Tel Aviv

The Israelis in Tel Aviv have no time. They might die tomorrow in the next bomb attack, they lost years of their lives to the army and would I finish this sentence and get on with the rest of the guide?

Tel Aviv is where all the action is so a lot of young people move here in order to study, work and party. If they’ve grown up in a kibbutz or raised in a religious family then Tel Aviv is the great Babylon that draws them like moths to a flame. Burn, baby, burn.

The money is in Tel Aviv and so you also find a strong yuppie element with fancy cars and designer clothes, posing in trendy cafes or pursuing careers as architects, lawyers and journalists, schmoozing at all the right parties.

There are also a hell of a lot of simple, working people though who work in the various city markets, the ones who do that actual work that makes the city move. Especially around the Carmel Shook, you find communities of loud, humble workers who are as salt of the earth as it gets.

Amongst the Israelis with a good enough background to have their choice, Tel Aviv is often just a stepping stone. They spend their twenties here making a career for themselves, find their loved one and move to the north of Israel to make babies .

Maybe the best insight into culture in Tel Aviv is how Israelis ask directions here. You’ll be walking along in the street and a car will pull up and beep it’s horn at you – some cars will lean his heads out of the window and shout:

“Shabbazi!” (Shabbazi Street )

“Oh, okay,” You reply, “It’s down here on the left, you go to the end and when you see-”

But he’s already waving you away impatiently and drives off without a word.

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