Weather

Hello everyone! I bet you were up all night asking yourself "Why hasn't the travelblog been updated?", but now let me lay your fears to rest and explain my absence of writing: I was, and still am slightly, sick. It's a shame, but I'm happy that my day of recuperating from sickness was in a town with not too much to miss. But more on that later.

On Friday night, since the dormitory area was full and the Nunnery had promised me a place to sleep, I was put in a very nice Double room. However, I was not alone in this room- eventually another guy came to stay in a dorm and was directed my way. I didn't mind, especially after I started talking to him and found that he was doing an archaeological dig in an ancient city south of Jerusalem during the summer, and is an Old Testament theology professor in St. Louis. We had a great conversation talking about his dig, his time studying at Cambridge, and the attitudes of seminaries and theologians around the world. I really appreciated his company and interesting tidbits.

I slept in the next morning and realized, once I awoke, that I was definitely under the weather. Apparently I had a bad cold- one with aches everywhere, which makes it hard to travel. So, needing food to cushion an advil for my headache, I set out looking for some breakfast. After searching for a while and finding only a church built over the location of Joseph's carpentry workshop, I came upon a bakery that make only these thick tortilla-like things. I bought three of them, returned to the convent, and hunkered down for the day, chewing on the bread and listening to my iPod while imbibing plenty of water. Quick shoutout- Thanks to my mom for remembering to give me Advil, woo!

Thus, I spent a very uneventful day in Nazareth, but on the flipside I got pretty far in my audiobook "No Country for Old Men", which is fascinating. Eventually I fell asleep, hoping for a recovery overnight.

Awaking early in order to get my bus to Haifa, I found that I felt significantly better this morning, with only a slight cough and barely any aches. Sweet! I made it just in time for the bus, and I was out of Nazareth, once again on the road. The route to Haifa, which is a coastal port town north of Tel Aviv, was quite mountainous and beautiful, like most Israeli terrain. It took about an hour, and eventually we were dropped off at the city's main port. It was a short walk to my hostel, the Port Inn, where I dropped my bags and headed out to the Baha'i gardens- the main attraction of Haifa.

To get there, I took the world's shortest subway, which is also Israel's only subway, up the steep mountain to the summit of Mt. Carmel. There there were many hotels and parks, and I had a to walk a little to the Baha'i gardens. Usually one needs to reserve a place on a free tour to get into the gardens, but I arrived at the start of a Russian tour and begged my way into it, without a reservation. The gardens were extremely impressive, and they should be since they keep 100 gardeners on hand at all times. Since it's on the slopes a mountain, it is separated into terraces, each with a different color theme.

With me on the tour were two Parisian girls who couldn't speak Russian either, so we hung out around the gardens, trying to dodge the sun's harsh rays the best we could. When we finally got to the actual shrine, which lies in the center of the gardens, it turned out that we couldn't even go inside- bummer! But overall, it was a beautiful place and I'm thankful that they let me on the tour. I have been to the Baha'i temple in Chicago and although its architecture was astounding, the gardens surrounding it were not nearly as impressive.

Since the weather was unbearably hot, I began to make my way down to the hostel. First, however, I stopped at an Israeli shopping mall to both cool down and see a Middle Eastern take on a Western favorite. It was much smaller than most malls in the States, but it had very much the same atmosphere. Also, before reaching the hostel, I grabbed a bite to eat, which came in the form of a Schwarma, which is similar to a gyros, but with different meats and many more toppings.

At the hostel I munched on my lunch, recuperating from the deadly heat when I spotted a Herald Tribune- America's international newspaper made by the NY Times. Starved for news and current events, I hunkered down with the paper, savoring every report from around the world and becoming reacquainted with the world that I usually keep such good track of. Tale told, I spent a solid 3 hours digesting the newspaper and relaxing- something I didn't regret since I had seen the most important sight in Haifa. Now that I'm back on track with the world, I'm ready to head to Tel Aviv tomorrow and then Europe after that to continue my trek.

Thanks again for reading and please leave some comments for little old me!

PS Sorry about the lack of pictures- couldn't upload them.