Just like in heaven...

Strolling in Acre

Yesterday morning we went to Acre (Akko) and we arrived early enough to be able to park without too much hustle or waiting. Acre is a coastal city situated on a low promontory at the northern extremity of Haifa Bay, and the old city is a World Heritage Site, mostly inhabited by Arabs. There are many ancient buildings and ruins to visit, but I prefer just wandering the narrow streets and look at life and people and the market of course, the Shouk! You can buy loads of tourist stuff, but of course also food. And since this is a coastal city, the delicacies from the sea are predominant. Fish of all kinds, and seafood in the form of shrimps in different sizes, small lobsters and squids. However, a warning is in place here! Always investigate the catch you want to buy very thoroughly with your eyes, as well as nose, since you can have bad luck and come out for a scam. Like we did yesterday! We wanted shrimps, looked briefly at them and paid and left. When I was about to prepare them last night and opened the bag they stank of ammonia, which is a clear sign of severe deterioration. Maybe we just looked too much like stupid tourists, what do I know..? Next time we know better, and this seller will get to know that he lost a potential regular customer.

Before we left we had hummous at "Humus Said", which is widely recognised as the best hummous in Israel, and I must agree. They open at 5 in the morning and close at 14, 7 days a week, and the pace with which the staff is working is amazing. Same goes for the guests, who are in and out within 10 minutes! Stuffed to the point where you never think you will eat anything ever again.

After this we drove to Tel Aviv to join Shlomo's Friday aikido class. Yoram was about to explode from the hummous and I was also stuffed to the brim, and if Anat's class is a good workout, then this is elite boot camp. Already in the warmup both of us were afraid to paint the place in hummous colour, but we succeeded to keep ourselves together, both body and intestinal contents. I practised mostly with Yoram and Anat, and when the time came for jyu waza, which also Shlomo is very fond of, I paired up with O, a guy I know already from January. He is strong, heavy and very powerful, but still very flexible and athletic and therefore a joy to work with. We gave each other a series of serious ass whopping and as grand finale Shlomo came himself and sucked the last life out of me. All the above in 30 degrees temperature... Contemplate that!

Last night before we went to bed we took Goshen for a night pee and all of a sudden she charges away after a cat. We know that she never really does them any harm and we were just looking at these two animals standing face to face in the light of a street lamp. Yoram could tell that it was a young cat and we called Goshen in. Although she was gone, the cat did not move but instead stayed like paralysed in its footsteps. I therefore went up to it and it turned out to be not only young, but tiny. Probably not more than 8-10 weeks and a beautiful grey tabby colour. I approached it and it did not run away, so I picked it up and it immediately started to purr. At this moment both me and Yoram found ourselves in the dilemma of being animal lovers with two big bleeding hearts and for a moment we even considered taking it home. Fortunately we did not. It was not skinny and probably had a home, even though me myself would never let a tiny kitten like that be strolling around outside all alone that late in the evening. This was the first time I experienced this here, but certainly not the last, since like in all other Mediterranean and Middle Eastern countries people are not valuing animals as people do in Sweden. That is one back side of the coin and something I have to get used to seeing.

Happy dog and happy man

Today we packed ourselves, including Goshen, in the car and went to the beach. Goshen was so excited she was jumping all around the place all morning during preparation and at the beach I think she felt that she was in heaven. Water was great and we had large and fun waves. Today I used less sunscreen, so this evening I have to use some of the Aloe vera gel we bought, but as I said to Yoram, for me, there is no way around the red if I want to reach the brown... Or golden, which is a more appropriate term for the colour I achieve... However, we had the most romantic, fun and relaxing day and I still haven't completely got used to the thought that this is not only a holiday...