JERUSALEM DIARY DAY 11: ACTUALLY WE'RE IN TEL AVIV IN THE "COOL" NEIGHBORHOOD (OF COURSE) OF NEVE TZEDEK

This little cafe, NINA, is also home to a small hotel owned by a young woman named Aliza.  One of the pioneer establishments in the gentrifying neighborhood of Neve Tzedek, it's full of the sorts of scenes you would expect in an area that was almost gone and is returning to a lively street and commercial life.

Here's a bad photo of the room - I'll post an improved one tomorrow.  It's a little apartment with a sleeping loft and a kitchen.  Adorable.

This is the oldest neighborhood in Tel Aviv, just blocks from the sea.  As you can see, there's lots going on , even on a Thursday night - from book store readings to the odd practice of staging wedding photos posed against the industrial landscape here.

We're going tomorrow to the drum circle on the beach and a crafts show with our friends.  It's nice to be in a modern city after all that time in Jerusalem - as moving as it is it's also confining in an odd way.   I have described the Jerusalem/Tel Aviv comparison as really Red State-Blue State and I think I'm right.  Culturally, politically, sartorially and philosophically they are like Salt Lake City versus New York City.  Both have their charms and represent parts of the Jewish whole but boy are they different.  Goodnight from the Bluest state in the Middle East.