Mel's Trip, Day 7

Today I ventured out on my own again, this time to Jaffa, a very, very old port town that is now incorporated within Tel Aviv. It was about a 20 minute walk to Jaffa from the hotel via a scenic walkway along the Mediterranean Sea. Because yesterday's storm had still not quite passed, the waves were a little crazy and were crashing along the rocks beneath the walkway. I did my best to stay dry as I walked to Jaffa, but I got sprayed anyway. I made it to my destination and wandered about the town. Two things that Jaffa are known for are its art galleries and the flea market. After touring the visitor's center to learn about the history of Jaffa, I wandered through some of the art galleries located in some of Jaffa's oldest buildings. I'm not a huge art person so I didn't stay long. Then I walked over to the flea market. Now, I'm not much of a flea market person either, so I don't really know how flea markets are set up. But let me tell you what Jaffa's flea market has to offer. Honestly, it looked like some vendors found whatever they could find in their house to sell and just laid it out on the sidewalk. Sometimes, the goods weren't even on a sheet or blanket - just on the sidewalk. And they sold the most random things - from individual pieces of silverware to books to knick-knacks, even computer parts. I stayed at the flea market for a short while, then strolled the streets surrounding the flea market to browse through the shops. I found a shop that had a big selection of pashminas (shawls/wraps) and started looking. The shop owner came to me and started speaking Hebrew. Then he realized I didn't speak Hebrew and did his best to communicate with me in what little English he knew. And I did my best to talk to him in Hebrew (with the 3 or so words that I knew). I picked out some pashminas to buy and so we moved on to discuss price. As I was buying several pashminas the owner offered a discount, but I summoned up my best bargaining skills and got him to lower the price even more. Apparently bargaining is the thing to do in Jaffa - never settle on the first price. I was quite proud of myself for that. As many of you know I am very non-confrontational, so reasoning with someone to get my way is just not my gig. :) I then walked back to the hotel to wait for Nick to get off work. Shortly after he got off work we went out to dinner - back to Jaffa for me. He took me to another place he been before. See the blog post titled "20 Dishes". The meal was quite good. And yes, I did try the testicles. Not bad! Unfortunately, toward the end of the meal I started to lose my sense of taste/smell, as I'm coming down with a cold. Hopefully this cold won't deter me from enjoying the rest of this vacation.