Blogging in the Holy Land

I’m in Tel Aviv this week for Israel’s first blogging conference. I was one of a half-dozen U.S. bloggers invited to come speak at the conference, since the U.S. blogosphere is a few years more advance than Israel’s right now.
We arrived on Friday evening and spent yesterday hanging around our hotel right on the Mediterranean yesterday. It’s just so beautiful here; I can’t get over it. I don’t know what I was expecting for Tel Aviv, but this certainly wasn’t it. The beach, which stretches most of the length of the city, is incredible. Since yesterday was the sabbath, it was absolutely packed. We walked down a bit from the hotel and there are chaise lounges all set up — for 12 shekels, about three dollars, you can “rent” a chaise lounge for the day. Then they have waitstaff on the beach who serve drinks and food. I have to admit that we were sipping pineapple daiquiris by 10 a.m. yesterday.
Yesterday afternoon, we visited Old Joffa, the ancient port, and wandered around for a while. There wasn’t much to see given how everything was closed. Then last night we had dinner on the waterfront in the marina before heading over to the old port, which has been resurrected as a fancy nightclub and restaurant district. It was very hip, lively, and colorful.