This morning we went on a tour of old Yaffo. After breakfast and getting ready, we drove to the promenade, where all the high-rise hotels and the seagulls are. From there, we walked along the shore to the hill town of Yaffo.
Tel Aviv's GoldCoastEsque beachfrontWe stopped by some cannons where Napoleon had taken over Jaffa. Nim told a story about how the French invaders got diseased after Napoleon slaughtered the inhabitants of Yaffo, and didn't bury the bodies. He then ordered the diseased soldiers to be killed. Charming fellow.
We also went into a Roman Catholic Church, but I felt I should go out when I started doing the "three wise men" Python scene [Life of Brian]: there was a Jesus being born model in the church.
We stopped at this square where the British had evicted heaps of Arabs and burnt down their houses. There were some ancient ruins under the pavement. Then we went to the flea market.
Yaffo flea market sells the biggest load of crap that I've ever seen. They have rusty PC's and motherboards. They have porn, shoes, clothes, handyman tools, and heaps of other crap: all of it fallen off the back of a truck. Asher feigned interest in a rusty fork, which was on sale for 5 NIS. The guy scraped the rust off to try and sell it!
I did find some decent stuff to buy: I got myself a basket hanging from a basket; a few tacky candles; and some chipped serving dishes.
[Later, at Independence Hall on Dizengoff St] We saw a really interesting docco on the history of Tel Aviv - started by just 60 families at the turn of the century. It showed footage of how Tel Aviv (literally, 'Old New') grew from a tiny village to the centre of Jewish life in Palestine.
We went into the actual hall (in Independence Hall, which was once Mayor Dizengoff's house) where Ben Gurion declared the State of Israel. This was a very moving experience, and when we got up to sing Hatikvah, I was on the brink of crying.
The microphone in the hall has the first advertisement ever written in the State of Israel - one for the electronics shop that supplied it.
An Israeli dog shares military secrets with meAfter Independence Hall, we walked through the neighbourhood with Tel Aviv's oldest houses, and stopped for lunch in a big square. There were some adorable dogs with us in the square. One was a golden retriever, and the other looked a bit like a Siberian Husky. They were both very fussy: we fed them bits of our rolls, but they picked out the meat and left the rest.
Following lunch, we went to visit the Jaffa 'schuck' (markets). This was a series of densely packed stalls, selling all manner of chutchkas, clothing and what not.
The merchants were extremely pushy: not only did they virtually dump things into your hands and demand money; they even made up bad stories about each other. It was lucky I took out plenty of money, coz I blew 300 sheks at the schuck. I bought a crappy bugle for 120 shek (down from 180); a silver hanging for 45 (was 65); a dodgy Chamsa in a frame for 10; and 3 beautiful wall ornaments for 100 shek (originally 50 each).
We left the markets, and caught the bus back to Hotel Kibbutz Shefayim. After a short amount of free time, we gathered together for a few games. The Israeli army kids arranged a game of "musical girls" and "musical boys", where the girls all sat in a circle and we had to sit in their laps; and vice versa. We also wrote a funny line on a piece of paper, and two people had to have a conversation using these lines. It was all good fun.
We then had over an hour to get ready for the big event - the WUJS-stock [New Year's Eve] party - and by the time we were all on the bus and ready to go, pretty much everyone was smashed and was being really loud. Two girls threw up on the bus, on the way to the party. Everyone was acting like an animal on the ride there.
Once there [Jerusalem convention centre], we waited ages in the cold while Ely gave us our tickets [for the party]. The dance floor was huge, packed, noisy, and smoky (cigarette smoke and stage smoke). I danced around with the other Academy people most of the time; we had a big cheer when 2004 began at midnight; and certain girls [names omitted] were totally smashed and were pashing total strangers. We left at about 1:30am (it was freezing): I slept all the way home, and crashed when we got back.