11/3/22
We arrived in Tel Aviv bus station mid afternoon after only a couple of hours of travel. As we got off the bus, we were greeted by lots of long black skirts, a symbol of devout Judaism. I was less than thrilled to be back in amidst the religious tensions. We walked to our hostel, noticing on the way that Tel Aviv was far more multicultural than anywhere else in Israel, and despite the skirts, I could not feel religious tension. Since it was Shabbat we were lucky that Tel Aviv is less religious than Jerusalem and that there’s a relatively big Muslim population, in the beautiful old town of Jaffa.
We were reunited with Eva in the hostel, before we ventured out for a mooch. The weather was less than pleasant – very windy and cold, with intermittent rain! We headed to Old Jaffa. There were many shops, restaurants spilling out into the road (including ones with glasshouses built permanently on the pavement for extra footfall). It felt quite European! We walked through the town, passed an old clock tower, stopping at a famous pastry shop (you can always rely on me to find baked goods!!), before we headed to the beach, which was of course bitterly cold and windy, but did help the pasty cool down fast!! The waves were dancing livelyly!! Afterwards, we headed back towards Jaffa, stopping for a coffee in one of the glasshouses with a banging playlist!!
We bought breakfast things and booze before we went back to the hostel and had a little downtime. It was Friday night, so we needed to be ready!! After an hour or so nap, we preened and ‘prettied’ ourselves and then went downstairs to drink. Bizarrely, nearly all of our hostel stayers were German. This showed me that I have lost all of my previous German skills *cry*, but also meant there was scary music playing!! The Berliners were playing trance 😭😭. We chatted awhile and made friends with some Austrians, one of which, Tabea, was in our room, before we headed out. We went with the flow since nearly the whole hostel was going out. The place we went to bizarrely wanted everyone to be 24, which seems such a random age, but they let the important people through (baby Lena at 22, ayayyy)!! Luckily for me, there was a pop and classics room as well as the Berliners trance/house/etc room. There was also a biiiiig indoor garden, which was cool but was very smokey!! We left around 02.30 after a fuuuun girls night of Lena, Tabea and me.
12/3/22
We accidentally had a lie-in before we tucked into our pre-bought breakfast. We had gloriously doughy pittas, hummus and sticks of pepper and cucumber, with orange juice and sage tea that Eva had bought in Bethlehem. It was a darn good breakfast! Afterwards, we headed out in the opposite direction of Jaffa for the bright lights along some green walkway – it felt like Paris! We stopped in a cafe along the way and sat on a bench with cappuccinos and a Portuguese custard tart for me.
Then we met up with an Israeli friend of Eva’s, Noam, who was taking us on a road trip to the countryside. We drove out of Tel Aviv, halfway back to Jerusalem, before turning off first to buy beer and then to the walk. It was very green! Very pretty, with lots of wild yellow flowers everywhere. There were some sheep roaming and I realised that it was the first time in a long time that I’d seen sheep in a lushious setting as supposed to desert. It was nice.
We walked to some caves, the others scrambled through them – I did not because one, I’m claustrophobic and two, I was wearing my only warm clothes and if they were dirty, that would mean I would be very chilly until I made it to Sri Lanka!! After the small, scrambley cave, we went to others. One was pretty echoey and so Eva had the idea of all singing something. Eva put on Hallelujah and we all sang along in the pitch black. It was pretty. As we were coming out, the sheep were heading towards us!! Noam said he thought they were following singing!
We walked around a few more caves before selecting an ancient burial site for some bevs and snacks! Then we walked back to the car via a Bedouin camp. We had more snacks, great tunes, and I enjoyed an epic sunset from the rear seat!! We all had a nap before getting ready for the night.
Tabea joined us for food out – we had glorious pizza and then we went to a night (ongoing day rave) that had been recommended to Eva. We got there pretty late so it was dying down when we got there and someone suggested we try somewhere else. Given the ravey vibe of the first place, I didn’t think too much of the recommendations (nor did Tabea), so we wandered towards the place, while the others got a lift. When we arrived the security guy told us smugly that it was closed. Although we knew he was probably lying, never other were that keen, so we didn’t argue and instead headed for home, hoping to head out again to maybe find Tender bar (where two of the Austrian girls had recommended).
13/3/22
Unlucky for some! Our crew was breaking up today, which was sad, but everyone was heading off in their own directions – Lena to a workaway in Greece, Eva back to Germany to see her family before term starts again and me to Sri Lanka. Tabea was staying in Tel Aviv for a full week so she had time. All four of us went out to Carmel Market in search of breakfast. Excitingly, we found shashuka, a dish which I have at Yorks, Brum a fair bit, but hadn’t had at all in the place of its creation!! The shashuka was yummy and came with an unlimited supply of fresh pitta and tahini. Glorious. While we were eating the rain poured down and Eva took some cool photos. Then we went on a coffee hunt, before going back to the hostel.
After saying bye to Eva and then Lena, I read my book before heading out for dinner with Tabea. We tried to go to the place that was recommended by Eva to try a glorious cauliflower dish, but it was closed when we went, so we found somewhere else close by, which also did insaaaaane cauliflower. After dinner we had a quite one after some debate, which was definitely for the best since I had a whole da of travel ahead of me!
14/3/22
Had a final breakfast with Tabea at the hostel before walking to the train station to go to the airport. Then I checked in and obviously there were issues with my health documents required for entry to Sri Lanka and things that needed to be printed. Luckily for me, an Israeli guy, Lee, had also been sent to print things out for Sri Lanka and once we got chatting he helped me sort my forms – it seemed that my phone was completely blocking the health form so eventually we did the form on his phone. What a guy!! I made it through security and to the gate before the final call, which I took as a success and made it to Bahrain on time, where I had a delightful six hour stopover. Luckily for me, mum was free for a chat, so I caught up with mum (and dad briefly), and blogged.
15/3/22
Got aboard my Bahrain to Colombo flight via the Maldives and slept for precisely 30 minutes 😭😭
When we made it to Male, Maldives it was chaos. The people that were meant to be getting off remained in their seats even when they were encouraged to leave multiple times and the people who were meant to stay seated for Sri Lanka were up in the aisle, pacing back and for, moving their bags and going to the toilet. I was a little shocked that all the people causing such commotion and blatantly ignoring the crews polite instructions to ‘sit down for a moment’ were all in the over fifties category, but I’m pleased to say all of my age group were sitting quietly – a win for the under thirties!! Because of all this commotion, we left Male late.
wanderingwelshie travels 