This week's adventures included a trip to Jaffa, which is an older, mostly Arab part of Tel Aviv in the south of the city. I needed to have a microchip affixed to my car's gasoline tank (diplomats used to buy prepaid cards for purchasing gasoline at a reduced rate, but now they are switching to microchips). That took longer than expected, though I have to say that standing around in the bay of a garage in Jaffa was an experience. I saw a horse towing a cart loaded with furniture and two men through the streets, among other things (that's actually a pretty common sight in Jaffa and even in Tel Aviv).After that I had several hours to kill in Tel Aviv because I was meeting my new Hebrew/English conversation partner in the early evening. Killing time in Tel Aviv is not one of my favorite pastimes. I find the city incredibly unattractive and not especially fun.
Since it was a beautiful day, I decided I'd go sit on the beach and read a book. Bad idea. Basically, every minute some creepy Israeli guy would come up to me and try to start a conversation. I wonder, if you saw someone reading a book, would you think, "That person reading a book really look likes they want to have a conversation with a complete and total stranger right now!" Probably not. Anyway, needless to say, after about 5 minutes, I decided sitting on the beach wasn't working.
I walked back to the center of the city and found a row of benches in a quiet part of the city. There was one woman sitting there with a baby in a stroller, so I took that as a good sign that it would be safe and relatively free of freaky men. It was. Not a single person bothered me in the span of about 80 minutes. It was lovely. I also witnessed someone picking up after their dog. Wonders never cease.
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