Saturday, June 18, 2011

Tel Aviv and a Break In



 At this point I've been to Tel Aviv several times, but haven't gotten around to writing about it.  Tel Aviv could not be more different from Jerusalem; it is a secular city known for its nightlife and beautiful beaches.  So, of course, we students love it there and take the sherut (Israel's awesome, cheap shared taxi system) every chance we get to stay a night or two.


On yesterday's visit, we had ten people going, enough to affordably split two rooms at the fancy Carlton hotel.  An acquaintance just opened a new club this week, Merhav Yarkon, in a former police station, so we spent a lot of the evening there.  I absolutely loved this place! 

The main area was a sort of open air atrium, surrounded by former jail cells looking down.  I know in the photo the flash makes the building look terrible, but in the dark with lights flashing and pictures moving on the walls, the effect was awesome.  It had a very underground, industrial feel but with the night sky breeze!

Found a better picture online... not mine.

















This morning we went to a delicious breakfast place, then ran into two of our professors on the beach!  (Tel Aviv is about an hour away from Jerusalem.)  They bought us each a drink and we chatted for awhile.  There are five professors with our group, and they are all wonderful, extremely friendly and interesting people.


Professors Morris and Klein

Later, as my roommate and I were enjoying the AMAZING rooftop of our hotel (it is worth any money to stay a night at this place for these views alone), we received a call from another friend in our group that there had been a break-in at our hostel and several people had had items stolen.  Apparently it was an inside job. 

It was a stressful hour or so as we struggled to find someone who could check on our room as we took the sherut back to Jerusalem.  Our room was indeed hit and my roommate's laptop and cash was stolen, but somehow none of my things were touched... including my laptop sitting out on my desk.  Thank goodness for me, but very perplexing.  Our program director was affected worst of all- laptop, phone, money and passport.  The police came and checked things out but it is likely nothing will be resolved. Crazy evening here at the Agron.






1 comment:

Vicki said...

Fabulous photos Carlie - I'm loving tel aviv!