Random notes:
- Tel Avivians dress much better then in Haifa, i have yet to see an OTB dressed like person.
- Saw people playing beach volleyball. Made me think.
- Takoe oshushenie chto zhizn’ kipit, I vrode lyudi rabotayut, vrode uchatsya, vrode tak zhe kak I v US spyat I kushayut…no v Israele chuvstvuyetsya svoboda, chuvstvuyetsya kakoi-to fontan energii. Mozhet prosto iz-za togo chto ya bila v otpuske? I ne nado putat’ “otpusk” s “PMZH”...

Wed -
Took a train from Haifa to Tel Aviv, which rode along the coast for about 45 minutes.
Got to the hotel around 12...
GREAAAAT location, the room is on the smaller side, yet has a safe, tv, BALCONY which overlooks the marina on the 14th floor. The club access lounge is wonderful as well.

Went to the beach, walked around the hotel, walked on the beach and in the evening met with. We went to old port of Tel Aviv, where there is a promenade...we ate dinner, then went to eat desert at Max Weiner chocolate bar...just great overall. So tasty, had real hot chocolate, ne kakao, a nastoyashiy toplyoniy shokolad - dark chocolate of course.

Thur -
Went to breakfast buffet :) enough said. Went to the beach for a bit, and then after went to Azarel observation tower. What a great view from the 49th floor, 2nd tallest building in Tel Aviv.

The sunset from the balcony of the hotel was unbelievable. The horizon line was pink and purple, and when I woke up from my nap, it looked as though the water was slowly sucking in the bright pink sun. I actually saw the sun disappear from half a circle to a glowing nothing...

On nahoditsya gde-to v 30 metrov ot granici s Lebanon, eshe vishe v gorah. Vse moi predstavleniya o kibutzah razbiti v puh i prah. Nikakih korov, nikakogo zapaha navoza i tolpi molodyozhi poyushie pesni na ivrite. Etot Kibutz bolee menee sovremenniy, na territorii nahoditsya malen'kaya laboratoriya po proizvodstvu contact lenses and lenses for glasses and telescopes. It is a self-contained town with a population of about 500. You can just rent an apartment there, and not work for kibutz. You can live there and have all the necessary 'luxuries' in life such as internet and cable, car and post-office, convenience store etc. Inside they pay for everything with a charge-card which they pay off at the end of the month. You actually need to apply to live there, and go through interview and review process, they have a RIGHT to reject you for no reason and there is no way to argue in court. Currently, all kibutzes are going through a process of privatization, where a person who's a part of a kibutz, will get their own apartment for years of hard work and sharing. Oh, btw, they have a small library, 5 or 6 kindergardens, nursing home, movie theather, many bomb shelters and cafeteria. Vobshe oshusheniya 'dachnogo posyolka': tishina, pokoi, ptichki poyut, derev'ya krugom, chistiy vozduh...
V to vremya kogda mi tam bili, letalo neskol'ko vertolyotov, i dazhe slishalis' vistreli...po spine probezhal holodok, i srazu vspomnilos to, chto mi na granice s Lebanon, i vsyo taki Israel vse hotyat steret' s zemli. Vobshe to v Haife ob etom zabivayesh, spokoino zdes'... edinstvenniy raz u menya proverili sumku, eto bilo kogda mi zahodili v Grand Canyon (ili mall po nashemu).
Da uzh, v kibutz ne poyedu zhit' :) Hotya nedel'ku otdohnut' ot suyeti mirskoi mozhno i navernoe dazhe nuzhno.

Next stop of our trip was the Lebanese border (Rosh Ha Nikra), it has a beautiful all natural beach, and we were driving along the coastline during our whole trip.═ It used to have a railroad sometime ago, but during the "bridge war", the jews blew up all the bridges so that arabs wouldn't be able come closer.

The air is amazingly fresh, the views from the top are undescribable... The water is green, not like on the beaches i've been to so far where it is a gorgeous shade of blue.

Sama skala gde nahoditsya granica, belaya. Tam kakoi-to osobenniy tip kamnya, kotoriy viglyadit kak mel.

Tishina, shum voln, inogda proyezhayushie mashini.
Esli smotret' vverh vidish solnce i zelyonie gori, kotorie videli kogda stoyali na krishe zdaniya v University.
Haifa bila ne vidna, t.k. bila lyogkaya dimka tumana. Za morem nahoditsya Turkey...

Among other things it is famous for the fact that Jews & Arabs live together in same buildings, all intermixed. The old city is gorgeous, together with the port, the new buildings create an interesting backdrop for the old stones. We walked around the city, which is basically a museum but what is amazing is the fact that people still live there, v etih krepostyah. The tiny streets with cobblestone, contain stores, the smells are of spices, sweat, sea, sweets...Colorful clothes.

Speaking of clothes, we saw about 30 Arabic women coming off a cruize boat, they were all wearing the same outfit...and just the sheer number of them was overwhelming. Tak oni i zhivut, pryachas' za dlinnimi plat'yami i zakrivaya svoi volosi platkami.

Mesto drevnih raskopok po puti iz Tel Aviva v Haifu.

Kogda to eto bili port i krepost, tam zhe nahodilsya letnyaya rezedenciya Pontiya Pilata. Tam est' raskopanie sadi, i tavernya, tam pesheri, i vidno neskol'ko raznih pokladki kamnei.═ Etu krepost' otvoyovivali mnogo raz, tam bili i greki, tam bilis za neyom mamlyuki, turki i.t.d.═ Tam zhe nahoditsya amfiteatr kotori k sozhaleniyu bil zakrit, no letom tam obichno prohodyat koncerti pod otkritim nebom s shumom voln as background noise.═ Samoi kreposti bol'she tryoh tisyach let.═ Stranniy i konfliktnie misli proskalzivali u menya v golove stupaya po etim drevnim kamnyam.
S odnoi storoni naskol'ka ya, moya zhizn i moi problemi nichtozhni po sravnenieyu s tremya tisyachami let, s drugoi storoni...YA vsyotaki chast' chelovechestva, esli dazhe YA shagayu po etim kamnyam, vmeste i ryadom s drugimi lyud'mi.

Uzhe podhodil zakat, i solnce svyatilo tak zhe kak i tri tisyachi let nazad, more bilos' o tezhe samie kamni, lyudi tak zhe dishali, boleli, radovalis, pili, spali, lyubili i umirali. Cycle of life ne izmenilsya!

Uyehali iz Kesarii s neohotoi i otlichnim nastroyeniyem...

Beach - nakonec-to dobralas' ili sbilas' mechta idiota. Nu kak mozhno peredat' ili raskazat' nezhniy shelest voln, krasotu voln b'yushihsya ob bereg, i teplo peska. Zdorovo. prosto zdorovo. Can't wait to go back.

University - Breathtaking view from a roof-top of a building the size of a football field (da, extraprise rooftop has lost its appeal) ...young boys and girls with back packs.

Druz village - tourisy shops, beautiful villas being built, religious arab men with weird looking pants for catching the Prophet Mohamed when he returns from the sky as a baby.

Grand Canyon - nasha mestnaya mall, kotoraya uhodit pod zemlyu v tri etazha.

Otsuplenie - tualeti - razdel'nie...tochno kak v anekdote 'banya a razdevalka cherez dorogu'. Na samih bochkah dve ruchki ili knopki - nu dogadayetes' sami :)

Haifa - gori, gori, les, more, gori, more, ogni... Krasota...duh zahvativayet i ushi zakladivayet. Gori, doma napolovinu spryatannie v gori, ogni, dorogi mezhdu gor, visota, oshushenie svobodi i prostranstva, spokoistvie dushi)

Beach called Francheska - The people overall are great looked and dressed well. While some are definately OTB, others are just independant and original.

Shopping - OTB, 86th NYC or even Canal St., sumatoha, malen'kie magazinchiki, marshrutki. Lyudi odeti raznoshorstno.