Haifa, Israel

Sometimes you just have to say NO; No tours, no to routine, no to anything you don’t want to do.  So today we said NO.  It was just going to be an easy day to do whatever we felt like.  We didn’t have an incentive to do anything special because we had already been here before and there wasn’t anything to see that we hadn’t already seen.  And that was very OK with me as my knees were really killing me (and my finger still is a problem, but that’s for another day).  I’m sorry to whine about hurting, but when you hurt, it colors how you perceive things. 

We didn’t want to just sit on the ship, so Michael went to the Square to talk to the local representative about what to do.  In the meantime, I went for my second massage to try and loosen the tendons and muscles around my knees and hips.  Massage for some is relaxing and a pleasant experience; for me, it is pain!  How the hell did things get so bad so fast?  Was it the antibiotics that exacerbated the already wincing tendons?  Too many stairs, too many high steps to get into a bus?  Too many ruins I’d walked over?  Whatever, the reason, my knees HURT.  I am loathe to take pain pills and I have run out of muscle relaxants.  But you know me – I am afraid I might miss something, so I just keep going and going.  I will have plenty of time to rest when I get home.

So we decided to ride the local #23 bus around town and see the sights.  Cheap at only $1.50 per person to see much of what a ship tour would see and at a highly reduced rate!  It was a long hike through the port and out to the main street.  After exchanging dollars for shekels, we caught the bus right by the port.  Haifa is built on steep hills, lots and lots of hills.  This is Israel’s third largest city.  The bus wound its way up the hills by going horizontal and then vertical to get up to the top of Mt. Carmel.  We saw the famous Baha’i gardens, but chose not to get off, and from the picture, I think you can see why.  Michael wanted to go to “Mother’s Park” because he was told by the local representative that there was a dynamite view from there.  We got off the bus with no idea where we were going.  We found the park, but no view.  Now Michael likes to walk just to walk and he figures he will eventually run into whatever it was he was looking for.  The day was perfect, sunny and warm, but I was in no mood to walk about aimlessly.  I told him I didn’t mind walking around if I knew where we were going.  So after a few sarcastic comments back and forth, we went back to the bus stop. 

Haifa is built on hills

Stairs in the Baha'i Gardens

 

Baha'i Gardens and Temple

We sat on a bench and watched the Haifa world go by.  This was a very busy spot and I tried to blend in with the locals.  It is very hard to blend in when the person you are with is wearing a Hawaiian shirt and carrying a big-ass camera around his neck.  I found the locals not to be a friendly bunch, but seemed rather cautious.  Very few people talked to each other.  I can usually strike up a conversation with a person while sitting on a bus bench, but here I didn’t feel welcome to do so.  I can’t say as I blame these folks as there are those that wish to blow them up.  About a half hour went by and the #23 bus finally came and we hopped on and headed to the big mall. 

The first thing we did was get something to eat.  Thankfully, the sandwich place we chose had a menu in English.  Away from the touristy areas, we did not find a lot of English language signage, although most people we interacted with spoke good English.  We shared a roast beef sandwich and a diet coke and it only cost $12! (rolling my eyes) Wow!  The prices were very high.  We were looking for strapping tape to seal the cartons we are sending home (never found any) and a pair of shoes to replace the ones I wore out.  I found several shoes I liked, but the prices were double and triple what I would pay at home.  I eventually found a pair for $75.  The ladies in the shop were thrilled to have a cruise ship passenger from America buy one of their shoes.

We marched around (more like dragged our tired butts) the entire four floors of the mall (it wasn’t that big) and I was really ready to go back to the ship and rest.  Even Michael started to complain about his knees.  We caught the #23 bus again, and this time, I really focused on the neighborhoods and people we saw.  I did not see any individual houses, just apartment buildings of various sizes.  Many of the windows were covered with ornamental wrought iron bars and others had outside mounted automatic-type window shade coverings that roll down over the window to keep the sun out.  Just like in Jerusalem, buildings had solar water heater systems and satellite dishes.  There were many cafes, many of which had outdoor seating. 

As we descended the hills, the neighborhoods changed.  Buildings were much older and more crowded and a bit dingier, and the little store fronts were smaller.  And still lower down the hill, I think we were in a predominately Muslim area.  It would have been fun to poke around the shops here and stroll around, but it was time to return to the ship.  We were both tired.  We made it back to the ship in time for some rest before the next scheduled activity.

Morry, who is the ship’s rabbi, was born and raised in Haifa, and as a welcome to his hometown, he and Hanita invited 15 people to dinner at a local Arab run Mediterranean restaurant.  Arranging taxis for all these people turned out to be a bit of a problem.  There was a misunderstanding about where to pick us up, but the drivers just shrugged it off.  It seems as though this attitude is somewhat typical of Israelis, but Morry’s sister said it was getting better. 

I don’t know what kind of appetite people normally have who eat at a Mediterranean restaurant, but the “appetizers” never stopped coming.  There were at least 15 plates such as hummus, tdaziki sauce, tomatoes, babaganoush, taboolie, eggplant, olives and other stuff I could not identify, all with pita bread.  We all sat at four tables, and each table had the entire round of appetizers served at their table.  OMG, there was soooo much food.  Who had room for a dinner entrée?  Some folks ordered dinner, such as Michael, who ordered lamb chops.  I was told that presenting so much food is the norm in a Mediterranean restaurant; if you had finished everything, then they would worry that you didn’t get enough to eat.  So like other cultures, Jewish and Italian come to mind, you eat until you are ready to burst. 

And then they brought desert!  It was a baked sweet cheese pie with coconut and cinnamon.  It was the size of a large pizza and we were served humongous portions.  Most of us just tasted it as we were ready to roll out of there needing a wheelbarrow to hold up our stomachs.  Thank you Morry and Hanita for a wonderful dining experience.