Nature Within

Last Weekend I went to Haifa.
When I first asked my friends if I could sleep at their flat for the weekend, it looked like I would have a nice and quiet weekend. When I went to the busstation in Jerusalem, which is about 30 minutes from my house, I ended up meeting three other volunteers, who also wanted to go to Haifa! And when we arrived in Haifa, we found out that one of the volunteers in the appartment where we stayed had his family over for the week, so we ended up beeing eleven people in this 3 bedroom appartment. It was crowded but cossy. Friday, we decided to go to the infamous beach in Haifa. The volunteers in Haifa live on top of the Carmel Mountains, about 60 minutes by foot down to the beachside. The group splits: Three of us took the bus, while the other three (me included) went down and hicked through the beautifull valley that leads down to the beach. The way was more interesting then expected. Who would think that within Haifa lies one of the most interesting naturesides I have seen so far. The spring has arrived in Haifa and everything was starting to bloom. We walked along a small river that was slowing making its way down to the mediteranean ocean.

First we ran into a very strange building of some sort, it looked like a bunker or something, without doors. After a few attempts, we managed to climb on top of the concret construction. Looking down into the building, we still could not really explain, what it was. A water cystern maybe from the Carmel North Plan. Everywhere around the "thing"
there were bones from all the cows or something like that. It was a very interesting experience. Just 2 minutes from a lively neighborhood in Haifa and still somehow far, far away.
Our journey continues along the slooping path that leads us down to the sea. Then suddenly on our right side we see something lying in the gras. First we don't realise. Emy, on of my follow volunteers doesn't notice. When she just runs of. There lies the rotting corps of a cow. Nobody seemed to care about it enough to actually remove the remains from this walking path. And probably there are not so many people walking here anyway.


We managed to calm down Emy and kept walking through this Valley of Mystery and finaly ended up overlooking Haifas Beacharea, with the Maccabee Haifa Stadium rising nicely behind the nature we just left.



All in all a very exciting experience. A single walk through the city of Haifa, but still, I felt like Alice in the Otherworld.