One of the key things to keep in mind when travelling:
You never get a second chance for a first impression.
A cliche of course – but also the reason why it’s so exciting to visit a city for the first time. So many impressions to absorb, to replay and construct into an original mental map. When the pieces come together in your head – crudely to begin with, more detailed every day – then the city is yours.
The major roads, the landmarks, the transit line you need, the safest bike and scooter routes. The closest grocery store, a gym, a docking station. How to get downtown, to the best beach, to the restaurant with the reservation on Thursday, to the shop on that hip street you read about. Every trip adds more names and reasons to remember them.
By the end of two weeks, here was my mental map of the TLV I saw:
We’ll unpack it in the coming week.