TEL AVIV Day 1

After nearly 20 hours of travel, we touched down in Tel Aviv in the early afternoon and jumped on a bus to tour the city.  We took in the sights of Jaffa, a nearly 4000 year old section of the city mentioned both in the bible and greek myths.  The cobblestone streets and rustic stone edifices have been rebuilt multiple times over the past millenia, but the sense of history is inescapable.  Our bus continued to drive around the tumultuous one-way boulevards of the city, tour guide at the horn, explaining much of the history of this storied city.  Unfortunately, nearly every one of us was asleep.  the long hours awake in travel mode had rendered my eyelids incapable of staying open and "just resting my eyes" soon became just resting.  to counteract this, we were dropped nearly two miles from our hotel and strolled along the promenade towards our quarters, learning the history of the cities various ports and hangars which had since been resurrected as a thriving restaurant  and outlet district similar to pier 39 in San Francisco.  We had dinner at a small falafel and shawarma joint across the street from our hotel which is around 100 yards from the beach and spent the evening struggling to stay awake.  feeling as if i would be missing out on the night scene in Tel Aviv, i wrestled myself from the comfortable clutches of my bed and, with a few friends, went for a dip in the Mediterranean Sea and a quick jaunt around the city.  Sleep, when it finally came after over 30 hours awake, was a blessing.

this is a photo of an interesting statue i found in Independence Park with a huge Jewish hotel behind.