Beer in Beer Sheba

Sleepily nestled on the edge of the Negev Desert, the modern city of Beer Sheba rests day-round.  During the oppressive midday heat-- even now in October-- going outdoors is even more uncomfortable than sitting indoors, which isn't too comfortable either.  When waves of hot air aren't pouring in the window, the air is as still as death, making you dream of a cool wisp of breeze.  Even at night the streets are relatively bare of people compared to the (relative) metropolises of Jerusalem and Tel Aviv.  Things move at a slower, more rustic pace.
This is Israel's back country.

"It's as hot as Vulcan's dick!" exclaimed my traveling companion earlier today, quite appropriately.
The town seems to be devoid of nightlife as well as less enterprising forms of diversion.  The center of town seems almost entirely deserted, even on a Saturday night.  The mall, one of the few comfortably air-conditioned places to sit, is similarly empty.

Elijah and the Miwi

We walked across town, a hardly strenuous twenty five minutes, to Shchunah Gimel, the neighborhood where the university and bars are.  Rusticly Negev, the soil was a dusty yellow in the light of streetlamps, and the houses the color of the surrounding desert sands.  Pines and palms hovered above, barely providing shade during the daytime hours, and in the barely cooler night air they stood still as statues.
Elijah found a cluster of bars huddled around an unpaved parking lot, set among a stand of pines.  Compared to Tel Aviv, these watering holes in the city of seven wells had a bucolic nonchalance.  One bartender poured us a free shot of mouth-burning rotgut whiskey apiece on hearing Elijah had made aliyah just this week.

MiWi game system

All in all, I feel like this dusty desert oasis town-- fully equipped with Chinese bootleg Nintendo Wiis called "MiWi"-- could be an interesting but welcome change of pace and scenery from the hustle and bustle of Tel Aviv. (Not to mention the fact that rent here is half that in Tel Aviv for a comparable apartment).  A slight Zionist pulse can still be felt walking around here on the frontier, something missing from the White City and the capital.