Wow, what a trip and where to begin! Luis and I just got back from 6 days in Israel and it feels both surreal that we were there and surreal that it’s over.
As we went, I wrote parts of this post to help include as many details as possible.
Everything went smoothly and, despite Luis almost leaving his backpack at security, we made it to Tel Aviv with no hiccups except an insanely bumpy ride that had me simultaneously praying we wouldn’t die and that I wouldn’t vomit. Neither happened.
Once we arrived in Tel Aviv, we had quite the adventure getting to the hostel and it took way longer than expected. Note to self, take a taxi next time. We stayed at Abraham hostel and it was great. Super clean, efficient, free breakfast, and CLEAN (wait til I tell you about our awful Airbnb in Jerusalem).
Once we made it, all was well and we headed out to have a first bit of extremely overpriced food and a walk.
Our first stop brought us to Yehuda Helevy Delicatessen, which I fell in love with as soon as we went inside. I mean…
Those beers are STRONG compared to good ol´Mahou in Spain!
The next morning, we had our Israeli breakfast provided by the hotel and then joined a small group for the sandemans free walking tour of Jaffa.
I’ve been to Jaffa before, but had never been on a tour and really learned so much in the two hours we were with our guide, Michal. She was informative and also entertaining, which is good because sometimes I lose focus on the tours.
We learned some history of Jaffa and Israel, walked through the ancient cobble stone streets, and the tour ended after just a couple hours.
From there, we headed straight to the Carmel Market, which is this insane, rowdy, outdoor market. We walked along the beach promenade to get there…
We went there to walk around, get ripped off (seriously it’s so hard to NOT get ripped off) and buy some yummy treats.
After the market, we were completely wiped so we headed to the hostels for showers and a nap before getting ready for the Passover Seder (click that link to read about Passover and the Seder).
We actually chose to stay at Abahams hostel because they had a Seder, but it was quite disappointed with what it ended up being. The meal was great but the Seder itself was as lack luster as it could get and I was looking forward to luis enjoing his first Seder. Either way, we had a nice time and went to bed soon after because… we had to be up 2.5 hours later.
We caught a 2 am bus to head to Masada and the Dead Sea and let’s just say, that 2 am wake up call was less than fun.
All of that and some amazing pictures, coming in the next post!