Beautiful 2 bedroom apartment, roof included.

I spent the weekend (again) looking for apartments in Tel Aviv. Im starting to get a feel for what I can get for my money, and have started learning some of the nuances of apartment hunting. For example, all unfurnished apartments come well, unfurnished. By unfurnished I mean no refridgerator, no stove, no oven, no radiators. In fact one flat even came without water pipes (for a potential laundry machine) and I was asked to buy the external electricty cables off the leaving tennant. I also learned that the gas you use to feed your stove, is not connected to a mains, like in europe. Instead, you buy it in baloons and stick it outside your flat. Each home typically owns two baloons at any given time so that when you use up one, you have another to use whilst you re-fill. Im glad at least they dont sell water (or electricity!) this way. I also learned that no apartments copme with heating (not really necessarry). Also if your apartment comes with solar panels for generating electricty, you dont have an electric bill (since its sunny ~80% of the time: the electricty you harness is yours). I saw a myriad of flats ranging from the new development condos (with swimming pool and on the beach) to neu-bau dresden bauhaus. I always find it funny that the greatest german architectural style - The Bauhaus - exists only in Tel Aviv, since the "new" german cities that had been so built (like dresden) were levelled during the war.

On Saturday I had calamari in Jaffo, the arab city south of Tel Aviv that was burned and destroyed by everyone from the phonecians to Napolean.

There are many churches with funny names in Israel. Here's a sample of my favorites:

1. The Church of the Carpentry
2. The Church of the Flagelation
3. The Church of the Dormition (my favorite)
4. The Synagogue-Church (?)
5. The Church of Jesus the Adolescent (particularly interesting since in the bible jesus goes from infant to 33 year old instantaneously)
6. The Church of the condemmnation.