-So Nicole and I were in Tel Aviv all last week. It was a last minute trip and kind of crazy coming together. We only had four days to plan activities before leaving (Nicole was working all day too) so I didn’t go to Jerusalem or any big, “life-altering” tourism sites. I did write in a park a couple days, get to the beach for an afternoon, and walk around the city for 3-6 hours per day. My destroyed feet aside, it was a pretty awesome trip. There aren’t many photos to share–as I didn’t take many pictures of myself walking alone–but the gallery above exhibits some highlights.

-We did see a huge housing protest along Sderot Rothschild one night. It was pretty interesting. There were bands playing, people arguing, people there gawking with their kids, street performers, etc, etc. It’s the Israeli version of The Rent is Too Damn High campaign, I guess.

-We did not visit the Gaza Strip or West Bank, which pretty much doomed any hope that I could write a secret agent thriller based upon our travels. There wasn’t much thrilling about buying fresh juice on the street or shopping for sunglasses at a mall pharmacy. We didn’t even ride public buses, because, you know, safety first.

-For our first overseas trip, I think we handled ourselves pretty well. The twenty-four hours of travel each way was rough, but we dealt with it. The language barrier wasn’t such a big deal. Even though our hotel was in a district that wasn’t super tourist-friendly, it was easy enough to get along. Luckily all the street signs are printed in Hebrew, Arabic, and “Roman Alphabet,” so at least you knew what street you were on.

-Tel Aviv is awesome. You can drink limonana all day long. We did.