Rosh Hanikra

Rosh Hanikra is famous for it's chalk cliffs that plunge into the blue Mediterranean and the grottoes the sea has carved into the white rock below.

On the day we drove to the north-western most point in Israel (right on the Lebanese border) to see the cliffs and grottoes, the air was full of haze, and the normally cheerful sun was replaced by overcast sky.

However, apparently this was not a regular cloudy day, but the result of dust blowing overland from the deserts and filling the sky with gray. It was kind of interesting, but it did take a lot of sparkle out of the Mediterranean.

Welcome to the sea & the rock love story...
This is actually the Lebanese border. Naive Canadian that I am, I snapped this picture, but after Jack told me not to take anymore. Apparently the military might not appreciate my photography skills.
At this point we were actually closer to Beirut than to Jerusalem (only 120 kilometers to Beirut), although the border between the two countries is actually closed.

After a quick cable-car ride down the mountain, we head into the tunnels to see the grottoes...
First glimpse of the startling blue...

There was lots of moisture in the air that made mossy green stuff on the rocks.

Hadas, Jack's younger sister. She is 19 and halfway through her time in the army.

And Mor, Jack's younger brother, who has just started studying at the Technion in Haifa, Israel's prestigious university of technology.

After all that walking around in the fresh air we were quite hungry and stopped in at a restaurant in the next community to eat some fantastic lunch. We had fresh lemonade, Israeli salad, pita bread and a couple of different hummus dishes.

The hummus in Israel is amazing. That's it in the bowl closest to the camera, covered in olive oil, green onion and beans. Most delicious hummus I've ever eaten. We also had a few kababs and some rice, but I was all about the HUMMUS.

For desert Hadas and Mor had tea with nana (like spearmint but better) and Jack and I had Turkish coffee (my first time), which was really pretty interesting.

Turkish coffee is thick and really, really strong. You drink it black, no sugar, no milk, but there is something inherently spicy about it and it's really quite tasty. You sip it, but then you never drink the whole cup because the bottom of the cup is full of chalky coffee stuff and it is yucky. We also had tiny squares of melt-in-your-mouth baklava, which was also delicious.

After, we drove around trying to find this park, where it said in my Israel guide book, there was a large and very impressive natural arch made out of rock. It was worth the effort to find the place, because the arch was impressive indeed!

View from the mountain we were on top of..

And here is the arch! See Jack on top?!? It was way bigger than we expected and it is kind of poised over a huge cliff that plunges down the side of the mountain.

Apparently, some crazy people rappell down into the valley below. I didn't even like Jack standing on it and kept shouting at him to get off (as soon as I took my picture :P). It must be somewhat structurally safe though, since they let people walk on it at all. At least I hope so.

The other neat things we saw in the park with the arch were these goats!!! They were so cute and quite friendly. The black one was a male and he was very personable, but the rest were female and they were more shy.
Mor actually pet him, and although I was scared he would bite Mor, all he did was push his furry little forehead on against his knee.

Mor also tried to feed him a flower, which he sniffed and then sneezed explosively all over the place.
They were so cute, like little dogs. They wagged their tails all the time.

Tel Aviv & Yafo

We cruised into Tel Aviv, past skyscrapers and million dollar condos, past people in trendy clothing shops and cafes, couples strolling holding hands and people playing volleyball in the sand in the city built on a beach.

I love Tel Aviv. Of course I haven't seen even close to all of it yet, but I have seen enough to know that this is a city I would like to spend a few years living in. A beautiful, sunny apartment with Jack, days spent wandering the beaches, shopping for fruit and vegetables at the sprawling Shouk Carmel, browsing the stalls at Friday's artist market on Nachlat Binyamin, hitting upscale clubs on the weekends. Sounds like quite the life, doesn't it? Ahhh well, I can always dream...

View of the city from Yafo, the old port and the oldest quarter of Tel Aviv.
Yafo is full of beautiful old buildings.
We stopped at a cafe that owns the patio in the left of this photo, where we sat outside and drank coffee. Well, Jack drank coffee, I had fresh squeezed grapefruit juice.

One thing I must say about Israeli coffee: it is invariably wonderful. For coffee lovers like myself and Jack, it is like coffee paradise. Lattes are always perfect, not too strong, not too weak, with beautiful frothy milk on top. Mmmm... I want one right now :)


The streets of Yafo are tiny and winding, with lots of cool little shops and galleries to explore.
He loves having his picture taking, can't you tell?


Hamsas for sale at the artist market on Nachlat Binyamin. Hamsas are, hands down, the most ubiquitous thing in Israel. Hamsas are everywhere. Every shop, every house, every cafe, everywhere.

Basically it is meant as a protective hand, the hand of God. More specifically, it can be thought to ward off the evil eye, which is a huge thing in all Middle Eastern cultures I have encountered. Jack bought me a beautiful hamsa made of blue Australian opal that I wear around my neck. You can see it in this post.