The first day in Israel was a total blur. Arrival, customs, bags, pick up at airport, go to see new apt, go to the art center, my wonderful friends mark and Yael showed up to whisk me away to lunch in Jaffa, the hippest place, ever and then to Ra’nana to my cousins house, where I was to stay for my first week. That was day one. Day two began with a huge family lunch and then off with Mark and Yael to Dina Park a fabulous and totally off the beaten track park near Hertzelia. In the center is a heavily fenced off ruined building complex. It was the site of a munitions factory that blew up sometime in the 1970’s. The gov’t decreed that the land was too polluted to ever build on and this huge wild and natural sculpture park created itself. There are only a few roads and many of them are sand traps ( the park drops off into the ocean and the cliffs are truly perilous). No maps, no visitors center. it feels like you’re in the middle of nowhere, and in a sense you are- I just goggled Dina Park and virtually nothing comes up, which is actually kind of cool. It doesn’t even exist on goggle. It’s just big open rolling fields dotted with sculptures. Wild and beautiful. Deer and fox, gorgeous birds. And then there is the ocean- pounding against the cliffs. There are some serious looking shipwrecks and signs everywhere about how dangerous the cliffs, the surf and the beach are… so of course we hiked down. This fella had been spearfishing in the dangerous surf. Check it out- what you can’t see is that the fish were almost four feet long. This guys looked exhausted, and he promptly celebrated by having a cigarette, they smoke alot, alot alot in Israel, but more on that later
What you really want to see is pictures of the sculpture, so here ya go-
Beautiful, poetic little girl dresses, hung like rescue flags-
Various sculptures out of wood, metal. Most of them are HUGE, thus a little hard to capture in one shot…..
Crazy great sculpture made out of vintage children’s chairs-
Elegant- fence made out of stones and wood-
then this crazy guy ran past us and jumped off the cliff ( literally)…
And I’ll end with some incredibly trippy food in the marketplace.
It’s a beautiful and complicated country . Everyone is incredibly kind and welcoming….. Everyone tries to feed me, give me tea. And everyone has a brother, sister cousin in NYC!!!!
More fun to come!
Love the chair sculpture!
love the talking head stones on their wooden fence – and experiencing the unexpected with you! Brilliant that candies and pickles are the same color, huh?
Love this! Enjoy!
xox – T.
I will post more food pix, Terry, I mean how can you not- the food in the markets is incredible. Today I went to a little tiny place in the market where they were fresh roasting pistachio nuts. Hundreds and hundreds of lbs of them. heaven on earth! Many unnatural colors in the market place, organic? kosher? I think not, but they sure are pretty.
Candied pickles!!! You would love the markets, Terry!
Great to travel with you Melissa even if it’s from my recliner. What a great opportunity for you.
Thanks Uncle Ricky! Glad that you’re livin’ the life!
So glad to see you have safely arrived! Looks like the adventure has begun- what beautiful and powerful images! Can’t wait for more…
Xo
Thanks Sonya! Hope that all is well ( and thanks for posting !) X M
Love it! Dina Park seems like it would be a great place to visit from a landscape architecture perspective. I had never heard of it. Keep enjoying and I look forward to seeing more!
Definitely, Amanda. You should visit!
Fantastic, inspiring, and beautiful photos, Melissa.
Thank you!
So nice to see things through your eyes. Looks like you are off to a great start.
Thanks Gwen!