In Israel, I have often encountered some of the most random things. Today, I was lucky enough to spend my Saturday in Haifa with my German friend Max, and we saw our lovely co-worker at Cafe Masada - which has two cats who run the place - located on Masada Street, a hip, trendy little thoroughfare with cute bars and cafes.
First we get on the bus in Nazareth (thank Goddess for Arab bus companies that run between Nazareth and Haifa on Saturdays), and there is an elderly lady whom I mistake for Arab (it happens to me a lot where I can't tell the difference between Arabs and Jews). Max accidentally nudged her with his foot; I said something in Arabic (I forgot exactly what) and then she responded with something in Hebrew, and the word "yeldah" which I know means girl. I think I nodded and said "Ken, yeldah. Ani yeldah amerikayit." (Yes, girl. I am an American girl.)
She pointed at her ring finger, and we figured she was talking about her daughter getting married, so I said, "Mazel Tov." (Congratulations.) Then she said something to the bus driver, and some other ladies were talking with her. I have no idea what they said, but then the lady started handing out candy, to me and Max, to the other ladies, and even to the bus driver (who was Arab).
Conclusion: if you want to find peace in Israel, ride the bus.
Once we arrived in Haifa, it was time to find the beach. We had a map (courtesy of Google GPS), but we were trying to get past all of the industrial obstacles in our path (fences, factories, etc.). We started following some people towards what we assumed was a beach, but turned out to be a hospital that had its own private, but not so clean, stretch of sand. We decided not to stay there, but at least now we know that if we get sick, and we go to this hospital, we can take a break from sterile surgery rooms and hallways, and get a little calm by the Mediterranean.
We found a better beach, mostly populated with locals, and some houses along the promenade, a few of which were abandoned or seemed like they had suffered from fires. We daydreamed about renovating one of them and having parties on the roof.
We were too lazy to go swimming, but it was a chill time, finding shells and noticing the wind surfers.
Then we wound our way up the mountain (on which Haifa is situated) to Masada Street, and met our co-worker. I swear, if I ever come back to Israel and live in Haifa, I want to live there!
Haifa seems to be the Tel Aviv for Arabs. People from Tel Aviv usually say, "What, Haifa? It's so quiet, so boring." But really, Haifa has everything you could want - beach, greenery, hills, pubs, calm, and even a "subway" called the Carmelit that is actually a sort of pulley system, with two cars that go along one line for just 5 stops. The two cars are red and look like little engines, and the walls of the Carmelit are decorated with Pokemon-looking characters.
Coming home, we once again had to find our way to the appropriate bus stop. Sitting at the bus shelter, Max was talking about how he had to do his laundry later. I started remembering what a pain in the ass it was to do laundry when I lived on Kibbutz Barkai; how we had to pay for someone else to do it, and when it came back, often things were shrunk or starched really dry, and I would have gladly done my laundry myself if there had been a machine; plus it was really expensive.
Then the guy sitting next to us started talking about his laundry nightmare. He is a volunteer in a youth village (a sort of kibbutz for youth, I imagine?) and how he and the other volunteers have to send their laundry to a laundry company a kilometer away from where they actually live, and when their clothes come back, they are often all mixed up, which results in the need to send emails back and forth asking "Whose underwear is this?"
The poor guy even made meticulous lists on his iPhone of all the items he sent to the laundry company.
We shook our heads, concluding that only in Israel do things have to be this complicated. It's laundry for God's sake! (I know, First World Problems.)
After we got on the bus and were back in Nazareth - luckily our bus driver didn't crash after swerving around multiple bends; Max imagined he must have been playing too many driving video games - we saw a horse galloping down the road in front of the bus.
Poor horse.
Conclusion: if you plan to drive in Nazareth, remember to watch out for 1) pedestrians, 2) other cars, and 3) horses.
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