1. Rent a bicycle 2. Carmel Market 3. Old Jaffa/Jaffa Port 4. Florentine neighborhood 5. Nachlat Benyamin Arts and Crafts Fair 6. Rothschild Boulevard 7. Benedict’s: Breakfast 24/7 8. Neve Tzedek neighborhood 9. Any cafe’ in the city 10. Steal one of the adorable Tel Aviv dogs and head to the beach**
*I realize there are so many wonderful things to see/do/eat in Tel Aviv, these were just my top 10 favorite.
**No animals were (successfully) stolen in the writing of this blog post.
A year ago I fell prey to one of those silly internet bucket lists. You know, the ones titled “10 Things Every 25 year-old Should Know” or “96238347 Places to Visit Before 30”. At first you feel inspired and then you just feel like a couch potato doing nothing while everyone else figures out all the bullet points to being a real adult. I hate those. Around the same time I read an article about how writing down goals makes you more likely to accomplish them. Feeling both inspired, agitated, and in a bit of a standstill with life I decided to write down 25 things I’d like to do while I’m 25. I’m stubborn, so as I wrote down numbers one, two and twenty-one I knew I’d do them even if friends thought it was a bit overly ambitious. Now folding 1000 paper cranes, I don’t know how I ever thought I could actually do that.
I should start this off by saying: I’m a horrible cook and I have no interest in becoming a better one. I wish that cooking interested me, and it slightly does in the company of friends, but mostly I just like to eat good food…..prepared by other people. It’s a shame, and I’m sure hugely disappointing for my mother. I should also say, that while I have somehow managed to work my way through some challenging situations, I often don’t have common sense in the most obvious of situations.
My favorite part about staying in hotels/hostels is the free breakfast. I always make sure to stay at one that offers it. At the City Hotel in Samarkand there was quiche, hard-boiled eggs, fruit, fresh jam, coffee, and tea. It all looked like it had been specially cooked just for me. Warm, welcoming and homemade. It was a far cry from the cereal dispensers and individual waffle cookers of most American chain hotels. I sat alone, filling my cheeks like a chipmunk. I’ve learned that the trick to cheap travel is making the most of your free hotel/hostel breakfast. I certainly have mastered the art of food hoarding. My mother would be proud. Next to me a group of French couples sat, if not criticizing my barbaric eating, most likely discussing their itinerary for the day. They looked planned, and I wondered what all I wanted to do. I finally settled on calling Sherry and asking him to drive me around again. In Uzbekistan, it’s relatively cheap to hire a driver and a lot of people have them. The sites around Samarkand are spread out, and I enjoyed his company, so for around 60,000 so’m ($20) he agreed to drive me around the city.
After the dusty brown country side of Urgut, Samarkand was a colorful relief. I have become obsessed with the blue and green tiles of Uzbekistan. Actually, I’ve really just become obsessed with all the handicrafts this country has to offer. I’m sorry if I continue to talk about them until I move back home, they will never get old. Samarkand, “The Mirror of the World” “Rome of the East”, was almost too much to handle in terms of beautiful tile. Am I right!?:
After only two weeks of work I was given a week of vacation. The perfect chance to explore more of Tashkent and take a quick weekend trip to visit Samarkand and Urgut!
My phone is ringing, I answer it and an automated voice speaking in Russian starts talking.
“Nehyet Ruskie, nehyet ruskie, no Russian, no Russian”, I yell back into the phone receiver. I eventually hang up because I can’t figure out what ‘she’ wants.
