DECEMBER-JANUARY 2012/13
WIZZ MAGAZINE
31
FEATURE
TEL AVIV
Tel Aviv’s old Ottoman-era train station
and goods yards, built in 1892 but
disused for decades, reopened last year
after a 10-year restoration project.
Now a leisure complex of shops and
relaxed galleries known as Hatachana
(“
The Station”, hatachana.co.il), this is
a great little hideaway, nudged in
between Neve Tzedek and the sea.
Sample the atmosphere with a stroll
between the brick warehouses and
wooden train sheds, now housing
upmarket boutiques and design outlets,
then grab a coffee or a meal at one of
the many restaurants onsite.
PLATFORM SOUL
on plain home cooking – soups, salads
and stews, served with a hunk of bread.
The street’s pedestrianised northern part,
which hosts an arts and crafts market
on Tuesdays and Fridays, leads into the
crumbling, low-rise Yemenite Quarter, on
frantic Carmel Market. This is where those
of modest means shop for fruit, vegetables,
meat and household essentials amid a
fluster of shouts, smells and scrawny cats.
For a cultural interlude, head to the
Museum of Art (27 Shaul Hamelekh
Boulevard, tamuseum.com). Temporary
shows dominate – chiefly by local artists
–
or you could explore the basement
rooms to find the Old Masters collection,
including Canaletto and Reynolds, then
head upstairs for the superb Impressionist
and Post-Impressionist galleries, taking in
Picasso, Chagall, Klimt and Van Gogh.
But the best of contemporary Tel Aviv
lies in the city’s south. Shabazi Street
leads into Neve Tzedek, a charming
quarter of stone-built cottages dating
from the 1880s. Founded as overflow
from the walled town of Jaffa nearby,
it is now a place for aimless wandering,
among wine bars, tiny boutique hotels
and independent galleries. Suzana (9
Shabazi Street) is a buzzing terrace café
famed for Moroccan soups and kebabs.
Alongside is the dense web of streets
forming Florentin, a lively quarter of
Greek delis, Persian cafés and Turkish
kebab joints, which leads the way into the
stepped lanes of old Jaffa. For millennia
this was the most important harbour
town on this stretch of coast, mentioned
in the Old Testament; nowadays it’s been
over-restored and gentrified, though the
high, narrow lanes, cobbled and shady,
retain some whisper of the past. Take in
the splendid views from Jaffa’s hilltop
gardens across the whole sweep of Tel
Aviv’s beachfront, with the stone minaret of
the old Sea Mosque in front and a forest of
modern skyscrapers behind.
End your stroll at Jaffa’s Ottoman clock
tower – grab a falafel sandwich at the
legendary Abulafia bakery, in business on
Yefet Street since 1879, and then plunge
into the flea market that fills the lanes
alongside for a browse to remember.
TOP LEFT:
THE WEEKLY GROCERY
SHOP IN DIZENGOFF.
ABOVE:
THE OLD TOWN, JAFFA
“
WHAT’S IT LIKE TO
BE GAY IN TEL AVIV?
WHAT’S IT LIKE TO
BE STRAIGHT IN
LONDON? THE ISSUE IS
NON-EXISTENT.”
MAOZ, SOCIAL ACTIVIST
