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Friday, August 20, 2010

Tel Aviv, Learning to Love It

L'chaim!
It's no secret that it's been a very hot summer here (and it appears elsewhere too) but still this is the time we traditionally spend discovering 4  new 'amot' in the Land of Israel. 
An amah (pl. amot) is a measurement used in the Tora and the Talmud and is generally accepted to mean the distance from your elbow to your finger-tip or about 1/2 a yard. Four amot is a phrase used to denote the space around you. For instance 4 amot is considered personal space so going 4 new amot is going somewhere you've never been before.
I took David to the Tel Aviv Port. The port was set up as an alternative to Jaffa port when the Arab workers in the Jaffa port went on strike in 1936. That gave the Zionists an opportunity to build their own port and they did. It served the country during those years leading up to the statehood and especially in the War of Independence. It fell into disuse in the 1960's with the building of the brand new Ashdod port. For many years it was the home of warehouses and building supply companies and not very pretty.
That's all changed now as the area has undergone a major makeover and become a major shopping and entertainment center. There is a lovely boardwalk which is also part of Tel Aviv's bike path. The boardwalk is home to dozens of restaurants and cafes and the warehouses have been taken over by shops and galleries. There is often some kind of event on the boardwalk like the twice weekly Farmer's Market or the children's games festival. There are two kosher cafes on the boardwalk. One is Cafe Cafe and the other is Badolina.
We chose Badolina, which is the second branch of a cafe-restaurant in Gedara (just south of Rehovot) where we have eaten several times. We had fish dinners which did not disappoint us. The food was well made and artfully presented. It was early and still too hot to sit outside but the view from inside was lovely.
We have been living a 25 minute train ride from Tel Aviv for almost 15 years and this is the first time we went there together on a 'date'. We decided that we really should do this more often and put Tel Aviv back on our map! 

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