Wandering Jews, Ch. 1

Hmm, where even to begin this story of our adventures yesterday. With David finally feeling a little bit better, we finally felt comfortable leaving our wonderful nest for some sightseeing along the Northern coast and then to our next couchsurfing experience. This time, it was with an older couple who according to their profile seemed very cool and who enjoyed hosting and sightseeing with their guests. We were originally supposed to show up on Sunday and stay for two nights, but because of David's illness we postponed for only Monday night, or so we thought.

We finally got on the road around late morning towards our first destination, Rosh HaNikra. The ride across the Galil was just beautiful, with many areas reminding us of our trip to the Gold country in California. The kids and David were very excited to be a stone's throw from the Lebanonese border. The grottoes were gorgeous, and the kids loved not only exploring the exciting caves and tunnels, but the interactive movie explaining the history. I had visited the grottoes before and I don't think I ever learned about the history of them. It's really quite fascinating.

Another fascinating museum that I really wanted to visit but we got there just minutes too late, was the Ghetto Fighters museum: a museum dedicated to those who fought in the resistance during the Holocaust. It's a very impressive building and it just so happens to be built near a Roman aqueduct that spans from around Haifa down towards Caesaria. It was about this time that we called our hosts to let them know our timeline. Well, it seems that they had made other plans and because we never made it the night before, they went away for a few days, leaving us stranded. When David mentioned that we didn't have a place to stay (and they knew we had the children with us), they just said, maybe next time and that they weren't even home, they already left . Well their plans didn't include letting us know, nor did they even make any suggestions or try to help us find accommodations, especially so late in the day.

Though David was feeling anxious about us not having any place to stay, I felt more optimistic and assured him we would find something, at least in Haifa. Well that was my first mistake and boy did we pay for it, but I will get to that a little bit later.

So because what I had planned was not going to work for the day, I was trying to think of ways we could still manage to see most of what I had planned. One our major concerns was that ALL of our belongings were in the back seat of our minivan and that made me nervous, especially when we pulled into Akko. The old city looked very casbah-ish which is intriguing, but we didn't feel comfortable with our car so exposed. We tried a few places to park the car, but each time we got out, something was pulling us back to change locations, until we decided that both of us were getting weird vibes and maybe Akko would be better to tour under difference circumstances. So next on our agenda was Haifa. Now, the last time I was in Haifa was probably 22 or 23 years ago and again, with all the new highways and residential, corporate and industrial buildings, I have been finding it so hard to re-orient myself to my new surroundings. I look for certain landmarks and either they aren't there anymore, or the highway is no longer in view of them. Anyway, as we got closer to Haifa, I realized that I had never seen the North side and never knew how industrial the area is with refineries, chemical plants, etc. My goal was to get us to the top. I remembered that is where the Baha'i Gardens were and so we snaked our way upwards through some very tight streets (there are WAY TOO MANY cars in Israel and the cities and older communities are not planned out for them so it's very tight with people parking on the sidewalk, sideways, backwards, this way and that - if they only enforce their parking the country would be RICH!!!) however we never saw any signs for the gardens, or the subway or anything else that I remembered and I never remembered the views facing a port and a large industrial area. Also everything was in Russian or Ethiopian (Israel's two most recent immigrant populations i.e., within the last 20 yrs, and a very large one that) and the neighborhoods in general looked quite run down) so we started to ask around and were told that we were on the wrong hilltop, we needed to go the other side of the Haifa.

Wow - Haifa is really big and spread out. All this time, I only thought it was this tiny city on Mt. Carmel. We finally managed to work our way over to the other hilltops and now it was time to find a tourist center or a hotel. Each time we asked someone, they made a ew-wha sound and told us we were really far from where should needed to be. David was getting nervous, Natalie really had to find a bathroom, and I was still confident that as long as we are near one of the Universities, there had to be some hotels. Around and around and around we went going up and down the hills, until we finally saw an indoor mall. Natalie and I jumped out to find a bathroom for her and everyone kept pointing towards the inside. Finally, one restaurant had a restroom and as we were walking away, I noticed a woman sitting alone at table. I swear I knew her, so I whispered to Natalie that let's pretend we are looking out the window and to walk back near her so I could get a second look. OMG, it was a woman that belong to our shul, who now was studying Torah in Jerusalem for three years and was in Haifa to do a three month intense Hebrew-language class. I told her our situation, but she apologized that this was only her second day in Haifa and she was living in the dorms and knew nothing about the area . Natalie then noticed out the window, that David and Noah were heading towards the mall but they didn't know where we were, so we started to race around the mall, trying to head them off so we all wouldn't get lost. Whew, we found them, and I showed him our surprise.

After we said our goodbyes, I learned that just down the street are many hotels, so we leisurely went grocery shopping and then started towards all the hotels, many of them 5*s. We didn't care at that moment. We just wanted to settle in, then go out and enjoy the Carmel center. EVERY hotel we called or drove by was completely booked. We did managed to find one on the list who did have a few rooms. My gut told me that this was going to turn out bad, but what choice did we have. It was already 8pm, the kids hadn't eaten yet, we were tired, and David was still under the weather. They wanted $145 for the room - one bed (really a thin mattress on a box) and two cots for the kids. As I walked in the lobby, I felt uncomfortable -it was old, stained carpets, banged up, etc, but I wasn't going to pass any judgement until I saw the room. What a dump. I told the guy no thank you and he didn't even bat an eyelash, he just took the key and we left. So we kept trying to find the Holiday Inn by driving around in circles. The traffic was so bad, even on a Monday evening and the side streets very tight to drive down. In our quest to find the hotel, we stopped and asked a taxi driver for help. He asked if we tried all the hotels including the Har Carmel. He promised us that this hotel was nothing like the previous one and he even called them to find out if they had any rooms. He then got back into the taxi and had us follow him. The hotel looked very nice on the outside and we were relieved that we had such good fortune. We wanted to tip him, but he refused. We went inside and even though the room was expensive ($215) I was hopeful. The lobby looked well worn and the front desk also seemed worn, but it was a room. He told us that the rate was so high because of the extra beds for the kids and that it was in their other building across the parking lot. He wanted to be paid in full up front, so we did and began our journey. Journey is a great word here because it's now way late and as we stood in the parking lot, we had no clue which apt bldg he was referring to. David finally figured it out and went upstairs to check the room. When he came back down, I asked how it was and he seemed a little hesitant. "They just finished making the children's beds and the sheets all look clean." "What about our room?" I asked. "It's acceptable." "Acceptable? What does that mean? - This is costing us over $200 and it's only acceptable?" "Well, your standards are different than mine and there are some things about it that you may not feel comfortable about."

So we headed towards it. Again, as I was walking towards the lobby, little details started to pop out which gave away it's true character. This place, I just knew was going to be a dump, perhaps one step higher than the last one, BUT, I will just go and see how bad it is. If perhaps we were paying $50 or so for the place, I probably wouldn't be so upset, but having to climb 4 flights of stairs to the room, only made matters worse. Once in there, it looked ok but I wasn't sold. Then Natalie and Noah started to screamed about a roach, so I went to look at what they were talking about. Sure enough, they had opened one of the cabinets and there was this long-ass, at least 3 inch roach dead roach. That was enough for me to say, no thanks, I will sleep in the van. We got our money back and drove away, thankful to have escape that roach motel, so we thought.

to be continued... the ambassadors

(goodnight - need sleep, need sleep, need sleep in a bed!)