Tel-Aviv (Israel) > Reviews (7)

Tel-Aviv has been my city for almost 3 years now and I wanted to tell you about it...

I've been living in Tel-Aviv for 32 months now, both for
personal and professional reasons.

Tel-Aviv is a strange city, dedicated to inspire attraction and
repulsion at the same time.

Attraction for the splendid fine sand beach, triumphing youth over the
Tayelet (walk), Yafo (Jaffa), splendid city which signed the beginning
of this metropolis, its quasi-permanent sun, its noisy and coloured
souks, its kiosks with falafel and chawarmas, its eclectic population,
the everlasting festival which reigns there, an incredible mixture of young people
in bathing suits and orthodox Jews whom I saw dancing the techno music
on a vanwhich looked 60s, in the (vain)hope of engaging the debate with the so-called
lost youth...

Repulsion for dilapidated districts, the homeless who recently make their
appearance and whom, here like elsewhere, one does not seem to be
worried about, the strikes of cleaning serices that forced me to make a turning of
500m everyday during 2 weeks to go home, in order to
avoid a heap of damaged chicken legs coming from the close souk... (souk=market)

For a majority of Israelis who do not know that it is correct to
collect its waste abandoned on the beach after a picnic . For the
drivers who have the horn well too easy...

To be seen in Tel-Aviv &&&&&&&&&&

The old town of Jaffa """""""""""""""""""""""""""""""

It is the
base of Tel-Aviv. With its paved alleys and its tortuous lanes which
curve through the massive stone fortifications which surround the
city, it stimulates imagination. The history of Jaffa goes up with the
flood, and it becomes Jewish city only in 1948. In 1963, it is rebuilt
and renovated. Today, one finds a colony of artists there, art
galleries, shops of craft industry, delicious fish restaurants. To see
in Jaffa: the Tower of the Clock which announces the entry of the old
city, the Mahmoudia mosque, the museum of Antiquities, the church
franciscaine and the monastery Saint-Louis, the mosque of Jama
El-Baher, the Armenian church, the Turkish of El-Hamam, splendid
manor, the path of the Horoscope and the famous market with
antiquities. Jaffa, it is the diamond of Tel-Aviv, a princess who
would have generated a monster. I adore it.

The Shalom Tower and the Yemeni district
""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""​"""""""""""""
It is the
district where I live; close to the Shalom Tower,
ultramodern, is spread out the Yemeni district which kept its
exotic and sinuous streets. It's a pity that this district is really
not rehabilitated... today, one mainly finds there Filipinos who
rent (bus often in irregular situation) true slums
at a price higher than my appartement, ok small, but brand new...

two steps
from my home, the largest market of Tel-Aviv, the Souk-ha-Carmel, as
well as a central bus station ...... and Tayelet (walk)
50m far... brilliant! The sea opens its arms to me... :-)

Neve Tsedek """""""""""""""""

It is the district where my school is;
one of the first districts of Tel-Aviv, it appears that 20 more years
ago, it was the reference place for drugged people and girls of poor reputation .But now, rehabilitated, it is a
beautiful district with a superb public garden callec Suzanne Dellal, very
beautiful houses with an exhorbitant cost, a theatre...

Allenby, Dizengoff, George ha-Melekh,
Sheinkin..""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""​""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""
If you like shops of any kind, coffees,discotheques...
those streets are made for you! All located in the same area,
they offer hours of shopping and relaxation. With regard to the
shopping centres, I prefer the Azrieli Canyon, further in the east
(bus 63).

The museum of the Diaspora
"""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""
It presents the life of the Jews in exile for 2500 years; it is an
informative museum, few valuable articles, but clear exposures,
superb models of the European, American, Asian synagogues... I liked it very
much.

Compared to Jerusalem, the splendid town of Israel, Tel-Aviv undoubtedly does not
deserve to be called a "beautiful" city, but it deserves that one stops
there, that one is delayed there and that one seeks to unearth the
hidden pearls of it...

Thank you for your reading...