"Ben Yehuda is a lot of fun, especially at night, and I know I'll be back several times between now and January. Towards the bottom of Ben Yehuda, there is a large open space affectionally nicknamed Crack Square (officially Zion Square, or Kikar Tziyon in Hebrew) by Americans. Jerusalem is known for its spirituality, but it offers a whole other side that is much less holy. The city has great nightlife, except, of course, on Fridays and Saturdays during shabbat. I have not had the chance to experience too much of it yet, but I fully expect to in the near future."
Since I have been traveling most weekends, I have not actually gotten to experience Ben Yehuda Street as often as I had previously thought. In fact, this is the first weekend in over a month that I am staying in the Student Village and my first Thursday in quite a while at Ben Yehuda. In November alone, I went to my chavruta's apartment for shabbat, on a shabbaton to Arad, to Ein Gedi and Eilat, and to Modi'in for shabbat. This weekend, however, with all the work I have coming up, I thought it would be best to stay home and relax. Ben Yehuda Street seemed like the perfect way to kick off the weekend.
One of many Judaica stores on Ben Yehuda Street.
The streets adjacent to Ben Yehuda Street are packed with bars and clubs.
Rachel originally wanted to go to a brewery, but we had no luck finding it so we ended up at a bar called Mike's Place. Mike's Place is a little slice of America in the middle of Jerusalem. It draws a lot of people for sports, but they also have live music and a menu that looks like what you would find at a T.G.I. Friday's! It was nice to spend time with Esther and Rachel, especially because Rachel and I leave soon. We spent a good hour or so talking and reminiscing about everything under the sun. It is really sad that we will all be parting ways soon. It boggles my mind that we have spent over three months here already. Where has the time gone?
When we were finished at Mike's Place, we headed to the Light Rail to get back to the Student Village. Unfortunately, December 1 marked the first day of payment; up until now, the Light Rail has been free due to technical difficulties with the ticketing machines. Esther, Rachel, and I ended up sitting next to an oleh, or immigrant, from Kiev, Ukraine. Since I've been to Kiev, albeit briefly, I could understand why he was so proud to live and work in Israel. He was strongly opinionated, especially when it came to American politics, and he made his feelings for President Obama very, very clear. Needless to say, he wasn't a fan. It was quite an experience, though, and all three of us got off the train laughing our heads off. Just one of the great things about living in Israel: nobody holds back!
*Picture credits to Linda Pines, who took these during our family trip to Israel in July 2010.*
Did you take those pictures? :)
ReplyDeleteBwahahahahaha!
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