November 24-25th, 2019
Early this morning Brendan got up to leave for the airport to make his 7am flight to start his journey back home. Although there are people and things at home we are certainly excited for, it was still a bit emotional to know this incredible, once in a lifetime trip was at an end for the two of us. We have done so much together it will be different not having my partner in crime for this last section of my own journey. I took an afternoon bus to Haifa which is a city north of Tel Aviv on the coast. I found a really cute little hostel called Haifa Hostel that I ended up liking a lot. It was very homey feeling and other guests would hang out and socialize in the living room. I made a few new friends and spent the rest of the evening with them. I walked around some and got food but mostly hung out in the living room chatting the night away.
The next day I had an easy morning and took my time getting ready. Had a nice pancake breakfast the hostel offered before starting the day and taking a train and then bus up to Israel’s most northern part that borders Lebanon. I went to a place Eytan suggested, called Rosh HaNikra. It was a beautiful area with sea caves. It had beautiful turquoise water against white sandstone cliffs. I took a cable car up and down to reach the caves. They also had tunnels which were used during wars to cross the border or bring supplies with a train. The coastline in this area was really nice. I walked through the sea caves several times as it was just so pretty.
On my way back to Haifa I met a nice Jewish man who was visiting from Chicago. He spoke fluent Hebrew so he was able to get us a free ride to the train station. It was really nice not having to wait for the bus. We chatted the whole way back on the train until it was time for me to get off in Haifa. Once back to the hostel, I got ready for dinner with my friend Nitay. We met Nitay on the slow boat from Laos to Thailand. We had backpacked on and off in Northern Thailand together and he happened to live here in Haifa. I met him for dinner and it was fun catching up and hearing what we both had been doing since Thailand.
After dinner I hung out in the hostel’s living room again with the new friends from last night and we made plans to do a tour in the morning together.