Tel-Aviv: Early Nights?

Last weekend was the first time since I arrived that I left the kibbutz. After an eventful Valentine's night, where I captured my first valentine, I ditched the Kibbutz early Friday morning at about 7 because I didn't have any work. Since the shuttle to Binyamina (a town about 5 miles away with the closest train station)didn't operate until 12 PM, my plan was to walk to the nearest bus station about a kilometer from Ma'agan Michael. While walking, I was going to hold out a thumb hoping for a car leaving the kibbutz (specially marked of course, so it is safe) to either give me a ride to Tel- Aviv, the train state, or the bus station. Luckily, I didn't even have to walk out of the entrance before someone offered me a ride. The friendly driver who so nicely offered to take me to the train station, was a girl who works at the school on Ma'agan Michael who was going to Jerusalem to visit her family. Once I got to the train station, it was smooth sailing (besides the train station's inability to take an American credit or debit card) to Hashalom station. Although, David Chertock recommended taking a bus to Dizengoff square, I was feeling a little antsy after the car and train ride, so the twenty minute walk to chateu Chertock seemed like a nice change of pace.

When I arrived at the 14 Zamenhoff, Tel-Aviv, I was greeted with a smile and a warm welcome from David Chertock, my dad's good friend from Columbia University. After I settled my stuff in to the apartment, we went to do double errand: get me breakfast, and pick up hallah and food for the weekend. It so happened that we were able to accomplish this at the same place. Yachanan!, a little restaurant about a kilometer or two south of the Chertock's apartment. The best way to describe it would be a mix between a waitressed Stone Oven and the ready made food section at Whole Foods. David's mission for the weekend was to keep me better fed than a Jewish Bubbi. At Yochanan's, I ordered french toast and a cappuccino. I was ecstatic when the dish came with real maple syrup, not kibbutz corn syrup syrup, or Omaha's hot syrup, REAL MAPLE SYRUP! I also tried some of David's herring. Delicious. We also got an assortment of salads, meats, and some vanilla toot jam.


We returned to the apartment, and shortly after Hanush, David's wife, arrived. Then about half an hour later, David and Hanush's son Noam arrived. He was in a hurry because he had a pre-army thing, for the community based army service he is going to enter next year. After Noam left I decided to go to the mall and get a few essential items that I had been lacking the past few weeks, which included: extra socks and undies, a power-cord with 4 outlets (we only have two working outlets in our room of three people), and an extra towel. The Dizengoff mall, though not humongous, was utterly confusing. It consisted of uneven ramps that went up about 3 levels or 4 levels depending how you counted that spanned two small blocks. The narrow hallways would not have been a problem if by 2PM everyone had not stormed the mall, and there were no street vendors making food inside the hallways, thus creating narrow gaps for people to pass through. All in all the shopping trip was successful. After shopping, I took a walk by myself to the Tel-Aviv port, about two miles away. The farmer's market was just closing, but I did manage to get some fresh squeezed carrot juice and cooked sugar coated pecans and cashews.

Here is a pic of the port, now a shopping area.


When I got back to the apartment, Mika Chertock, their 16 year old daughter, was back, but soon left for her friend's house concert. This left me with no kid plans. Since in Israel I am a full adult, I decided to embrace it, so I ended up going to Django Unchained with David and Hanush. While the movie was enthralling, it was violent enough to even give Hanush, an Israeli worn by many years of Israel's conflict, nightmares. So much blood! The movie ended at 2, and I was to bed by 2:30AM. Although this sounds late, in Israel, especially Tel-Aviv, the night is young until about 4:30AM. When we got back we found Mika, in her pj's. Apparently, the concert had been broken up by the police due to sound complaints.

Since Noam was gone, I got his room for the weekend. I got sooooo much sleep. I slept until 11AM. To put this in perspective, usually, after a 4:30 AM Friday night, I wake up at 8:30 or 9. The bed was so comfortable. At about 1PM I went to get coffee at a cafe a few blocks over per David's recommendation. One by one, the three Tel-Aviv present members of the Chertock clan joined me. I had another delicious cappuccino, and a frittata with potato and Gouda cheese on top. It also came with bread, jam, and a delicious 3% spread.


For the afternoon David took me to the Tel-Aviv Museum of Art. According to Hanush, our resident art expert, the museum recently experienced a change in leadership, so the main exhibits encompassed many more modern and contemporary pieces. The most interesting exhibits in the museum were the photographs by Pinchas Cohen Gan, and the artistic movies by Douglas Gordan. My favorite part of Gorden's large exhibit entitled, I Am Douglas Gordan was his 90 minute film of Zidane, the French soccer player. It plays on two wide screens next to each other and was of one of Zidane's game shot at 12 different camera angles, which alternate and fade in and out at different times.

After the museum I took a long nap, then went out to yet another amazing local restaurant with a Greek Mediterranean theme. David and I split some fish, a burekka with an egg inside, and ... sweat breads, which weren't that bad. After dinner, Hanush dropped me off at the markaz train station and I returned to the kibbutz.