Sabbatical, Israel

After a last afternoon in Helsinki we flew to Tel Aviv where we found the usual summer blazing heat. Driving back from the Airport to the Carmel in Haifa proved to be an interesting experience. We arrived in Haifa by sunset and driving up Freud street felt like we had never left and we were just coming back from work after a long absence. It was a weird feeling and we both had it at the same time: it still felt like home. We met Leeor and Lilach who would be our hosts for the week, we occupied the room of soon to be born Maya. M worked all week and I stopped by at work a few times to meet all the old colleagues and chat.
We took advantage of the weekend to go the newly renovated and reopened Israeli Museum in Jerusalem. I have to say that it was the best archeology museum M and I have visited in the world so far. It shows 2 Millions years of humanity history in the middle east, using fantastic pieces, presenting them very clearly, put in situation without the overload that is unfortunately too often the characteristic of this kind of displays. We effectively spent the entire day in the antiquities/archeology wing and I would sincerely recommend anyone visiting Jerusalem to not miss it.
I managed to catch a bad cold (yeah with crazy high temperatures) which kind of restrained my movements for all week, but still managed to visit Waffa and family in Akko a few times. It felt great to be back and we had a good time. Our time in Israel felt short and we were already flying back to Paris where we would meet Greg and the Fraboulet's.

Flying Home

Since Budapest, quite a lot has been going on. Early December we had the visit of Ralf and Kellie that we had met in Ethiopia in the Simien mountains and convinced to stop in Israel to visit us on their way from South Africa to Jordan. We visited Akko and Nazareth with them, and finished the nice weekend by a great "gigot d'agneau" baked in the oven.
The following week Lilach and Leeor were finally back from their honeymoon around the americas. Last week, M's mom arrived from the US and we took L&L and Mom for a little hike in the Golan heights in Gamla. The weather was good enough for mid december, and the Golan winter was mostly looking like fall as you can see here:



Tonight we're flying to France for the Christmas holidays. More news next year !
Merry X-mas and Happy new year all.

Apollonia - Arsuf

Last weekend we ended up being a little bit late for our plan to visit the Tel Aviv museum of modern art, after our stop at a book shop. We ended up picking the map and loking for any nearby national park and ended up in Apollonia. We really enjoyed the visit of this costal park situated just north of Herzelia. You can read a bit more about the place here in english, or in french.

The weather was at its best, warm but not too much thanks to some clouds and a fall breeze that sailboats coming from Herzelia's marina were clearly enjoying. We liked the fortress but I mostly ended up taking pictures of the seascape as you can see:




And this has to be my first sunset picture that looks the best in B&W


After the visit of the park we headed to Herzelia's marina to finish the day, had a beer, visited the mall and had an early sushi dinner with a view on the port.

More pics at the usual place.

Stella Maris

After discovering that neighborhood of Haifa last week, we went to enjoy a sunset from the fantastic viewpoint of Stella Maris. It offers a 270 degres panorama from Lebanese border cliffs, to Haifa bay and southern coast beaches. There is also an old church and a radar station that had a tumultuous past during Israel independance war.
We enjoyed a colourfull sunset:

And I discovered a small French "monument aux morts". This is not so surprising as the neighborhood is called the "French Carmel" and features street names like "Emile Zola" or "Dreyfus", but what was surprising is that it was actually in remembrance of the French soldiers that died during the Napoleonian wars here, during the siege of Acre:

Rest of the gallery here as usual.

Romeo and Juliette

Are so close from each other for so long, but have never been able to touch each other. They are so sad that one always has a tear ready to fall, but still their love is eternal and they are forever together:

More pictures of the beautiful stalactite cave near Bet Shemesh here.

White Night

To celebrate the anniversary of Tel Aviv becoming a world heritage city, the municipality organizes a white night where you can visit art museums, see shows, etc all night long. It also matches the color of the city, and the fact that lights are on everywhere all the night. M. wanted to see it so we headed there late night. I have to say that we missed all the "artistic" activities as they seemed all mostly done when we made it to the busy areas of Tel Aviv way past midnight. However restaurants and bars were all very busy and open, people drinking and dancing everywhere; we ended up having a late supper by like 3 AM there:

and went back home tired.

Eilat and Jaffa

For working a year on a project now long finished and judged very successful by my employer, I have been offered a 4 days trip to Eilat's "Club Med" for 2. L&L joined us on the trip so we enjoyed the blazing sun, the beach activities and hotel facilities together.
We had some fun snorkeling around the coral beach there, but it left me all sad to see that despite the conservation efforts by the National parks authority, the reef was not very populated anymore and not as nice as what we had experienced in Hawaii or Colombia. It was still nice but a bitter sunburn on my back reminded me that even with cream I'd better not play too much under the sun...

We spent some time at the local aquarium which was kind of showing what we should have been seeing under water by ourselves. It was a great occasion to try "underwater" photography and you can check some of the samples here.


The next weekend H&R had invited us to join them in Jaffa, so we had a very nice guided tour of the city with historical and socio-economical perspective. The afternoon was very nice and we enjoyed the trip a lot.

We finished in a local restaurant called Dr Shukshuka where we had a gargantuesque Tunisian style dinner (including shukshuka, couscous, etc...).
I need to put a recipe here as it seems I can't find any good one online, the short version is that it's eggs poached in tomato sauce with bell peppers onions and chilies.

Playing with explosives leads to ...

a cease fire !!! Yes I was not that far from reality last week ;). As you can read pretty much anywhere on the medias (like here) Israel and the Hamas signed a cease fire deal to start tomorrow morning, with gradual improvements which if everything happens well will end up ... well forget about that, we'll see tomorrow how it starts.
Anyways Israel is talking to Syria about peace and giving the Golan back, makes truce deals with Hamas in Gaza, and since today seems also to open the door to talks with Lebanon, all at once! Something's definitely happening, it seems that with the US presidential elections coming the stupid "we don't talk to the Axis of Evil" is finally gone and diplomacy is restarting.

Playing with explosives

Can be dangerous...

Ref: Le Monde, Photo : REUTERS/IBRAHEEM ABU MUSTAFA

As said in the article (but in french) a group of Hamas activists was playing in their basement with firecrackers they were planning to use to protest peacefully the Israeli aggression. Unfortunately they had smoked way too much and someone dropped a match on the magic box and blew the whole place up. They obviously first blamed Israel for the explosion, but then reverted to declare them as martyrs in an almost finished heroic operation. OK the article doesn't say that and I am being slightly sarcastic but the meaning is preserved.

At the same time the same Hamas is negotiating a truce with Israel, which is clearly not being enthusiastic about it but had postponed yesterday military operations to try to "give the truce a chance". With a little bit of chance if they keep postponing it, all Hamas military wing members will self detonate in an act of martyrdom with more results than the past 8 years of peace talks and military operations combined ?

All this to say that things aren't looking great with the neighbors and that escalation keeps going... Maybe one day someone will realize that having the biggest one is not that important.

Hyperactive March

This is it, March is gone, and I barely have seen it pass in a blink. During almost the whole month I have been going around with visitors, enjoying their company, showing them great places and making them meet each other. It first started with the great Fifille, followed one week after by Thomas, then by Michelle's Dad and Aamer that came to work one week with me (he ended up staying two). One of the achievements was our day in Jerusalem that all these people so unlikely to meet spent together.



Working during the week, visiting during the weekends... in order Nazareth, Kfar Nahum, Ramat Gader, Akko, Jerusalem, Ein Gedi, the Dead sea, Massada, and Jerash in Jordan.

Dome of the Rock, Jerusalem.
Aamer succeeded in going in for the evening's prayer, and Fifille and Thomas succeeded on sunday morning where I had been failing forever, getting on the Temple Mount.

Dead sea and haze, from Massada

Jerash main street, Jordan

I am too lazy to tell you all the stories but one that will remain is that Michelle's dad really would have been a great archeologist. He found (and notified the sites authorities) two roman pots, one in Caesarea and one in Beit Shean, and while we were visiting Jerash his agile eye spotted roman glass between 2 fallen columns. A few hours later, after having been all around the site we had a hand full of pieces of opalescent glass up to 2cm on the side. We couldn't believe how much of it was left around.

Last weekend, we still went for a short visit in Beit Shearim, a 2200 years old Jewish necropolis not far from Haifa, and we rested :).

Eagle on the Lion's sarcophagus

You can find plenty of pictures on my Zenfolio in these galleries: Fifille's visit, Dead Sea, Jerash, Beit Shearim

Purim

Yesterday we had a Purim party at work, some of us took advantage of the makeup stand in the cafeteria to improve our costumes. As you can see we enjoyed it quite a bit.



I have also a large backlog of pictures taken during the various sightiseeing trips while Fifille was here that you'll probably see sometimes in the next few weeks.

Picture Galleries

Well, it's way too slow when I include Zenfolio galleries on the blog, so I'll keep linking with the old method.
Two weeks ago we celebrated Leeor and Lilach's engagement at the local Irish pub and you can see some of the drunkards here.


The next day we went to visit Ein Afek, a local swamp that clearly reminded us that spring was already started. The pictures look pretty unoriginal I know but remember they were taken in the middle east, not somewhere in Europe.

Patriots

As I was saying a couple of days ago, the tension is raising on the northern side of Israel. A battery of Patriots (those relatively inefficient anti-aircraft anti-missile US defense systems) got deployed in Haifa according to Haaretz. I suppose it's meant to comfort the locals more than really meant to provide any real protection. Anyway, since I've been here bad stuff always came from where I expected the least so I suppose nothing's gonna happen.

Car bombings

Imad Mughniyah died yesterday night in the explosion of his car in Damascus, he

headed Hezbollah's operations branch serving in a role similar to chief of staff, and had been wanted by Israel and the United States for years due to his role in numerous bombings, hijackings and abductions in which hundreds of people were killed.

Israel denied involvment but got fingerpointed immediately (probably rightfully). It is quite interresting to read the comments on Haaretz article to realize how many people this death made happy, and how much vengeance is prefered over justice. Obviously justice was impossible as he was a clandestine and kind of protected by Syrian state, but does it render the use of the same low methods as the "terrorists" acceptable ? Unfortunately many seem to think so.

Why am I posting this rant ? Well Hezbollah has said they would avenge, and the last time there was an escalation with them I spent a "Katyusha" summer. Just a few weeks after an incident at the Lebanese border that saw one death and the political tension raising to terrible levels between the Hezbollah and the Lebanese government, I just hope ther won't be any escalation (they seem to use Israel as a common ennemy to unite each others when things go really wrong)...
Anyway, the situation around here is sad, the "peace talks" are going at the speed of an arthritic snail, Gaza is locked and boiling, suicide bombings are restarting in Israel, Iran is as radical as ever, and Mossad still assassinating.
Hopefully the sun is shining and spring is starting, so I can forget all this as soon as I look through the window.

The lost artist village

We decided to go visit a nearby artist village called Ein Hod. We stopped on top of the Carmel in Dalyat for some excellent Druze food (okras, dolmas, mjadara) on the way there. We ended up arriving in Ein Hod neighborhood around 3:30pm (yeah that's late but we had a lazy saturday). Once there, I don't know how it happened but we just could not find the village, we had a strawl around 2 tiny villages that were nowhere close to an artist place, more like a dead ultra-religious area but with an original synagogue.


Once the sun started to set we took the car back home and... we spotted Ein Hod right by the road, we were probably absorbed in some very important debate or something like that. Anyway we went around the place in half an hour and kept repeating ourselves "We have to come back here". The place is really cute, and the few artis workshops that were still open were worth it, so next time we'll go early enough!

Weekend in the desert

Friday morning we drove south to Ein Advat, a national park located in the middle of the Negev desert, between Ber Sheva and Mitzpe Ramon (by Sde Boker kibbutz). We were lucky to have a sunny Friday and we enjoyed the almost empty park throughout the afternoon. It is located in a deep canyon where a small stream flows.


It feels like an island of life in the middle of a hostile desertic environment. It reminded me all the post apocalyptic movies like Mad Max where you always find a settlement of survivors hidden in a green canyon in the middle of the desert. Well it could be there. We were the last out of the park, which let us meet a few not so wild ibex (some kind of local mountain goats).


We then drove through the large crater and stopped a few times before sunset to enjoy the scenery. We were stunned by the size of the petrified trees laying down by the gravel road, somewhere lost in the crater in the middle of coloured sands.


We spent the night over at kibbutz En Gedi, by the dead sea. On Saturday we hiked in the En Gedi park, following streams of water this time in the deep valleys of the Judean desert. The weather was not as nice as Friday but we enjoyed the fresh atmosphere. We also had the company of a rock climber ibex that did a skill demonstration just for us, while we were playing with marmots.
The pictures are on Zenfolio as usual, but for now the En Gedi ones are missing (I've been slacking I know).

Winter sun in Akko

We spent this saturday in Akko with Alex, visiting from Oregon. It was a nice sunny and windy day. We enjoyed the view from the walls and in the harbour before relaxing with a narguila playing sheshbesh. The light was really great, I took most shots in the market, but my favorite for the day is this one:

Rust and Blue

Rosh Hanikra

On a sunny Friday afternoon we drove north to the Lebanese border to visit Rosh Hanikra caves. There is not much to say besides the site is beautiful, and that I did lots of pictures of which you can find a sample on Zenfolio.

Akko Harbour

This afternoon I drove north to Akko to meet with Waffa and Octavio before Christmas and do some shopping. I also tested another toy, a Jupiter-8 lens (Zeiss 50mm Sonnar copy) from 1956 I bought on ebay for 25$. I already start to like it, there is some kind of mood in the pictures it captures, especially wide open. Anyway I stopped by the harbour and took some nets pictures and then went for a narguile with an arabic coffee. Nice slow day, but now I have to catch-up work tonight. The rest of the gallery is here.

Nets


Narguile Bar


Old Fount

Trip to Jerusalem

Last saturday we went to Jerusalem for a visit of the city. We left early in the hope that we could finaly end up visiting the Temple Mount Mosq. I have stopped counting how many times I have been bounced by Israeli Soldier there, telling me to come the next day early in the morning, well I got the same message this time just saying that they are open just during the week and early in the morning... So basically, even if it is true I'll never get to see it and I really start to believe that it's just BS.
Anyways, the day was beautiful, the sky had been washed by fridays rain, and the city was very enjoyable (but colder than usual). I took advantage of the opportunity to take pictures at the western wall during the Shabbat prayers. Not very smart you'd say, but I guess my camera looks old enough to be discrete, and I spent 10 minutes unnoticed despite openly taking pictures around (and I was very gently asked to bag it when I was done;).
I took these 2 pictures that I like very much:




Besides that we did my "usual" city tour, stopping at friends shops to drink tea, walking on roofs for the view, visiting the Tower of David, having lunch at the Armenian Tavern, visiting the Church of Holy Sepulchre and the Ethiopian church and buying food in the market by Damascus gate and drinking gigantic amount of pomme-grenade juice with arabic cakes. This time we also discovered a cistern hidden deep under the Ethiopian Church and entered in an Armenian covent (we got kind of booted once we were done going around the halls and the appartments, not sure we were really allowed to be there). We left the city tired, but our eyes full of great images, of which you can see some there.