Even though I’ve been to Jaffa quite a few times, my last visit to Jaffa unveiled yet another side of Jaffa I somehow haven’t seen before. I imagine that taking a fellow visitor for a local tour of the place, with me feeling very much like a tourist myself, together with the recent revival of the area, is what made the difference. This time I also took a different path coming from the south rather than the usual path I usually take from the north and so I was surprised to see many new restaurants, bars and art galleries that I may have not noticed or were just not there before.
The entire public space seems to have gone through some transformation. Take – for example – these huge sea-port hangars that now feature huge graffiti art …
Was this there before and I just haven’t noticed?
To compliment the visible art in the public space, the day we were visiting one of the hangars also hosted a photography exhibition by some of Israel’s finest local talent…
Arts aside, it’s always a pleasure walking around the Jaffa harbour and seeing some of the local fishermen life…
It almost seemed like some scene from a Greek village somewhere.
The old city of Jaffa I’m very familiar with, but the clear blue skied and gorgeous sunny weather helped make things especially inviting…
There’s something quite magical about those small alleys and the great little art galleries and museums…
To maximize our touristic experience we decided to take a harbour cruise out into the sea, sitting together with 3 migrant Chinese workers who at some point engaged us in a bit of a heavy accented Mandarin Chinese. I’ll summarize that being a Chinese migrant worker in Israel seems to be, ehh… , challenging.
Great area, good memories. A lovely day out.