Yoga by the Sea

There are quite a few yoga studios here in Tel Aviv and my friend Katie found a pretty good one last year.  We had both just arrived so it was a fun thing for us to do together.  But...yoga lessons get pretty expensive, especially in Tel Aviv!  Well, that studio went under (ha! that is funny because it was located in a basement!).  So Katie and I haven't really gone to yoga together since last summer.

Last week I heard about yoga lessons in the park...by the Sea...at sunset.  :)  The announcement was in one of a hand-full of English language listserves that I'm on but, like most everything on the that list, when you follow the link for more details it is only in Hebrew.  Still, Katie and I decided to give it a try.

The park is about 200 or 300 yards long, so we showed up at 630pm and started looking for someone else with a yoga mat.  When we couldn't find them we decided to try the phone number listed on the all Hebrew page.  A really nice girl answered and told us they'd moved the class back to 7pm (no surprise), and exactly where to meet.

The class was only 5 students and the instructor.  The sun set during the class and it surprisingly wasn't so hot, but it was humid.  At about the time we were doing warrior 2 (kind of squatting down with your arms out like you have a bow and arrow), a bridge (hands and feet on the ground, stomach to the sky, bent backwards like a bridge), and some other pose were you balance on your shoulders with your feet in the air...when we were doing those, small groups decided they'd stop and watch.  This was the intimidating part of this class, especially for someone who hasn't done yoga in a year.  We may have been the evening entertainment for some of the groups on the beach, but I think it was worth it.