Tel Aviv: Day Two

Sunday, June 29: When they say the Old Port of Jaffa, they mean old. Jaffa port is over 7000 years old and predates the Muslims, Jews, Christians, and Egyptians. Jaffa lies just south of Tel Aviv and it is purported to be the oldest continually active port in the world. Now how would they know that? Actually there are two other ports that are older but neither is active any more. Even Jaffa only serves a small fishing and charter fleet. However it is an old city with active archeological digs going on under the modern apartments that have been built throughout the town. it is, by law, an artist enclave with everything from jewelry, paintings, and textiles to live, hanging tree sculptures.

We hitched onto a free tour - we missed the first half, but got the second. The definition of free is - "I will just ask you for tips later, and to make it easy on you, I'll even tell you what is appropriate!" The tour guide actually was very good and the town is loaded with treasures including the famous Andromeda Rocks. This is featured in a Greek myth - one of the few that takes place outside of Greece - see I told you the guide was good! Something to do with Andromedia being tied to rocks, Perseus flying by, but he can't stop but plans to come back. A bit later he cuts off the head of Medusa - she of the stone-pillar stare - and then uses it to kill a sea monster. This is a story made for Hollywood!

On the way back to the hotel from Jaffa, we stopped at the Carmel or Shuk Market. This is an extensive area of small stalls selling food, spices, candy, underwear, electronics, and evrything in between - kind of like a precursor to Walmart! We will see much grander markets in Istanbul but we had to experience this one nevertheless.

Sunday night was the first big event of the wedding week. A tour bus picked us up as well as about 20 other guests to take us to Marakesh, a Moroccan Restaurant about an hour away. The event was an "intimate" dinner and hina ceremony for about 120 people. Upon arriving, we found the prospective bride and groom decked out in Alladinish costumes. They are a striking couple.

The food and drink were great and it just kept coming - course and course after course. When the DJs cranked up the music everyone hit the dance floor. There were many traditional Israeli songs and dances and a lot of American ones as well. The prospective bride and groom were ceremoniously lifted on chairs and danced around the room. It is always a highlight when they don't fall!

For the hina ceremony, Moroccan garb was handed out to most of the guests - Joani got in full regallia, and Mark just got a hat to go with his fish shirt! During the ceremony, hina or henna, was placed into the palms of whoever wanted their palm red - okay, there is a bad fortune teller joke here, you may fill in the blank - if you don't know it has to do with red and read. Then many of the women were given platters of desserts and paraded around the room. Now I know what Joani would look like if she was a waitreess at a Morrocan restaurant! It was a great time and the long bus ride back to the hotel was very quiet indeed.