Green and white army

My first full day in Tel Aviv. Big chocolate croissant and a cappuccino for breakfast. Sat outside in the sunshine and did some  people watching on the busy street corner. Perfect start to the day.

Next I headed for the beach. Tel Aviv has the wonderfully warm Mediterranean Sea. I am

Tel Aviv beach

wandering along taking some photos and a middle aged man in a Northern Ireland football says hello and starts chatting away to me.  Him and his friends are here for the football match tonight Israel vs Northern Ireland. They are heading off in the opposite direction for a drink and let me know where they are heading in case I fancy joining. Bare in mind this is at about 11am.. a little early I feel to be hitting the pints. So I carry on enjoying the warm sand beneath my feet and think nothing more of it.

It isn't until I head down Allenby st in search of some lunch that I see the same bunch of northern Irish guys Sat in one of the pubs waiting for their beers to arrive. I wave and say hello and end up joining them for a drink...

Many pints later and after divulging that my dad is from Belfast I end up at a football stadium listening to chants of "green and white army." My first ever football match.  I did manage to up grade my company to 3 guys in their 20s too! Paul Joel and Richard! There's your mention!  It was an entertaining night.

I do have to admit for the whole the first half I was thinking "this has got to be the worst decision in my life." It was boring! That ball was not going anywhere near the net..well apart from Israel's goal early on.  Why I had left the bar was a mystery.

Then Northern Ireland finally scored and I joined in the up roar! The second half was actually quite exciting! I think I also got my own chant at one point in the game.

The game finished with a draw 1 all and we headed back to the bar on the sea front, Mike's Place and the drinking continued. Think I got in around 2 and stuffed my face with a beef sadndwich. I managed to get a sandwich without pickles too!  They really love pickles out here.

This morning I was suffering but I managed to drag myself down to the Kibbutz volunteer centre and I'm off tomorrow morning to Kibbutz Ein Hashlosha. It's  very close to the Gaza Strip. Yes I did say Gaza. Don't freak out. There are 16 volunteers out there already ( I could have gone to a kibbutz somewhere else if I'd wanted but where's the adventure in that?!) and most of the Kibbutz members are South American.

An Isreali collective community made up mostly of south Americans situated close to the Palestinian territories..definitely going to be interesting.

I have some great pictures from the drinking session and beach but sadly I didn't think the idea of only bring my kindle no laptop through properly. No way to get my photos off my sd card. I will work on getting a usb card reader and update with some amusing images.