We took a brief excursion to Tel Aviv to visit a friend I'd met in Ravenna. Getting to Tel Aviv is easy; you just hop on a sherut, which is a shared taxi-van, and which costs about 23 sheqels to get between our hostel and the Central Bus Station in Tel Aviv.

Some observations about Tel Aviv, which will no doubt make ns_tulkas giggle with delight:

1) There are too many central transit stations. There's the Old Central Bus Station, the New Central Bus Station, and some place called Arlozorov Terminal. This makes it extremely difficult to figure out where in the city you'll actually arrive, and therefore where people should meet you.

2) Midtown isn't much to look at, but it gets classier as you get toward the sea.

3) Jerusalem struck me as a Middle Eastern City, but Tel Aviv is Mediterranean. There's a different look and a different feel to the place. I'm glad I stopped in, even if only for a few hours. (We had a Shabbat dinner invitation in Jerusalem, and we had to get back before Jerusalem shut down for Shabbat. I'm told that Tel Aviv doesn't really shut down, but Jerusalem does.)

One of the things that's apparently quite common in Tel Aviv is Russian string ensembles. Some cities just have solo buskers, but Tel Aviv likes to go one step beyond. These guys were pretty good.



Mostly what we did in Tel Aviv was hang out with my friend and chat and catch up. As we slowly made our way to the sea, we passed this wonderful building. There's a clothing boutique on the ground floor, but the exterior is far more interesting:







We stopped off to take a look at the Suzanne Dellal Performing Arts Center.



Unfortunately, we weren't quite in time to see the Indian dancer performing in the courtyard, but we could hang out, listen to music, and watch the two little girls in pink practice kathak dance!



We also saw a cute little sticker outside a synagogue. The Cheerful Hasid is telling you to smile! And everything will be okay.



One more picspam, I think. Coming up . . . Masada and the Dead Sea.