travelling around

I have been travelling a bit and doing some good old fashion sightseeing the last couple of weeks.I don't want to miss a thing, and I need to do the most out of these months in all aspects.For me travelling around and seeing places is one of them.
Some weeks ago I went with a friend and her cousin and his kid to a place located between tel aviv and Jerusalem. My friend is half Palestinian, half Chilian, and her cousin is Palestinian.He has however the Jerusalem ID-card. This makes it possible for him to drive and move around within Israel. Palestinians with West Bank ID cannot.
The place we went to is in a beautiful nature area, and there is a famos cave there. It was amazing to go into the cave with its formations.






I generally enjoy travelling by car, and during the drive to the cave I saw very green areas, I saw pretty villages, olive trees and other things. I also saw less pleasent things such as soldiers and settlements.

The people at the office were invites for a trip to the Saba Monastery. It is located in the middle of the desert, and the drive to the monastery and the monastery itself really took my breath away. The monastery itself is built on one side of a valley, and it really is steap there. If you fall you fall and die.


the picture here isn't really giving the right impression, it is dificult to spot the big gap between the monastery and the other side of the mountain.


Our guide for the day practically forced us to go out on the big rock here.We didn't actually know that we wern't standing on solid ground untill after when seeing it from another angle...


Vera. She is from the youth group.





Haifa, Akka, Tel Aviv, Jaffa & Al Quds
Last week Runa, Martha and I went on a four day travel to different places and cities. The first stop was Jerusalem where we finally entered the haram al sharif where the dome of the rock and the al aqsa mosque are located(two very holy cites for muslims). It is also where the jewish temple was situated before it was destroyed.









Reading about the site.....





I think that it is just so beautiful there, and the dome of the rock is for me one of the symbols of the city of Jerusalem. the jewish wall is another one.(offcourse not the wall around Betlehem!!!!)

After seeing what was worth to see we decided to go for lunch. We went for Sushi since the 3 of us are addicted to sushi. And it was so worth it, it was delicious.






Haifa
After lunch we took the bus to Haifa where we would be spending the night.Haifa is in the north of Israel, and it took us about 2-3 hours to reach the city.When we arrived we found quikly our hostel with the help of a very nice lady who insisted in following us three norwegians to our destination.
We had been quite lucky with the lodging cause both the room, the staff and the location was good.After a horrible experience with an enormous lack of manners at the bus station with israelis pushing and acting selfish in order to get into the bus(it was overwhelming to see how rude even an orthodox jew can be)we were thrilled to be received in a friendly enviroment.
We went out for dinner and poor Runa really missed big time when she ordered an arabic salad. Normally we get this salad with other salads or with something on the side at least.There is a limit to how much parseley one can eat.



We then went out for a drink and finally ended up in a bar full of internationals and israelis. It was a very interesting conversation I had with a soldier serving in Gaza at the moment.




Settler Betty strikes again


The following morning I felt like going for a walk to see the beach. The weather was perfect and nice and warm, and the sea was blue greenish and soo soo beautiful.


the foot print again...


I heart!!!


In the afternoon we went to see the famous Baha'i Gardens. It was just as I had pictured it; perfect. We went on a guided tour seeing as this was the only way to get in to the garden. But for free.






view from the main entrance of the garden.


Later that day we went out for dinner, but the weather changed so quickly and all the sudden Haifa reminded me more of Bergen...


Our route: blue for tour, purple for retour


Akka
The next day we decided to go to Akka. It is 20-30 min away from Haifa and was definetly worth the trip. We did not go to the new part of Akka, we focused mainly on the old, arabic part. It is right next to the sea, and the city has this port-city feeling. I really felt good there despite of the fact that it was raining a bit and it was cold.


We are happy!!!


Runa is happy.I love this pictures








The fascinating market of Akko....after 3 months here the variety of spices still catches my atention




Tel Aviv/Jaffa
We continued in the afternoon to Tel Aviv where we were going to spend the night. We went out for dinner at an ethiopian restaurant, and later continued at a bar. It was a really good night








The next day I woke up early and decided to go for a walk by the sea since our hostel was practically next to the sea. I sat down and enjoyed the view of surfers and great waves. When I lived in the basque country I used to go sometimes to to surf early in the morning at 9-10. It was so nice to be awake so early in the morning and go surfing and be in the water, so I felt kind of jealous of the surfers...(Even if I suck bigtime in surfing :P )



Runa and I were extremely tired after breakfast so while Martha went to see some museums we had a rest on the beach. And it was very nice.


We later moved to Jafa to see the old city. I was so impressed by everything. Not only the beautiful view to the sea, but also the old buldings and the carisma and atmosphere of the city.WOW!

View from Jafa


The market was also worth the trip. I wish I had a lot of money cause I saw sooo many things there...The market for the one who has everything...Cause here you turn materalistic.Everything from chairs to perles to skirts to TVs to red designer shoes to dolls from the last century....Wonderful!


Runa found her favourite glasses...




When it got close to sunset we met Martha at the beach and stayed there some 10-15 min before leaving for home. I enjoyed taking pictures with the sunlight.










I have to renew my Visa this week(Thank you Israel) so I decided to go home to Norway for a long week. I will spending Christmas here in Bethlehem with Martha's family and I will miss my family for sure. Offcourse I do not want loose my possibility to spend x-mas in the Christmas citiy of all christmas cities in the world, and be in the most christmassy church in the world on christmas eve(wow many christmases in one sentences). But there is no secret I will miss my family, so this trip is a good compensation. I feel very good here and I know how lucky I am, but I am looking forward to go home for some time.