Haifa, Akko

Haifa. Left Tel Aviv. Israel is more expensive that I had planned. It's about 4 Shekel to the Dollar. A night in a hostel is like 50-70 Shekel. But food prices and public transportation is cheap. We got on the train. So many soldiers with guns. And not just handguns. Like machine guns. And the soldiers are 18-20ish years old. I would never give Jamey a machine gun. That's just bad news for everyone. We got to Haifa, north of Tel Aviv. Ba'Hai central. Then we had pizza on the main street. Crazy how we come to Israel and eat pizza. What a universal food. Then we walked to Elijah's cave. I don't really know what that was. I wish I had read the bible or paid attention in CCD. It would be really useful right about now. I accidentally went on the "men's side" of the cave. Oops. How can there be a men's side of a cave anyways? That was embarrassing. Then we took the gondola up the hill to see a church. Not that exciting but a really good view of Haifa. Then we walked down the hill to go to the grocery store. Afterwards we got lectured by an Israeli behind us in line that we shouldn't buy hummus from the store. I dunno, I thought it was pretty good. That night we met a muralist at the hostel who was from Holland who bonded with Sumi. He just loved her painting of a donkey. Our roommates were lame. A Canadian on birthright and a condescending Californian who seemed to have an answer for everything. Sumi got along great with him. I think they talked about Macs for an hour. Then they had a competition to see who is more pretentious. I think Sumi won although I tried really hard to block out what they were saying. Then we ran in to Tom again. He seems to be enjoying himself.

Next day: The Ba'Hai gardens. We had to go to the top of the hill again and took a tour from the top down. It was so beautiful. Almost too perfect. I can't really remember what we did for the rest of the day...I think we took a nap, had coffee and played Scrabble.

Next day: Left Haifa to go north to Akko. This is where Ayelet is from, so we were going to try and stay with her parents on the Kibbutz. Only problem...I tried to call her dad, Doron, but I don't think he really understood me and I didn't understand him. We got off the train in Akko, and all I understood was he was leaving the kibbutz and couldn't pick us up. We had to take a taxi but we weren't sure where. Sumi's french skills came in handy because she got a taxi driver to call Doron and get directions. So the driver dropped us off at the Kibbutz. We decided to wait until maybe Doron drove by and saw us. We waited in that spot for 4 hours. Then we finally accepted the fact that no one was going to find us in that spot, so we started asking around. Eventually we found the house, and Sally, Ayelet's mom welcomed us in. She was astounded that we had waited that long in one spot, which we later found out was a cemetary. So was I. Doron gave us a tour of old Akko. It's a really old city...like 5000 years old. My brain can't even comprehend that. Sally made us dinner, which was really good after eating pita and hummus for a couple days straight. It was good to meet Ayelet's family. I can see where her mannerisms come from. Her brother looks eerily similar to her.

Next day: We got dropped off in the old town and saw some ancient sites: the Knight's Hall, a Turkish bath, a mosque, some museums. It was all very cool to see. Then we went and got some "real hummus" then took a nap on the city wall. Basically we will take a nap wherever it looks comfortable. We started walking back to the kibbutz and ran in to Tom again. I think he's following us. We shamelessly stopped at McD's on the way back. The man at the door asked me if I had a gun. I told him I forgot it at home today. Or at least that what I wanted to tell him...

Next day: Tried to leave but the puppy (Tooti) followed us all the way out of the hostel. So we walked back and Doron kindly gave us a ride to the train station. Today was the day we were going to rent a car! I was so excited. I'm happy everyone drives on the right side of the road again. Although my brain is still adjusting. We had to go back to Haifa to get the car, a little Hyundai Getz aka box on wheels. Freedom! Then we drove to Zefat, a really Jewish town in the Golan heights. So, Sumi and I are kind of cheapskates. We decided that because we had a car, we could just sleep in it and save money by not sleeping in a hostel. So we were driving around, trying to find something to do, and we see a girl out in the cold trying to hitchhike. So we pick her up because we were like...well what else are we gonna do? This girl turned out to be a life saver. Her name was Aliza and literally like a minute after meeting her, she invites us to stay in her house. Turns out her two roommates were away and there were two empty beds in her house. How convenient. And who were we to refuse? She made us tea and gave us cookies and a warm bed. What an awesome girl. We were so lucky.

Transit from Thailand to India to Turkey to Israel was long. Most of my time was spent watching movies and sleeping. I regret that now because I "suffered" pretty bad jet lag. 9 pm comes around and I'm out like a light. But I guess that is unavoidable when you travel several time zones over 48 hours. I'm getting better though. After so many airports, I now think that you can tell a lot about a country even if you have never left the airport. New Zealand's was surprisingly small, Thailand had a huge new airport (but everything was overpriced and somewhat disorganized). India's airport was terrible. Holes in the ground for a toilet with "bathroom attendants" who think that giving you a paper towel is somehow a service, people shouting over the PA announcing flights like every 10 seconds, uncomfortable waiting areas that kind of smelled like farm animals, and boarding the plane was chaotic. I almost got trampled. But the amazing thing is I still want to go back. Turkey was cold and no one smiled. But at least they were efficient. And finally Israel where they did a thorough check of my bag while I wasn't even there. I found half my bag contents spilled all over the carousel. And I got grilled about what my business in Israel was. But everything was at least rational and very well laid out. That helped me meet up with Sumi who was in her boot because she broke her foot from walking. But seriously, how do you break your foot from walking? Anyways, Sumi and I made our way to the hostel in Tel Aviv. We met Tom Owenby on the way, and American from Arizona. He looks like Clark Kent. He was there because he is a Ba'Hai which is a relatively new religion based in Haifa. I had never heard of this religion before but I really like it. Basically they believe in one God, all the prophets (Muhammad, Jesus, Abraham, etc) and the coming of a new prophet for each era, equality for men and women, tolerance, some other things I forget, and my favorite part you don't have to go to church. Sorry mom and dad. So anyways, we got on the train, then took the bus. Israelis are rude, but they like to help too. I think they are just happy people are still visiting their country. And most of them speak decent English so it's fairly easy to get around. So we got to the hostel-pretty nice place. Free breakfast, always a bonus. We ate schwarma for dinner. It feels so late here because it gets dark at like 6 whereas New Zealand was like 10. I'm so confused.

The next day we went sightseeing around the beach. It's warm for winter here. Alot of random Israelis come up and start talking to us. We met Itay who worked at the first aid place on the beach. He gave me his number on a band-aid. I didn't call him though. He obviously thinks of himself as a playa. I wouldn't call any guy who hits on me within 5 minutes of meeting him. He told us a joke though, that was nice. Then we found a cafe-our favorite pastime. Sumi attracts so much attention with her boot. It's such a good conversation piece. Israelis are mesmerized by it and they aren't shy about staring either. Then we went to the Carmel market. It had the standard made in china fare but it also had some of the best looking produce I've ever seen. The apples were the size of my head. We got strawberries and gummies. The rest of the day we just walked around. We thought about going out but Sumi and I just aren't party girls. We just have to face that.

Next day: We decided to go to Jaffa, the old part of Tel Aviv where some biblical things happened. Something about a whale. We walked along the beach. Sumi is pretty fast with her boot. She's like a robot. We had to stop several times though because we didn't have our coffee and we are addicts. I think it's just that New Zealand coffee was so strong, I definitely went though some withdrawal. So we walked around in Jaffa and it was really pretty. Then we started petting a dog, who belonged to an Israeli named Leo. He was there with his wife and was telling us how they wanted to move to Florida. He really wanted to show us the gated community he lives in so he gave us a tour. It was really nice, he must be loaded. Later we got gelato, then went to the gypsy market. So many gypsies. They all hound you too. They got me to buy a skirt that I didn't even really want. Later Sumi and I watched the sunset and had a "date night". Which is basically just a night where we eat out...which we do most nights, but this is more special. One thing I don't really like about Israelis is that they don't understand the word "no", and they are somewhat pushy. We refused dessert several times, but the waiter gave it to us anyway. And we had to pay for it. At least the food was really good. Israel has good hummus. Although now I'm all hummused out. More later...