Missy's Travels: Haifa and Akko

Haifa is a nice city with gorgeous views of the Mediterranean, the most important Baha'i Temple in the world, and a huge port. There wasn't much else to do, but that I had a great time anyway largely due to where I stayed. I stayed at a hostel/hotel called the Port Inn which was cheap and in a great location. But the best part was the people I met. On my second day I was hanging out in the lobby, and within minutes I'd met about seven other Americans; we were all young, and all traveling on our own (which is fairly unusual). That afternoon we all bonded watching - get this - the Scripps Nationals Spelling Bee. I don't even know how or why we started watching, but soon we were all sucked in and trying to out-spell one another while the middle schoolers out-spelled us all. I spent the next few days on and off hanging out with this group and had a blast.

Baha'i Gardens

Haifa

While staying in Haifa, I went to Akko for a day. It's an ancient port town (today it's overshadowed by Haifa) that was attacked in turn by the Crusaders, Napoleon Bonaparte, and the British. Considering all the battles Akko has endured it's a wonder anything remains, but the old city is still largely intact and ready for tourists who flock there by the bus load. I loved wandering around the Old City, getting lost in small alleys and exploring ancient buildings. Two of my favorite things were the British Prison Museum and the Crusader's Tunnel (it was only discovered in 1994 after someone complained their toilet was backed up). They were both many hundred years old (awesome) but unfortunately a lot of it looked quite new. That's the problem with restoration - Israel is obviously investing a lot of time and energy into restoring historic places, but sometimes they restore things so well that they look new. This was particularly true of the prison - they were in the process of covering the old, authentic stone cells (cool!) with white cardboard walls (boring). I also happened upon a group of local kids jumping off the city wall into the sea. It looked so fun, and the kids were clearly enjoying themselves.