Slowly but surely making my way through Israel, see all of it here

Israel Diary Week #2

My second week in Israel was awesome! I ate at some amazing places in Tel Aviv, explored the city, and visited Masada and Ein Gedi! Check it all out below!

Day 1

I woke up late from a fun night out before and ate at Cafe Xoho with Emmy. Cafe Xoho has a healthy and vegetarian friendly menu, and most of the people there were Americans. We then chilled at Bugrashov beach which is walking distance from our apartment on Ben Yehuda, and got some lounge chairs there for around 6NIS each. After laying out at the beach I was craving something sweet! Even though I knew the dairy would make my stomach hurt, I had been wanting to try their chocolate milk that comes in a bag. It was so sweet and good! We then went back to the appartment and got ready for dinner. We had shabbat dinner at Emmy's grandparents beautiful apartment with her whole family. It was such a nice end to a great day!

Day 2

To start off the day, I met some friends at the Brown Beach House Hotel for breakfast. The food was tasty and really good quality and the hotel was beautiful! We then spent the day at Bugrashov beach again since most shops and restaurants are closed on Saturdays in Israel due to Shabbat. As you probably guessed, majority of people spend their Saturdays at the beach during the summer. After the beach I wen to Tamara yogurt for a refreshing snack. It is kind of like Pinkberry in the United States. We ventured out of Tel Aviv to Herzilya for dinner at Segev Art. The food was so amazing and artistic. That night I went out to a sick place in Tel Aviv called Kuli Alma. It had retro vibes and a really cool underground feel. I highly recommend it! We also checked out Breakfast Club which is another underground bar and club that plays deep house music. It was definitely worth seeing!

Day 3:

We went to Cafe Xoho again for brunch and it was even better than the first time! They have some really great dishes! After brunch I walked around Dizengoff Mall to try and find some stuff for an last minute trip I am taking to Germany. I spent a good amount of time there, chilled back at the apartment and then went to the beach for sunset! I ate dinner with friends at Hotel TLV 88 which was interesting and good. The food was very rich and it's not very vegetarian friendly (0ne of my friends I have been with is vegetarian).

My happy place...

Day 4

Let me just start off by saying this was one crazy day. A couple of  friends and I decided to go a sunrise hike of Masada. Masada is an ancient fortress in southern Israel’s Judean Desert. It's on a massive plateau overlooking the Dead Sea and is home to one of the final events in the first Jewish-Roman war. Our day started at 2AM where we boarded a bus that headed to the desert. The hike up Masada was hard and at 5AM it was already 80+ degrees. The view from the top was worth it, but the climb up was not very fun. We then visited Ein Gedi, a nature preserve with multiple waterfalls. We headed home afterwards and went to Benedict for lunch since none of us had eaten all day and it was already 2PM. I went to bed at 4PM since I hadn't slept the night before, and woke up the next morning at 7AM. Fifteen hours?! SCORE.

Day 5

I slept in super late so by the time Emmy and I were both it was lunch. We went to a super cool and healthy place called The Streets where they have a vegetarian friendly menu and a selection of fresh foods. I liked their asian noodle salad! Post lunch, Emmy and I took a 20 minute cab to Yafo (Jaffa - same thing!) and walked around the old city as well as through Shuk Hapishpeshim, which is essentially a flea market with a ton of denim and vintage bags. Definitely a must-see! For dinner we had a Thai food craving that desprately needed to be satisfied, so we went to one of the number one Thai restaurants in Tel Aviv called Nam. Their red curry was off the charts! Who knew Thai food would be so good in Israel![one_half padding="0 1px 0 1px"][/one_half]

Day 6 & Day 7 were not spent in Israel because I went to Germany for a special project, stay tuned for week 3!