very small one in Malka mall, just if you are a bio-family or individual on the road.

If you have children, a visit to the Zoo is always in the cards. I particularly appreciated the chance of admiring special animals - like the hyrax in the picture - that you cannot find in Europe, specific for this part of the world. There is an area with fish too, and green grass for picnicking. 

The Israel Museum is not only for tourists. There are special programs for children, and even a particular block of buildings dedicated to activities for the little ones. As for the museum, it is an impressive collection of cultural treasure about Jewish people and artists, from centuries old synagogues in India or Caribbean to archeology and modern art. The revolutionary design of the building, the perfectly shaped long box reflected into the clean waters is another reason to go there, even only for a photography session. It is usually always crowded, some of the visitors coming here regularly, due to the impressive collections that you can hardly overview in only a couple of hours. 

For shopping fans, there are the malls (the Hebrew word for mall is canion): Malka and Mamilla and Hadar, are only few of them. There is a different consumerist culture there, compared with Germany, for instance, and expect a lot of temptations, as all round the year, the customers are tempted with special offers (2 products for one etc.) and big discounts. The food courts are also very well represented and if you are a meat lover as me, count for getting some extra pounds here. Another destination where locals love to go is the Cinema City, not necessarily for the movies - which are not doubled in Hebrew, but maintained in the original English language - but also for the many coffee stores.

The Western Wall is always crowded with tourists, especially during the summer. Behind the walls, there are still many archeological workshops where new discoveries are made all the time. The hot summer does not deter the scientists to do their job and once in a while you can see them overviewing the sites or searching assiduously in some very remote corner. During the Jewish holidays, places like the Western Wall and the Ramat Rachel are usually very crowded with people from all over the country or even the world arriving to pray. 

Very close from the city center, but relatively quieter, the area around the Italian Jewish Art Museum is a good choice for a short walk - summers are very hot and long here and you need an umbrella generally only from December until February - if you like small art shops and even smaller local restaurants. You can even rent bikes at Herbert Shmuel street station, a relatively new fashion in the holy city. In the Nahalal Shiv'a neighbourhood, that used to be in the 19th century the third Jewish neighbourhood outside the old city walls, you can find the discrete Hebrew Music Museum, or the fine ceramics and judaica Azoulay store. The area is overviewed by huge skyscrapers, but this is all for now.

Let's be honest, that a visit at the Shai Agnon Museum, dedicated to the Israeli Nobel Prize for literature, is not necessarily what locals do all the time if ever, unless they are children in school, but this was my tribute to an author I studied and read a lot, and appreciate for the taste of the old country he succeeded to preserve through his writings. The English audio guided tour of the house is quite comprehensive and offers many insights about the architecture of the house and the cultural and historical ambiance of his life. Close to the house, the Arnona neighbourhood is a mixture between old houses and bold skyscrapers, with jogging lawns and huge vegetation covering the gray buildings. From Walter and Elise Haas Promenade, you can have a full overview of the old city, while you rest on the grass or watch a music concert on the small stage.

Back to my passion for meat, there is an old and a new place I visited this time. The old is the Bibi restaurant, with its infinite choice of salads that accompany the generous skewers or other meat plates. The new finding is Hummus Talpiot, with its minced meat in the middle of a big olive oily portion of hummus. Eaten with fresh pita. Whatever the meal I chose, the lemonade is the natural companion, with exactly the amount of sugar and the number of mint leaves you need for a great taste. 

In the Moshava Germanit, the French pleasures abund, either as baguettes - not everyone come along with pita as perfectly as I do - or as fine choices of cheese or (French) wines too. The prices are a bit higher than usual, but the taste of France delights is priceless. As for now, I am still looking for some high-end French delights and a normal pastry shop, except the very special one at King David Hotel, which I love a whole lot.

There is street art in Jerusalem too, not only in the hipster Florentine in Tel Aviv, but the art here has more style and some combine the old Jewish art with the challenges of wall spray. The most colourful area is around the Bezalel Art Academy, a very respectable university, with a high record of training very talented book illustrators and fashion designers.

The Nachlaot area jumped lately high on the top of expensive real estate areas because it is authentic and doesn't have the impersonal touch of skyscrapers - which I love in NYC, but not that much in historical cities such as Jerusalem where they look like a giant grotesque implant. The small streets and colourful doors, with their generous green vegetation are a nice refuge from the buzz of the city around. Many artists and local famous people live there, and you can also find small potery shops or workshops.  

Near the Behar Art Center, more elaborated street art. Even in Berlin I cannot find anything that detailed and painted like a real work on canvas. 

The Jerusalem Synagogue is of relative young age, being built 25 years ago. Many locals choose this location for bar mitzva or other joyous celebrations like weddings. It can host over 1,000 people, it has a big hall and special classes all round the week. I particularly appreciated the exhibition of mezuzot - doorposts - with centuries old items from all over the world, as well as the colourful stained glass displaying various natural and religious scenes. I usually love small spaces of the synagogues without too many people, when you know everyone and where you feel like home, but I can also understand the strong message of big synagogues like the big Belz one. For religious people, Mea Shearim area is the main destination, either for purchasing various religious items or for spending holidays in an authentic environment. Everytime I am in Jerusalem, I make sure to visit a specific bookstore, with books in both English and Hebrew.

Between Talpiot and Emek Refaim, there is Baka neighbourhood, in the South of the city. There is a skate park for active youngsters around, many fruit stalls and European looking cafe places. Out of the beaten path, I had a tasteful afternoon at the Caffe b'gina - coffee in the garden - restaurant. In the huge garden, I had my experience of Armenian Wineleaves - very sweet, and it was not only because of the vinegar - and salmon tagliatelle. 

During these three weeks, I developped a new visual habit: voyeurist of art galleries. At Beit Hasid Gallery on Emek Refaim, I admired the exhibition by the professional musician and self-made painter David Louis,depicting everyday Jewish life, but also thoughtful human profiles and daily activities. 

There is not high art, but a lot of visual kitsch, at the Elvis Restaurant in Abu Ghosh, one of the most famous destination for Elvis fans in the Middle East. Groups of tourists arrive here regularly, having a look at the image of the Memphis idol jumping or singing or doing other activities in every corner. Michael Jackson visited this place too. And me. But I am not a fan of Elvis, only of the good food they serve here: a lot of salads, and meat, and freshly baked pita. It is also opened on Saturdays, so expect to wait a bit if you did not make a reservation or if you don't know the owner, who is often around, either asking people about the quality of services or debating daily political evolutions. Fans and owners of vintage cars meet here regularly as well.

On my last days in Jerusalem, I visited an area that was mostly foreign to me until now: Ein Karem. It has a high concentration of churches, but also its share of art stores and ceramics and art galleries too. And some delicious icecream that you can buy from the small store of the House of Chocolate. The ups and downs streets are full of colours and recently, of bikes too.

This last trip to Israel was this time completely out of the planned path, but at least, when I look back now, I learned some new tips and, at least, had enough time to see, even for a short time, some of my favourite people in the world. Not that bad, after all.