Jaffa

Jaffa is the ancient port city just south of Tel Aviv. According to tradition, it is the port from which Jonas set sail on his journey that landed him in the belly of the whale.

Today it is still a port, though of much less importance than before. Compared to the metropolitan Tel Aviv, it has the feel of a forgotten backwater. Whereas the population of Tel Aviv is predominantly Jewish, that of Jaffa is mainly Arab giving it a very different feel. Rather than feeling like you're at the intersection of Los Angeles and Madrid as you might in Tel Aviv, in Jaffa you feel very much like you're in Amman or Cairo. In general, I got the impression that Tel Avivites rarely visit their southern neighbor.

It was the first town that we visited after arriving and is thus the beginning of this retrospective.

(Following its recent redesign, PicasaWeb no longer offers the static gallery links as before, the only option now are these slideshows. Fell free to watch them here, though I would suggest clicking on anywhere but the play button to go to the PicasaWeb site itself. You will see much larger images there as well as my captions.)The old option is back! I'm replacing all of the albums now.

Travels - Israel - Jaffa