Blogging Through Israel: Jerusalem Views and Souvenirs

I’ve just returned from my visit to Israel, and since I finally have some time to actually blog, I’m going to be catching you up on many of my favorite experiences from the trip:

I already mentioned how fabulous the markets were in Tel Aviv, but there’s something particularly interesting about arriving at the Mahane Yehuda street market on a Friday afternoon right before the start of Shabbat. To put it simply, it was frantic, as people throughout the city were doing their last-minute shopping before sundown (5:07 p.m. that day). In the midst of the madness, I was thrilled to find a moment of quiet, in the form of the Tower & Story Museum, a small gallery space that’s tucked between market stalls. Photographer Yoram Amir has photographed scenes from around Jerusalem, and hung them in distressed window frames that are scattered throughout the apartment/gallery. But what’s even better is that the second story balcony provides a great photo op of the market below. Check it out, along with other photos, after the jump.

This was the view from the balcony of the gallery. You probably can’t make out the frantic look on the people’s faces from this perspective, but it was a fairly intense time to be there. And within an hour, it was completely quiet.

Some of the photos that were hung in old window frames. They were a bit too big for me to take home on the plane…
 

so instead I snagged a couple of smaller photos, which had been made into magnets, as souvenirs. For about 5 shekels each, they were one of the cheapest, coolest things I found to bring home for friends. Some of the images were of the market itself, which I thought was fitting.

Tower & Story Museum 12 Haharuv St., Mahane Yehuda Market; 052-2400287

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