Tel Aviv: a Middle Eastern city with a European face (45 photos)

Tel Aviv is perhaps the only place in the country where one does not think about the Palestinian-Israeli conflict, aggressive neighbors, possible attacks from Gaza and the peculiarities of the ultra-Orthodox world - here there are exclusively positive emotions in the air, happy people walk along the streets, and all confrontations remain somewhere far away. Sometimes it seems that Tel Aviv is so alive and open also because it does not weigh you down with its centuries-old heavy history: the sea, the sun, the incredibly beautiful embankment, the ultra-modern skyscrapers towering over the city - the most European of all Israeli cities. I really want the future of the whole country to be as bright and cloudless.

Source: Zhurnal/marina-pavlova

1. Unlike Jerusalem, there are no world-class attractions in Tel Aviv. Even the Bauhaus style, included in the UNESCO list, makes a mixed impression: an attraction for the initiated, in my opinion. Tel Aviv is the city that you need to walk around “with knowledge”: after reading about the fate of its most famous residents, the history of its streets and districts, then you stop much more often and think a lot. But such a vision of the city does not come immediately, and the perception becomes qualitatively different: from a building to human destinies, from one life to the history of the country...

2. One of the busiest streets in the city center is Dizengoff Street, where I was lucky enough to live on my first visit to Israel. I got the feeling that you can find almost everything you could think of on it:

3. In the center of the street is Dizengoff Square, overhanging the roadway:

4. In the distance you can see the huge Dizengoff shopping center:

5. Most of the streets in the city center are low, light-colored buildings, which is why Tel Aviv received the name “white city”:

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9. Here and there there are colorful original advertisements...

10. ... and cheerful graffiti:

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12. The most interesting and liveliest part of Tel Aviv is, as you might guess, not far from the embankment: the coastline itself and a little inland: towards Dizengoff and Ben Yehuda streets, Rothschild Boulevard, towards the Neve Tzedek area, towards old Jaffa.

13. The areas around the embankment are the face of the city, its most beautiful part. Another busy artery of the city is Allenby Street, the beginning of which can be seen in the photo below. A piece near the embankment is a cozy area with hotels, cafes, offices and shops, a more remote part - with a branch towards Shenkin Street - is especially lively at night - pubs, clubs, sex shops, incredibly loud music. While Jerusalem is praying and Haifa is working... - you know the rest.

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17. But the most beautiful views of Tel Aviv are still the views of the embankment. Perhaps one of the most beautiful embankments I have seen in my life. And it’s all the more surprising that this is not a resort town.

18. Even Venice could envy such a local concentration of pigeons.

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20. Very interesting modern architecture.

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23. In the photo below, in the foreground you can see my favorite cafe Yot-Vata - one of several chain cafes throughout Israel. Very tasty milk-fruit and simple fruit cocktails.

24. It’s a special pleasure to walk along the beach barefoot and watch beach life.

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30. One of the classic views of the Tel Aviv embankment: the colorful Dan Tel Aviv Hotel and the Sheraton towering behind it.

31. View in the other direction.

32. At first I was extremely surprised by the huge containers for plastic bottles placed throughout the city. It’s probably not for nothing that the Germans came up with the Pfand system: in Germany, all empty bottles are taken back to the store in order to receive the money left as a deposit. And in Israel they collect it in iron containers.

33. Monument to those killed during the terrorist attack at the “Russian” disco in 2001.

34. More views of the embankment.

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38. The less busy part of the embankment lies a little to the south, towards old Jaffa.

39. Such an amazing combination of ultra-modern Western high-rises with Middle Eastern buildings in the style of the suburbs of Cairo - all surrounded by palm trees and bathed in bright sunshine. Sometimes it’s hard to believe that only about half a million people live in Tel Aviv...

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42. The outlines of old Jaffa appear in the distance.

43. On the Tel Aviv embankment you can sometimes find mass folk dancing/aerobics/exercises accompanied by energetic music. What is called “everyone dances”.

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45. And there are also amazingly beautiful sunsets. It's probably good to live in a city where, after a hard day at work, you can sit on the seashore, drink freshly squeezed juice, listen to the sound of the waves and watch the sun set...