Wednesday 18/6

We both decided to have a bit of a sleep in today. After breakfast Tim left for the office, and I relaxed in the hotel. Took a long bath and pampered myself. I had burnt myself quite badly the day before. I thought I had put sunscreen on all of my body, but obviously not. The lower parts of my arms as well as my chest (but not neck!) were bright red, and so was a big stripe at the top of my forehead. Very attractive! Well, with this in mind, I did not particularly want to go out in the midday sun. Took a taxi to the Firm at 12.30, and had lunch with Tim and one of the managers, a very friendly woman, originally from the States. We ate in Georgian (!) restaurant, which was quite an experience. (If you ever eat Georgian, opt for things with eggplant, do not chose the chicken.) But it was good!

I walked back to the hotel, since everyone said it was not very far, and that Tel Aviv was really pretty and clean. Well… Tel Aviv is quite difficult to describe. I didn’t realize that the city was so young (first houses built in 1909), and the architecture is very varied. The city is connected to Jaffa, the old port, so there’s a part of town which is old. Some of the buildings are amazing, but most of them are falling to pieces. And brand new buildings are next to ones without windows and where the render is falling down. In all of it many Bauhaus, and further out a few French colonial style houses. The city is a rather strange (but not unpleasant) mix of middle eastern and (European) Mediterranean. I wouldn’t call the city clean, though. (And it scares me that I have not yet seen the parts that are considered dirty.) But where it is pretty, it is really nice. On the walk back, I passed a rather nice and green pedestrian area, as well as Hakarmel, one of the biggest markets. I was a bit disappointed though, because they only sold clothes (mainly t-shirts and underwear) and food. I wanted to see carpets, jewellery and pots and such things. Well, we have saved the flea market in old Jaffa for Sunday. My walk back to the hotel took me one hour and 45 mins! My greatest success along the way, was me being able to buy a bottle of Sprite, using my two words of Hebrew, some Spanish (!) and a piece of paper. I thought the man in the stall looked nice and friendly, which was why I chose to approach him. But he really surprised me by talking to me in Spanish. My basic tourist Spanish should have been enough, but it really took me by surprise when the ‘Shalom’ was followed by a ‘Que tal?’. Anyway, I got to use my word of the day, which was ‘toda’, meaning ‘thank you’. It is probably spelt completely differently, and I have also heard other versions, but it is a start. Tomorrow I am aiming to find out what ‘good bye’ is. It is really strange to be in a country where the language is so different. Tim is a lot more used to Hebrew than I am, but he is rather lost too. Together we are normally quite good at working out things in strange languages, but here, well, it is different. Even going to Paris last autumn I managed to get by on my combination of classical Latin, some tourist Spanish, and a good knowledge on etymology. Here it is impossible to even guess, since we can’t even read the words. It’s quite fascinating.

Tim got back to the hotel about half an hour after me, having spent most of the afternoon meeting collectors and dealers. We went to afternoon tea again, and then down to the beach. I never thought this would happen, since I know that Tim really dislikes open waters and is extremely terrified of sharks. But we went for a swim together, and the water was absolutely amazing! Turquoise and clear, and smooth sand. We walked along the beach for a while, enjoying the pleasant afternoon winds. (It is, by the way, terribly hot here, and the summer hasn’t even started yet! It is about 34° C, but humid and, well, quite unpleasant in the sun.) Afterwards, we had a shower, a very quick light dinner, before rushing down to the lobby to meet one of Tim’s clients. The man, originally from Brooklyn, was very nice, and we spent the rest of the evening in the bar with him. I was a bit nervous, because I had heard that he was orthodox. The orthodox jews have several customs and traditions that are rather ‘peculiar’ (bad choice of word, I know) to westerners; among other things men are not allowed to touch women (as we apparently are unclean) or look them in the eyes. So, what do you do if you cannot shake hands? Of course it all depends on the level of orthodoxy, but this man was liberal enough, and very social although a lot of the conversation was manuscript related. Tim and I ended the evening with a stroll around the area.