Wilson and I had about a day in Tel Aviv before we had to catch our flight back to Cairo. So with a day, there is only so much you can do by foot, so we decided to rent a bike. I did the same while in Kyoto, Japan and its an amazing way to see all the sites you want to see without the hassle of relying on public transport or cabs --- just your own two legs and your "culo" (aka but*t)! So with a map and two bikes, we were off!.As we were heading towards the collection of flea markets in Old Jaffa City, something unfortunately happened to Wilson's bike -- his brakes were stuck to his wheel and was unable to cycle with his bike. Grrrr... After one guy helped us loosen the front brakes (loosen as in detach the front brakes from the front wheel), we were ready to start again. Unfortunately, the bike would not run again. The back tire was now hitting the frame everytime you turned the wheel -- now thats odd, we didn't have that problem before!?!
We thought it was Wilson's weight making the tire hit the wheel, but that couldn't be. We couldn't figure it out. So we called our bike rental shop and they were of no help (never rent from PINKY's bike rental place, near Harayakon Hostel). Bring the bike back, is what they said - lovely, how about them come and pick us up since we're a good 20 minute bike ride away. Nope. So we were going to find a car to cab it back, but we were lucky enough to find a taxi-cab driver that was at his home, who helped us fix our bike (a nut was loose, which caused the brakes to tighten and hit the frame -- go figure). So once that was fixed, we were off again! Wait... one other thing occurred. Wilson's tires were flat! Crazy! I'm thinking -- wilson and any type of vehicle with tires is not a good thing (recall, Wilson also got us into a car accident while driving in Jordan!) ... well, fortunate for us, luck was on our side again and a block away we found a mechanic shop. With an exchange of hellos and "where are you from", they graciously filled Wilson's tires with air... phew... anything else? This time we were really off!
We eventually found the collection of flea markets, cafes, and antique markets within Old Jaffa City, but nothing really piqued our interest. The only interesting thing we found was the Clock Tower, and taht was only beause we wanted to take a photo to remind us where we were. ha ha. After our photo op, we got back onto our bikes and went to our next destination -- Neve Tzedek.
On our way, we saw one of those city tour buses and decided to follow it since it was "surely" going to Neve Tzedek (tourist area)... uh huh. We followed it, but lost it as our bikes weren't fast enough to keep up with its pace. So, undoubtedly, we were once again relying on our maps. I got our bearings straight and we ended up at Ho' Karmel Street, which is souq, or a street market. We were going to end up there later, so decided to try and find Neve Tzedek again. So we were off...
We biked around and found Herzl street which led us to Rothschild Street/Sderot -- near the heart of Neve Tzedek. Woo hoo! The area was cute... it reminded me a lot like Soho in New York. Lots of boutique shops, restaurants, coffee/expresso cafes and a lot of people walking around. We decided to stop in this neighborhood to grab lunch. We cycled around the streets of Lilenblum, Gat Rimon and Yafo, Derech and settled on a restaurant named Express on Herzl Street between Rothschild and Lilenblum. The restaurant/cafe looked quite modern and their menu offered soups, salads and sandwiches. Wilson and I decided to be healthy (for once!) and ordered a medium Tuna Salad with a white vinagrette. I have no idea what was in that vinagrette, but the white vinagrette was extremely tasty! We had a simliar one at Cafe Rimon in Jerusalem and loved it as well!
We turned left onto Sheinkin and made our way down the hill -- only to find more boutique shops, restaurants and cafes. We quickly rode down the hill and eventually hit Allenby and Ho' Karmel Street, which led us to the our final destination - Ho Karmel. Since we didn't want to venture into yet another souq (we've seen plenty in Egypt, Jordan and other parts of Israel) we decided to just chill and relax. Well, Wilson did. I decided to see the shops along Sheinkin street (come on, afterall, I did have about 45 minutes)... So I will leave you with the visual imagery of me popping in and out of shops along Sheinkin street, looking for hip clothes, some neat designs and good bargains. Sadly, after 45 minutes, I didn't find anything... :( Oh wells -- i couldn't fit the clothes in my bag anyway! haha. (continue reading below for a Mandarin phrase I learned from Wilson)
p.s. As Wilson and I were heading to Ben Guiron airport, I asked Wilson to teach me a few words in Mandarin... and he decides to teach me the words "swei" -- meaning stylish, which I knew; "hung tung" - hurts a lot -- and then he added a few more words to make the following sentence... spelled phonetically...
"Zhe ga swei ga da pee gu hung tung" -- This stylish guy's butt hurts a lot. :D
No comments:
Post a Comment