A tour through northern Israel

Wow, this trip has finally begun! Right now, Maren and I are in Safed (there are about 5 other spellings), in northeastern Israel, not far from the Sea of Galilee. Yesterday, we biked around the entire sea! More on that later...

First, there are a couple of things I forgot to mention in my last blog, as well as the trip to Hamburg before we left. My hip is feeling really good. It is nearly completely healed. I am walking without a limp, and only notice it when I walk up stairs. I think I could run already, though I am still holding off on anything too strenuous. The other thing was something which happened while Maren and I were driving back to her house in Marx. We were on a local highway when we spotted a car on its side in the ditch ahead of us. It was starting to get dark and it was raining a bit. We both could tell instantly that whatever had happened had just occurred, as the headlights and windshield wipers were both on. Based on how many cars were on the road and the fact that we were the first to stop, I would guess the car went into the ditch only ten or twenty seconds before we showed up. We ran over and there was a very distraught lady staring up at us from inside the car, which was beginning to fill up a bit with water. We dragged her out, which was tough because the car was on its right side. Within a couple of minutes, 4 or 5 other cars had stopped to help. We ended up waiting about ten minutes for the ambulance, then answered some questions from the police. The lady told us there was some animal in the road, and she swerved to miss it and the car rolled into the ditch. It was quite a random experience, I have never been 'first on the scene' like that before.

Last week, Maren and I were getting a bit bored in Marx waiting until we could catch a flight, so we decided to go check out Hamburg. Hamburg is the 2^nd biggest city in Germany, only a few hours away by train, and Maren’s sister Fritzi lives there. We spent Thursday evening wandering around by the harbor and the ‘beach’, there is water everywhere in Hamburg. It feels a bit like Venice in some places. On Friday we did more sightseeing stuff while Fritzi was at work. We walked through the downtown area, the university, and to an island with cool views of the city. We went out with Fritzi and her boyfriend in the evening to the ‘Reeperbahn’, which is the largest red-light district in Europe. It is also where the majority of the bars and clubs are. There were hoards of young people along the streets as far as the eye could see, in every direction, until at least 4 in the morning when we finally called it a night.

Sunday was finally the day for our trip to begin. Maren and I took the train 5 hours to the airport in Cologne, then caught a 4 hour flight to Tel Aviv. The first obstacle was the immigration check. We chose what turned out to be the wrong line due to the incredibly slow lady checking passports. We chatted with people in the line next to us who were staying at the same hostel and agreed to share a taxi (we arrived too late to use the public transportation). Our line was so slow though, that after those people right next to us got through, we waited another 40 minutes! When we finally got to the front of the line, the whole room was empty. She asked us a bunch of dumb questions, she told us she would let us stay in Israel two weeks, then finally agreed three weeks would be OK. Our backpacks were the only ones on the stopped conveyor belt, and of course we had to pay for a taxi for just the two of us because it took so long. We were both so annoyed, that when we finally got to our hostel, we decided to go walk along the beach for awhile (at 3 AM) to forget about it.

Tel Aviv is a very large, commercial, and new city (one hundred or so years old). There are not many sights to see, no history or religious stuff. There are three things to do: go to the beach, go shopping, and go to the bars or clubs at night. We spent Monday doing exactly that. The weather was perfect and our hostel was literally one block from the beach. Before the beach though, we had to go somewhere to apply for our Indian visas. Not the embassy, because as their website proudly announces, they have ‘outsourced’ visa applications. So we went to some travel store who told us it would take 8-10 business days to get our visas. We had no other choice, so it looks like we will have to head back to Tel Aviv the end of this week to pick up our passports. Fortunately, Israel is a very small country, much more so that I realized. Getting back there to pick them up won’t be terribly inconvenient. We did a bit for shopping for some necessities (I didn't have any shorts!). In the evening, we walked a half hour down the beach to an old port city called Jaffa.  It looked really cool at night and had some nice views.  We went to a bar later on in Tel Aviv to see what all the hype was about, but we didn’t feel like a big night of clubbing on our first day in Israel. Considering we would have to return to Tel Aviv anyway, we left on Tuesday to begin exploring the north of the country.

The bus and train trips so far have been cheap, short, and relatively easy to figure out.  We arrived in Haifa and spent Tuesday evening on the beach.  We stayed in a cool hostel with a really nice garden out back, though the guy snoring in my dorm room the first night may have been the loudest snorer ever to sleep in an 8 bed dorm.  On Wednesday we took a day trip by train further up the coast, all the way toward the border with Lebanon.  We explored the town of Nahariya a bit, then caught a bus right to the Israeli-Lebanese border on the coast.  There, we took the steepest cable car in the world (or so they claim) down some cliffs.  We explored various caves and grottoes that have been carved out of the rock by the water.  The area has an interesting history as well due to its strategic importance.  We could see buoys out in the water only a few meters away marking the border of the countries.  There were a couple of Israeli warships permanently stationed nearby.  Later in the afternoon we walked down the shore till we found our own private little stretch of sand for a picnic lunch.  

Maren and I took another day trip Thursday on the same train, though this time just a shorter trip to Akko (also called Acre).  Akko is the oldest town in Israel, with an ancient port as well.  The history of the old city is pretty incredible.  Many different groups of people at one time controlled the area, and the city was the capital of several empires.  We took our own tour through ancient ruins, Arab markets, and an underground tunnel to the sea.  We walked along the city wall overlooking the water, then got some ice cream and made our way back to Haifa.  The first few days in Tel Aviv and Haifa, Maren and I were trying to find a good falafel place, as it is the national food of Israel.  We did find a place in Tel Aviv to eat something called a sabihe.  It had fried eggplant, potatoes, a crushed hard-boiled egg, veggies, salad, hummus, and something that looked like pico de gallo.  It was really tasty, but we still wanted to try an authentic Israeli falafel.  We heard there were places everywhere selling them, but couldn't seem to find one that was open at 7 or 8 o'clock until our fourth day in Israel!  We finally did in Haifa, and it was cheap and delicious!  Now, we are finding these places everywhere, along with shawarma, which is similar to a kebab.

I woke up Friday morning covered in mosquito bites, and I have been itching ever since.  But when I looked over at Maren, I quickly forgot about my bites.  She got one right on the corner of her eye, which caused her whole eye to blow up and swell shut!  She looked pretty funny, but fortunately it went away by the next day.  We stayed in Haifa until Friday because we wanted to see the most famous sight in the city: the Baha'i Gardens (they were closed Wed and Thurs).  I didn't know much about the Baha'i faith, but you can see the gardens from most places in Haifa, and they are incredible.  Haifa is the world capital of Baha'i, and they spent $250 million on these gardens and the spiritual buildings around them.  They make up 19 terraces on the side of Mt. Carmel, which has a wealthy neighborhood overlooking the city.  We took the mandatory free guided tour and learned a bit about Baha'i, the history, and the gardens.

After the gardens, we hopped on a bus to Nazareth.  Despite being the home of Jesus, the city is entirely Arab, one of the few in Israel outside the Palestinian Territories.  We spent Friday evening walking through the old city.  Our hostel was absolutely amazing, a gigantic old Arab house right in the souq (market).  The hostel itself was beautiful and had an interesting history.  And everything we could want to buy was just a short walk (and haggle) away.  We spent Saturday checking out the sights.  We went to the Basilica of the Annunciation, at the sight where Gabriel informed Mary she was pregnant with the Messiah.  We also went to the Greek version of the same church, where the Greek Orthodox people believe the event happened near Mary's Well.  Maren bought a head scarf in the market so that we could go into the nearby mosque.  I think it was actually the first mosque I have ever been inside, usually they are closed to non-Muslims.  The next stop was an amazing spice shop.  This old, famous store at the end of the souq was huge and had every type of bulk spice you could imagine.  Needless to say, it smelled so good we didn't want to leave.  We stopped for some Arabic coffee and special sweet pancakes at another famous shop.  Finally, we walked out of town and up a hill called 'Hill of the Leap of the Lord' or something where Jesus ran to get away from some angry Nazareth mob.  Maren and I cooked some tasty vegetable pancake things for dinner with some fresh produce in the market.

I enjoyed Nazareth very much, the Arab culture there differs from the other places we have been. People talk to you much more as you walk through the streets, which is usually (but not always) a good thing.  On Sunday we took another bus to Tiberias, the biggest city on the Sea of Galilee.  We weren't interested that much in the city, as it was mainly just commercial and boring.  There were huge hotels along the beach charging money to get down to the water.  We ended up staying in a cheap hostel just a couple of blocks from the water, but we had to walk quite a ways to get to a free, yet rocky, beach.  It was worth it though, the water felt great!  For dinner, we both got gigantic shawarmas that we could barely finish.  We needed lots of energy for our plans on Sunday.

The idea was to get up early to start our bike ride, but we failed miserably.  After breakfast, checking out of our hostel, and getting set up on our rental bikes, Maren and I didn't hit the road till half past 11.  We completed the full loop around the Sea of Galilee, 55 kilometers, and returned our bikes just before 6 in the evening!  The first 25 km or so were on the side of the highway, hilly, hot, and mostly miserable.  I think it must have been over 30 degrees.  I am very grateful we did this part first, however, because the second half of the ride was fantastic!  There was a tree-lined bike trail for much of it, and we found a deserted beach directly across the lake from Tiberias.  We were drenched with sweat from the ride, but we found a sandy little  spot and ran into the warm water with all our clothes on.  We ate a picnic on the beach and the final 20 km were pretty relaxing.  The guy running our hostel was nice enough to drive us to the bus station, where we left for Safed.

We found a cute guest house on a hill on the outskirts of Safed.  Maren and I are paying dorm room rates, though we are the only people in our room.  The place has a huge garden and lots of places to relax.  We both were pretty exhausted from the ride and slept very well.  Today, we walked into town to check out the old city and the artist's quarter.  Safed is the smallest city we have been to so far in Israel, and it is definitely a nice place to relax.  As it is on a hill, there are great views everywhere you go, we could even see the Sea of Galilee to the south.  We bought some cheese a tiny local famous cheese shop and some ice cream as well.  We spent the late afternoon reading books in the sun in the hostel's rose garden.

A few more things about Israel, so far.  It is a pretty expensive country.  Prices are mostly comparable to western Europe.  One major exception is transportation, which is actually very cheap.  Some food items seem incredibly expensive though (5 or 6 euros for a box of cereal).  There are also soldiers everywhere, i mean EVERYWHERE!  It is pretty evenly split between male and female, and they are always very young.  About half of the guys I have seen are carrying rifles with them, and some of the girls are as well.  They carry them everywhere, in the mall, on the bus, even into those caves we went to in the north!  It is just a regular part of life around here I guess.  Despite the scary western media about Israel, I have felt incredibly safe here and have not had any reason to feel otherwise.  The mix of people is pretty interesting as well.  In Tel Aviv, it looks like any European beach community, young people walk around in swimsuits and flip flops.  In other places, there are Hasidic Jews everywhere you turn.  And then there is everything in between: Arabs, soldiers, and tourists.  Most signs are in Hebrew, Arabic, and English.

Tomorrow, we are leaving for Jerusalem.  We are planning on several days there as it should be by far the most interesting city in Israel.  We will have to head back to Tel Aviv to grab our passports, but we might just do that on a day trip.  Other day trips will hopefully include Bethlehem and the Dead Sea!  I have lots of pictures, I will try and post them all on Facebook and Picasa in the next couple of days!