VC Sees Tel Aviv

Well I struggled to get out of bed after only a few hours sleep, but I hit the pavement early and went straight to the Tel Aviv Museum of Art, via the rather anticlimactic CIty Hall and Rabin Square. I couldn't tell if the City Hall was just under REALLY tight security or if the whole barbed wire facade was a kind of dramatic theme -- having now seen the City Hall in Jerusalem, where I am, now, and the fact that it's only minimally protected, despite being just down the street from the oft-bombedZion Square, I think it was just a decision they made (there is a lot of that "building as dramatic historical reference" thing going on in Germany...one really cool building in Dresden reminds me a lot of this City Hall, because they kept the old Communist architecture to remind them of what it was like when Germany was divided).

It would be impossible for me to rave about the Tel Aviv museum enough. If you are into traditional impressionism (which I am) then they have a great collection, but for me, having been spoiled by NYC, I wasn't here to see more Renoir. What I thought was fantastic was the collection of Jewish painters from France, a children's exhibition of Kadishman called "Draw Me a Sheep" (and the kids were so cute I wasn't even annoyed!), and an installation exhibit by Ilana Goor.

[I wish I could write more, but I'm stretching the generosity of a guesthouse manager in Jerusalem at a house that's NOT the one I'm staying in, who is letting me use his internet for free because the place I was looking for is closed]

I then walked down through the main shoping area down King George V street (the names in every city here -- Tel Aviv, Haifa, Jerusalem -- they are all the same!), and through the Yemenite Quarter, where I saw the couple I blogged about before. I was a bit disappointed by the Yemenite Quarter, because usually when you have a kind of named community area like that (like when Curie andI visisted Albaycin in Grenada -- the local gypsy community) it's a REALLY unique experience apart from the rest of the city...the Yemenite "quarter" was really more like a bazar though (and not a very good one), and there wasn't even Arabic on the signs lol.

I then walked down the boardwalk along the edge of the Mediterranean (one of the only places other than Jerusalem where I've actually seen Muslims that were clearly, you know, Muslim) to Jaffa (the joint city to Tel Aviv where it all began), which was GORGEOUS. It felt a bit like Byblos, in Lebanon, except Byblos is one of my favourite places on earth, so it's not fair to compare anything to it, really. I was hoping to eat at the Taj Mahal Indian restaurant, there, but it was closed, so I wandered around, went to the HapiSgah Gardens, and then went to ANOTHER gem of a museum, which is Ilana Goor's house (the Ilana Goor Museum) [I also went to a gallery that featured only seascapes, which I usually hate, but it was pretty good, too]. Jaffa is very commercial/touristy (in that old-town world heritage site restored kind of way), but I really loved it. The Ilana Goor museum is incredibly well-done, and I've decided that I want the interior of my home done by her, and the outside to be done by the Bahaii people (see my next entry about Haifa).

I walked back to Tel Aviv and got my haircut before dinner, where the gorgeous -- like almost all men here -- hairdresser of Tunisian descent proceeded to tell me all about how Arabs can't be trusted. Racial bias aside, he gave me a great cut (dry -- like Sasoon). I then had dinner at a place called Taste of Life, which is run by the black Jewish community that ONLY eats, like, wheat...I mean I had wheat falafel and wheat chocolate and a wheat vanilla shake, so go figure.

VC