I didn’t really wake up until about noon the next day. Well, I had to get up as usual at 6am, but I didn’t mentally come to life until after lunch. We all woke up and packed and loaded up on the bus for our final day in Israel. I got on the bus and quickly went right back to sleep. We were leaving Jerusalem and heading to Tel Aviv to catch our plane later that night. In the mean time, our tour guide had a full day planned for us, but I don’t think any of us was too happy about it. We all just wanted to go home.
I was awakened momentarily to tour a silver workshop, which I truthfully would have rather slept through. We had made several stops along the course of our travels which were purely commercial – the silver shop, the diamond factory – these definitely have no religious value, and not much cultural value. I think maybe our tour guide gets a kickback for promoting these spots. Hey, the guy’s gotta make a living, I guess.
When I woke up again we were in Tel Aviv. We had stopped at a shopping area situated on a pier along the Meditterranean. The site was absolutely beautiful and the weather was perfect. There were people walking and biking along the pier. There were restaurants with outdoor seating and upscale clothing shops. I made my way to the Aroma Cafe (think Israeli Starbucks) and ordered a cappuccino and a gouda cheese sandwich. My lunch was the best thing I had eaten in a week and I instantly felt better. I wondered if part of why I felt so bad all week was due to starvation.
I drank my coffee and sat on the pier people watching for a while. I came to the conclusion that this was definitely a favorite spot for beautiful, fashionable, new moms to shop and push their baby carriages. Looking at all these trendy women that looked they just jumped out of a Vogue magazine, I felt like downright frumpy, white trash. But, I enjoyed my coffee, nonetheless. Then I went and drooled over some Italian leather boots that I just didn’t have room in my carry-on for.
We drove through Tel-Aviv, along the beach and I oohed and ahhed over the beautiful blue water and beautiful bikini clad people in the sand. I vowed to myself to come back here and enjoy this part of Israel one day. We stopped at an elevated part of the city called Old Jaffa where we had an amazing vantage point of the coastline. There were bridal couples up here taking photographs and I could immediately see why. The view was breathtaking. We crossed a little bridge adorned with astrological symbols. There is a sign on the bridge that says if you hold the plaque with your birth sign and make a wish, it will come true. I wished to come back here one day with my family.
Old Jaffa is now part of the southern section of Tel-Aviv and is believed to be one of the oldest port cities in the world. It was inhabited over 9,500 years ago! Just down the hill we entered the St. Peter’s Church in Old Jaffa. This is a beautiful church commemorating St. Peter’s resurrection of the widow Tabitha in Acts. Artwork in the church also reflects the thought that God told Peter not to distinguish between Gentile and Jew.
We saw several more bridal couples and I got really homesick and was missing my hubby. It was so beautiful and romantic here and I wanted so badly to be able to share it with him. I stopped for a moment and gazed out at the Mediterranean. The water was a deep shade of blue that words fail me to describe. It was like looking into a newborn baby’s blue eyes and feeling like you could understand the frailty and the immensity of life all at the same time.
Our guide, Jacob next led us on a walking tour of parts of Tel-Aviv. We walked for several blocks down a busy street that must be called shoppers heaven. It was store after store of upscale clothing, shoes, bath products, organics, jewelry – I felt like I was in the Mecca of materialism! But it was just torture, because our fearless guide just kept walking and I could only drool through the windows. I knew I couldn’t shop anyway, because I had no room in my suitcase for anything else, but I was still pouting.
We were led to a beautiful promenade that cuts through the city. The street was converted to a sidewalk for walkers and bikers complete with park benches and pretty landscaping. Couples were walking hand-in-hand in the evening light, children were riding tricycles and roller skates, and the occasional beggar would call out to us in Hebrew. The area was very culturally diverse, as we saw Jews in their yamurlkes, arabs in their keffiyahs, and even a young man in a t-shirt that said “feed the Christians to the lions.” I felt a strange mixture of emotions – not knowing whether I wanted to run away from him, or punch him.
As we walked down the promenade I wanted to compare the area to Paris, or maybe even New Orleans. Jacob kept pointing out the different types of trees and architecture, and it was nice for a while….but after a few minutes I was getting bored. I said “we just walked passed imported Italian leather shoes and you want me to look at trees and concrete!” I was definitely pouting. I knew my history professor mother would be very disappointed in me at this moment.
Our final stop on our journey was for dinner. We walked to a two story restaurant where we all sat at a large table. The owner was an elderly man and his family and there were photos of them all over the walls. It seems that they had once been a destitute family living in what looked like a refugee camp and were now successful business owners.
It would only be appropriate that we were served hummus and pita bread! We also had tabouli, and falafel, and several other relishes with chicken and beef kabobs, followed by delicious baklava. Even though we were all sick of middle eastern food, it really was delicious. Their claim to the best falafel in the world is true, as far as I’m concerned. Our guide presented us each with a certificate of pilgrimage, we reflected a bit on our trip, and soon it was time to head to the airport.
