I took a train from Modiin to Tel Aviv as soon as the first chag day of Sukkot ended. Thank goodness for one-day chagim in Israel - if public transportation had been suspended for three days straight, I couldn't have gone adventuring around like a tasmanian devil - 28 hours there, 16 hours here, 36 hours in Jerusalem and then, I'd be headed home to New York.
I arrived to Arlozorov central station around 10 pm and took a cab over to meet my friend Lonnie with her friend Rye. They were wrapping up dinner, enjoying a coffee on the house after a bill that never came - typical of Israeli service. The cafe was not kosher, the second such establishment I had sat in in Israel - it was weird to me. I began to realize how different Tel Aviv is from Jerusalem. Imagine a run-down landscape of beachfront condos, with a hayday thirty years past, plus a couple newer skyscrapers, a bunch of malls, and some trendy outdoor markets. That's the city.
We found our centrally-located airBnB apartment, a garden-level converted one-bed, with two flat-screen TVs, a washing machine, and scented towels! Our host also left us some cheap cookies and a bottle of wine - an excellent touch to the budget hospitality. We could smell the beach from the doorstep. After polishing off the bottle and getting settled, we took off for a boardwalk stroll, walking past all of the salty-aired lounges and beat-up hotels, quiet due to a clear off-season lull. On the way back, we stopped at a closing frozen yogurt shop for some superb tart yogurt with all kinds of exclusive toppings, like dates, tehina and klik chocolate. We sat on indoor swings and made conversation with the cashier, who moonlights as a MASA recruiter to Birthright groups, but looked too young to work at all. The night ended with the enjoyment of two flat screen tvs in our one-bedroom apartment, Lonnie and I felt caught up on all of the music videos we missed in the last ten years.
In the morning, Lonnie and I headed over to Nachalat Binyamin, a long outdoor handicraft market. I was able to find gifts for two important people among the crowds looking over ceramic trivets and glass mezuzahs and beaded jewelry. In the dripping wet heat of the day, we were marketed out by the end, and wandered over to lunch at a small guest house in the narrow backroads of Kerem HaTeimanim. Among gaudy pink Victorian decor, we dined on a floral couch and were served an aperitif of vodka, cranberry and rosewater - because who doesn't want that concoction at noon... We wanted it never. It wasn't good, but it did match all the tacky pink pinstripes on the walls.
After lunch, we stumbled over to the beach, always just a few blocks away, and put our feet in the water, walking in the tide for a stretch, but with all of our belongings in tow. Pictures prove that we had a beautiful time - me, splashing and people-watching, Lonnie collecting the perfect shells. After a while, it was time to head home. The cab to the bus station cost more than the bus to Jerusalem. The central bus station in Tel Aviv is over seven stories - I only got that high before catching one of the last buses back 'home' before shabbat. Back in Jerusalem, it again took just as long to get home from the bus station as it took to get across the whole country (TLV-Jlem) - traffic gets pretty crazy in the final moments before everything shuts down for Shabbat.
If I had had more time to think about things, rather than rushing around the country, I might have been sad it was my last shabbat, but I was mostly just excited to wash the sand from between my toes, not feel sweaty, and finish up a month that really couldn't have been better.
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