Tel Aviv, Israel

Hostel: Florentine Backpacker Apartments

Dinner Day 1: Dallal 

Lunch Day 1: the German restaurant on the beach 

Dinner Day 2: the restaurant across from Dallal

So the flight from Calgary to Toronto was simple. I napped and finished up a work project. The flight to Tel Aviv was a whole other story - I had a small child who proceeded to scream for the entire 11 hour flight. Upon arrival, in typical Israeli fashion, you get into a clump of people to go through customs. It took about an hour and a half and Christina was waiting on the other side for me. We promptly picked up our rental car - a very cute little VW golf sport - and headed to our hostel. We then drove to the beach and had a quaint eye closing in 30 degree heat for the afternoon. Evening was spent at a lovely top 9 restaurant in Florentine neighbourhood known as Dallal. 

The next day was a pitiful breakfast of white bread and toast then a 21 km bike ride along the sea wall in 32 degree heat. We stopped at the German restaurant for lunch and had schnitzel. We then spent the rest of the day on the beach. The are spectacular beaches. We walked around the old port of Jaffa at some point in our bike. There was a neat fountain of the zodiacs, which we learned was a remain at if the Greek hold on Tel Aviv. 

While there is a ton of history here ... Really we came for the beaches. 

History Lesson #1

Tel Aviv's history is dramatic and convoluted.  There are archaeological findings from Canaanites as far back as 7,500 years.  The area was conquered and reconquered many times throughout history. Legend has it that the city was named after one of Noah's three sons, Japhet (or Yafet) who founded Jaffa right after the flood. The convenient ports in the Tel Aviv area served as the main conduit from which goods arrived by sea and distributed to the rest of the country and in particular, to Jerusalem the capital. 

In like 1500 BCE, King David and again his son King Solomon conquered Jaffa from the Canaanites, and used the port to bring goods to their Jerusalem capital, especially cedars for the building of the Temple. In 332 BCE, Alexander the Great conquered Tel Aviv and took it for the Greeks. About 100 years later, Syria captured the area. When the Romans captured the Middle East, it took control of Tel Aviv. During the 300 - 600 AD, the Byzantine had control. In 636, the port was conquered the Arabs. In 1100, the land was then conquered by the Crusaders. In 1187, the Arabs took over. This area laid in ruins for a couple hundred years. Eventually, the Turks take over in 1515 and it starts to thrive. In 1799 or so, Napoleon Bonaparte tries to conquer but fails. In 1820 or so the Jewish population starts to increase. Eventually the area of Tel Aviv was sold by a seashell lottery to 66 families. Evidently this is a bastardization of the history but you can see all of the many influences over history in the area. There are mosques beside churches and synagogues. 

Greek Mythology

In the famous Greek myth on the hero Perseus, the ancient city of Jaffa was attacked by a sea monster.  Unwillingly, Cepheus the King of Jaffa and his wife Cassiopeia agreed to save the city by sacrificing their daughter Andromeda to the monster. She was tied to that outcropping of rocks near Jaffa harbour.  Perseus arrived in time, killed the sea-monster and saved and married the girl.

Trojan Horse Type Story

The “Harris papyrus” from about 1500 BC describes how the Pharaoh Thutmose III presented a gift of large baskets to the ruler of Yapu. Hidden in the baskets were soldiers, and this cunning trick enabled the Egyptians to conquer the city from within. There are many other Egyptian scrolls mentioning Jaffa. In old Jaffa, you can visit the remains of the “Temple of the Lion.” A skull of a lion was found there, as well as a huge royal scarab, an ancient Egyptian gem in the shape of a beetle. On the scarab is an inscription in hieroglyphics mentioning Amenhotep III, his wife Tiy, and a declaration that he hunted 102 lions.

AFN