Haifa, Acre, Tel Aviv

Saturday, 2nd February.

By sheer good fortune I woke up today feeling even worse.

I believe this is a leap year. That means twenty nine days in this month. That also means a woman can traditionally propose to a man. God help us. I’d better stay away from email that day, eh M! ;-) And don’t think time zones are going to allow you to get away with asking me sneaky questions. To be honest though, I don’t think I have anything to worry about there. I am a jobless, and rapidly aging, bum. With what, appear to be these days, the immune system of a pygmy shrew.

Today I was planning on mostly using the reliable transport of my two feet. I first started by walking up to the gardens of the Baha’i. The world is a fascinating place isn’t it? I had never heard of this religion until this week. They are a very young faith. Created in the 19^th Century in Persia – now Iran. A gentleman called Ali-Muhammad declared himself the Bab, the gate, and proclaimed himself the forerunner of a new religion. Given the predominately Muslim society he lived in and bearing in mind the Islamic tawhid – the is no god but God, and Mohammed is his messenger. – this didn’t go down too well in Persia at the time. In fact they locked him up. Then they executed him.

Next came the person the Bab was waiting for - Bahá'u'lláh. One of his early followers who was incarcerated with him. Instead of being executed he was exiled from Persia and sent to the town of Akkah, part of the Ottoman Empire. Now part of Israel. From here he began to teach his dogma. The Baha’i faith slowly grew and flourished here. Today it has over 5 million followers worldwide. You should read about it. I did enjoy a lovely morning walking in the immaculate and beautiful gardens of the Baha’i. Although I could not get on an arranged tour - as I’d slept in that morning and forgotten to book – I still got to appreciate their lands. Mum you would love it here.

I was pretty exhausted by midday. But I pressed on and jumped in a sherut (yes it was still Shabbat but it was driven by a Muslim guy, or a Baha’i, or maybe an atheist) to visit the medieval town of Acre. The one and same resting place of Bahá'u'lláh. It is also supposed to have a great crusader castle.

It did.

It also had a great Medina and a lovely little fishing port with restaurants and bars and secret tunnels and generally all sorts to explore. I spent the rest of the afternoon here and I even did the audio-tour! Get in. That’s the first one I’ve done since I left the UK. And yes. Two girls did laugh at me.

… I am listening to the audio tour and exploring the Crusader castle at Acre. I have followed the numbered posts on various walls and got thoroughly lost. (This is why I hate doing these bloody things. I am sure the poor fecker that is employed to do these is a bitter and twisted post-graduate history drop-out that deliberately hides numbers 14 through to 16. Well mister smart-arse. Let me tell you I am not laughing. And nor are the two old women I just walked in when I opened the door to the ladies toilets.) I have ended up in the old castle dinery. Which is now a empty stone room with a low ceiling and three pillars running down its centre. There is a crowd of school kids slowly congregating in the hall. They have been criss-crossing paths with me throughout my tour, and laughing at my audio-headset for sometime. I am thinking about school trips to France when I was there age. Our's were mainly covers for excursions to buy flick-knives, cheap cigarettes, and alcohol. I am wondering what this bunch of reprobates are secretly up to. All of a sudden they all begin to sing in Hebrew. There teacher must have suggested it outside. The entire hall fills up with a mesmerizing acepella. I have no idea what the words mean, but the resonating amalgamation of voices in harmony is simply amazing…

I found a great place that did hummous and sharwamas and ate before heading back to Haifa.

I made a snap decision to grab a late bus back to Tel Aviv that night. I checked back in to my favourite hostel – hey it was cheap – and went out for a few beers.