A weekend in Tel Aviv!

Two of Lee's co-workers are leaving Animation Lab and moving on to other projects elsewhere, so to send them off in style, some of the guys coordinated a day of fun in Tel Aviv. Paintball, go-karts and a fancy pants dinner.

As my good friend Eyal lives in Tel Aviv, Lee and I had already made plans to hang out there this past weekend - this just ended up giving us concrete things to do with the time. (That didn't necessarily involve doing shots and taking recovery naps!). Due to the size of the group, paintball was scheduled for 8:45am....which meant leaving Jerusalem at 7:30 to get to the course in time. Considering we normally don't get out of bed until after 8 most mornings, this was a challenge in itself!

Per usual, half the carpool crew were late - arriving closer to 8am - so we raced down the toll road (up to 180kph - nice driving Paolo!) to get to the course by the reservation. Eyal met us there, and gave us a total of 10 players - 5 on the yellow team, 5 on the orange team. Only about half of us had played paintball before, so the teams were split among those that had and those that hadn't.

The yellow team kicked ass- winning 3 of the 5 games, with the other two being draws. I never knew I had such a penchant for gun play! I'm apparently a headshot ringer, I knocked more people out with smacks to the face than any other targets. And for the record, paintballs HURT. I took photos of all the battle wounds received...the ones that were G-rated at least. I don't believe any one of us walked away completely unscathed, and I'm still sore in a few places that got shot...ow!


(Go team yellow!)

After paintball, we headed to a small city called Natanya, which is just outside of Tel Aviv (Eyal works nearby), and grabbed lunch before go-karts. I had my first burger here in Israel. Mmm burgers. There are several burger chains here - Black Burger, Tal Burger, Big Burger...they all sorta look the same, and I assume they all have their own spin on a burger 'specialty'. Black Burger had the Black Diamond, which was a burger stuffed with sweet potato. Weird, right? Over half of our group went with this option, including Lee, and I can say that it actually was delicious. And I don't even like sweet potatoes! We had originally tried to eat at Max Brenner's HOUSE OF CHOCOLATE AWESOME EVERYTHING, but the wait was too long, and they weren't serving 'lunch' items until 2pm.....too late for us. So, burgers.

After lunch (including beers - apparently a necessity before jumping in a go-kart!), we headed across the street to the indoor track for a race! We had to be debriefed before they'd let us get in the karts, and were warned that people who 'suffered from high blood pressure, stomach ailments or pregnant women' shouldn't race. That begged the question (amidst howls of laughter) about who, precisely, suffers from pregnant women. Giggles aside, we had a nice time on the track- the karts weren't timed correctly, or universally, so there was some disappointment among those who were in the slower karts- and that negated the 'race' atmosphere somewhat. It still was fun for me - if a bit bumpy and crazed. As far as the warnings were concerned, one of the racers (Kurt) actually did have to run outside after our heat and hurl. Stomach ailments indeed!




(Lee ready to rumble; The race times)

The plan for everyone was to head BACK to Jerusalem to clean up, then BACK to Tel Aviv for dinner.....fortunately we were with Eyal and had plenty of time for a good nap before getting cleaned up to go out. Heading out into a massive winter storm (thunder and lightning and rainstorm, oh my!), reservations were at 9 at a Georgian restaurant on the south side of Tel Aviv - and that's Georgian as in Russian, not Georgian, the belle of the south. There is a large Russian population in Israel, and as such, a large variety of Russian restaurants. The three of us that were on time (Eyal, Lee and myself) had a few cocktails, and waited. And waited. And waited. We finally broke down and ordered an appetizer at 9:40....when more people finally started to arrive. Several plates of fried beef and goose dumplings later, we ordered mains, which consisted of heavy meat dishes - stews, kebab, mmmmmmeats. Needless to say, we left stuffed around midnight and wandered down the blocks to find a bar to get the night started.


(And the rain rain rain came down down down; Eyal's parsley and anise flavored drink)

Tel Aviv is wonderful- large and bustling (even on Shabbat!), and right on the Mediterranean. It's a resort town in every way, and a beautiful one at that. On Saturday (after a late night: Eyal came in at 4!!), we wandered down to the beach, and through a HUGE park that surrounds a big river feeding into the sea. I can see how, on a hot muggy day, Tel Aviv would be THE place to be for Israelis looking to cool off and be seen. Very cosmopolitan and modern, I expect we'll spend a significant amount of time there during our stay here. So much to explore!



(La Mer; The riverbank and park area)

We ended our weekend at a bar called Apartment 98, 2nd floor. It opens at 6pm on Saturdays (when the sabbath ends) and stays open until everyone has left. It seems that's how it works here. Bars are open as long as there are people to serve. The bar was located in an old apartment building, and was a converted flat - the kitchen still had the old apartment stove! There was a live band, and a very relaxed crowd. I look forward to returning there next time.

Back to work for Lee today, and we found out we're moving TOMORROW NIGHT. So, I'm packing tonight and tomorrow, getting to the new apartment, and immediately packing for my flight back to the US on Wednesday morning. Phew- busy week for me here!