Get your fungus out of here!

Ok, to start off with, let me just say that I feel like we’ve been here a whole hell of a lot longer than two days. But really, all we’ve had is two days of sightseeing. Today after our walk in the wind…brrr, it was chilly up there on Mt. Carmel in Haifa, we had a brief meeting and then breakfast. And already, I’m up to helpful life tip #4: Chocolate Pudding is an acceptable breakfast choice. Not only did I have chocolate pudding during breakfast, I also had a piece of cheesecake! I love food choices here. I mean, I’ve had cheesecake b/f for breakfast, but never when that was part of the actual served breakfast. Awesome.

After breakfast we walked a little ways to the top of the Baha’i Shrine. Well, I say walked, but actually Katrina and Brandie and I danced in the streets to the shrine. We even changed some of the words to include Haifa and Tel Aviv. There we met with the vice grand vizier of the Baha’i faith…ok that wasn’t really his title, but I forget what it was. Whatever it was, he was the vice or deputy of that title. He was a very articulate man originally from Connecticut. After an explanation of the Baha’i faith (up in the windy cold btw), we slowly made our way down the nine upper terraces to the visitor’s center and then across the street to the shrine itself. The gardens were immaculate. They must use a ton of water and put so much work into keeping them up! The trip down was eventful for two reasons: Katrina shared that she had a dream the night b/f where she fell down the stairs at the shrine. So to protect her, Brandie and I walked in front of her the entire time, promising to catch her if she fell. I commented on the irony of that fact b/c I’ve been the one that’s been tripping the entire trip. Katrina said that yeah, that’s why I had to be in front of her and not behind her! Haha! Also, Yohan was running all around us, up and down the stairs getting pictures of us. The thing is, he wouldn’t say anything when he went bounding past you, which could have started an avalanche of people. So I’ve decided that we need to put a bell on that boy! Then at least we can hear him when he’s coming! When we reached the shrine we were allowed to go inside and look around, respectfully of course. First we had to take off our shoes. I, of course, was wearing sandals, and let me tell you, bare feet on marble in COLD!!! After all the opulence of the gardens and the outside of the shrine, the inside was quite disappointing. There were about a dozen rugs on the floor and some candles and flowers, and there were two signs, one in Arabic and one in English with a quote from the Baha’u’llah. Overall it was very simple, especially compared to the outside. I suppose that if the outside wasn’t as grand, then the inside wouldn’t have been quite of a shock.

Overall though, I have to say that visiting the shrine has definitely been my favorite spot we’ve visited so far. But then again, I’ve always been interested in world religions. So now a word about what we learned about Baha’i so far. It wasn’t a complete view of the religions, of course, but it has peaked my curiosity and I want to do some more research on it. When first listening to our guide’s explanation, I thought that yeah, I could be Baha’i. Here’s why: one of the basic tenants of their religion is the love of all humanity and the belief that we are all one. Beautiful. Besides that, they believe that all major world religions are divine inspired. They believe that many figures, such as Jesus Christ, were manifestations of God and that all religions speak of God in their own way. They also believe in equal opportunities for women, which I always love. Katrina and I both liked a lot of what he had to say, but as she asked, what’s the catch? Hence where the extra research needs to come in. Also, though they claimed to be for equality for women, the sayings of Baha’u’llah did not use inclusive language. But I must give him the benefit of the doubt b/c after all, it’s not like inclusive language was in when he was busy being a prophet. I really look at how they speak act now. Our guide did use some mankinds, but when Brandie called him on it, he agreed that that was his mistake. So, ok, I’m not saying that this religion doesn’t have it’s flaws, and I’m not saying I’m converting, I’m just saying that they have some great principles that I could definitely hold to.

After the visit to the shrine, we piled back on the bus and said goodbye to Haifa. We drove up the coast to Akko, sometimes called Acre. It has two layers piled on top of one another at the site. The bottom layer was a Crusaders fort, which the Turks built on top. As Brandie and I started singing, we built this city on old sandstone! (to be sung to the tune of “We Built This City.”) The Crusades part was pretty cool, but then again, I like archaeology and excavations. At one part there was a film crew filming something and they had us in the shots, so who knows, we may end up in some Israeli “B” movie. (It didn’t look like it was great acting…) Then Trisha, Eugene and I were checking out a fleur-de-lis on one of the columns and got left behind by the group. Don’t worry, we were only lost for a minute or two. We quickly found them. I am sensing a pattern though… Also I was once again struck by how commercial and touristy the area was. To exit the tour, we had to walk directly through a shop with a guy desperately trying to sell us stuff. I guess I just thought we wouldn’t be going to so many touristy areas.

Anyways, lunch featured, what else, but hummus. Now I must admit one of my own life tips needs to be altered due to this meal. Hummus can indeed be the main course of a meal if you are a vegetarian who doesn’t eat fish and the vegetarian meal is fish. Yeah, Katrina may literally end up with hummus coming from her ears…Lunch was, in one word, special. I tried to teach Yohan to speak instead of pointing at things he wanted. Of course, if he had a bell we could come up with some kind of code, but for now, I am not going to enable his silence! Haha! And then when I commented that the meaties were eating cat, Eugene started talking about all the weird met he’s eaten: cat, rat, monkey, etc. So, in all seriousness, I asked him if he had ever eaten people. Maybe he was in a plane crash once and got stranded and all he had to eat was the dead people. How was I supposed to know! But if I come home with only nine fingers, you know who needed a little afternoon snack!

After lunch we went back into Akko and walked by the water for a bit. An anonymous person almost fell in, but luckily my mammary gland was there to stop her! We walked through a bazaar and went to a mosque. We didn’t have to take our shoes off or put on veils b/c we were only allowed in a few steps. A man came in during Claudia’s explanation to pray, so that was interesting to see prayers in action.

After the visit to the mosque, we drove up north to visit the Lebanon border. The border itself was a bit of a disappointment. I don’t know what I was expecting, but it was on a gate and some barbed wire. Nothing spectacular. This was, however, my first experience with the Israeli army. We might have seen them other places, but I never noticed. One was just walking around with his gun acting cool. Brandie and I went up to a group of them and asked if we could take their picture. They were real cool about it…I’m sure they get it all the time. We asked them to show us the big guns, but they didn’t…hahaha. Kidding. I’m sure we’ll see a lot more soldiers when we get into the West Bank and Jerusalem, but now we’ve at least been exposed to their presence.

So yeah, our housing for the night…we’re staying at a kibbutz, which is great in theory, but after staying in two nice hotels, the actuality is well, challenging. I know, I sound like a spoiled American, but if the shoe fits… Neither Katrina and I are sure if we’re braving the shower or not…we’ll see. Dinner was fine though, hummus again, but I’m afraid there won’t be chocolate pudding in the morning. I broke a chair at dinner, but in all fairness, I think it was broken b/f I sat down. On the way back from the meal, Brandie and I came across one of the many dogs around the kibbutz, which scared the shit out of me. All I saw was an animal streaking towards me. Whatever, I’m jumpy. So now we’re hanging out in Brandie and Maryann’s room b/c our is freezing. I think I accidentally turned on the air conditioning…whoops…

And finally a note on the title of this post. While we were walking this morning, Katrina and I saw a sign which showed mushrooms with a line through it. We of course couldn’t read the Hebrew so that left us guessing the meaning. Some ideas: You can do shrooms here. We don’t sell shrooms here. Get your fungus out of here!