Day 5, or, The Greatest City and Other Explorations

This morning we went to Haifa. In this city, unlike many (maybe most) places in Israel, Jews, Christians, and Muslims not only coexist, but interact. And they do so all the time, at stores, at work, in their homes, and the world doesn’t end. This is really cool, and should be a reality every single part of the world, but in the meantime its one of the things that makes this city my very favorite from the whole trip. In addition to this, it’s a port city, with all kinds of wonderful industrial buildings, the fantastic Sail Tower, and the absolutely breathtaking Bahai Gardens. The sail tower is incredible because it’s a skyscraper, made out of metal and glass, that curves just like the wind were shaping it. And the Bahai Gardens are similarly the most structured, yet beautiful, use of entirely natural materials that I can imagine. These unbelievable juxtapositions are perfectly suitable to the city of Haifa, where entire worlds come together. This is where I’ll be living, when I eventually decide to make aliyah, or move to Israel.

From Haifa we went to a Druze village to eat lunch in the home of one of the Druze people. She told us a little bit about her religion, which had split from Islam centuries ago, and her life as a non-practicing, but nonetheless very Druze, woman. It was interesting to hear about another religion that was both a faith and a community, depending on what you wanted from it. Also important, this was the very best meal of the trip. Middle Eastern food is always delicious, and this was exquisite.

In the afternoon we toured Caesarea, an ancient port city, with lots of ancient buildings and structures like bathhouses, aqueducts, and an amphitheater where gladiators fought. I was a little bit tired, and it wasn’t as meaningful as the other archeological sites we’d seen at Masada, but I still kind of have a crush on two thousand year old buildings. The fact that King Herod, two thousand years back, could put stones together to make buildings, and that I, two thousand years later, can walk next to and feel and see where he put those stones is really amazing.

It was right about then when the Israeli sun, with its impeccable timing, sank behind a row of ancient stone columns and into the sea. Magnificent.