Tel Aviv

So on Friday we woke up and had planned in the week that we wuld take a trip to Tel Aviv, alot of people have been telling us mixed thoughts as we were told there's only shops and nothing to see and other people had told us that it's a place worth going to, so we thought we had to go there while we are in Israel. We left the house around 11ish and were headed to the bus station as the trains were on strike, so yes it's not just London and England that have train strikes. We thought we would knock on Zippee's door before leaving to let her know and as luck would have it they told us they were actually leaving to go to Tel aviv in less than an hour and they were more than happy to give us a lift there, another stroke of luck we have had whilst living in the Holy Land. The car journey was just under 2 hours and as soon as we got there we found a hotel called Tal Hotel and left the bag in the room before heading out around the town. The first day was a bit windy and overcast so we took a walk up the street to a shopping mall and then went to Hacarmel market there, just walking around exploring. The market reminded me a bit of Mong Kok Market in Hong Kong however the markets old everything from knock off handbags to fruit and veg. After the market there wasn't much, we also saw a couple of men arguing/fighting, one threatening the other with a knife although I'm not sure if he intended to use it but still, I think they were drunk, drugged up or maybe just not all there, but anyway after walking past that going on we found ourselves at the beach, by now we were very hungry and found somewhere to eat on the beach which compared to places in Akko was a lot more westernised and served generous portions so after sharing a starter then having a main we were completely full. After eating we decided to walk more along the beach front watching the surfers. We then stumbled across a bar called Mike's Places which we had seen advertised in a brochure at the hotel. We decided to go in and see if they were showing the Arsenal game for the following day, they told us they show all the big sports games so obviously Arsenal was on. They also had Magners cider which I hadn't had since I arrived in Israel so we sat down and had a couple whilst watching tennis and playing trivia games etc on the tv screen at the table. After Mike's we went back to the hotel to relax before heading back there in the evening. Saturday we woke up around 9ish and headed down to breakfast, the weather was great outside so we headed out walking along the beach front again for quite a while seeing many people running, cycling etc and alot of playing a sport with rackets and a ball, not sureof the real name but you always get them by seaside towns but here they take it seriously and I haven't seen anyone so good before. After quite a long walk we got to Jaffa which is an old town, like Akko it has changed hands so many times from crusaders, ottermans, Arabs etc, over 5000 years of history! We took an underground tour of Jaffa which I would recommend for anyone that visits, the town has always built up on so you can go a few feet underground and go back long ago in history, some of the brickwork is still there from Roman times. There are also many artefacts including a mould used to make weights so merchandise could be weighed in the market/port to make sure sellers would not be cheating customers.

Hacarmel Market

That sport I mentioned

Jaffa in the background

Denys in Jaffa

Walking around Jaffa we saw many buildings and great views, one of which was on the wishing bridge.

My Zodiac sign - Capricorn

So I'm guessing you read the sign in the picture about the wishing bridge, so we both walked ont he bridge, found our Zodiac signs, looked out at the beautiful view over the sea and made a wish.



After we felt we had seen and found out enough about Jaffa we took a walk back down the sea front before stopping off at Mike's place one last time to watch the football, first we saw Manchester United vs Liverpool followed by Everton vs Chelsea and Sunderland vs Arsenal. The Arsenal and Chelsea games were on at the same time and the games switched between each other, luckily it worked out quite well though as we saw more of the first half of the Chelsea game so we saw the early Everton goal and the second half was more Arsenal so we got to see a great finish and see Thierry Henry score another important last gasp goal and add to his record tally, a fairytale ending for his last game with us in the league, once again it was just written in the stars, what passion he has for the club, a true legend. Whilst we watched the game we enjoyed a couple of loads of Mike's hot wings, after the game unfortunatly it was time to say goodbye to Tel Aviv although we were tempted to stay and watch the England vs Italy rugby game followed by the spurs game but it was a good job we didn't. We also bumped into Esti's son at the bar, Esti is our anager at UJIA and her son actually works at Mike's Place. The trains were still on strike so we had to get to the bus station and bus it back, we both fell asleep after about 30 minutes on the bus where we woke up at Haifa to change for a bus to Akko, the bus from Haifa also stopped somewhere and we had to change to get the 271 which was a bit of nostalgia as It was the 271 bus in london I had to get on Tuesday and Wednesday mornings to go to training at Rosemary Gardens. Anyway the whole journey to get back to Akko was around three and a half hours so we got back home and went straight to bed ready for the next week which will also be Denys' last week in Israel.

Mike's Place from the outside

Sunset over the Mediterranean Sea

Sunday and Monday we were at Rambam and Eshkol schools where we worked on shooting and focusing on them using the inside of the footbal for a passing shot and the laces for a driven shot with key points about shooting and changing it so use of both feet for each type of shot. Sunday evening we also had Ben Gurion friendship house, our favourite of the friendship houses where we did the same shooting drill before moving into a small sided game. Our friend who we nickname Frank because he supports Chelsea and is also the one who called me Evil Van persie wasn't there this week so we missed out on a bit of banter from the Chelsea Vs Man United game. Both days so far have been warm and sunny so it has been great to be outside coaching the sun, we have both also noticed that we have caught the sun now.