Tel Aviv, Caesarea, and Tivon

Yesterday, my aunt picked me up from the hostel in TLV and drove us to her old neighborhood there where she lived five years ago. Neve Tsedek is a cool neighborhood, but it's definitely becoming gentrified which is a shame. We got some gelato, walked to the Carmel Shuk which was crazy because everyone was buying last minute things for Shabbat. We also walked down Nachalat Benyamin St. where there's tons of artist tables selling awesome random handmade things on Fridays and Tuesdays. We were both very tired at the end of this overstimulating adventure, so we drove to Caesarea and walked along the beach and swam as the sun was setting large and beautiful over the Mediterranean. On the way back to the car, instead of walking along the water, I walked on top of the entire ancient Roman aqueduct ruins. My feet were so sore from the jagged rocks and fuzzy things that pierce your feet, but it was well worth it. Earlier that day, we bought some fresh grape leaves and tabouleh from these Druze women in the shuk. On the ride from Caesarea to Tivon, we enjoyed this yummy snack.

We got home kind of late and began preparing orange soup and fish. I was in charge of chopping and peeling veggies for the soup. In case you're interested (I highly recommend this soup), here are the ingredients: carrots, pumpkin, sweet potato, onion, turmeric, ginger, coconut milk. Boil the veggies until they are soft, then put it all in a blender. Super easy, nutritious and tasty. My aunt made some kinda of fish with garlic and pesto. We lit candles for Shabbat, had some challah and wine, and enjoyed each other's company. At this point, it was around 10pm that we ate dinner, and we both had the sleepy-haha's. Naturally, dinner was silly and fun. My aunt left for the night so I had the whole house by myself (but also the responsibility of her four dogs). I had some snacks, watched X-Files, and went to sleep.

Today, I didn't wake up until about 3:30pm. I got lots of much needed sleep, walked and fed all four dogs (one at a time, which took about an hour total), and made "lunch" for myself at 5:30pm. Had some left over grape leaves, orange soup, and toasted some amazing spinach burekas. Thinking about eating some halva and left over apple poppyseed cake from Rosh Hashanah for dessert. It's nice having her house as a home base. The dogs are all in food comas, so now I can do what I want here and not worry about them for a bit. :)