Party on the Square

Definitely on the home stretch now. And I am trying to catch up with the posts before I go home (I have it from a good source that the quality of the writing has deteriorated. My apologies for that).

This morning, Jennifer got up for a run before I woke up and when she came back, she had flowers for me. What a nice Mother’s Day surprise! Later this morning, I Skyped with Rafi (who was up way too early to go to the gym) and he read to me the beautiful card Jessica and Harley had sent me (I even took a screen capture of it so I actually have it).

Screen capture of card

Before the cab to get Jenn arrived at 10 am, we went to my new favourite café, Tozeret Haaretz for a nice Israeli breakfast.

Pre-flight Israeli breakfast

Now, pay attention; coffee is important.  Tozeret Haaretz is located precisely next door to the café I have been going to and blogging about all along, which I thought was called Café Masaryk but is not, and the story is a bit weird.

When I first got here, it was cold and rainy, so I ignored café Tozeret Haaretz because it is tiny and went next door instead. As the weather got better, I kept going there and didn’t notice Tozeret Haaretz had opened up the outdoor seating, which is lovely. When Rafi came, early on he went for a coffee there on his own and I joined him later, and we discovered the owner, Mr. Garcia, at Tozeret Haaretz, who turned out to be from Spain and in less than 10 minutes had told us his life story, which is really interesting and full of turns and twists, and involves being shipped out alone from Spain to France and then to a Kibbutz at the age of 6. So I have been going there ever since we met him (trying to not make eye contact with the staff at the other café).  Now for the weird part: Tozeret Haaretz is on Masaryk 12, tucked behind the other café, which is obviously NOT on Masarik 12 (maybe #15?) but which I just now discovered is called… “Masaryk 12”.

Lonely Planet describes Tozeret Haaretz as “timeless bohemian café” that “serves up some of the best cakes and sweets in the city, as well as some good-value snacks and meals.” It advices on “try the excellent shakshuka” but “make sure you go to the right place, it's tucked behind another café called Masarik 12.”

Yesterday, Jenn and I spent a lazy day at the beach and loved every second of it. I also think I used up a full tube of SPF 55. It was packed, especially with young people. The girls lounging behind us were giggling and singing along together some pop songs. It was fun.

In the evening with went to Yoezer Wine Bar in Jaffa for a beautiful last-night dinner. Pretty much everyone who has recommended restaurants to me has included them on the list, and it was worth it. It is a gourmet restaurant in an old and impressive Jaffa stone house originally built for the Turkish governor in Israel, with the look of a wine cellar, located just by the Clock Tower. It has a quiet and dark atmosphere with great dishes.  Here is a link to a 3-D view of the restaurant. Pretty cool.

Jenn's cab came to get her at 10:15 am - and I hit the ground running trying to get everything I need to get done, done  before I go home. 

At 12 noon I was downtown delivering a lecture to a group of business executives in exporting companies, as part of the support the government gives exporters via the Israel Export &International Cooperation Institute. I then decided to walk home (have not done that for a while), after a stop at the local Office Depot to get supplies for a workshop I will be leading. 

Later, I had dinner with my brother in law Aharon, who is here from Toronto to attend his niece's wedding. We went to the Tel Aviv Port and enjoyed the calm, "Sunday is a work day" crowds around us we had dinner.

 

I would like to continue now documenting the 'adventure' when Rafi was here, so now I switch back to Yom Ha'atzmaut, Independence Day, which started the evening of April 25th.

During the day, we were in Haifa, visited the main sights such as the Ba’hai Temple Gardens and the market on Wadi Nisnas, an Arab neighborhood in the city. Plus, we had lunch at Cafe HaBank, famous for its schnitzels.

In Wadi Nisnas, Haifa.

Wadi Nisnas, a neighborhood in lower Haifa, is   steeped in the atmosphere of a 19th-century Arab village. The tour book told us to look for the open-air market. Initially, there were no signs of vendors or stalls, just a nostalgic feeling with decorated the street walls. Eventually we found it but it was a bit of a disappointment because it was so small. Blinked and missed it.

From Wadi Nisnas we did not mean to hike up to the top of the hill, but just walking to the nearest Carmelit (the underground funicular railway) station was exhausting. Eventually we got to the top, had lunch, walked around and had a stop to admire the views from the Ba'hai Temple. We then headed back to Tel Aviv via train to join in the Yom Ha’atzmaut celebrations.

Carmelit funicular station

Great views

More great views

Yom Ha'atzmaut is Israel’s Independence Day and it commemorates Israel's declaration of Independence in 1948, by the Jewish Leadership led by future Prime Minister, David Ben-Gurion. 

In typical Israeli (Jewish, really) fashion, somber moments are often followed by celebration. The official "switch" from Yom Hazikaron to Yom Ha'atzmaut takes place a few minutes after sundown, when the party starts. Everywhere.

Most of the official events take place in Jerusalem, and are broadcast live on television. An official ceremony is held every year on Mount Herzl in Jerusalem on the eve of Yom Ha'atzmaut. Many cities hold outdoor performances in cities' squares featuring leading Israeli singers and fireworks displays. Streets around the squares are closed to cars, allowing people to sing and dance in the streets. And they do!

Israeli families celebrate with picnics and barbecues (or “mangalim”). Some Arab citizens of Israel celebrate Yom Ha'atzmaut while others regard it as a tragic day in their history which they now refer to as al-Nakba ("the catastrophe"). The Druze have celebrated Israel's Independence from the start, as do the Bedouins and the Circassians of Israel.

Rafi with patriotic bunny ears

Yom Haatzmaut in Tel Aviv is a major time for celebration and the city takes to the streets to celebrate Israeli Independence. The main celebration takes place on Rabin Square - and quite honestly, this was the main reason why I chose the location of the apartment where I am staying: its proximity to Rabin Square. Since I was a kid, I imagined what this day would be like and wanted to be part of it on this adventure.

Dito for me(we shared the bunny ears)

We arrived at Rabin Square before sunset. Oh, how it had changed! The night before, we saw mostly young people between the ages of 20 and 35 (Rafi and I stuck out in so many ways), sitting quietly. I would guess there were about 50,000 people on the square. On Yom Ha’atzmaut, 24-hours later, it  was one huge party, with probably 120,000 people of all ages, from babies being carried in parents’ arms to seniors, and everything in-between.

There was quite a bit of security and police on the scene but I don't think there was much need for them. Other than people like us sitting at cafes enjoying a glass of wine, I did not notice crowds drinking or fighting (the worst thing I witnessed was kids spraying each other with cans of white foam; annoying).

The Rabin Square celebrations featured a military band, and film clips from throughout Israel’s history shown on giant screens plus amazing fireworks. There were three famous local performers plus 200 dancers on stage.   The celebrations went on until about midnight and then the crows dispersed quietly.  

The next morning, we got up and walked around town, ending up on the Tayelet, the seaside promenade. I think pretty much all of Tel Aviv was there waiting for the fabled Yom Ha'atzmaut air show display.  On the grass, there was a lot of barbequing going on. Lots and lots and lots of people, from all backgrounds and religious affiliations.

On the Tayelet, awaiting the air show, Jaffo in the background (South)

On the Tayelet, the Dolphinarium in the background (facing North)

Somehow we ended up sitting on the rockery just next to the Dolphinarium discotheque remains, a sober reminder of how precarious things have been throughout Israel's 64 years as an independent state. I believe the building has not been either rebuilt or torn down so as to remain a monument. Some of the graffiti says "We will never stop dancing."

(The Dolphinarium discotheque suicide bombing was a terrorist attack on June 1, 2001 in which a suicide bomber, a militant linked to the Palestinian group Hamas, blew himself up outside this beachfront discotheque killing 21 Israeli teenagers and badly injuring 132.  After the attack many in the Israeli public demanded a harsh military retaliation. Nevertheless, Prime Minister Ariel Sharon decided not to take any immediate retaliatory actions. US and other governments applied heavy diplomatic pressure on Israel to refrain from action. The attack was later on noted as one of the reasons cited by the Israeli government for building the West Bank barrier.  Can you blame them?)

Air show

Watching the air show was quite enjoyable and pretty emotional for me, but I agreed with Rafi that the actual show was a bit underwhelming. We found out later that due to budget constraints, it had not been as showy as in previous years.

Here is a link to a video of one part of the airshow.