Caesarea to Akko

Shalom everyone.

 I have already fallen four days behind in this blog, but in this post will write about Sunday and Monday. On Sunday morning, we packed up our bags and left Nvae Tsadek (I have no clue on how to spell that in English), the part of Tel Aviv I actually liked. We drove north, never far from the coast, until we came to the Caesarea National Park. We walked through an small, old crusader gatehouse and into Herod's Caesarea. Just the archeology as we walked down to the water was amazing to me. How much more I have seen since then! Our first agenda was to find out if Abba, Henny, and I could dive in the ancient port, and so we walked down to the dive shop. We were able to schedule a dive, even though the man spoke next to no English. Thankfully the dive instructor did! We dove with two other Americans.

 The Mediterranean certainly was much colder than the warm waters of Hawaii, and we had to wear rather thick wetsuits. I really enjoyed being in the water again, I didn't realize till then how much I miss Hawaii. The diving itself was uneventful. There were many broken columns, but they were not very recognizable because of how long they had been underwater. We did see some cool anchors though, two dating from the stone age. Also, we saw a giant jellyfish, many shards of pottery, and schools of fish. Somehow my BCD (buoyancy control device - the inflatable jacket) wasn't letting the air out, and so at one point I just floated to the surface. At least it was only twelve feet deep, but that kept the dive more exciting for me.

Lunch for Sarah

After the three of us dried off and all of us had some lunch, we went and explored the ruins around us. All the archeology was astounding! I chose just a few pictures to post, we took dozens more.

Roman Race Track 

 Roman Theater 

Later that afternoon we met up with Mr. Joe and the rest of his family for a tour around Haifa and a delicious shwarma dinner. It was crazy seeing them after five years, how much has changed! Yet they are still the people I remember them being. That was very nice and delicious. My first real shwarma!

 After dinner we drove to Akko in the dark, and thank God we were able to find our hotel! The narrow streets were rather frightening in the black of night.

The hotel we stayed in was built into the old city's wall.

 The next day our goal was to explore the old city of Akko, and that we did! The city has a very interesting history, it's double walls were able to keep Napoleon's troops out! We saw many things, mostly build on top of each other. Lowest there is an old crusaders castle with still intact halls, then the massive walls built buy a Turk (or Bedouin) El-Omar, and finally parts of it were used and built for the Akko Prison, where the British imprisoned many people.

Heading up to the top of the wall

Climbing on the wall, which we later found is not allowed.

Look closely, our first camel spotted in Israel!

Akko Prison, like in the movie Exodus.

The Gallows, where several Irgun members met their fate after the liberation of the prison. They were singing HaTikvah as they stood ready to die.

Crusader's hall  

Ancient building in Akko

 A tunnel we wandered into, until the sound, and smell, of bats drove us out.

 

During our adventuring in Akko we managed to get rather lost in the Arab section, which was rather exciting. Also, we found a wonderful falafel joint, which remains the best falafel I've had on this trip so far. I really really liked Akko with all its interesting history.

 

 

 Hopefully tomorrow I will be able to write about the other days! Shalom to you all back home,
Ella