Day 16: Haifa and Tel Aviv, Israel - Doing a Little Gardening

Haifa.

Haifa is a pretty little city by the Mediterranean Sea. It's secluded by steep hills and has actually built itself up those hills, creating some magnificent views. At the top of the hill live rich Jews. At the bottom live poor Arabs. Isn't that always how it is? 

My hostel experience in Haifa was probably the best I've had here. I ran into two British guys who were still in college. We waxed poetically about the virtues of tea and I even managed to convince one of them that Chinese tea in all its varieties is better than the three types of crap they drink in their stupid little island. Alas, the other one was perfectly content to pour milk and sugar into his cup with a Lipton tea bag. Bullocks!

We played a card game called "poohead" with two Swiss girls. Another British girl walked by and said, "Wait, are you playing shithead?" One of the British guys said, "Yes, but I was trying to be polite." I think the two Swiss girls were amused by his attempted politeness. 

The next morning I experienced yet another moment of, "Wow, I would appreciate this a lot more if I participated in this religion" when I visited the Bahai Gardens. These moments seem to occur quite frequently in Israel. Bahai is a very recent religion that preaches equality, tolerance, and unity. Their central tenet seems to be that all religions actually coexist, and that everyone should be happy. Or something like that. In addition, according to the tour guide, they decided to establish Haifa as their holy center because "there seems to be a lot of holy places around here."

Also, they saw the steep terraces of Haifa and thought it would be a great place to create a garden. And create a garden they did!

The Bahai Gardens.

More Gardens.

Building gardens like this in the middle of the desert is obviously a sustainable idea.

Oh la la.

Yeah, so the gardens are pretty impressive. After gawking at them, I said goodbye to the Brits and the Swiss and hopped on a train for Tel Aviv. In my hostel in Tel Aviv is a young man from Seattle of all places. He is appropriately Seattle, very alternative and decked out in capris and chucks. Because it was Shabbat, we went to the only establishment open... a Muslim cafe.