Brides and Cats

There are a lot of brides here, but many more cats. Sometimes there are brides and cats together. Wednesday seems to be the day when brides and grooms dress up in their bridal regalia and travel with an entourage of photographers and attendants to a scenic spot to shoot nuptial portraits. I encountered several lovely couples while wandering around Neve Tzedek, the quaint and now trendy neighborhood next to Jaffa that was the original Jewish quarter, as well as in the Old Jaffa and the port. In fact, in Old Jaffa there were several bridal traffic jams. Descending one narrow staircase to the port, I squeezed against the wall as a bride in her billowing gown ascended with her friend holding up her skirt. At the juncture of three alleys I stopped to admire bridal couples in all three directions. In the beautiful park at the crest of a hill in Old Jaffa, I found one bridal party waiting for a turn to shoot underneath the stone arch where another couple was finishing up while still another couple posed nearby on the grass looking out towards the sea. Cats seem to be very curious about these couples. There are so many cats that sometimes it’s a challenge to keep them out of the photos.