Blogs from Haifa, Haifa District, Israel, Middle East - page 5

Me, my sister and my friends went for a hike in the Carmel National Park. The university is located on top of this mountain and this is where we started our hike from. We went down a valley, passed the animal reservation park, and climbed up another way in the valley again. The sun was shining, the scenery was amazing, we had black coffee with cookies and a lot of fun. ... read more

Alexander Zaid. One of the founders of the defense force Hashomer that was formed in 1909. Like most jews at that time, Alexander Zaid, bought land from either arabs or the british in the land, then known as Palestine. The arabs did not like this very much though and tried to destroy the settlements and make the jews leave. The British had a group of guards that people could rent to guard their house, but most of them were arabs. The jews did not feel safe having arabs guarding their homes because they often cooperated with the arabs that attacked settlements, therefore they formed Hashomer, which was a jewish defense organisation. Once Alexander Zaid was standing guard, he was attacked by some arabs and killed. Now there is a statue of him on a horse looking ... read more

First of all happy holidays to everyone! It has been tough here during christmas, there is no christmas spirit, no christmasfood and chocolates in the stores, no snow no darkness etc. Therefore I decided to do something special for christmas this year (seeing how I was in Israel last christmas aswell, it was time to celebrate christmas again). I heard about a christmas parade in Nazareth and got curious. In Nazareth there are christian arabs aswell as muslim arabs. I suggested the parade to my friends at the university and after class on 24th of December we all went with the bus to Nazareth. Seeing how Nazareth was Jesuses homecity I expected a different kind of christmas. A religious kind of christmas about Jesus and not about santa claus and presents and such. Well was I ... read more

Summary of what I have been up to the last couple of weeks: - I went to a beautiful beach half an hour drive south from here. It was a privat beach in a bay with clear blue water. Very nice. - Me and Roee went on a daytrip to the beautiful old city Acco. We walked through the streets of Acco, went shopping in the market and ate hummus at Hummus Zaid, which is known as the best hummusplace in Israel. And the hummus was amazing, it was warm, fresh and so cheap! - I also went on a weekend trip with Roee to Zippori. We stayed in a 'zimmer' and went hiking to a national park with displays of ancient mosaics. - During the week just mentioned there was a jewish holiday yet again, ... read more

October 3, 2009 Today is a day at sea for us as we sail to Israel. Judy and I did our laundry this morning on the ship. Four washing machines for 800 passengers doesn't work well. The laundry room does not open until 8 a.m. but I showed up 30 minutes early and still was second in line. THe attendant opened the room a little early and we all grabbed the machines and got started. One lady came in at 8 a.m. and got upset because it opened a little early and no machines were available. Then we discovered one of the four dryers didn't work and anarchy ensued. People were jockeying for the remaining dryers all on the verge of an international incident. After completing the laundry, we headed to the spa to use the ... read more