Tel Aviv, the tastes of.

It is very hard to be in Israel and not to eat good. It is simply impossible not to eat. Israeli culture swivels around eating and even if you land at an average restaurant, you will not be disappointed.  Though I had a long list of places I wanted to visit, I reached to only part of them. Below are my quick impressions. 

24/7 breakfasts at Benedikt from around the world. Rothschild blvd 29,+972 3 6868657

Galilee the Wine County

During this trip I have been reminded again and again that Israel is truly a beautiful and a magnificent country. It has it all. Beautiful nature, people, food, art, attraction of all sorts and mostly brain. Everybody here loves to say, that Israeli brain works all the time and will manage everywhere. So, it manages very well in the upper Galilee, creating one of the best wines in the world. Not many of you know, but Israel has a very substantial wine making market and Galilee is the heart and soul of it. Situated 1000 meters above the sea level, Galilee has a rich history of cultivating grapes and making wine as long as 2000 years ago. It has the climate, the soils, the slopes, the elevations and everything necessary to create the unique tastes and qualities that can easily compete with Napa or France. Dalton, Yarden, Gamla, Barkan etc., are the famous commercial  brands, that export millions of bottles every year world wide. Among them there are also medium size wineries and the boutique ones. You will need at least a month to visit all of them, we had only one day.
I was lucky to find a map of all Israeli wineries in the blog of somebody called Yossi. Comes out Yossi is a wine lover, who made an outstanding job of mapping all the wineries of Israel with their websites, addresses and phone numbers, on one simple Google map. "What a great man this Yossi"- I thought thanking him from the bottom of my heart for doing this. From now on I'm faithful Yossi's blog subscriber. Consequently, based on the map we started to head North to the Upper Galilee.

As expected the panorama was absolutely stunning. We couldn't help, but to stop every 20 minute to photograph again and again. Just breathing the air and enjoying this nature alone was already worth the trip. All I wanted was to pull out a blanket ,to lay down on the hill, to watch the sky and to get lost in it.

Tokyo Saudade- Another Day

10:00 am
...this day started in Ginza, Matzuya Ginza, one of the biggest department stores of Tokyo, in the food section....desert section :) So much variety (!) from traditional macaroons to the most Japanese, wouldn't remember the name, sweets. Thing we've never seen anywhere else. I wish I could eat everything at once.  We went for the most bizarre  once.  I'm still wondering about the beans in the cake.. Wouldn't it be better with chocolate?  Macha green tea cake was pretty amazing, need to make one at home.

TOKYO SAUDADE-Asakusa Temples

Asakusa is one of the old districts in Tokyo, famous for its temples and more of a traditional atmosphere then any other neighborhood in Tokyo. It is considered that this district existed during edo period. This is as well the oldest geisha district, where you can still find about 40 working Geishas,as well as old kimono stores with new and vintage kimonos just off nakamise shopping street.

Kaminarimon ('Thunder Gate) leading to the temples through Nakamise shopping raw

Koh Samui in One Day

One of the days on Koh Samui, we took a scooter and went to explore the island on our own. Being one of the biggest islands in Thailand, Koh Samui is much more natural in its character then Phuket and can be circumnavigated by car or bike in just couple of hours. We didn't have any particular plan, and went where ever the road would bring us :)

 Early morning, looking at the Big Budda from Bang Rak beach.