JK Art

One day, suddenly, I feel the urge to be as far away from my country as possible. Destination chosen, air tickets acquired. Fast travel a few days, I find myself in Israel, just a few days after 2022 Christmas Eve. Obvious place to go during this time of the year would be Jerusalem, Bethlehem.

But no, the first stop is going to be Eilat, a city that borders Jordan to the east, Egypt to the west and Kingdom of Saudi Arabia to the south. This stop is going to be for just a few hours, to get situated with the place a little bit, get another bus ticket and then continue to the main destination of my short trip. I also met some fellow Czechs and exchanged contact info with them. Not the worst idea as I find out later.

Couple of hours (and first encounter with Israeli police) later, here I am, sitting on a bus 390 from Eilat to Tel Aviv-Jaffa. More than four hour long route follows road 90 up to the Dead sea, where it, to the surprise of no one, turns to west road 25 to avoid problematic West Bank. Going through hills, just a few kilometers off of a Shimon Peres Negev Nuclear Research Center, driving through the city of Be’er-Sheva, the route then follows road 40.

Tenths of stops along the way, most of them short just to pick up fellow travelers, mostly locals, and two longer ones (as it turns out, not long enough) at refreshments stations to stretch your legs. One being at a moshav called Ein Hatzeva, the other at a kibbutz Beit Kama, we arrive at the city of Tel Aviv-Jaffa.

What a place to introduce myself to the city is the local Central Station. Place that’s dirty, filthy, full of rats and dubious people, smelling with piss and to top it off, a seven floor tall maze. You want to get out of this place as soon as possible, especially when you arrive at night when your normal people are sleeping in the safety of their beds.

As walking is something I usually prefer over public transport, the decision to take a stroll to my place is easy to make. Host sends me the key code for the main door and some thirty minutes later, I reach the old part of Tel Aviv, an ancient port city Jaffa. Time for a cold shower and a good sleep.

Morning sunrise, time to explore the city. The old town is stunning. Can’t imagine a better place to start the day than walking empty cobblestone streets of Old Jaffa. The view from up there is mesmerizing, just watch the peaceful Mediterranean sea. Walk down to the old port, take a seat at a local café and just breathe the fresh air.

Time is scarce though so better keep on movin’. Following the coast, going through the Homat HaYam promenade and Neve Tzedek neighborhood, I reach Sderot Rothschild. Better known as Rothschild Boulevard, it’s one of the most expensive streets in the world. Time to slow down and enjoy the long strip, the financial center of the city and a place full of great diners.

One of the reasons to go this way and not any other is to experience the White City. UNESCO World Heritage Site proclaimed since 2003, it’s a part of the city built in the form of Bauhaus style. Good chunk of them are already restored, it’s an amazing part of the city to tour to.

Walking from one end of the Rothschild Boulevard to the other, I get to the Habima Square, home of Habima Theatre. Not so far away, there is Tel Aviv Performing Arts Center, The Israeli Opera. What catches my attention though is another building in this small area, Herta & Paul Amir Building of the Tel Aviv Museum of Art. Relatively recently built part of the museum fits the place perfectly.

Good time to enjoy more of the White City, visit the Bauhaus Center and then going back through the Rothschild Boulevard, I go through the Carmel Market. It’s getting close to sunset, so that’s a good opportunity to get to the nearby beach. As I watch the sun go down, I get back to my room for a quick stop and then get on my way for dinner.

Walking the Jerusalem Boulevard, I hear a call sound from a nearby Mosque. It’s just at the time of Salat Al Maghrib, fourth of the five prayers of the day. Dinner and walk around the neighborhood to wrap up the day.

Wakey wakey, second (and last) day of the short visit to TLV is here. After receiving recommendations, first steps of the day will lead back to Rothschild Boulevard, precisely to the Benedict breakfast kitchen, inspired by the SoHo New York restaurants. Blueberry and white chocolate pancakes are exactly as delicious as they sound to be.

Would it be even possible to visit Israel without going to a synagogue? The Great Synagogue of Tel Aviv is too close to not consider it. After paying 10 shekels, I get to see the beautiful place that recently got popular by Jewish public figures as their go to venue for conducting wedding ceremonies.

Still some time left so why not visit another popular spot, Sarona Market. Along the way, I found an absolutely astonishing Tel Aviv Cinematheque. Instantly fell in love with the place, wishing there was more time to watch some movie…

Israelis really know how to impress people because the Sarona Market feels like a place where you could spend hours and want to eat everything you saw. Unfortunately, the clock is ticking so I’ve got to go back to the hell hole called Central Station.

With Sabbath upcoming, it’s important to get back to Eilat. Somehow, I managed to get one of the last tickets for the last bus that’s going to run. The buses running the route are going in pairs. After boarding, we set off and got on the way. I made friends with some fellow passengers, some of them being a Syrian family. Others are youngsters from Austria. As I learned, they are there for a year helping at local kindergartens.

At our first refreshments station stop Beit Kama, I think to myself that it’s a good idea to get something to drink and eat. The queue is never ending though and the clerk is slower than a sloth. With just a few customers ahead of me to go, a guy comes in saying that the bus is leaving. Split second decision and I’m outside of the store watching the bus reverse. Sprinting towards it, the driver sees me and, being a good guy, stops and opens the door. It’s when walking through the aisle towards my seat, I slowly realize that this isn’t my bus. Well, time to sit back and wait for the other stop to get back on my bus. Finally, some two hours later, we arrived at Ein Hatzeva. To the relief of my co-passengers, they see me there walking towards our bus.

Rest of the way there goes without any other trouble. When booking my place to stay, the host from my guest house in Eilat offered to take me from the station to our place so we exchanged a few texts and agreed on time he would wait there. As agreed, Danny waits for me at the Central Station.

Casa Rosa, Danny’s guest house, is located on the west of Eilat, up on a hill. A few steps out of the door and you are right at the Eilat Mountains Reserve. It’s 3 kilometers drive back to the city center where most of the restaurants and malls are located. He offers me yet another drive, saying that he will take me there and I’ll get back on my own. I really appreciate this offer so I leave my bag in the casa and we get back down.

Modern Eilat began to form at the end of 1940s, when Israeli Defense Forces captured the Negev southern desert from the Kingdom of Jordan. The port city slowly developed and is now a popular tourist destination. And it really shows. The place is busy. There’s plenty of options to eat and shop, a nice beach and warm water to swim in. After exploring the Marina and dinner, I took a walk back to the casa.

Last day of the trip, and the year concurrently, began by a trip to the Egyptian border. Danny took me to the Taba border, which is around 8 kilometers from the center. Along the way, he made some recommendations on what to see and do when I walk back to Eilat.

Walking along the coast, the sea breeze was making the walk very comfortable. Made my way to the Underwater Observatory Park, where there were also some camels available for ride. These camels come from a nearby ranch.

While walking, I took a short detour to check out the local desert. By a complete coincidence, I hear English speaking voices. Turns out there is an American couple walking the same way so we greet each other and exchange a few words. They invite me to join them for the hike and suddenly I’m coming with them to the top of Mount Tzafachot.

What better way to celebrate New Year’s Eve than by hiking a mountain. Hari and Rick are the perfect companions for the tour to the top of the 278 meters tall mountain. We meet a few people here and there but it’s mostly a very calm place with nothing but rocks and stones. Terrain is quite challenging at places but we made it. We decided to take the same route back rather than try a different path, which is supposedly much longer. Somehow, we managed to skip one of the most difficult parts of the path by taking a different turn at one spot.

More than two hours later, we made it back to Coral Beach. After chatting a little bit at their hotel lobby, I took off for the rest of the walk to the city. Met the camels from earlier walking back to their ranch, passed the local port that’s at the same time a huge parking lot that’s used by car companies. Thousands of cars destined only for Israel make their way to the country by ship only as there is no railway for them. They continue their journey to their new owners by trucks.

Made it back to Eilat, still before sunset so I got to see the town a bit more before leaving back to the Ramon Airport. There, I met the same Czech group which I saw on the first day of the journey. They were kind enough to offer me a ride back home from Vienna.

Our flight took off a little bit past 9 pm, landing due shortly past midnight. That, along with the fact that Israel is in a different time zone, meant that we would celebrate New Year’s Eve twice. First celebration was above Bulgaria near Serbian borders and the second one was while flying above Pozsony and Vienna.

After some trouble with picking up our cars at the hotel parking lot, we managed to get on the way and celebrated the beginning of the New Year with a good bottle of Slivovitz.