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I find myself being drawn to Tel Aviv in the past few weeks.
Tel Aviv is a City. Not just a group of apartment buildings huddled together, but a City, with a pulse of her own.
A living, throbbing entity.
Most cities today aren't Cities with a capital C.
Geneva, for instance, is a dead carcass of what once was a city, and some cities, like the ones listed here, just to pick a place at random, never were.
You instantly know a real City when you set foot in her, if you're in tune with...this pulse that they have.
New York
London
Paris
New Orleans
Barcelona
Berlin
Venice
They come out at you, and grab you by the throat, if you just let them.
There's always something to do,
There are always people to meet,
Things to see--
and the people living there are all connected somehow.
you can feel the city when you talk to them,
when you breathe in her dirty air,
when you bite in to the local food, be it a New York style pizza you eat in a small pizza joint on a main street, a dirty cardboard plate filled with fish and chips as you walk from the theatre to the pub in london, hot almonds in a rolled newspaper that was printed yesterday you buy as you leave a museum in paris, a huge plate with steaming paella in barcelona served to you in a restaurant with wooden walls that's been owned by the same family for generations, the gas lamps now holding electric lightbulbs, or pitah bread full and bursting with hummus, falafel balls, tehina, salad and fries in tel aviv, when you try to cross the street, trying to figure out which way that new bar they just opened is.
when you order a coffee,
when you feel the pavement under your feet,
or when you listen to the music on the street.
And something ties people together there.
In new york they're all neurotic, and in new orleans they're food snobs who party when they're not cooking or guarding their secert recipes.
And there's one subject you can just grab anyone on the street in each one of those cities you know you can talk about with any local, be it "that beastly weather" in London or the next flood and those idiot tourists in Venice.
You know what i'm talking about. You've all felt it once. If you've never been to a city like that, you've heard her call. You've read about her in books, and blogs, and newspapers.
each city has her own distinctive perosonality, but what ties them all together is that they make you live. Force you to.
And I miss that.
I remember the first time i set foot in Barcelona, after a long time away from a real City.
I stepped out of the car, and the first thing that hit me was the humid air filled with car smoke, the smell of urine, cigarettes, sweat, food, rubber, salt--
I inhaled deeply, and my eyes suddenly lit up as I exclaimed with glee
"Ah! A REAL City at last!"
and lately, i have the urge to live in one. sproadic visits are just not enough.
I want to become part of that city pulse, not just in tune with it.
Tel Aviv is a City. Not just a group of apartment buildings huddled together, but a City, with a pulse of her own.
A living, throbbing entity.
Most cities today aren't Cities with a capital C.
Geneva, for instance, is a dead carcass of what once was a city, and some cities, like the ones listed here, just to pick a place at random, never were.
You instantly know a real City when you set foot in her, if you're in tune with...this pulse that they have.
New York
London
Paris
New Orleans
Barcelona
Berlin
Venice
They come out at you, and grab you by the throat, if you just let them.
There's always something to do,
There are always people to meet,
Things to see--
and the people living there are all connected somehow.
you can feel the city when you talk to them,
when you breathe in her dirty air,
when you bite in to the local food, be it a New York style pizza you eat in a small pizza joint on a main street, a dirty cardboard plate filled with fish and chips as you walk from the theatre to the pub in london, hot almonds in a rolled newspaper that was printed yesterday you buy as you leave a museum in paris, a huge plate with steaming paella in barcelona served to you in a restaurant with wooden walls that's been owned by the same family for generations, the gas lamps now holding electric lightbulbs, or pitah bread full and bursting with hummus, falafel balls, tehina, salad and fries in tel aviv, when you try to cross the street, trying to figure out which way that new bar they just opened is.
when you order a coffee,
when you feel the pavement under your feet,
or when you listen to the music on the street.
And something ties people together there.
In new york they're all neurotic, and in new orleans they're food snobs who party when they're not cooking or guarding their secert recipes.
And there's one subject you can just grab anyone on the street in each one of those cities you know you can talk about with any local, be it "that beastly weather" in London or the next flood and those idiot tourists in Venice.
You know what i'm talking about. You've all felt it once. If you've never been to a city like that, you've heard her call. You've read about her in books, and blogs, and newspapers.
each city has her own distinctive perosonality, but what ties them all together is that they make you live. Force you to.
And I miss that.
I remember the first time i set foot in Barcelona, after a long time away from a real City.
I stepped out of the car, and the first thing that hit me was the humid air filled with car smoke, the smell of urine, cigarettes, sweat, food, rubber, salt--
I inhaled deeply, and my eyes suddenly lit up as I exclaimed with glee
"Ah! A REAL City at last!"
and lately, i have the urge to live in one. sproadic visits are just not enough.
I want to become part of that city pulse, not just in tune with it.
