Tel-Aviv Part Three - Foamy seas, optical illusion, fancy glass and a second storm

Just before you read this post, I just wanted to post another thankyou message. I woke up to find the blog has surpassed 35,000 views! I can't tell you how amazed I am that people continue to read my blog and hear about my life & travels! In two months I had gained over 5,000 views which is mind blowing! Thankyou so much to you all for visiting!

We got up early and headed up to the port area of Tel-Aviv, for a little wander around and to visit the little food market there. The weather was deteriorating again, the wind was picking up and the sea was getting rougher, it was managing to splash us through the boardwalk as I tried to take a photo of the tourist honeypot that is your destinations name. I swear they have these in every city, but nobody else was there, so we had most of the port to ourselves. Although we were about to find out why!

Just around the corner, I had to do a double take, because it looked like we had just walked into a snowstorm. Were we still in Israel? It turned out the sea was so choppy it was creating all this seafoam that was covering everything! It was knee deep in places, and James advised me to cover my face up as he's seen the sea before like this at Kimmeridge. He'd breathed some in and ended up with a chest infection for a couple of weeks. That was not a holiday souvenir I was looking to bring home with me!

We headed out of the sea foam blizzard and headed into the market, where we grabbed ourselves some Shakshuka for brunch. It was absolutely divine, and something I will have again for breakfast!

Our main destination in Tel Aviv port was the Museum of Illusions. I'd seen one on TikTok somewhere else, but figured it would be along the same lines. It's a small but reasonable museum, full of fun little optical illusions and puzzles to keep you amused for an hour or so. It was full of screaming kids running around and pushing into your pictures as you tried to take them which was a tad frustrating. The highlight was a room built on it's side, so you could do various poses that made you look like you were climbing the wall, planking on the bench or flying through the air.

Illusion or reality? All those years of circus acrobat training have served me well! 

There was a room with a coloured background which spun, causing me some nausea that threatened to bring my Shakshuka back up again, and also this room, which had multiple coloured lights in it, that you could move about have multiple shadows in various colours about. We had some fun practicing our hand movements and playing with the light.

I'll say overall, it's not a must do, particularly it you've ever done something similar before. Tickets are 99 shekels for an adult (approx £23) which I thought was verging on extortionate. Almost like the optical illusion of your money vanishing! I think if you're someone that loves that sort of thing, then this would be a great place to visit. But I wouldn't advise you making a beeline for it. But remember, this is a free world! You can make your own decision about visiting, and you can get more information and a taste of what's there on their website at museumofillusions.co.il/en/

After the Illusions Museum, we headed over through the park to find the bus stop to take us to the Eretz Museum. We passed through this fun little amphitheatre, before I had to suddenly stop and point something out to James.

Does anyone my age (around 30) remember a film about robots, an animated film that came out when I was younger. It was all about robots that were living and doing their thing, and I'm sure one of them looked exactly like that! 

We arrived at the Eretz Museum to discover half of it was closed do to restoration work, and were given a map by the lady at the ticket desk who spent ages going through what each building had in it, and which buildings were closed, and marked it all with a highlighter to make it easier to find which was much appreciated. It's a large museum, spread through a park, with lots of green spaces and art here and there to keep you interested. I found it a really interesting mix of different exhibits. We started with a modern photography exhibition, detailing the lives of people across Israel, which showed some thought provoking images of life in Israel. There was a small exhibition on about press freedom too, which also caused some discussion between me and James. 

After the photography exhibition, we came back outside and saw this beautiful mosaic, before continuing on the path to the glass pavilion. They had these fantastic glowing glass orbs there, but what was really amazing was the Roman glass.

There was display cabinet after cabinet after cabinet of these delicate, beautifully made little vases. How is it possible that something two thousand years old can look as good as new? Nowadays we take glass for granted, but for the Romans, these would have been both expensive and a treasured possession. Imagine finding out one of your favourite possessions would be on display in two thousand years in the future, and everyone's favourite blogger has taken a photo of it and posted it on a world famous blog. Pretty neat!

Also incredible was the ceramic pavillion, which featured many different styles and designs of pottery. While not as delicate as the glass, there is no doubt they are just as beautiful, like this set above which would have been used to store things like olive oil and wine. The pottery would have helped keep the liquids inside cool and prevented it from spoiling.

The afternoon seemed to fly by, and before long it was approaching closing time. The dark clouds were approaching again, as the second storm approached us. I couldn't believe it, two storms in one week in a Mediterranean country. How unlucky is that?

 

We jumped on the bus (I think it was the number 10, it ran along the beachfront and was useful going one end of the city to the other) to head back to Jaffa, to find ourselves something nice for dinner, we'd seen some really nice looking restaurants when we had explored before. One that had particularly taken our fancy was the Old Man and the Sea. If you were looking for a filling meal, this was going to be the place to go. 

The weather was getting worse, the winds were picking up, and you could feel the rain in the air. But we wanted our dinner, and as Brit's, no level of bad weather was going to stop us!

James took this fantastic picture of the dinner. You got twenty different mini starters, a great selection if dips, salads, vegetables, pastries, plus a pitcher of lemonade to share when you ordered a main course. Who are we to say no? That added in with the succulent kebabs made for a very pleasing dinner! If you're ever in the area, I would really recommend it. Check out their website for more information The Old Man And The Sea

It made the walk back up to the clocktower a tad more difficult due to the amount we had just eaten, and it was a bit of a slow slog.

We were due to catch the bus from just outside the clock tower, which was beautifully lit. But we met these two kitties on the way there, one of whom seemed quite comfortable in the bin! I wasn't too keen to pet a cat who had been hanging out in the bin, but like James said, the other cats we had petted had probably also been in the bin. I suppose it's hard to argue with that sort of logic. We caught the bus back up the seafront, and had around a 15 minute walk back to the apartment from the beach. 

For want of a better word, and without trying to sound biblical, the heavens really did open and they sent a deluge. We took shelter for a minute under a balcony, only to discover a torrent of water coming down the street at us. We decided just to make a run for it, and were thoroughly sodden & soaked through by the time we got back to the apartment. I guess as Brits we are just used to the rain, but yet are very unprepared for it as usual. Not a coat or umbrella between us!