Weekend in the Galilee

I have returned from my weekend in the Galilee. Overall it was really great. We spent one day around the Sea of Galilee and another day going to the Mediterranean at Haifa. We spent this morning visiting the Church of the Annunication. There were a few highlights.

We broke into the mountain of the Beatitudes. We were told to go up between the two banana plantations. We eventually got to a fence and a complex that looked strangely like a retirement home. We decided to jump the fence and check it out. We had lunch overlooking the Sea of Galilee and walked into the chapel that marked the spot. We weren't sure if we were supposed to pay to be there, but the guard at the gate only asked if we had a car inside when we left.

Trying to get to the beach in Haifa, we got hoodwinked by a taxi driver that dropped us off the the religious and also minisculely small beach. (It's the religious beach because usually there is only one sex allowed per day). After trying to call the taxi service three times and getting promptly hung up on each time, three of us decided to run back to the tourist office that helped us arrange the taxi. The girl there was very nice and took the - BC Ferries approved - customer service approach that placed all the blame on parties that could not respond. We eventually got another taxi to take us to a real beach, and spent the rest of the day there.

At the beach, everyone had some sort of an encounter with Jellyfish (I got hit on the arm, leg and chest lightly) but one of the guys had a very unfortunate collision with one. His bicep was the worst and it started to become inflamed almost immediately. Luckily we had a disposable cup and after much convincing we got him to pee in it and pour it on his wounds. The sting was still serious, but we think that the urine helped with the pain and the inflammation.

On Saturday, it was amazing how many things were closed, and yet a few things were open. Complete streets were deserted in Haifa, a major port city, but intercity buses were still running (even though we were told that they would not be). On that same vein, we also stopped at a Kosher McDonalds. The dairy sections was a completely separate building right next door.