Day 122: Tel Aviv and Jaffa, Israel

Today went and booked my tour for Israel and Jerusalem my tour guide was very helpful. I noticed for most Israelians it takes them a bit of time to warm up, but she was one of the few Israel's that was warm immeditaely. Today my german friend Andrew and I headed out for the camel market where they sell nick nacks and yummy desserts. We were accompanied by one of the girls that worked in the hostel of course being interested in the Israelian and Palestine conflict we asked her some questions. She told us she has no problem with the Palestian nor people from Jordan or Syria. She told me she use to have friends in the Palestian Territory but she cannot visit them anymore since Israelians are not allow to go to Palestian Terriroty. She said it was the goverment from both sides that's the problem. The Palestians do something and that the Israel government respondes very aggressively. She didn't blame the Palestine's for anything and she was very objective when talking about the situation. She hoped for peace from both sides. I asked her about traditional Israelian food like what I saw in the US such as mazto balls, bagels, etc... she told me mazto balls are actually from german and poland. she said there is no traditional israelian/jewish foods its brought from the different countries that the jewish people reside in. Which makes sense as Israel is such a young nation 50 years old. After the halocaust a lot of Jewish people immigrated to the us and this was the food that they brought. We then headed to the Yemen quarter of Tel Aviv, thru the market tried some yummy sweets. The people are generally very laid back when trying to sell you stuff. Went thru the Yemen section which is the older part of Tel Aviv and saw some beautiful old homes and freshly planted pink flowers growing. It was quite beautiful to see the old buildings with the fresh young flowers, reminded me of how old parts of Israel was like Jersualem over 3000 years old and how new Tel Aviv which is only about 50+ years old. Then headed to Jaffa, saw some cool articeture then heard the mosque prayer calls, my impression was that there would be no Palestine's living in the Tel Aviv/Jaffa, interesting how the perception forms when watching the media. There are some Palestine's living in the Israelinan territory with work permits, etc....I thought that when I came there would be quite alot of Israelian police around. All Israelian woman and men are required to serve in the army. Jaffa we saw both Jewish and Muslim stuff being sold. Tried Yemen food which was bits of chicken in soup. Soups are quite popular in Yemen. Tried some green looking vegetable stuff they say it comes out in your skin the next day. There are alot of Yemen people of Jewish background that immigrated to Israel. Met a nice guy who was part Yemen and Morroco. Tried a fruit shake they have quite a big fruit shake selection in terms of the fruits.

I saw quite a diverse looking mix of Israels' from blonde hair to blue eyes, to African looking, what of course binds most of the people is their religion Judaism. Most of the people had immigrated after the Holocuast from various countries in the world. This reminded me of the US with the mix of people.