North Coast day trip

A few weeks ago, I made a new friend, named Prashanth. He was in Israel without knowing many people. A mutual friend suggested he contact me and asked me to show him around Tel Aviv a bit. The first night we hung out, we clicked immediately. He is a senior at UT, so we started with that connection and built from there. The second weekend he was here, I went with him on a tour of the north coast of Israel. After meeting in Tel Aviv, the tour van took us to Caesaria, which I had been to before, but now I had a tour guide telling me the history of everything. Then we continued north along the coast to Haifa. We didn’t spend long there, just went to the top of Mount Carmel to look out at the bay/port and down on the incredible Bahaii Gardens. After driving a little further north, we arrived in Acco (or Acre). It was originally established by a group of Crusaders and then re-established when the Muslims came to the area. In order to re-establish the city, EVERYTHING was filled in with dirt and built over. There is literally one city on top of another and archeologists are still uncovering the first city. Now imagine any medieval period movie and think of the super high ceilings that the buildings had. Now imagine them filled with dirt. That’s a lotta freakin’ dirt! We got a tour through the old (first) city, walked through the market in today’s Arab city and then went to get lunch at a restaurant just outside of the city. It would not have been my first choice, especially with all that Acco had to offer, but I hadn’t eaten breakfast, so I was too hungry to care at that point. Next, we drove up to Rosh Hanikra, which is on the Israeli/Lebanon border. We saw the fence between the countries and the Israeli observation tower that constantly has at least one soldier in it, monitoring the other side. There’s also a navy boat in the water at all times, watching the “water border”. Yes, there are buoys set up with a rope between them in the Mediterranean Sea, stretching out a few kilometers to mark each country’s waters. Rosh Hanikra also grottos, which apparently is another thing it is famous for. I didn’t know. But, they are incredible! The rock is a soft limestone and so the waves that crash into them with a few tons of force have carved out tunnels and caves. The water is almost unnaturally blue; it kind of looks like formaldehyde. There also used to be a train track that ran through, from the days of British control. It ran from Istanbul to Cairo and was destroyed on “The Night of the Bridges” in 1946 by Jewish underground fighters who were immobilizing Britain’s transportation routes during their quest for independence.
As much as I like living in Tel Aviv, I love traveling outside of the city. I always find something to amaze me. This country is truly beautiful.

Check out the pictures.