First Weekend

Saturday, July 6th

Weekends at Dor begin after work ends on Friday; we don't have pottery washings, readings or lectures in the evenings, so people are free to go wherever they want until Sunday night. I took it easy and opted for a day trip to Haifa on Saturday. I went with two Sarahs (known as Redhead and Texas, because there are five people named Sarah here - you have to differentiate), Tori and Angela. We hired a taxi from the Kfar to the Baha'i Gardens. The taxi dropped us off at the observatory point, which is where I went last year on my Birthright Trip. You can't get into the gardens from that point but it offers a great view of all the different levels all the way down to the bottom.

We walked down to the Shrine at the bottom level of the Gardens - it closes at noon, so we made sure to get there on time - the rest of the gardens are open until 5:00. The Shrine itself is a small room with many carpets and candles, and it's very serene.

We then wandered down to the German Colony, which is an area that was settled by German Templars (different from the Knights Templar) and has many restaurants that are open on Shabbat. After dining in one of the restaurants there, we embarked on an hour-long walk to find the beach area. We kind of played it by ear, since we were looking for the cable cars and knew it was a more northern shore. After a considerable amount of time walking, we were able to see the cable cars in the distance and just kept going.

Once we (finally) reached the cars, we each purchased two-way tickets. At the top is the Stella Maris Monastery, which is part of the Carmelite order. The Carmelites were a religious sect that took its inspiration and way of life from Elijah the Prophet (who actually lived in a cave nearby that tourists can visit, though we didn't go there). It was quite nice inside, very nice paintings of Elijah ascending to Heaven as well as Isaiah, Jesus and Mary (for whom the Church is named - Star of the Sea). There was also a side room that contains archaeological remains of a Medieval Byzantine church that once stood on the grounds.

After this stop, we were tired from all the walking, and so we attempted to find the Central Bus Station. We knew it was in the area, and I actually saw bus bays in a parking lot but the building looked closed. We figured out that we had to find our bus (someone had looked the bus numbers that would take us to a different bus station) at one of the stops along this main road. This we managed and took a ride to the train station that also acts as a bus stop. From here, we caught a bus that took us straight to Kfar Galim just in time for dinner. At the end, we figured out we had been wandering Haifa for a solid eight hours.



Sunday, July 7th

The day before, I had felt a little tickle in the throat, and this expanded today. So I knew a cold was coming, and I decided against taking a trip that day. I got up in time for breakfast but took a nap afterward, just to try and feel better. I got myself up just so I wasn't sitting inside all day and sat outside for a while with my Kobo eReader. I did go to Haifa Mall for a little bit just to browse the pharmacy and buy a few things, like a small hairbrush and granola bars.

So, not a very exciting weekend, and most people took it easy because it was the first big break. After this, we would all be more proactive about our trips off-campus.