Saw you on Emek.......

Shavua Hasefer - an annual showcase for the Israeli publishing industry since the 1960s, the seeds of which were sown in the 1920s was in full swing tonight in Jerusalem with the addition of Emek Refaim to the festivities. Emek has been closed down in the past for various festivals - wine was a notable favourite! Effectively the whole strip becomes an open air mall lined with stalls selling food, jewellery, handicrafts etc. If you stand in one spot in the middle of the street you're likely to see everyone you know eventually - a huge social event and opportunity to catch up.

We had decided to have a date tonight and, predicting that the cafes on Emek would be rammed, headed up to town to a new place called Gabriel on Shimon Ben Shetach - another wonderful meat bistro style place to add to Lugar, Joy, Olive and Limonim in my list of favourite places to be few and watered. A little expensive but my wife's carpaccio and goose liver were excellent, my chicken livers and beef wellington simply superb and all with a wonderful attention to detail, fantastic service - I'm a little short on superlatives.....recommended.

But I digress - hitting Emek on Rechov Masaryk, we fought out way through fairly dense crowds stopping to look at jewellery (her), art (me) and books (us). The night air was perfect for lingering and talking to amongst others; Purple Parrot, Jerusalem Revealed (just next to her lingerie shop) and D-Light / D-Lirium / Dream who I hadn't realised was writing - constantly meeting new bloggers!

Now here's the important thing - they're doing the whole thing over again tomorrow - more of the same only presumably everyone who wasn't there tonight will be there so have a pleasant evening out, grab your friends and remind yourself how wonderful it is when people are on the streets.

Gilly