December 6, 2016 Comments Off on Tel Aviv – Getting Away from the Pressure of Time Views: 1447 Urban Trekker

The City of Tel Aviv Knows Timelessness Though It’s a City That Never Sleeps

To catch my morning plane from Sofia to Tel Aviv, it was necessary to get up at 3:20 a.m. and walk across the Bulgarian capital for more than half an hour. Sofia offered me quite a gloomy image of awakening city in the middle of November. Feeble light of streetlamps, empty streets, bare trees only with a couple of remaining leaves and a fog dense so much, that you could hardly see the other side of a street, all of that at the temperature getting slightly above zero. That´s how Sofia´s goodbye looked like. Cold, foggy and dreary. If the goodbye was depressing, then the welcome in Tel Aviv after two hours of flight was the exact opposite. Palms, sun, clear blue sky and temperatures exceeding twenty degrees before noon immediately created feeling of freedom and relaxation, which stayed with me for the whole time in Tel Aviv.

Tel Aviv is often described as a modern and liberal party capital that never sleeps. And it is true that a holiday atmosphere is present literally at every step with all the colours, beaches, sea and hot sun. But the city is not only about free time and holiday. It has also different faces, hidden in small side streets far away from hotels and tourist attractions, which can easily escape the attention of ordinary visitor. So, let’s take a short stroll around Tel Aviv and discover some other faces of the city that never sleeps.

In the south part, there is the old town of Jaffa, for thousands of years a significant port in the Mediterranean. The importance of port has faded out, since it became a part of Tel Aviv, but its old-time spirit takes everyone hundreds of years back in time. Just climb up the concealed stairs from the port and you will enter a maze of narrow streets, crooked staircases, old stone houses and small back yards. There is no risk of getting lost, since the old town is not too large, so after a few minutes of enjoying a stroll in the past, you can proceed to the highest point of the old town in Abraham Shechterman Garden with a wonderful view of Tel Aviv. On your way, you may pass over the famous Wishing Bridge, where the wishes come true. An antient legend says, that if you hold your zodiac sign, while standing on the bridge, look at the sea and have some wish, it will come true. There is only one way how to find out, whether the legend is true or not.

A Promenade You Should Not Miss Once You Visit Tel Aviv

The difference between old Jaffa and new Tel Aviv is obvious on a famous promenade, which runs along the seashore. While in Jaffa one meets mostly fishermen on rocky seashores, waiting for their lucky moment, the promenade in Tel Aviv is full of runners, joggers, bikers, tourists, artists and everyone, who wants to enjoy the sea, beach, sun and free time. In fact, it is the promenade, that represents the open-minded and free spirit of Tel Aviv the most. Do you want to listen to a string quartet playing Gaelic music in the middle of a street? You will find it on the promenade. Do you want to enjoy outdoor Israeli folk dancing with dozens of other people or would you rather prefer to lie in the shadows of palms and drink homemade lemonade? Try to guess, where you can find it.

I took a stroll along the whole promenade as well, but after some time of walking my senses were overwhelmed by all colours, sounds and perceptions so much, that I needed to have a rest at some tranquil and calm place. I checked my watch and I was stunned. With all the impressions from old Jaffa and the promenade, it seemed to me like I had been walking for hours and I expected time of late afternoon. But my watch said, that it wasn´t even noon, which meant that I spent barely two hours outside. In that morning, time was running slower than usually and this feeling of space, where time just stopped, was about to repeat many times in Tel Aviv. Surprised, but at the same time pleased by the real time I finally found a quiet place I was looking for.

At the HaYarkon Park You Can Gaze at the Yakron River Slowly Flowing to the Mediterranean

HaYarkon Park, often nicknamed as Tel Aviv´s green lungs, is the largest park in Tel Aviv. With its six gardens, lakes and perfectly groomed lawns it is a place, where people from Tel Aviv come to escape from the hustle and bustle of city life. I also escaped to this green area to get away from crowds on the promenade. Surrounded by trees and flowers, sitting on a bench and watching the Yarkon River slowly flowing to the Mediterranean Sea, I finally found the peace I desired. After minutes of contemplating I decided to go back in the direction of old Jaffa. It was unthinkable to go along the promenade again, so I took a way through the city itself. If the promenade was incredibly overcrowded, the city itself was the exact opposite. With all shops closed, quiet, without any traffic and with just a few people taking their afternoon stroll along the empty streets the city looked almost like being evacuated. Yet the reason of this emptiness wasn´t any natural disaster, but Shabbat, the day of rest, when cities across Israel change from jammed, buzzing beehives into the peaceful oasis of calm. During the Shabbat, people spend their time resting at home or doing some leisure time activities on places like the promenade and therefore city centres are usually completely empty. To experience such a different face of a large city – empty, tranquil and peaceful – is an exceptional moment for everyone, who likes exploring cities and their atmosphere. So, if you visit Israel, please take a stroll in a city centre during Shabbat. It is worth it.

It is said, that Tel Aviv is the best city in Israel for enjoying a vibrant and unrestrained nightlife. Accompanied by my friends, who were travelling with me, we didn´t have enough money to spend the whole night in bars dancing and drinking, but we still wanted to discover a city´s life after the sunset. So, we set out on an evening walk to the centre surrounded by flashing lights and neon signs. The first interesting place we came across was HaTachana, Tel Aviv´s old railway station, which has been renovated into a complex of small shops, boutiques, cafes and restaurants. You can admire renovated station´s building with a platform and old rail cars, you can buy new elegant shoes or a collection of wooden games or you can simply have a dinner in a marvellous restaurant on the yard of the complex under two huge plane trees. This everything can HaTachana offer and with all the colourful lights illuminating the whole complex in the evening, the experience is even more magic.

Tel Aviv Knows of the Vibrant and Ever-moving HaTachana

Approximately 15 minutes of walk from HaTachana there is one of the most important and visited streets in Tel Aviv, famous Rotschild Boulevard. It is not famous only because of its architecture in Bauhaus style, which put it on the list of UNESCO world cultural heritage sites, but also because of many cafes and bars, which are open late till the night. Anyone, who comes across this street can experience luxury life of delicious food, drinks and entertainment, where the only limitation can be an amount of money in a wallet. We were not in the mood neither for drink, nor for food, so we just preferred to walk along a promenade in the middle of the boulevard relishing a nice warm evening. Talking about everything and nothing, from the history of Israel to our jobs back in Sofia, we felt that it was too late for walking farther and we decided to turn back and go to our hostel. At that moment, my friend asked what was the time. When the reply came, we all stopped staring in surprise at each other. The real time was completely different from what we all expected. Again, the same feeling as I had in the morning. Time just stopped running and we were caught in a realm of timelessness. Instead of ten or eleven in the evening it was not even seven. We were wondering, what could be the reason of our wrong perception of time. Was it our hectic everyday life back in Sofia with its crazy pace, which makes time of everyday life flow so fast? Was it a holiday atmosphere in Tel Aviv, which gave us 24 hours of free time per day without any duties and tasks? Or is there really something special in Tel Aviv, which changes the pace of time? We didn´t find an answer till the end of our stay in Israel, but for me Tel Aviv is not only the city that never sleeps, but also the city, where you lose the perception of time and where you easily get away from its pressure.

Read more from Miro Kampa at This City Knows: Plovdiv – Looking for Lost Inspiration

Miro Kampa

Tags: HaTachana, Israel, Jaffa, promenade, Tel Aviv, Yarkon