FRIDAY NOVEMBER 10TH-FROM TEL AVIV TO HAIFA

I got a good night's sleep in a real bed at Sidney and Elenor's.  I had given away everything I had brought for the soldiers except my combat boots.  Last year at an army base, the soldiers didn't get new boots when they entered the army and all the boots were pretty bad.  In Tel Aviv, if someone has something they don't need they often leave it on a bench at a bus stop.  I shined my boots at our last work session where we shined old boots, even though they had only three weeks of wear.  I stuffed a one dollar bill into each toe (I still had a lot of singles I brought as Shaliach gelt, a gift for the poor when we travel abroad).  I wrote a note to the next owner of the boots saying why I left the boots and that I was a Sar-El volunteer, and stuffed it in one boot.

I said goodbye to Sidney and Elenor and thanked them for their kind hospitality.  I took a taxi to the train station and bought my ticket.  (I just realized that I never mentioned that when you enter any shopping mall, train or bus station or theater in Israel there are guards and metal detectors.  They do it efficiently and more effectively than in the US.  For instance all the guards are trained to "profile" the people by their body language, facilal expression, etc.)  I got inspected quickly and found the ticket booths and paid only 27.5 Israeli sheckels ($7.83)  for the trip of about 60 miles.  The train had wifi, a place on each car for luggage, seats facing each other in pairs with a small table in the middle, and electrical outlets to charge your phones, etc.  Here are some photos of the train trip.   That's the Mediiterranean Sea.....

 I arrived in Haifa about 11:15am and got a taxi to my hotel/hostel.  Once again, like the place I stay at in Jerusalem, I'm staying at a hostel that has private rooms with baths.  The place I stay at in Jerusalem is very old and the rooms are clean but kind of in rough shape.  Here's the G38 Hotel in Haifa: 

 If you're ever in Haifa, this room is $75 per night.  It's small but beautifully designed.  It has a kitchen with a refrigerator, hotplate, tea kettle, and breakfast bar.  It has a most comfortable bed, desk, safe, cable TV with many channels in many languages.  I'm pleased with my choice in accomodations.  

I unpacked a bit and took a walk.  Just down the street a few blocks there is this view: 

This is the Bah'ai temple and gardens.  Its world famous and awesome to see. There are 1,360 steps.  I went to the gate and I learned that they don't allow people to climb them.  I'm going to be there before 9am for a tour.  About 1230pm I went for a walk (downhill into town) looking for food.  I went into a shopping mall that looked very much like other shopping malls in Israel and except for the security and metal detectors, like any mall in the States.  

 I stopped a man on the street and said:  "slicha, afo falafel tov vivakasha" meaning:  "excuse me, where is good falafel please".  The answer came in English and directed me down the street 500 meters, a bit more than a quarter of a mile which was very good and that local people ate there.  Look for the green sign, he said.  I followed directions and found the place and it didn't dissapoint.  Here's my lunch with a street view: 

 
I walked near the Port area.  Here's a picture:

I walked back to my room and wrote for a while before heading out to look for dinner.   Although it was shabbat, Haifa has a lot of restaurants open on Friday evening.  I looked at the menus at several restaurants on Ben Gurion Street which has many restaurants and they all seems the same.  I walked just off of Ben Gurion street and found a bar in an old building.  Oh wait, all the buildings in Israel are old.  

The Kingdom Bar had at least ten different draft beers.  Unfortunately none of them made in Israel.  I ordered a giant cheeseburger with fried potato wedges.  I was surprised how good it was.  It was a third of a pound with lettuce, tomato, pickles and mustard and did I say it was really good.   Add a Stella Artois draft  beer and it was a great end to the forced vegetarianism on Israeli Defense Force bases where meat is both scarce, and often unidentifiable unless it's chicken.

About a half of the burger and none of the potatoes or beer came back to the hotel with me for future in-room dining.  Walking back to my room I had this night time view of the Baha'i Temple and Gardens.  It looks just as steep a climb at night.

Also on the way to my room I encountered another Israeli cat.  This one was not as well fed as those living on the Air Force Base:

He shadowed me for a bit and stopped when I stopped to take his picture.  I wrote a little and went to sleep with thoughts of the challenging climb to the Baha'i Temple and Gardens in the morning.