Tel Aviv and Haifa

After a long and somewhat sleepless night on the floor of Sabiha Gocken airport in Istanbul, during which we were "kindly inwited" over the PA system to board several thousand planes, Kelly, Chris and I arrived in Tel Aviv. Unfortunately, my preparations for a border-crossing-worst-case-scenario ended up being necessary, Chris and I were detained at the border for intensive questioning due to our recent travels in Iraq. The security guards could not understand why someone who was not Muslim would have any interest in religious sites in Iraq, despite the fact that we visited primarily Yazidi (not Muslim) sites. As we sat under the fluorescent lighting, fellow travellers regaled us with horror stories of their previous trips, where they were detained for 3-5 hours each. Thinking of Kelly stressing on the other side of security, and nervously watching the hours before Shabbat (the Jewish day of rest, when public transport and most stores and restaurants close) tick away was not a super pleasant experience, but we were released relatively quickly and were able to get on our way only a couple hours off schedule.

Plodding through the sunny streets of Tel Aviv, weighted down by our rather large backpacks, we noticed a lot of rainbows and fabulous looking people. By a stroke of luck, we had arrived on the day of Tel Aviv's legendary gay pride parade. The colourful people and interesting street art provided a welcome distraction from the sweat dripping down our backs while we walked from hostel to hostel in a modern-day reenactment of Mary and Jo's search for accommodation in the holy land. Eventually we found a place downtown, very near the beach, who were willing (for an exorbitant price) to put us up in sun loungers on their rooftop. We spent our first evening in TV walking the beautiful beach front board walk, marvelling at the absurdly toned and tanned bodies of the locals running past or doing very public chin ups. It was really cool to see all the people who are or support gender and sexual minorities having such a good time as well. Due to several nights of no sleep, we opted out of the party, which judging by the stragglers heading home when I woke up with the sun in the morning, was quite something.

We spent our next couple days seeing what Tel Aviv has to offer (it wasn't enough time!). We relaxed on the beaches, which I think may house the softest sand in the world - it seriously feels like walking on pastry flour! We loved exploring the colourful streets, which offer amazing artistic viewing, both of the hipsters in their crazy outfits that blend western and middle eastern garb, and of the street art, which is everywhere and encompasses mediums from busking to graffiti to sculpture. We spent an afternoon exploring the Tel Aviv Museum of Art, which had an impressive collection of the masters with pieces by Van Gogh, Klimt, Picasso and Degas, some truly bizarre modern art (I may be an unrefined heathen, but it often left me confused - from the background Kelly cries "that's the point!!"), and my favourite, a very thought provoking exhibit by artist David Reeb, called "Let's Have Another War", featuring paintings and video pieces about the Israeli occupation of the Palestinian Territories. On our final day, we trekked out to the beautiful green campus of Tel Aviv University, which houses Beit Hatefutsoth, or the Museum on the Jewish Diaspora. It was well set up with interesting dioramas, but I felt that information was lacking; for example, the circumcision exhibit, which I was interested to understand more from a religious perspective, due to my strong belief that any body modification (particularly when it is done for non-medical reasons) should be done with the informed consent of the person concerned, said only "Jewish boys are circumcised on the 8th day of their life. It is a covenant with God." However, it was interesting to see the ways that Jewish culture and history throughout the diaspora are presented to visitors, and it was a noteworthy celebration of Judaism. For anyone visiting the campus or museum in future, the museum café's iced coffees are amazing, and I credit them with saving me from friendship-threatening heatstroke.

Last night we took a late bus to Haifa, where we made our way to a more distant beach and stumbled about in the dark looking for somewhere to pitch our tent. It turns out that our night vision leaves something to be desired, because although we were not arrested for illegal camping, we awoke on a dirty bit of beach next to a serious construction zone where people were working, casting us confused and unimpressed looks. Undeterred, we packed our bags and sought a hostel to store it for us.

Unfortunately, due to the security situation in Israel, that is not possible, and we had a solid day-long workout carrying our giant packs around. We descended several hundred stairs through the stunning Bahai Gardens, where the Bab, the leader of their faith, is buried in a golden domed temple. The world's youngest monotheistic religion, Baha'i faith centralizes around a belief in the equality and unity of all people, regardless of religion, gender, or nationality. The terraced gardens on the slope of Mt. Carmel, where Elijah the prophet lived and worked miracles, are a pilgrimage site, one of two that all Bahai must visit in their lives. Pilgrims must climb thousands of stairs that lead through the gardens, stopping to pray or meditate, signifying not only physical but spiritual elevation. The beautiful flowers, bushes, symmetry, fountains and location of the garden are breathtaking (it's not just the oppressive heat!) and we enjoyed the tour. This evening we made our way to Akko, which has a much more mixed population than Tel Aviv and the areas of Haifa that we visited. It's nice to see more of the diversity that Israel has to offer, and it is nice to hear the call to prayer, I was missing it. The adventure continues! And we will sleep well in our first beds in 4 nights.