Day 13 - March 3 - This is the end!

As my flight was only in the late afternoon, I went for a nice walk in the city. back to the beach. It was cooler and windier than the previous day, so it was less inviting for a swim.

I rented a city bike again and made it to Jaffa, the Arabic part of Tel Aviv. This part of town is home to cafes and restaurants - they say here you can easily be lost and "swallowed" by the amazing small narrow alleys.

I heard a great place to eat was Abu Hassan, made my way there and ordered a delicious hummus - similar to the one in Akko/Acre. As I was eating, I look up, see a young lady walk by the window - and believe it or not - it was Francesca! We were both surprised to meet again in this metropole, but it was a happy encounter - as we continued the city tour together. We strolled the narrow streets of Jaffa, then returned to Tel-Aviv, where we landed at the Levinsky Market

The market is a cultural gem in the heart of the trendy neighborhood of Florentin in southern Tel Aviv. This is not be the first stop for a typical tourist, but the combination of exotic spices and unique personality could draw anyone into this market. In just five blocks, visitors can eat their way through the market’s widespread culinary history, sampling pastries like bourekas, roasted nuts and dried fruit, and sipping Ouzo or even downing salted fish. We ate at a place called (I think) Garger Hazahav (or not...). It was Saturday and it was really full.

Yes, Saturday, also called the Shabbat. A nice day, with one major issue - all public transport stops around 1 pm , my flight was at 8 pm. I did not plan to sit for hours at the airport, so decided to take a cab from the bus station. I gto back to get my bags from the locker and started looking for a cab. The only issue was that my cash was down to a minimum - the bike rental took all my Euros and my Shekels were also mainly gone (as planned). I only had 100 Shekels left and when I started looking for a cab, I found out it costs 150 to the airport - so I was short. I told this to the driver, who spoke good English, it did not work at the first ATM, neither at the second. I told him to stop at a petrol station, but it was too late. I told him about my bike trip, he told me how the army left him in post-traumatic stress disorder - and he let me get out for the 100 shekels - nice of him.

I expected check-in to be slow due to the religious ceremonies, but I was through baggage-check, security and passport-control real quick (except that one lady did not believe that my surname was what it is, went to fetch her boss, who did not show up, so she just shrugged her shoulder and let me go). I killed time by walking around this colorful airport and we took off and landed with a slight delay. OK, made it, now I can stop writing, except for the epilogue.