Schlagwort-Archive: backpacking

Israel, World Trip 2018-19

Exploring the Dead Sea region: Ein Bokek, Masada & Ein Gedi

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When planning my last week in Israel, I had come across a direct bus from Tel Aviv to the Dead Sea beach of Ein Bokek – supposedly one of the nicest public beaches at the Dead Sea. Hence, I took a morning bus to Ein Bokek and was happy to discover a sandy beach waiting for me. Unfortunately there is no luggage storage, so I just had to carry everything to the beach. Some people were giving me funny looks, but I didn’t care! After all, I was here to float – and that’s what I did! The water is a nice turquoise blue and was a bit wavy that day, so I was floating around like a corc 🙂 There were no other backpackers though, so no one to take pics of me or join me in the fun.

So after half an hour or so, I showered, changed and got on the next bus to Masada where I was going to spend the night to climb Masada fortress next day for sunrise. The area looked really quite spectacular and made me get excited for the hike, especially when I met my room mates and trekking buddies Belinda and Valentine. We got up super early the next morning and were at the gate at the start of the snake path at 5am. Our hostel had told us that’s the opening time. Wrong. It only opened at 5.40am, so we spent 40 min waiting around while we could have still slept…. Grrrml. When we were finally allowed to start our hike, we were worried we might miss the sunrise, so raced up the mountain in something like 35 min. At least we had time to look around for THE best spot to view the sunrise like this! If only there were a sunrise… Unfortunately it was too misty so we did not get quite the spectacular view that Masada is famous for – however, it was still really cool and definitely worth seeing! The ruins at the top were larger than expected and we had to rush a bit to see it all, since we wanted to be back at our hostel in time for breakfast buffet…

Re-energized, we packed up our stuff and made our way to Ein Gedi, a beautiful national park further up North along the Dead Sea. It’s very pretty since within the dry desert landscape, there is a little oasis with lots of waterfalls. Belinda, Valentine and I hiked around the area for about 3 h or so, during which we really enjoyed the different views. Also, we went for a swim in the pools above the waterfalls. Nice and refreshing on such a hot day! Afterwards, I continued my way back to Jerusalem from where I had booked a tour to Hebron for the next day.

Israel, World Trip 2018-19

Tel Aviv: The modern face of Israel

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Meeting up with Michal and her brother in Haifa, I had a very comfortable way of reaching Tel Aviv by car. Michal, her boyfriend and their cute dog hosted me for the following days which was much appreciated. It’s always good to meet up with people you know from previous travels, and it’s great to stay with locals in their home.

I had 2 full days for Tel Aviv which was easily enough time. The whole city is very walkable, even all the way down to Jaffa, the old part of town. On Saturday, Michal showed me around mainly in the southern part of the city. We walked along famous Rothschild Boulevard, through the small streets of Newe Zedek and along the beach until we reached Jaffa. Weather was rather grey and cool unfortunately, so chilling on the beach was not really an option. I really liked Jaffa with its little streets and old buildings, resembling other old towns I had seen in the days before a bit, e.g. Akko.

At the flea market area, we met up with Ornit, who I know from travelling South America in 2012. We went for lunch in one of the many nice restaurants of the area. The afternoon was filled with more walking around and visiting different Tel Aviv neighbourhoods.

On my second day in Tel Aviv, I took the bus to the northern part of the city, starting my day with a delicious breakfast at cafe Benedict (recommendation!) near the Hilton. I then walked along the beach to the harbour of Tel Aviv, and further on to Gordon Beach. There’s a nice beach walk which you can follow pretty much all the way from the North to Jaffa if you want to.

I turned inland again though, wanting to see some more of Tel Aviv’s architecture and markets. I passed by Levinsky market street in which there are many nice cafes, but really enjoyed Carmel market with all the different products it has to offer. Then, I returned to the beaches where I chilled for a while, soaking up the sun. There was still a cool breeze and it wasn’t too hot though, so I skipped the swimming part.

Overall, Tel Aviv was a cool city to explore. While there’s not many wow-ing sights, it’s more about the lifestyle here – beaches, hip cafes and nice restaurants are waiting for the traveller. Apparently also a good night life, but I skipped that part. Maybe next time!

Israel, World Trip 2018-19

Haifa, Akko and Ceasarea – Exploring the Northern coast of Israel

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From Nazareth, I took a bus to Haifa – supposedly the „most beautiful city of Israel“. While I’m not sure who came up with that, it was a good base for the next days to explore Akko and Ceasarea from. I had found a host on Couchsurfing who showed me around Haifa a bit, even giving me a city tour by night which was very special, especially to see the Bahai Gardens illuminated which are already pretty enough during day time. Also, the views over Haifa were spectacular. Since it’s such a hilly city, there are many great viewpoints to be found.

The following day, I first took the train to Akko, where I walked around the old town for a while. While it’s definitely nice, it’s hard to take good pictures: there’s cables hanging everywhere, cars parked in the middle of what would be a perfect picture etc. Not very photographer-friendly. The old town is small and you can see the main sights within an hour or two. Sight-wise, I really liked the Al-Jazzar mosque with its pretty courtyard and interior.

However, the best overall experience in Akko was eating hummus at Sayd Hummus. It was by far the best hummus I ever had and a huge portion (as always)!

IMG_4405 (Kopie)

From Akko, I took the train back to Haifa and then got on a bus to the Or Akiva junction. It’s the closest you can get to the ruins of Ceasarea by public transport from Haifa without doing a crazy amount of changes. From the junction, you can then wait for another bus to bring you closer to the ruins, hitchhike or walk. I didn’t feel much like hitchhiking that day, so opted to walk the 25 min. When I reached the ruins, I was truly impressed by the size of the whole site! So far definitely the best ruins I have seen in Israel. The Amphitheatre however was a bit disappointing, looking rather newly renovated. They could have done a better job there.

Once I had seen the main cluster of ruins and watched the short movie about the history of Ceasarea, I made my way along the coast to the beach of Ceasarea with its photogenic Roman aqueduct. In hindsight, this was probably my favourite part of Ceasarea and it was too bad I didn’t think about bringing my bikini and towel to enjoy the beach a bit more.

So after some pics, I asked Google how to get back to Haifa and it spat out a very good sounding option where I’d have to walk only 10 min, get on a bus for 10 min, then walk for another 8 min to the next bus stop from where there was a direct connection to Haifa. For any other independent traveller: Don’t do this!! The foot path connecting the two bus stops does not exist anymore. There’s been some construction work in the area and there’s a gigantic earth mound. I climbed it to get an overview and then followed the path on the top which was leading me further away from the bus stop though. I couldn’t get down on either side anymore cause there were fences, and bushes. In the end I was running, trying to somehow make the bus and not be stuck in the middle of nowhere for hours potentially. I found kind of a road, and just ran really hard in the direction of the bus stop according to Google maps. My backpack zipper ripped open because of the bouncing and my camera dropped to the ground. It’s a mystery to me how it’s still kind of working up to now. I JUST made the bus, completely exhausted and sweaty. Like I said: Don’t trust Google Maps on this one and rather walk back to Or Akiwa junction instead!

Overall, it was still good to see Ceasarea though. I always get more interested in sights when I find out they are a bit hard to reach – same as with the Hexagon Pools before. And again, it was a success in the end – even though a sweaty one!

Next day I had another couple of hours to see Haifa, and decided to walk from Carmel Center to the Bahai Gardens, to take in some more great city views. I also walked a bit inside the gardens, however couldn’t walk all the way through without a tour unfortunately. I didn’t make it to the free tour, since I was gonna meet up with Michal, my host for Tel Aviv who was picking me up in Haifa with her brother, and my Haifa host, for lunch. Oh well, can’t have it all! The gardens were still really beautiful without a tour and I very much recommend walking around there! A good way to say goodbye to Haifa – by walking through the one part of the city that I would actually agree IS beautiful.