Going in all directions

My trip to Israel was going pretty well as you can see.

Except for the part where I had to take a rain check on going to the Red Sea due to terror attacks in Eilat.

On Daniela's return, we traveled around the country a little more.

Israel as a country is really small but you somehow never run out of beautiful places to travel to and interesting things to see. Having covered a lot of the historical/ religious sights in Jerusalem, I decided to skip Bethlehem and Nazareth and do a day trip to another city with Daniela.

Daniela being the spontaneous traveler and me trying to be one, we decided to travel somewhere North one afternoon. I had just had a shawerma at a vegan restaurant with fake meat and at that point was ready for just about anything. We took the bus to Tel Aviv station thinking that was the day we'd probably go see the Roman ruins in Caesarea or the Bahá'í gardens in Haifa.

But, on reaching the station, Daniela bumped into an old friend who highly recommended a place further North called Nahariya.

He told us that Nahariya was just beautiful. On seeing the sparkle in his eyes on speaking about the beaches and the magical river that runs through the city I began picturing something right out of A Midsummer Night's Dream.

We took the train only to stop for a minute in Haifa. We saw the Bahai gardens from a distance. I suppose it was beautiful but frankly I could barely see it. We were so close yet so far. And lazy.

A long train and bus ride later we were in Nahariya clueless about the direction of the beach or the existence of the magical river. We bought some icecreams to feel recharged and made our way to the beach.

The beach was beautiful, lined with restaurants and bars that came alive at night.

And when we asked for directions to the river, it felt like people were laughing at us.
Maybe because when we got to it, the river was more like a puddle.

So we basically traveled far and long to reach yet another beach and bum around on it till sunset. But, I wasn't complaining. We walked around and explored the city. This was difficult at times since Daniela and I were like the Hare and the Tortoise who had been forcibly programmed to walk at the same pace somehow.

After our adventurous trip to Nahariya, we woke up the next day and decided to laze around, have a late breakfast, late lunch and an unhealthy dinner - cooked by me.

Daniela was so into her health food and salads. And, me with my lack of culinary skills would try and help her make something wholesome which would usually turn out to be instant noodles, orange juice and flavoured yoghurt for dessert.

I tried looking after myself by taking Calcium supplements which I'd end up breaking with my tablet crusher since I have big tablet swallowing issues while Daniela thought I looked like I was doing some weird Indian drugs.

The rest of my days in Israel were spent mainly beach hopping.
- On Bat Yam beach and making a turtle out of shells to showoff our creative skills to the rest of the beach bums.

- Or Tel Aviv Beach where we sipped on Orange juice and ate watermelon.

We did also go shopping (which was fun since it involved more meal time than shopping time).

And then we'd go to bars and I would get a colourful girly drink - usually cocktail of the day.

We also spent a day exploring Jaffa - the old city in Tel Aviv. Here we walked along the beach and into the old city, saw newly married couples, art galleries, jewelry stores and even made a wish on a wishing bridge.

So many wishes on this wonderful holiday in a wonderful country.

I don't even remember what I had wished for, but if had anything to do with the outcome of my trip, I know it came true.