Tel Aviv, Israel

Tel Me More.

I had only been in Germany for a few weeks and it had already been time to start discussing what to do for Chris’ November break. The team was getting a week off in November and everybody was buzzing about the places they were going to go. Since I had just arrived overseas, me and Chris thought we would lay low and go to Amsterdam (HA, if we only knew then that laying low in Amsterdam was impossible, we would’ve laughed). But, Amsterdam is only a three hour train ride from Bremerhaven and we were going to take Shadow with us.

Things changed fairly quickly mostly because me and Chris are so easily persuaded. It doesn’t take much for us to have to think about what to do next. A couple of his teammates, Jason and Wade, and their girlfriends, Kristina and Jenna, were planning on going to Tel Aviv, Israel and they had an extra bedroom in their airbnb that they wanted us to join in on. Also, they got super cheap flights on Ryan Air. “Ok, sold” we said.

So, we booked our flights, took Shadow to Petra, a lady who owned a farm in Bremerhaven and loved watching the team dogs while everyone goes on vacation (this lady is a Saint), and we were off to the Middle East. I never in a million years would have thought I would be traveling to Israel, never even a thought in my mind, but because of these amazing friends we just made, we were about to go on the vacation of a lifetime.

We flew into Tel Aviv and the airport was chaotic with Hebrew written all over it. There were people from all over the world here and I felt so out of place.

We arrived at our airbnb and it was perfect. We had a cute little balcony looking over one of the main hoppin’ streets so we couldn’t wait to start walking. As we were walking around, we noticed how young and hip the city was. So many beautiful people with awesome style and even trendier restaurants. Let me say now, the food here was out of this world. Jenna is a vegan and she was in heaven because of all the vegan friendly options there and we were just simply happy with all the hummus we could find.

Tel Aviv is located right on the Mediterranean Sea and the beaches were to die for. It felt like a movie scene walking along the coastal promenade. There are beaches for dogs, beaches for just men, beaches for volleyball, beaches with a public gym and they go on and on and on. At night time, we sat our butts in the sand and just watched the kite surfers. It was so damn pretty.

One day we rented bikes and biked all the way to Jaffa. Jaffa is the ancient port city of Tel Aviv. Here, there lies so much history and very very old buildings. There is a little harbor with some restaurants, art galleries and markets. We ended up eating at a Georgian place. I’m not really sure what they were called but it tasted like a Middle Eastern Pizza.

I could dream about walking down the Tel Aviv Promenade and hanging out at the local bars every night. This city really is something special and the people here are even more special. While I may not understand a single Hebrew sign, I will always have a special place in my heart for this land. This was the best travel decision we had ever made.