Lady, bars are for drinking!

Ahhh, so day 2...now, you may bbe wondering about my title, but all in good time people. You'll find out when we get to that part of the story. Patience. So you know that Katrina and I had a hard time sleeping, something we hope will be rectified tonight...don't worry, I'll keep you posted. The good news was that 1.) I could blog in the morning (b/c obviously you're not getting enough of this) and 2.) we had a nice walk on the beach of the Mediterranean Sea with Corey at 6:30 am, and we were actually awake for it. I wore sandals of course, so I walked w/my toes in the water. Still chilly. I'll have to come back in the summer sometime to go swimming in it. But I'm telling you, there were more shells on that beach than I have ever seen. Or course, I don't typically like beaches and avoid them like the plague, but even Katrina had to agree that there were a plethora of shells. I also almost stepped on a jellyfish, but Katrina stopped me. It was dead anyways... We did walk out along some rocks that jutted out into the Sea. The waves were crashing on the end of the rocks and right there a young man stood fishing, not caring that he was getting soaked. Then we also saw a women getting ready to swim...in a bikini...in the cold water...

Breakfast was yummy. They had chocolate pudding, so I had that for dessert after breakfast. I like it here already! Haha! We were a little late leaving b/c one room never got a wake up call and we didn't get them up until 15 mintues b/f we had to leave and then someone else lost their suitcase. But eventually we were on out way and drove the short distance to Jaffa (Yafo) where we walked through the old city. There was a man doing some yoga who was putting his body into poses that I have never seens b/f. He reminded us of Running Ryan...he had biked to this park and was doing yoga in the middle of the park. Fantastic. Then we went to a church that was built by the Fransiscans (I think.) The interesting part of that is that they still had Christmas deorations up b/c the Armenian Christmas isn't until the 14th, so technically, Christmas isn't over for all people here yet. Oh and Katrina and Connie got pooped on by a bird. Nice...

After Jaffa we drove up to Ceserea which has the ruins of the Roman city Herod built, as well as the remains of a Crusader for in the same area. I loved the ruins, but I kind of wished they wouldn't try to restore some of them to show what the site would have looked like. They're ruins for a reason people! I also found it interesting that even though Ceserea is a National Park here in Israel, they seemed more interested in tourism than preservation. The Crusaders fort was littered with shops and restaraunts. Hmmm... I must also say that I understand Katrina's difficulty with considering this to be the Holy Land. Besides the issue she brought up with all land being holy, which we've talked about, I find some sites hard to swallow b/c I question whether they are the actual sites that these things apparently happened. I'm not normally a huge skeptic, except when it comes to intellectual pursuits, and then I have to question these things. I haven't done that too much yet, but I'm sure I will as the trip goes on. I guess for me I don't necessarily need to see the exact places that David or Jesus or anyone walked. I like the ruins of cities that we can say, look here, this is this type of town, from this period, here'sw what generally would have happened here. That's the interesting part to me. And as far as the spiritual part goes, well just being here in general is enough for me. I mean, Israel looks nothing like it would have back then. Ok, enough about that for now. I'm sure I'll ponder this more, and seeing as how Katrina and I are roommates, I'm sure we'll be discussing this.

Ok, so where was I? So Ceserea, which by the way, the area surrounding Ceserea is now apparently a place where the rich come to retire in style. Claudia, our guide, told us that the homes start around half a million. Nice. While we were there we heard some booming noises in the distance. Claudia claimed they were rom planes from a nearby airforce base, but another woman we talked to who is living in Israel claimed the noises were coming from the bombing in Gaza. Who knows? Either was we feel safe. Besides the rally last night, we haven't heard or seen much about what's going on in Gaza. It seems like a different world. We then took a group picture at a nearby aquaduct and headed off to Haifa for a late lunch. Luckily I still have a crap-load of chex mix, so those people lucky enough to sit near me in the back of the bus (I'm one of those kids) got a nice snack to tide us over.

Haifa was pretty cool...very busy. We went to eat a local restaurant, but they weren't ready for us, so it took awhile. Soon we had hummus and babganoush and tuna and other spread and pita bread on our tables. We dug in, especially the hummus, which by the way Katrina claims she'll have coming out her ears by the end of the trip. Not to worry though; I have a feeling if that happens, she would just eat it up again! So we ate wll thinking that was the meal, which brings me to helpful life tip #1 for the day: Hummus is an appetizer, not the main dish. That was omlettes and fries for us veggies, and really, who cares about the meat eaters, and baklava for dessert, which was amazing btw. This is actually a good time to bring up helpful life tip #2 for the day: Pee in free restrooms. That's right folks, for those of you who don't know, at some places you have a pay a sheckel (about 25 cents) to use the restrooms. Some places, like Ceserea National Park and the restaurant, let you pee for free. Take advantage of those free trips to the toilet and save a sheckel!

We all piled back onto the bus after lunch to drive to Meggido, but wouldn't you know, right as soon as we pulled they closed the gates. Closed. And no, they wouldn't let us in. So we saw the ruins from the outside, but couldn't go in, so that was a disappointment. Also, taking a bus ride after stuffing your face w/hummus and omlettes creates one major problem: no not gas! Sleep! I tried, I tried SOOOO hard to stay awake during the trip to and from Meggido b/c I love looking at the scenery, but to no avail. I couldn't help it!

So we got to our hotel in Haifa and Trisha hand out the room assignments...except Katrina and I don't have a room. Upon checking the list the hotel had, we weren't even on the list. So at this point we're thinking we get the party bus for the night, sweet, so we go over to relieve our tension with some Tang (I swear, it is not real orange juice!) Katrina really wanted that grapefruit juice though, and even took a plate down to get to it. Score. So now we're roomless and broke a plate... We eventually got a room, though it's not as nice as last night's room. Ah well, we can rough it for one night. :-P

Katrina and I went for a short walk b/f our meeting and dinner at 6. We went towards the Mediterranean and took pictures looking out upon it and the rest of Haifa spread out below us. It was beautiful. According to Claudia we could probably also see Lebanon, but we really couldn't tell. Dinner was of course good, w/plenty of hummus. Dessert was, in a word, amazing. It was chocolate and moussey and just fantastic. Mmmm.

After dinner, Brandie and Katrina and I went for another walk around Haifa. We saw an amazing sign with a dog about to squat and take a dump with a line through it. I can only assume, since we couldn't read the Hebrew, that dogs aren't allowed to poop in that park. But seriously, how great is that picture! I'll try to post it sometime!

And now the moment you've all been waiting for, the explination of the title. Across the street from our hotel is a bar called Beer Garden. I thought it would be cool to check out a local bar, so the other two agreed to tag along. Neither were drinking, but I didn't want to go alone. First off, this bar is in a park right next to a swing set, which yes, had a kid swinging on them. Great placement... We go in and get seated at the bar. It's a little hole in the wall dive bar w/only two other parties in there. Get it? More than half the place is empty. After a couple minutes I order my beer and she turns to Brandie and Katrina to order. I explain that they're not drinking, they're just keeping me company.

She looks at me and says, "Lady, bars are for drinking."

I say, "I know. I'm drinking. They don't drink. They're just keeping me company."

She says, "Bar is for drinking lady, not for keeping company." She's getting pretty pissy by this point, so Katrina asks is she wants us to leave. She mumbles that it's not about what she wants, so I say, "Fine, we're leaving" and we got up and left. Crazy, huh? So that brings me to helpful life tip #3 for the day: Bars are for drinking. This is also my first for the day. That was the first time I have ever been thrown out of a bar w/o even having a drink first. Amazing! So now it's getting late and I should get to sleep soon...hopefully to sleep through the night! The power was supposed to go off at the hotel at 11pm so they could "upgrade," but that hasn't happened yet, so we'll see if it does...night all!