Sightseeing

On Saturdays they supposedly have a "walking tour" in English throughout the city of Haifa. We thought it might help us get acclimated to the city so we showed up at what we thought was the correct spot. We were actually running late :-) but we did see a large group gathered not far from the starting spot so we joined them only to hear everything in Hebrew. Since we are not fluent yet we decided to alter our plans and head toward Akko which is one of the oldest cities in the world. It was amazing to see the strong walls of this Crusaders City. I guess Napoleon said if he had succeeded in his attack here, he would have conquered the whole world.

It was about lunch time and there was a little restaurant open so we walked in to see the menu. We were pleased to see English on the menu and decided to try a Kebab and a Greek Salad. The menu didn't have prices but we thought surely it cant be to expensive for one dish of each. After about 20 minutes the lady brought out our Greek salad which ended up being about 6 different dishes (red cabbage, tuna salad, Greek salad, eggplant & tomato salad, hummus, bread). Although we had just pointed to the English word in the menu we were now not sure what we really ordered. We started eating and much to Ken's surprise he found a beetle in his salad. I decided I wasn't quite as hungry and maybe I should inspect my food a little closer. 20 minutes later the lady brought out the Kebab. It was similar to 3 small hamburgers with French fries. It was quite tasty. Not really sure how much the meal was Ken and I decided it probably wasn’t more than 50 shekels. Okay maybe we were just hopeful it wasn't more than 50 shekels... We went up to the counter and the lady wrote on a piece of paper 70 and circled it. No itemized list of how much each cost. I wondered if we should have bargained with her. Or maybe asked how much the beetle cost. Quite an experience.

In the evening we went for a walk. It's interesting to me the expressions you see on the faces of those you pass. I always try to smile, but they often look like they are unhappy. Maybe they are concentrating? One gal we walked by said "Shabbat Shalom". I wasn't quite sure how to respond. So I just smiled and said Shalom. I think she was looking for a longer response.