Tel Aviv

For most all of the free days the students stay in Jerusalem to visit sites here. We are allowed to leave if we get permission. This last free day I decided to go to Tel Aviv with a group of students. Tel Aviv is the largest city in Israel so it is sort of like the New York City of Israel (interesting fact: Tel Aviv is the largest Jewish city in the world and New York City is the second). In biblical times this port was called Joppa. The Arabs renamed it Jaffa, and then the Jews renamed it Tel Aviv. 

The Biblical significance of Tel Aviv / Joppa is found in Acts 9-11. It was here that Peter raised the woman Dorcas from the dead. Peter also received the vision allowing the gospel to be preached to the Jews here. The St Peters Monastery commemorates these events. This monastery is in Old Jaffa (basically the historical downtown). We went there at night so we only got to see the outside of it, but there was an awesome view of Tel Aviv from the lookout. 

The first thing we did in the morning was walk along the beach until we arrived at an open air market. While there I bought an abstract original painting of the Western Wall. We then spent most of the afternoon at a 'safari.' It was basically a glorified zoo in Tel Aviv. A very large part of the safari was set up as a reserve for the hippos, zebras, ostriches, lions, and other animals to run free. There was a road through it that we drove through to see the animals. In the middle of the reserve there was a zoo. Zoos are always awesome so I enjoyed that. 

When we got back to downtown Tel Aviv, we played on the beach and watched the sun set into the Mediterranean. In the evening we just got some burgers and ice cream before walking around Old Jaffa.