Jaffa

We made it down to Jaffa again yesterday, and finally I took the photos I meant to take the first time we went. The top image is of a minaret in Old Jaffa (Patri + John: Old Jaffa reminds me a little bit of Old San Juan); the lower photo is of Tel Aviv as seen from the Old Jaffa hillside.





When we went to Jaffa a few weeks ago, it was a holiday so everything was closed. But yesterday it was plenty busy and the Shuk Ha-Pishpishim (the flea market) was packed. We went looking for used bikes. However, I think you could buy anything but bikes there. I guess they take up too much space. Really. The place was crammed with stuff. Half of the market was pretty much a big garage sale and the balance was slightly more legitimate, "licenced" antiques kiosks. The vendors at garage sale half seemed to be people cleaning out their basements: piles of battered clothing, assortments of housewares and old electronics, rugs, VHS tapes from the 80s, and on and on. (Click on the photos to enlarge them.)









Certain cheap, touristy stuff was sold at lots of the legitimate stands: scrap rugs, partitions made of beads, stuffed-animal garlands and "ethnic" knickknacks. But the interesting vintage collections vastly overwhelmed the token mass-market tchochkes. The color and texture of the whole place was amazing. Shops, the size and layout of large storage units, were packed to the gills with everything under the sun, and all of it older than I am. It's interesting to speculate about the mixed origin of all this stuff, considering Israel is such a young country and its residents have come from so many different places.











There were actually a few things I was interested in buying. Some pieces of furniture were tempting, as well as some awesome vintage tableware and a few lamps. (Oneontans: it's just like the Grand and Glorious Garage Sale. There is lots of junk, but somehow it's impossible to leave empty handed.) If I knew Hebrew, I might have jumped in and haggled over a few pieces. But since I don't, I knew I would be wasting my money. (English speakers get special tourist prices: an extra zero is added to the end of all prices offered.) In the end, it was a blast just to walk around and check out the colorful, hectic scene.

Now off to Dalia and Oddi's for lunch to celebrate Sukkot, and to welcome Keren and Ben (Koester, not Burrington) back from the US. Can't wait to spend another afternoon with my host family...