First Night in Tel Aviv

After Joppa, we dropped off our suitcases at the Hotel in Tel Aviv and made a mad dash at the Mediterranean Sea before dinner.  

 (can you see Joppa off in the distance in the picture above?)

An awesome park separated our hotel from the sea.  There were families everywhere grilling food that smelled wonderful, playing games and riding bikes!

 We took a quick break for dinner in the Hotel.  The food was INCREDIBLE! 
(and it got better with each hotel!) They even had a sign to welcome the group:

(can you spot my parents on their balcony?)

 Even though we were all completely exhausted from 24 hours of traveling, how could we resist a night in the park by the Mediterranean Sea?!  A group of us headed back down to the water and were surprised by the amount of families that were still socializing and having fun in the park.  Everything appeared safe until we spotted this:

A poisonous snake.  In the picture above, it was clearly already dead or else I would have been running in the other direction.  A brave Israeli man was throwing rocks at this deadly snake to protect the tons of children running in the area.  We stumbled upon the scene shortly after the man had badly crushed the snake, but it was still freaky because the muscles were continuing to contract even after it was dead!  A group began to form and, from the shape of its head and the screams of the people, this snake was very poisonous.

 We moved from this snake to an even bigger snake.  The next one was a little more fun, but possibly just as dangerous... especially when 10 teenage boys hopped on its back.

 I preferred the child-size version of the playground snake:

 All of our heads hit the pillow hard that night.