Israel Trip Part 4

Part 1. Part 2. Part 3.
We'll just pretend that I didn't have a gap between Israel posts, mmmm 'kay?

So Tuesday we went to Tel Aviv.

I really liked the architecture. 

We stopped at Independence Hall and learned about how Israel declared its independence.

Then we explored the city a little.

That gazebo is still a functioning place of business.

Theater 

I'm a sucker for hanging laundry pictures.

Amazing Graffiti

PLAYGROUND!! I'm so mature.

Then it was lunchtime. Once again, we explored a local marketplace.

There was also an artist's fair, but I forgot to take pictures of it. I did get some nice earrings though!

I debated how much I should say about this next part of the day, but as it was one of the moments that stuck with me a lot, I thinks it's worth writing about.

Our next stop was Rabin Square. For those who don't know, this is where Israeli Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin was assassinated. There is a memorial there for him which we were looking at.

While we were there a man came up, crossed over the chain fence and began pouring something on himself. At first we thought he was protesting by cooling off in an important place. Then we realized that the container he was pouring from looked like this:

We were quickly herded away by our trip coordinators, the Israeli soldiers, and our security officer. Our tour guide stayed back and spoke to the man, delaying him from his intention, lighting himself on fire, until the police could arrive.

We were instructed to look away, and we did. Any explanation I give for his actions will be inadequate, so instead I'll just leave this link to a news article about it here.

The bus came and got us, and we left a little earlier than planned. The trip coordinators made it clear that they were there should anyone want to talk.

That's the end of the scary part of the day.

We next went to visit an Israeli graffiti artist at his studio.

He gave us a presentation on his work.

This was the best picture I would get of the guy.

Then he gave us paint, paint brushes, and set us loose on his studio walls.

My contribution.

Me with my contribution.

School Pride

After we finished being vandals, we left for Jaffa.

Jaffa was beautiful. Also, hot. I mean, everywhere was hot, but Tel Aviv and particularly Jaffa, were humid. Which made everything worse. The upshot here is that when we first got to Jaffa we were given time to go get ice cream. Ice cream makes everything better.

We met up at this really big clock tower.

We went for a walk and got some amazing views of the beach.

The beach

Panoramic View

There was a wedding on that roof.

We met with some students studying abroad and were strongly encouraged to study abroad in Israel. That is after they finally showed up. We were there on a really big Muslim holiday, so the streets were crowded and it took the students a while to get there.

That's it for Tel Aviv. Coming up- The desert! Part 5 Now Up