This little blogger loves his social media, so when Vine.co was announced back a few months ago, I joined pretty much within minutes of the announcement on Mashable. It also helped that my friends and I were hosting a costume party that night, so the option for short GIF-like videos was too good to pass up. Since then I’ve been enjoying sharing Vine videos from my life in Berlin and my travels abroad. During my Tel Aviv trip I remembered more often than not to pull out my iPhone and shoot some short, 6-second videos—moving postcards if you will!

Here’s my collection of videos from my week in Tel Aviv, with some added descriptions.

Bograshov Beach

During the biggest festivities in Tel Aviv over Gay Pride Weekend, I stayed at the ArtPlus Hotel. Besides being a rather trendy hotel (and art gallery), it was also conveniently located one block from the beach. Bograshov Beach isn’t necessarily Tel Aviv’s best, but it’s certainly the most accessible. It’s closest to Tel Aviv’s many hotels and near enough to several noteworthy locations—most importantly for me, it’s just a 10 minute walk from the beach to my favorite street food stall in Tel Aviv!

Tel Aviv Pride Party at Shpagat

In Tel Aviv for not just the sun and the sand, I attended several of the gay parties over the pride weekend. Shpagat is one of Tel Aviv’s newest gay bars and it reminded me a lot of what I typically see in Berlin.

Hummus Restaurant in Tel Aviv

No trip to Israel is complete without a healthy dose of hummus. This bowl was from a rather touristy spot on Allenby Street, but I have plenty of Tel Aviv cheap eats recommendations still to come!

Jerusalem Beach

Located at the very end of Allenby Street, Jerusalem Beach is far from my favorite in Tel Aviv, but being so conveniently located, it’s easy to stop there even if just for an hour in between meetings :)

Business Lunch at Hotel Montefiore

While in Tel Aviv I visited a handful of the city’s many boutique hotels. Hotel Montefiore is one of the most popular. It’s location is great and it’s restaurant is a long-time favorite for locals, business tourists and foodie travelers like myself. The business lunch was a great deal and the Vietnamese/seafood/Mediterranean cuisine was delicious. Really!

Dizengoff “Fire and Water” Fountain

Tel Aviv’s most colorful fountain, it’s a “love-it-or-hate-it” kind of design. By Israeli artist Yaacov Agam, this “kinetic” sculpture is a great meeting spot. I once attended a PeaceNow demonstration there, but other times just used it as a place to hang out before visiting some of the nearby clubs and bars.

Tel Aviv Beach Promenade

In my opinion, one of Tel Aviv’s best features is its beach and the sidewalk that runs along it. In the cool summer evenings, the Tel Aviv promenade fills up with people jogging and exercising along the route. During the day you might find people busking or selling goods. Over recent months, the city of Tel Aviv widened the pedestrian boulevard—to not everyone’s liking.

Ben Gurion Airport

Like many places in Israel, I’ve got a love-hate relationship with Ben Gurion Airport. It’s quite modern and nice on the inside, and they offer free wifi which is excellent. But their wifi connection also blocks Instagram which, for someone like myself who’s pretty much connected 24/7 to my smartphone (for better or worse, that’s another discussion), is quite annoying. Also, the security at Ben Gurion is some of the toughest in the world—sometimes needlessly so. Let’s not talk politics, though, and just enjoy the pretty fountain in the main waiting area. Wish they had some power outlets near this thing though…

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Be sure to follow my Vine videos by searching for “Travels of Adam” in your Vine app, or else following me on Twitter @travelsofadam.

The post My Vine Videos from Tel Aviv #tlv4fun appeared first on the Travels of Adam blog.

I first discovered za’atar spice when Couchsurfing in Haifa, Israel. My host for the weekend took me for a short road trip in the surrounding villages (famous for the Druze culture). On our way to Ein Hod, an artists’ colony on the side of a small mountain, we stopped at a road side stand for a snack: pita bread with labneh (a yoghurt) and za’atar spice. The freshly cooked bread made for a tasty snack — but the real flavor came with the small bit of za’atar sprinkled between the bread roll. It was love from the very first taste. Sometimes your tongue just knows what it wants.

After returning to Tel Aviv I immediately made my way to the Shuk HaCarmel (market). There it was quite easy to find the spice (which also goes by the name Hyssop), and after doing a quick taste test with the elderly woman selling spices, I bought several hundred grams. This tradition continued for the rest of my summer in Tel Aviv back in 2010.

What did I use za’atar for, though? Honestly, I didn’t mind putting it on just about anything. But mostly (as I was just a volunteer and living on a meager budget), I would buy tubs of hummus, sprinkle some fresh olive oil and za’atar on top — maybe with some cut-up cucumbers and tomatoes — and call it a meal. A very tasty meal.

If you’re looking for a cheap but delicious spice to add a bit of middle eastern flavor, definitely go with za’atar. I also used it in a Jordanian desert that I learned how to make at a cooking class in Petra, Jordan. You’ll find the spice by a variety of different names, and it’s actually quite simple to make yourself. Za’atar is essentially just a mixture of olive oil, sumac, salt & sesame.

Let me know if you’ve used the spice for any other recipes. I’m always looking for new ways to use my favorite ingredients.

Update: So, I wrote and scheduled this story about my favorite Middle Eastern spice before coming to Israel this week, and as it turns out, some other journalist also felt the need to publicly proclaim his love of the spice…which as often happens with silly stories, it was quickly blown out of proportion.

The post Za’atar – The Best Spice in the Middle East #tlv4fun appeared first on the Travels of Adam blog.

You know how sometimes your perception of a city can be skewed by your own experiences? Sometimes it’s difficult to see past your own prejudice. But this week in Tel Aviv, I can’t help but feel that just about everyone here is gay. Walking around the city, many businesses have put up pride flags and it just seems everyone here is so so gay. Or, at the very least, sexy.

As part of my #tlv4fun summer trip, I went to several of the gay pride events this weekend. From an outdoor street party at the trendy gay bar, Shpagat, to the festival at Gan Meir park, the pride parade and the subsequent beach party. Surrounding myself with gay events (and with an estimated 100,000 people attending the gay pride events on Friday) it just seems natural to assume that the vast majority of people in central Tel Aviv this weekend were gay. And what a wonderful world it was!

My first gay pride in Tel Aviv, I’ve got a few observations. First of all, the people are way beyond sexy. It’s not all Israelis who attend the TLV Pride, but there are plenty of people from all over the world who seem to make a pilgrimage to one of the most hedonistic cities in the Middle East (maybe the world). I met guys and girls traveling from as far away as Argentina, but plenty came from America and Europe as well. I’m slowly going through the thousands of photos I took, but I’ve put together this short video from the beach party to give you a sense of what the crowd was like.

Photos from Tel Aviv Pride 2013

Beach party at Gordon Beach during Tel Aviv Pride

Having fun at the beach party

Pride parade

At Gan Meir during Pride

Some guys sporting Andrew Christian underwear

View more photos from Tel Aviv Pride on Facebook

The post Tel Aviv’s Most Hedonistic Party: Gay Pride 2013 #tlv4fun appeared first on the Travels of Adam blog.

I’ve used a lot of words to describe the street art that you can find in Tel Aviv—it can be anything from political statements to “cute” illustrations. Here are some photos of Tel Aviv street arts that I’ve found interesting enough to photograph, with some added commentary. I’ll be looking out for even more

Sometimes the graffiti is on abandoned buildings.

Sometimes it’s to make a social statement.

And sometimes it’s simply there to add some color.

Or it can be strangely boring, but poignant.

Sometimes it lacks color, but has plenty of emotion.

And other times, it’s more than COLORFUL.

Sometimes it really is all about love.

…so much love.

Sometimes it’s just an eggplant

or kind of silly.

Sometimes it’s pretty;

other times it’s just some string.

It can be small, and political

…or large and oddly sad.

There are messages

of varying seriousness.

It’s quite often in Florentine

…and even more often it’s by Dede.

There are murals

and hidden messages.

It might be hidden in corners

or on the rooftops.

Every inch of a building might be painted

Or maybe it’s just on a concrete sidewalk

There are stamps & stencils,

murals of sad faces

and concrete lampshades.

Tel Aviv Street Arts

Hope you enjoyed my photos of some of the street art & graffiti in Tel Aviv. Stay tuned on Twitter with the hashtag #tlv4fun for the next week to see more arts & culture related information from Tel Aviv.

The post 27 Photos of Tel Aviv Street Arts #tlv4fun appeared first on the Travels of Adam blog.

Seeing as how this is my first time in a country I hadn’t visited before, I thought I’d share some of my first impressions of Helsinki. I had quite a few expectations before visiting the Finnish capital—some of which have lived up to the reality. I’ve also got a tendency to record my first impressions in my travel journal (Moleskine, naturally), so I wanted to share a snapshot.

My initial assumption about Helsinki is that the city is very “design-friendly.” Meaning plenty of art galleries, inspiring architecture and public spaces, boutique shops, trendy locals and so on. Shortly after arriving I wandered in the area around my hotel, the Design District, where the signs of Helsinki’s design-friendliness were more than apparent. Boys wearing sailor-striped shirts and girls in gladiators. Shops selling antique furniture and vegan-friendly restaurants. I knew I was in my kind of place.

Some other first impressions from my first 36 hours in Helsinki:

• posters promoting a LOT of upcoming concerts & music festivals — and not just metal bands!
• so many patios! It seems the Finns like to be outside and with the record-hot weather it’s no surprise why. Helsinki is beautiful in the sunshine. The bars all seem to have patios and whether it’s ice cream or Mexican food, it’s all being enjoyed outside.
• I always knew Helsinki was by the sea but somehow it was surprising to hear seagulls.
• Finnish sounds redonkulous. The noises coming out of people’s mouths are so strange but somehow poetic.
• Last night I went to one of Helsinki’s few gay clubs and it was immediately apparent that the gay clubs aren’t just for gays. They’re obviously some of the coolest nightclubs and popular with men & women, gay or straight.
• Despite being a very bike-friendly city (bike lanes are pretty common), Helsinki has a few big hills as well. Too challenging for my weak legs.

I’ll have more observations and stories to share after my trip. So far, I can’t help but say how impressed I am with Helsinki. Though I have to admit after just 36 hours here, I feel like I’ve seen quite a bit! But with the nice weather here, it shouldn’t be hard to fill my time with a sunny picnic or two!

Moi moi! Bye-bye!

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