Tel Aviv

I don’t have a whole lot to say about Tel Aviv other than I think it is a pretty nice city. Tel Aviv has everything we needed and more and the beaches were lovely. We were in Tel Aviv during Shabat so the city was fairly quiet. We spent a little bit of time exploring, but quite honestly we spent most of our time at the beach and in a pub, perhaps logging more time at the pub…

The only bummer about Tel Aviv was our hostel, which looked really cute on the website. To sum it up, it was not cute, at all. Is plywood really an acceptable replacement for a glass window? Is it ok for a room to not have a heat source in the middle of winter? When I complained to the guy working there that our room is freezing and asked if there is a warmer room he replied that I should rely on my husband for body heat. Uhhh... Oh and is it normal to blast “Sweet Home Alabama” at 2am?

While there were a handful of soldiers on every corner in Jerusalem we didn’t see any military presence in Tel Aviv. The city seemed very far removed from the situation in Israel until it hit the media that Hamas has new missile launching capabilities with ranges that can now reach Tel Aviv. That was a little disconcerting to learn, but fortunately we did not see any missiles during our stay in Tel Aviv.

This morning hopped in a taxi at 2:30am and headed to the airport. Overall, despite our sicknesses and injuries and difficulties, we’ve enjoyed our time in the Middle East, but are excited to head to Europe. Athens here we come!