Two for One

You’ll be able to read two blogs about a single event. Erika and I met on Thursday for an evening out and decided we’d both blog about it and compare our views. Which parts made enough of an impression to be included? What did each of us enjoy?

So, I took the light railway again. Well, why not? It’s free (still), comfortable and takes a reasonable amount of time to arrive. Entering the bus station (I’m so used to this, I don’t usually think about it), I walked through an xray machine and then put my backpack through another machine. I’m not crazy about the way the bus station is designed. For me, it’s a bus station and not a shopping centre, and I don’t enjoy pushing my way past shoppers to reach the buses, two floors up.

Some things can be confusing for those who don’t know. The two bus stations in Tel-Aviv are known as central and north, but the north station is also the central railway station. At least they’re both also called Arlozorov, so if you use that name, you can’t go wrong. Although the station is also called Savidor.

The journey to Tel-Aviv was fast, comfortable and cold. I tried to keep my bare arms under my backpack to protect them from the cold air from the air conditioning. I hadn’t taken a bus along this route for some time and was pleased to note that the new(ish) bus lane saves a lot of time. Just to show I was in the big city, I took this picture, although it doesn’t really prove anything:

Erika picked me up at the station and drove me to the sea. (No, I didn’t say into the sea.) Then we walked to Jaffa’s famous Clock Tower.

On the way, we passed a large number of people and realised they must be celebrating Eid-Ul-Fitr (the end of Ramadan). They were spread out all over the grass and busy grilling meat or just hanging around. Erika hadn’t realised this was going to happen and apologised to me for the commotion around us, but I didn’t mind. I’ve done this walk before when it’s been quieter.

As we walked, we caught up with each other’s news, in particular we talked about her recent trip to Latvia and mine to Italy.

Our destination was the flea market. We wandered along its streets, which were quiet as the shops were about to close, looking at the shops with their mixture of old and antique. We entered one shop where the goods were expensive and interesting. Unusual plates, a lamp shade with a wooden base, mirrors with ornate frames.

Then we looked around for somewhere to eat and settled on a small café, where we sat outside during a quiet period between the day and the evening. I ordered a sandwich with aubergine and other vegetables. It came with salad. The lemon drink with mint had an unusual, not-so-pleasant taste. Afterwards, on Erika’s recommendation, I bought kurtosh, a sweet Hungarian pastry. Later, my family and I enjoyed eating it. It tastes very much like yeast cake, but it’s shaped like a tower and hollow in the middle.

We walked back by the sea and I returned from whence I came. A very pleasant evening. Thank you, Erika!