russia: gatchina

The way I'd booked my train tickets, I had a day in St Petersburg but wasn't going to sleep there. My trains arrived and departed from the same train station, so I decided to leave my bag in luggage storage, and do a day trip.

Gatchina is a city of more than 90,000 residents, around 45 kilometers south of St Petersburg.

The city was first documented in 1499, when it was known as Khotchino. Then it was known as Gatchina. Then it was called Trotsk. Then it was called Krasnogcardeysk. The name was changed to Lindemannstadt when the Germans controlled the area during WW2. The name was finally changed back to Gatchina near the end of WW2.

By any standards, that is a rather long list of names for just one city. Most of the name changes occurred in the 20^th century, I wonder what those who lived through the changes think of all the names.

During the first couple centuries of documented existence, Gatchina was part of Sweden and Russia, as the two empires were fighting over the area for a loooong time.

In 1765 Catherine the Great bought the town and manor, then gave them to Count Orlov, who is said to be responsible for organizing the assassination of Tsar Peter III. 

The assassination is what made her empress of the Russian Empire, so it was basically a huge thank you gift.

Over the next twenty something years, Orlov built the huge palace (which has 600 plus rooms,) as well as the gardens surrounding the palace. After Orlov died, Catherine bought the palace/estate from the family, and passed it on to her son, the future Tsar Paul I. Paul focused his changes on developing the town from a village, giving it Imperial City status after he was crowned.

After the death of Tsar Paul I, the palace and city stayed in the possession of the royals, most of whom made at least a few changes to the palace. Some of the rulers spent more time in the palace than others, though Tsar Alexander III seems to have made it his main residence, and spent the majority of his life there. It was this tsar who introduced the modern concepts of indoor heating, telephones, electric lights, non-freezing water pipes, and a proper sewage system.

The last tsar of Russia, Nicholas II spent his childhood at Gatchina, but ended up making Tsarskoye Selo his main home.

In the early 20^th century the city was the home of one of the first airfield in the country, and was a center of aviation and engine technology, according to Wikipedia.

After the civil war, and ending of the imperial system in Russia, the palace became a museum, which was open as such until 1941. The Germans who left after controlling the area for around three years looted the palace and vandalized the gardens when they left in 1944.

When initial damage estimates were taken, much of the palace was considered irreparable.

Restoration was done in part of the palace, it took more than 60 years. Wikipedia tells me a good portion of the palace is still closed and unrestored, and this area includes the parts most important to Tsar Alexander III. The government was able to get back some of the looted artwork, though far from all of it.

I took one of the first elektrichkas from St Petersburg to Gatchina, arriving when it was still dark outside. At this time of year, even after the sun has officially risen, everything seems really dark for a few hours. Argh.

The front of the train station has a view of the street leading right to the palace, with the city itself basically behind and off to the right of the palace. I started walking, since I needed to kill a couple hours before the palace opened to tourists.

The city center of Gatchina isn't big. When I say city center I guess I mean the tourist center, which is really close to the palace and grounds. On my way to this area I passed a stelae designating Gatchina as a city of military glory. This stelae was just like most of those I've seen, with the stelae in the middle, and four cubes on four corners, with the sides of each cube showing a 'view' of what has happened in the military history of the city.

I passed a church, but there was a service taking place as I went in, so I took no photos inside. I passed multiple bakeries, most of which were just opening up. I was very tempted to buy multiple items as they all looked good, but for once in my life I used willpower not to do so. All these areas were in a pedestrian area, which was decorated for the holidays.

I took advantage of the lake of people to take a photo of myself sitting on a sled being pushed by a snowman, hee hee. I imagine many of the locals and visitors take the same  photo. 

I found another church, where another service was taking place, so I didn't even go in this one. Even though I'd been walking for a while, and the sun had officially risen, it was still so very dark and gray. This is the kind of light that shows up in photos as blue, yuck. When I looked at my watch I realized it was time to walk back toward the palace and gardens, as opening hours were coming.

I was thrilled to discover that there was no entry fee to the gardens at this time of year. Granted, everything was covered in snow or ice, and the lighting was all flat or dark gray. Sigh. Even so, I wandered around for a while, enjoying the peace and quiet. I didn't explore all of the grounds though, I would consider coming back in summer, as I assume the landscaping would be quite nice. I decided to go in the palace before seeing all of the garden area for one main reason: I was cold. It was windy and cold, and my fingers were not having a fun time with trying to take photos outside.

The entry fee to the palace was only 500 rubles, which I think is a cheaper off season price. There was no foreigner price that I could see, which made me happy. As with other royal palaces in Russia, there is a huge coat check area, I was also able to leave my snack bag there.

In general, Gatchina palace wasn't nearly as fancy as some of the others I've seen, but it was still over the top of anything I'd ever consider for my own home. I wonder what it was like before the Germans looted the place. I did like the Greek Hall, which curves around and was particularly aesthetically appealing.

I'm not sure if there is a specific route for going through the palace, to see everything. I'm pretty sure I missed some areas, as I kept coming to 'intersections' where you had to choose which way to go, and who knows if I went the 'right' way.

In the middle of the palace there is a big marble stairwell, which is quite impressive, if you're into that sort of thing. Even though this palace was less grand than what I've seen previously, there were still grand ceilings and chandeliers, as well as nifty intricate wooden floors.

If you join a tour group through the palace, I'm pretty sure your tour guide will be in fancy dress (costume.) I saw a number of groups following people dressed in period appropriate clothing, none of which looked comfortable. Despite that, they were all smiling, which is impressive in a country where people generally don't smile at strangers.

After leaving the palace, I went straight back to the train station, as I knew there was a train leaving soon. I could've stayed in town longer, but if I'd missed that train, the next one was three hours later, or something like that.

When I got back to St Petersburg I made my way (by metro and walking,) to the Transfiguration Cathedral, which is quite big. The original chuch was built in the mid 18^th century, then was destroyed by a fire in August of 1825. Only the exterior walls and a few sacred objects were saved. A rebuild was done immediately afterward, lasting four years. Further renovation took place on the facades and interior took place from 1946-1948, after WW2 affected the church.

The transfiguration Cathedral is on a short list of churches in Russia that have had religious services through their entire existence, even during the wars, and Soviet times.

This church is dark yellow on the outside, with Greek looking columns in front. Very grand, but not too complicated. Wikipedia tells me this is Empire Style.

After that I walked to another church, but this one was much smaller, and far less grand. Even so, I liked it. From there it was a walk back to the place where I'd eaten dinner the few days earlier. I knew the food was good at reasonably priced, and it was warm enough for me to kill a couple hours.

The walk from dinner back to the train station was long, dark, and windy. Thank goodness for warm clothing :) As always, I know I'll be back, it's just a question of when.

russia: pushkin and st petersburg

Most people who come to visit Russia have a limited amount of time to explore the country. Russia is so big that it is pretty much impossible to see everything, even if that's your job. (And I don't think that job exists in Russia, but I could be wrong.)

Rachel came to Russia with about a week and a half to see what she could. I know that Moscow and St Petersburg are the cliche cities of the country, but that's for good reason. They have heaps to see and do, great public transportation, and fabulous food. 

No matter how much time you spend in each city, you can always find something new.

I wrote that explanation for why Rachel and I went to St Petersburg for the weekend she was in Russia, instead of a smaller, less known town or city. We took the train of course, because that's the best transport system in the country.

For the first and only time (so far,) that I've been in Russia, the conductor in our train wagon did not come in and wake us up before arriving in St Petersburg. I woke up, and immediately checked my watch to see if I should go back to sleep.

I was shocked when I realized it was after our arrival time, and we had already arrived in St Petersburg. I had no idea how long the train was scheduled to wait in St Petersburg, but I did not want to get stuck on the train until it stopped again, not knowing when or where that would be. (The final destination was Helsinki!) I woke Rachel up and rushed us off the train, then took a big breath to calm down.

We stayed in the station for an hour or two, getting ourselves sorted out. After waiting around, we got on the metro, and rode to Pushkinskaya station, because it is right next door to Vitebsky Railway Station. 

I'd already seen this station, but I still love it as it is one of the oldest stations in St Petersburg, and has classical architecture.

Plus, this was the station from which the elektrichka train we wanted was scheduled to depart. It took us a while to figure out where to find tickets for this station, Rachel figured that out. Soon enough, we were on our way to Pushkin.

There was a manor and estate on this spot as early as 100 years before Pushkin was officially founded in 1710 as the village to support a royal palace called Tsarskoye Selo. 

The land was first ruled by the Swedes, with people being documented here all the way back to 1501. Wikipedia tells me how the name of the place changed in various languages, and how it came to be Tsarskoye Selo.

Fun fact: the first public railways in Russia started here in 1837, called Tsarskoye Selo Railways. After the October Revolution the town was renamed Detskoye Selo; then in 1937 the name was changed again to Pushkin, to commemorate the 100^th anniversary of the death of the famous Russian poet.

Current population of Pushkin is around 92,000, it is 25 kilometers south of St Petersburg.

The train station in Pushkin is pretty lame, especially when you think that it was established as a place to support a royal palace. Oh well. We got off the train and started walking up the main street right in front of the station.

Even though it was only the end of September, it had been cooler weatherwise, so the trees were much further along in their anuual rainbow than in Moscow. We got to see that as we walked, and it was awesome.

The walk to get to the palace and palace grounds took us past a church. The church itself wasn't very interesting, but the landscaping around it was quite photogenic. As we walked by we didn't see an open door, which was disappointing for me. (I love looking inside churches, Rachel isn't an art fan.) Oh well.

We got to palace grounds a bit before they officially opened, but not by a long time, so it was easy to wait. The park around the palace has an entry fee, separate from the entry fee for the palace. The grounds are extensive, and we got lucky in so many ways.

The sky was grey, but not a flat grey. The trees were all sorts of colours. It was not raining. The temperature was chilly but not too cold. I write all these things to say it was a fantastic day to take photos. We went into the park as soon as we could, and wandered around with no real goals in mind.

We loved the big pond, (which is really a small lake, but I wasn't the one who came up with the name,) and the reflections it created. We found the pyramid, I'm not sure what it actually is.

There was a small Chinese bridge we did not see, since we didn't look carefully enough at the map ahead of time. We also enjoyed a small building that looked quite similar to the main palace. I don't know what it was, but I imagine there are temporary exhibitions inside from time to time.

The palace opens to independent visitos at 1200, and the queues begin about 30 minutes before then. There are two routes for going through the palace, with separate entrances for each of them. 

I don't think it's possible to pay one fee and go through both routes, but I think that's what we did, though unintentionally.

Finding the right place to queue was a bit of a guessing game, I didn't really know where we should go. We paid our fees, put our coats and bags into coat check, then started to follow the crowds.

Like every other royal palace I've seen in Russia, there was a lot of gold. A LOT OF GOLD. Many grand rooms with fantastic ceilings, beautifully placed mirrors, intricate chandeliers, etc... 

The powers that be did a good job in setting up the palace for tourists, it isn't hard to figure out where to go next. That being said, there are a lot of tourists, so it's hard to take photos without people.

Tsarskoye Selo is the palace most famous for one room: the Amber Room. There is a lot of history and mystery to the room, what you see now is not the original room. (Which disappeared during WW2, and has never been found. There are a lot of ideas about what happened, but nothing has ever been proven.)

The current Amber Room is the one place in the palace where you're not allowed to take photos or video. I'd heard about the room, and read a couple stories, and was ready to be impressed. But I wasn't, and I'm not sure why. The room isn't all that big, and amber isn't very bright. I could see that most people did like the room, I guess I'm the odd one out on that.

By the time we left the palace we were blinged out. I love palaces, but all the gold gets to you after a while. It wasn't hard to find our way back to the train station, where we didn't have to wait too long for the next train back to St Petersburg.

After arriving back in St Petersburg we hopped back on the metro to get to our hostel, a capsule hostel. Capsules are small, but they're private, and relatively cheap, so I'm a fan. After dropping off our bags we walked to one of the most recognized sights in the city: the Church on Spilled Blood.

This church is often mixed up with St Basil's in Moscow, because they both have amazing exterior decorations. Lots of colours, twisting lines, etc... The interiors of the churches couldn't be more different though. 

I tell all visitors its worth seeing the inside of the Church on Spilled Blood, but not worth going inside St Basil's.

Rachel appreciated the interior of the Church on Spilled Blood, but wasn't blown away since she doesn't love art, hee hee. There are mosaic frescoes everywhere, which can be pretty overwhelming if it isn't something you see often. Plus there are heaps of people, and bright colours.

After that I took Rachel to my favourite restaurant in St Petersburg, Namaste. Yum. Both of us crashed early that night.

Our Sunday started with packing up and checking out, then leaving our bags at the hostel. We noticed almost immediately that the weather wasn't amazing, but oh well, that's life. Our first sight of the day was another church, but since I knew Rachel was already a bit churched out after the Church on Spilled Blood from the day before, we didn't go inside this one. 

Instead, we bought tickets to climb up the spiral staircase to get to the walkway that goes around the outside of the rotunda of St Isaacs Cathedral. 

There are fantastic views over the entire city from all the way around the rotunda, and even though I'd seen these views before, I loved them just as much this time. 

The trees were already changing colours, which meant every visible park looked like a rainbow. Just like the last time, I was annoyed by some tourists as they sortof blocked off narrow walkways while trying to take the perfect photo for social media. 

A bit of walking on random streets brought us to the river, which we followed for a while.

We crossed one of the many bridges, which brought us to a small park in the middle of which we found a Solovetsky stone. The stone was brought from the Solovetsky islands, which were the sight of the first gulag camps. The stone honours and remembers everyone who was sent to one of those camps.

Just up the street from this stone is a mosque, decorated like many of those along the former Silk Road trading route. In other words, the outside is gorgeous. Rachel and I took a quick look, but did not go inside. In a future visit I hope I'm able to go inside.

Our next sight was the Museum of Political History in Russia. Both of us enjoy history, and geopolitics, so it was a great museum to visit. It was also pretty intense, as Russia has a very long political history. There were sections for the different chronological parts of Russian history, but the biggest focus was on the Soviet years.

Lots of specific items, lots of photos, lots of propaganda posters, lots of information. There were a lot of medals, clothing, and diplomas. There were also a few big dioramas of what living spaces might've looked like for different people at different times in different parts of the Russian empire.

As we left the museum it had started raining. Not a heavy rain, but still pretty unpleasant. Rachel was satisfied with what we'd seen in the city, so I proposed getting dinner even though it was still pretty early. Back to Namaste :) After that we went to get gelato, I'm usually a sucker for that as well, even when the weather is chilly and rainy, like it was that day.

After eating a lot more than either one of us needed, we went back to the hostel, picked up our bags, and walked to the train station. Goodbye St Petersburg, I will be back.

russia: leningrad on its birthday

When we came back from Suzdal, Tyra and I went back to my flat where she picked up her full pack, then we went straight to another train station in Moscow. I made sure she got on the right night train to St Petersburg, and said I'd see her there the next weekend.

As I said in the previous post, Tyra put a lot of thought into the scheduling of her Russian trip. She ended up spending about a week in Moscow and the surrounding area, then another week in St Petersburg and the surrounding area. 

She stayed with me in Moscow, then went up to St Petersburg. Claire and I arranged to meet up with Tyra for her last weekend in the country. It is never a bad weekend if I'm going up to St Petersburg.

After running to catch our train, we arrived in St Petersburg on time, bright and early at 0450. We'd already arranged to meet up with Tyra around 0630, so we killed time in the train station until then. Tyra's hostel wasn't far from the train station, I used the stairwell of her building to change clothes.

Claire and I left our bags with Tyra's stuff, then all three of us headed to a metro station. We rode the metro to another train station and caught an express train to start a day trip. Our destination was Peterhof.

The train station we pulled into was quite nice, though it didn't look like it got very much traffic. We left the station and started walking, heading into a park straightaway. We were following the crowds, it wasn't hard to figure out where to go.

In the middle of a park was a pond, with a church on the other side of the pond. 

The church was a listed sight in town, but it was completely closed for renovation. Unfortunately it was closed AND completely covered with scaffolding and other stuff, so there was no possibility for a decent photo. Argh.

We walked through the gates to the upper gardens of Peterhof Palace, there was no entry fee to this section of the gardens. Even though we thought we'd arrived fairly early in the morning, there were already plenty of people wandering around, most of them trying to take the perfect instagram photo. The area looked recently landscaped, the flowers were quite pretty.

After wandering a bit, we found the ticket machines. Trust me when I say Peterhof is not a cheap place to visit. We bought tickets to the lower gardens, which were 900 rubles!! That's more than I've paid for anything else I've seen in Russia. We decided to wait on anything else, and see how the day went.

The gardens were crowded, even at that hour of the morning. We started our visit by looking down at the gardens from the patio area on the back side of the palace. There is a waterfall type of fountain here, with a number of layers. 

Quite a few people were waiting around, not moving on, so we decided to wait too.

The wait was worth it. At some point the fountain water started flowing, and we realized the water was flowing in time to music. Pretty cool. We didn't go in the fountain museum, which had been one of the other options on the ticket machine. After a while, we started walking again, aimlessly wandering and hoping we'd see the whole gardens.

We ended up wandering for a few hours. Throughout the gardens there are fountains, some big and some small. 

There are statues too, some bigger than others. There are plenty of trails, none of which were too crowded. The back side of the gardens leads onto a waterway, which was pretty.

We thought about getting food at one of the cafes/food points in the gardens, but the prices were way higher than we wanted to pay.

Instead of paying for food, we chose to pay for a ticket to ride the hydrofoil back to the center of St Petersburg. I think the ride was about 30 minutes, but I'm not sure since I fell asleep. 

Tyra and Claire were kind enough to remind me that I look amazing when I'm sleeping by taking selfies with me. Sigh ;)

The boat dropped us off really close to the Hermitage, which was a great location. From there we walked through the platz in front of the Hermitage, which is normally a great place for people watching. On this particular Saturday a stage was being set up for a concert, which meant the platz was filled with temporary construction.

The sun made it feel like it was still just mid or early afternoon, but our watches said it was a little later than that. We wandered for a little bit, just soaking up the atmosphere of the city. Not only was the weather fantastic, but the city was celebrating it's birthday, so there were people everywhere.

As we walked we accidentally walked into an outdoor exhibit of the transportation museum. It was neat to see the old buses and trams, even if they were somewhat overrun by kids and parents. I love old school stuff.

We went to our favourite restaurant in the city (Namaste,) for dinner, and walked out totally stuffed. Even though we were stuffed we went for the second half of our eating habits in St Petersburg by going to a specific cafe for gelato.

From there we walked back to Tyra's hostel to pick up our bags. At that point we looked at our pedometers and realized we had walked quite a bit that day. It was all worth it, but we could also feel the sunburns from being out in the direct sun all day.

It took Claire and I a while to find the entry to our hostel, but once we were inside, we crashed fast. I'm pretty sure I slept like a rock that night.

The next morning we were up slowly, as usual. We'd arranged to meet up with Tyra again, so we packed up and checked out, left our bags behind, then went to the metro. We found Tyra again at the House of Soviets. Since it was the city birthday weekend, there was a whole lot of decoration all over the platz in front of the building.

The statue of Lenin was surrounded by the decorations and festival stuff, so we weren't able to get close. The fountain was big and actually turned on, yippee!! I love fountains, especially when they run in time to music, as this one did for a little while.

We watched people and took in the fun, then started walking. We didn't have to go far to get to one of the most moving WW2 memorials I've ever seen. This one was in the middle of a big traffic circle, and honoured the city as it fought through just short of three years of seige during the war. For nearly 1000 days, the citizens struggled, but they won. 

The monument is a nearly completed circle, with an obelisk off to one side.

There was a museum under the street as well, which was also fantastic. Surprisingly, the entry fee for foreigners was less than that for Russians, I've never seen anything like that before. The museum had photos and information and items, all related to Soviet life, with the war being the main focus. (Of course.)

After leaving the museum we walked to a church. This one was unusual on the outside, in that it was dark pink, with thin white vertical stripes. 

The inside wasn't as neat as the outside, but not every church can be amazing.

The metro took us back to the city center, then we walked to St Isaacs. Claire had seen it before, but this time we wanted to go up to the walkway around the rotunda, hoping to see the views over the city. With the amazing weather, we couldn't resist. The views were indeed really nice, but we didn't love all the people trying to take selfies. The walkway around the rotunda is big enough for 1.5 people, so if someone is taking a photo, or having a photo taken, there isn't enough room for people to go around. 

From there we went back to our hostel to pick up our packs, then head to dinner. We went back to the same place as the night before, because we love it that much. We also got some of their dishes to go, we really do love it that much.

We ate gelato on the way to the train station, where we found souvenirs for the upcoming World Cup tournament. As usual, we boarded on time, departed on time, and arrived back in Moscow on time.

I will always be happy to return to St Petersburg.

israel: haifa, caesarea, tel megido, acre

getting from tel aviv to haifa was easy...i walked from my hostel to the bus station, then caught the next bus to haifa...arriving in haifa i found out the bus had dropped me off nowhere near where i wanted to be...in order to catch the city bus to the other side of town, i needed to buy a ticket...unfortunately, the ticket machine in the bus station was broken, and they didn't sell tickets on the bus...someone indicated that i should get on the bus anywho, and explain the situation if a ticket checker came along...needless to say, i was thrilled when that didn't happen...no one seemed to care that the machine was broken!

i checked into the place i'd booked, which was apparently just finishing being renovated...they hadn't even taken the plastic covering off the mattress! i did that, as the wrinkly sound was one i didn't want to hear every time i moved on the bed...
after getting myself organized, (which took waaaaay too long, i should've been faster) i set out to explore...i'd read the guidebook a bit, and knew there were a few things i wanted to see before they closed and stayed closed the next day during shabat...

i started with lunch...it turned out the falafel place i was looking for was closed for Boxing Day...really? argh...it wasn't the only place closed, it took me a while to find a place where i could get food relatively quickly...
i took a local bus to the naval clandestine immigration museum...it took me a while to find the entrance, i'm pretty sure walked around the entire place before i found it...the guards at the entry checked every single page of my passport before allowing me in...i'd love to know what they were looking for...i guess i was late in the day, as they didn't charge me an entrance fee, yippee!!

the museum was a lot bigger than i thought, and the way to go through wasn't particularly clear...(it was all written in hebrew)...i'm sure i walked through some areas backward...i loved going through the submarine, and missile ship...awesome :)
stairs across the road from the museum led to elijah's cave, another sight i wanted to see...it didn't look much like a cave, though it was originally carved from rock...people still use the cave for praying, and it is split into two sides, mens' and womens'...

after the cave i climbed up stairs on the hill, and hiked up as well, all the way to a monastery...the church was small, but beautiful...i waited a little while for a particularly loud group to leave, so i could enjoy the beauty in peace...walking along the street back down the hill gave me great views over the port area of haifa...lovely...i got to see the sky change colours as the sun set :)
the falafel place i looked for first for dinner was out of falafel...in a country like israel, who runs out of falafel??? argh...the second place i found by accident, and ended up being the best falafel i had in the entire country...YUM

the next morning i was up early, so i could catch a series of buses to caesarea...it's a set of greek (or roman, i can't remember) ruins...i found my way, i think i was one of the first people to arrive...a beautiful sunny day, right after official opening hours...i loved the hippodrome, it was easy to imagine horse races being held...you can climb up the seats/stairs all around, it's fun...
i didn't like the amphitheater nearly as much, since part of it has been restored, and i didn't think it matched very well...as much as i love seeing history, i don't love restoration of ruins, as it doesn't usually look right...at least, that's my opinion, others may disagree completely...

i also enjoyed the mosaic floor decorations in some areas, and it was fun to figure out what the different rooms would've been in the bathhouse...
after seeing as much as i could, i walked to another bus stop, and caught the first of two buses i needed to get to my next destination...i wanted to see the ruins of tel megido...
the bus dropped me off one stop after where i wanted to be, even though i'd told the driver exactly where i wanted to go...argh...it was not fun walking back along a very busy road full of people driving very fast...quite a few honked at me...

i entered tel megido at 1400...the lady told me the door to one area would close at 1430, so i only had 30 minutes to see everything...what i did instead, was head to that area, and see the tunnel in the underground water system, then work my way back through the ruins...the tunnel was nifty, though a bit humid...i couldn't really see anything special, except that it was a tunnel, and i knew it had once been an important part of a water system...as i went back up the stairs to the rest of the ruins, it felt as though i had the area to myself for a good 30 minutes...awesome!!

as i found out, the exit out of the water tunnel is how most people exit the ruins...there are no other public exits! i ended up trapped in the ruins, i was very lucky the clerk was still there to let me out...eeek! since she had already closed everything, i didn't get the chance to buy postcards, boooo...she took pity on me, and drove me to a set of crossroads, where i could catch a bus...
tel megido isn't very far from haifa...unfortunately, there are direct buses only twice a day, and i had long since missed the late bus...argh...which meant it took me a lot longer to get home than i wanted, but that's part of traveling...i was glad i got home before the buses shut down for shabat...

the next morning was shabat...in other words, a lot of places closed, little to no public transport, etc...fortunately, haifa has quite a few people who are not jewish, so they observe other days of rest during the week...
i walked to the bahai gardens, only to find out that the only part open to the public all the time is just a small section, at the bottom of the hill...the gardens are fully open to tourists only an hour a day, on a tour...i missed that tour time, argh...i should check these things out more carefully, especially when it's a UNESCO sight like these gardens...they're beautifully landscaped...
i ended up seeing some sort of bazaar at the bahai center, i never figured out what i was seeing...

i next wandered through a weekly market in the neighborhood called wadi nisnas...because it was one of the only things happening in town, it felt like EVERYONE in town was there...there were heaps of vendors on the streets, selling food, most of it yummy...i ate too much, of course :)...i had sahlab, orange/carrot juice, stuffed zucchini, bread wrapped around grape leaves, a jello-ish concoction with pomegranet, and falafel...the queues for two different falafel places were crazy long...it's too bad falafel is quite filling, otherwise i would've tried sandwiches from each place to see which was best...

it was crowded to walk around, but it was fun to watch people, both locals and tourists...
the next day i was up early again, to catch a train to acre (akko)...i used google maps on my phone to walk to the old city, which is a UNESCO sight...it must've really been off season, as it felt very very empty...
it wasn't easy to figure out where i was in the old city, as the streets were not at all in a grid system...i kept checking the book map and google maps, and i was never where i thought i was...i would've been lost foreva if i had not had google maps!

one place i did find was the museum of underground prisoners...entry required another very thorough check of my passport, and every item in my purse was examined as well...the exhibits were really well done, and the atmosphere matched...
i hurried back to the train station, and caught the next train back to haifa...i hurried to my favourite falafel stand and got a couple sandwiches to go...then i grabbed my stuff from the guesthouse, and walked to a bus stop to catch a bus to nazareth...
i would go back to haifa, with more planning in terms of time :)