Tel Aviv Morning July 2022

Here's the view from the porch at 6:25 a.m. looking Northeast.

On Monday, I was given a private tour of Neve Zedek and Jaffa. We walked around for many hours and then took a scooter back to North Tel Aviv. This was my first experience on an electric scooter and I'm happy to report I made it back in one piece!

We took a short bus ride to the beginning of the original neighborhood outside of Jaffa. Neve Zedek was founded in the 1880s and was originally an upscale neighborhood that eventually fell into disrepair and decay. North Tel Aviv became much more desirable and nobody wanted to live in the south.

Over the past three or four decades, it has become extremely trendy and the old houses have been renovated. It had a wonderful atmosphere and it was just a joy to walk around.

For lunch at a restaurant called Susanna's, I ordered Mafrum, which is a Libyan dish. It was delicious.

Mafrum is made out of ground beef sandwiched in assorted vegetables including potatoes, eggplant and cauliflower. They are dipped in flour and egg, fried in oil and cooked in a red sauce. It was served on top of couscous.

We also stopped for Arab coffee at a coffee shop called Yaffa knafeh. They served it with knafeh,

made with spun pastry called kataifi, soaked in a sugar-based syrup called attar, layered with cheese, as well as clotted cream and pistachio nuts.

We also stopped at a bar called Beerbazaar for apple cider. An American with a puppy dog came in and started causing a disruption. The bar staff handled it very well.

The Flea market was full of junk. Some of it was quite interesting such as very old typewriters and other mechanical machinery from long ago but it's hard to imagine what one would do with most of the things that they're selling there.

The old city of Jaffa was incredibly beautiful.

The scooter ride back to the north was fortunately uneventful.

Just after sunrise looking Northeast from the hotel. The last few days have been filled with travel and touring so I'm hoping to take it a little bit easier today. The Hilton has a wonderful buffet breakfast which is included in the yearly free hotel night so I'm definitely planning to spend some time down there!