tel aviv trip

this past weekend dekel's dad invited the whole fam to tel aviv. he got us all (each couple) hotel rooms at leonardo city tower in ramat gan & we stayed thursday-sunday.

it was such a nice gesture on his part and such a perfect getaway to spend some quality time with everyone all together. while there, dek & i met up with some friends, went to shook hacarmel, worked on our tan by the pool, played with his neices & also went out to a nice dinner in herzliya.

i love that city and all the hustle & bustle that goes along with it. it truly is a special place. new york-esqu, but so much more laid back. there are a few popular areas in tel aviv, the hotel we stayed in was in the diamond exchange district, aka bursa, so we couldn't walk to much besides a restaurant called king george, which we took advantage of a few times, but public transportation is so easy in this country getting to the famous dizengoff  street was only a 10 min bus ride and when i met up with a friend at another hot spot, the namal (port), it was only a short cab ride away as well. 

it was sooooo hot this weekend, i'm talking 100+ so shorts were worn and hair was up most of the time, but we sure did enjoy the trip. 

here are a few photos from this past weekend:

near the entrance to the shook hacarmel.

tons & tons of pedestrians, motorists, dog walkers & street food :)

the entrance to the chaotic, yet loveable carmel market

 trying on some sunnies

 boxers for days

 breads of all kinds

beautiful dangling jewelry.

i love bargaining! the prices the vendors begin with are so funny because they probably think i have never been there before, but once i start walking away & speaking hebrew, the price drops by 50% !

neatly folded "brand name" shirts

starbucks tank, of course i had to snap a pic!

 live demo of a veggie cutting contraption 

 barad (shaved ice) to cool off, usually in passionfruit or grape flavor

  it was so hot, we got popsicles too

  overlooking the city

 signs for shelter, leftover on street poles and stairwells from the recent war.

one of the saddest things i witnessed this weekend was dekel's little niece
(at 5 years old!), ducking for cover after hearing a loud boom from a car or something, she thought it was a bomb...

 ootd, walking to dinner 

hope you enjoyed the photos!

dekel & i took an amazing bike ride today to a natural pool (spring) today & i hope to blog tomorrow to share those photos, as they are simply breath-taking. 

thanks for reading!