Druze villages, Elijah and Bamba

Haifa turned on beautiful weather for our last full day, heralded by a lovely sunrise. We had a few things on the plan (yes, there’s pretty much always a plan), but it was definitely going to be a quieter day - no hustling to read about crusaders or invaders, no rushing to get through tourist attractions, and a fair bit of flexibility which is always nice. And as far as navigating goes we’ve gotten quite used to using Waze in the car, and the son of our dinner hosts last night helped us to work out the settings (all in Hebrew) so that we now at least have English text for the menus. So we ditched Google maps completely and found silent Waze to be more than adequate.

Our first stop was the University of Haifa, high on Mount Carmel, where the main administration building has an observation deck on the 30th floor with the most expansive views over Haifa, the Mediterranean, and far to the north and east. This I discovered while researching Haifa, and once we got through security (yes, I guess you would get used to it in time), located the lifts (you have to love universal symbols), and emerged at the top, we weren’t disappointed. Really it was just a photo opportunity, so here are some of them.

While at the university, we managed to tick off another thing from the plan. We found Bamba, at the Uni coffee shop. So how could we pass up a chance to try this national dish?? It’s kind of a cross between Cheetos and peanut butter, but less salty and no cheese flavour. So think Cheetos texture, but peanut butter flavour, and when in Israel............

From the university, we continued driving over the mountain towards Isfiya and Daliyat Al-Karmel, two Druze “villages” (way too big to be villages by my definition). The Druze people are an Arabic-speaking, monotheistic, Abrahamic religious group, although it’s far more complicated than that from what I can gather, and you should feel free to read about them here if you’re interested!!

The drive was quite pretty, with Druze houses scattered over the green hills, but the Druze towns reminded us a bit of the more populated areas of Bali. We didn’t really get why they were such a tourist attraction but we enjoyed a wander and had some lunch. And a Druze coffee for hubby, which he tried before adding sugar to make it a lot more palatable!

A little further on from Daliyat Al-Karmel, and on the northern slopes of Mount Carmel, is the Carmelite monastery that marks the location of the battle between Elijah and the prophets of Ba’al. We will see this as part of the tour as well, but since we were nearly there we thought it would be good to have a more leisurely time of exploring. The monastery has a statue of Elijah, sword raised, stomping on the head of one of the prophets of Ba’al. But the best part is the rooftop viewing platform from where you can see (or at least see the direction of) Mt Tabor, Mt Hermon, Nazareth, Megiddo, Bet She’arim, Caesarea, Jerusalem, and the Kishon River, among other notable places.

Being such a lovely day, we had a great view. It was a little surreal to be overlooking the plains of Megiddo (otherwise known by its Greek name of Armageddon), the site of the final battle, all green and ordered and lovely..............

We then followed the track to the viewing area overlooking the location of Elijah’s victory. Again, it was a strange experience to stand on the rocks among the sweet wildflowers and wonder if this was where fire came down from heaven........

Driving back to Haifa we decided we couldn’t leave tomorrow without having the requisite supermarket visit. This was recommended by the friendly tour guide on YouTube, who said that in order to truly understand the Israeli way of life, one needs to visit a supermarket. We opted to go to the Grand Canyon shopping mall in Haifa, so that I could buy a warmer coat, since Israel has taken me by surprise with some cold days, and we figured there would be at least one large supermarket there too. The shopping centre was pretty much the same as any in Australia, except of course that we couldn’t read anything much. We found a warm coat (made by Blundstone, in Tasmania, Australia, with the care instructions in Hebrew), located a supermarket, and apart from the language, we couldn’t really see any major differences. Israeli supermarkets are full of healthy food options just like in Australia, as well as plenty of unhealthy food options, just like in Australia.

Perhaps the Israeli tour guide was thinking of some other, less healthy, cultures when he made the video. Anyway, as always it was fun to wander, buy a few things for dinner, and endeavour to work out the Hebrew text (without much success). We also ticked off the last thing on our plan for the day - to find ptitim!