Dizengoff

 

My last moments in Tel Aviv are spent on Dizengoff Street with Daisy at one of the many cafes along this shopping street. The weather is perfect, the Indian chai delicious and both Daisy and I wouldn't mind staying on instead of returning to Amsterdam.

 

Wedding party

 

A wedding needs a party and this one was no exception. Even in parties there are rituals and in this case the bride and groom being danced around on chairs held up by friends and family.

 

Besides the inevitable DJ an interesting band stepped on stage later in the evening. A DJ, drummer, guitarist and didgeridoo-player mixed Aborigine sounds with Western beats and got the crowd breaking into a sweat!

 Until late in the night the, mainly youngish, crowd kept dancing and drinking.

Mazal Tov!!

The reason for coming to Israel was to be present at the wedding of our friends Boaz and Eva. Dressed up after our afternoon at the hotel drinking bubbly, Daisy and I headed to Arca, the venue at the Tel Aviv port where the festivities were to be held. 

When all the guests had arrived and enjoyed some drinks and snacks the ceremony commenced. In Israel there are no civil weddings, so every marriage is per definition a religious one, but in this case not an orthodox one. A young, quite trendy looking rabbi performed the ceremony with the parents of bride and groom joining the happy couple under the chupa that was up by friends and family of the couple.

The ceremony itself is not that long and consists of prayers and words of wisdom of the rabbi. Unfortunately I could not understand what was said, but the outcome was a pair of very happy newlyweds,  two delighted families and many joyous friends! 

Kosher Dutch courage

Daisy and have come to the Sheraton Tel Aviv to keep Boaz company in his last hours of bachelorhood as he is banished from the hotel room as his wife to be Eva gets ready for the big event. The prospect of matrimony is of course a daunting one that needs some liquid encouragement in the form of kosher cava. 

Shoarma ba Pita

Behold the Middle Eastern Dish of Dishes: shoarma in a pita. Who invented the shoarma is not known, but for many Dutch it is a singular Israeli delicacy as Israelis introduced it in Holland (hence the phenomenon that many shoarma places in Holland have names such as 'Exodus' and 'Jerusalem' even if they are not run by Israelis). The Dutch shoarma does not come close to it's older Israeli brother though......There's nothing like an Israeli one with fresh pita bread stuffed with succulent shoarma, cold chips, a generous helping of humus and some spicy onions.