Tel Aviv, white and wild.

Once the city was only a request from desert sand, today it is excessive for its nightlife. Between joy and terror fear, freedom of movement and Orthodoxy celebrate young Tel Aviv, as if there were no tomorrow. Sarah Schelp reports how students there cope.

 

Tel Aviv, which means "Spring Hill" - a rather romantic name for this couple of sand dunes on the Mediterranean Sea. Because there was not more, in 1909, Zionist immigrants as a piece of uncultivated land bought by the Turks, a few kilometers north of the Arabian port city of Jaffa. Not more than a dream: the first new, purely Jewish city in Palestine to establish. Full of idealism beat the Pioneers to their tents and set to work.

Nearly a century later, the desert to the world city. Instead of poles futuristic skyscrapers jut into the sky. Only the beautiful beach town still remembers the early days in the desert sand. Nearly 350,000 people now live in Tel Aviv, scurry about the places and markets in the cafes and on the beach promenade. Young women in Hotpants to stöckeln with Orthodox temple curls past, gay couples holding hands, Ethiopian Jews mingle with Yemeni, Iraqi and European to a colorful Balagan (Hebrew for chaos).

Tel Aviv - the melting pot, the cornucopia, the Sin City of the Promised Land.

Even if you do not learn Hebrew, you can understand this, almost everyone speaks English - ideal for a semester abroad also. Were it not for the love of money: According to a study by consulting firm Mercer Human Resource Consulting from 2008 Tel Aviv is the costliest city in the Middle East. Worldwide it ranks at the 14th Place of the most expensive cities, far ahead of Munich and Hamburg, Dubai and New York.

Huts & Palaces: cheap, there's hardly

This is particularly evident in the housing market. Tiny fraction Buden spots with mold infestation and cockroaches are known as "romantic studio, ideal for students' presents - to" knock-down prices "from 500 to 900 euros. With some persistence, you can still find a home. Rent-A modest room in the city cost from 400 euros per month upwards, a small Studio to get the best of luck with starting from 500 euros per month. Offers for the interim rent can be more favorable.

Are affordable at around 350 euros a month, with the room in a student dormitory at the University of Tel Aviv, in the north outside the city. By bus or train takes you from there, but about half an hour to the city center. For apartment seekers with knowledge of Hebrew is the
"Homeless" Web site to recommend.

Another hurdle: Sometimes you need for the rental of housing an Israeli guarantors. Or must the rent for six months to one year in advance to check on the table entry, the landlord replaces it monthly. In addition, about 30 euros "city taxes" per month, as well as electricity, telephone and Internet bill. Who has a laptop: Most cafes in Tel Aviv offer free Wi-Fi to.

Haggling in the market

Relatively cheap, the Hebrew Language: The "ulpan" will take place for students at the university, for all other currently in the single state-funded school Tel Aviv (ulpan Gordon, Lasalle Street 7). It cost intensive (six hours, five days per week, five months) to 700 euros, 250 euros for there for the same period twice a week three hours teaching.

Nine hours a day, the sun shines, on average, Tel Aviv, most of the year can get to the university quickly jump into the sea. It compensates a little for the cost of living, on average are higher than in Germany. Real bargains can do, who with a few chunks of market-Hebrew (see Phrasebooks) to the Caramel market knallhart haggles.

In the supermarket of the liter of milk costs around 1.50 euros, with a bag of pita bread, two to three euro, 500 grams Hummus to 3.50 Euro. Cheese, meat and sausage are expensive fish on the market is most effective - and freshly caught by fishermen from Jaffa. The small port city is today one of Tel Aviv.

Seafood such as shrimp are not kosher. Nevertheless, there is at the Caramel market, relatively cheap to buy - and even frowned upon by religious pork. Because Tel Aviv is the stronghold of the secular Jewish state in Israel. Here everything is not so closely seen life and let live.