Haifa for the weekend

Last weekend I went up to Haifa to visit my family (yes, I have family in Israel)!  They are my cousins (I think), well Mira is my Mum's first cousin and she has a daughter, Karin and she has two adorable baby girls: Maya and Romi.  We spent about 30 minutes trying to figure out whether we were all first cousins or second cousins or fifth cousins but we just settled on cousins because either way, we are all related and it doesn't really matter.

I caught the train from Tel Aviv to Haifa and it was beautiful! The train line runs right along the beach so I had incredible views of basically untouched beaches.  I arrived around 4pm and we went straight to Karin's house to meet the family and get ready for the night's festivities.  It was Karin's birthday last week so we were going out to her favourite bar, the Duke, to celebrate with a few friends.  

Unfortunately, I have zero photos of the night but it started with a divine meal at the Duke of beef carpaccio, steak and fish and chips washed down with a few beers including my new fav beer in Israel, Kasteel Rouge.  It's a beer mixed with cherry flavouring and I love it! 

I met a few of Karin's friends and her family and it truly was an excellent night.  One of her friends had lived in Manila for the last 6 years and spent a lot of time travelling through South East Asia which has got to be one of my favourite places ever! She gave me a few suggestions of places to visit and eat when I'm next there. It was so nice to get out, have a few drinks and meet some new people.

The next day we visited Akko, which is about a 25 minute drive from Haifa.  Akko has a lot of history, as in Archeologists recently discovered a whole city underneath modern Akko in which the crusaders lived in Medieval times.  The archeologists claim to not have even found most of what is under modern Akko.  Pretty sick stuff.  

Today though, Akko is mixed city with Jews, Muslims and Christians living there.  The Old City I think is mostly Arabs but there are Churches, Synagogues and Mosques that you can visit.

We walked around the markets and through the old underground medieval city (including a pretty cool tunnel called the Templar's Tunnel) and ended our day at a beautiful restaurant by the Akko port aaaaaaand had seafood for lunch! Like real seafood with prawns and mussels and calamari.  I was so happy I could have cried! (Although again, I got so excited I forgot to get a snap of the meal) haha fail.  I did snap a photo of the menu though which is pretty funny.

Creamed calms... mmmmm

Hello blasphemous seafood!

Bloody beautiful mate

Two little cuties playing with wind toy thingys

MM x

Haifa

My Mum and I have begun our Israeli adventure in Haifa in the north of Israel.  

Haifa is probably the most secular city in Israel and one of my favs behind Tel Aviv and Jerusalem.  Haifa has Jews, Arabs, Christians, Russians and Bahai's here and they all get along peacefully.  I've seen churches, Xmas trees, santas, Bahai temples and a lot more Arabic than in Rishon and it's beautiful.

You really feel the difference here though.  It may be because it's lowering density living than Tel Aviv, Rishon or Jerusalem but I feel like there is less yelling, beeping and anger.  People seem really peaceful here and it's nice.  

Haifa is also well known for the Bahai Gardens and they are absolutely beautiful.  My awesome travel buddy Andrew and I got a personalised tour of them before I started teaching in Israel and below are some photos we took.  Breathtaking is probably the only adequate word to describe them.

Photos of our adventuring:

Mum and I followed our adventuring with lunch at Fattoush and it was amazing.  We had a lemonana drink (lemon and mint) and shared a Middle Eastern Salad.  Fattoush has a lot of outdoor seating and art.  There was this cool snail sculpture on the air-conditioner that I loved!

 

Turns out my Mum (/me) also have family in Haifa so I think we are having dinner with them.

Shabbat Shalom

MM x