So you all may be wondering how my little trip to Haifa went?
To remind you all, I invested a lot of time trying to figure out how to get there and what to do when I arrived. I found out the best way to get there from Tel Aviv was by train (mainly for the comfort factor) and there were 3 main sites (The Baha’i Gardens, The German Colony and Mount Carmel).
So here’s how the day went (Caution: beware of my dry humour) & the lessons I learned…
I woke up last Sunday AM feeling about 75% well. I haven’t been feeling the best the past few weeks. Summer colds are never fun but especially with the heat here (a topic for another blog) it’s been really hard to recover. I thought I was on my way so I decided that getting out & about may be a good thing vs sitting in a hot and humid apartment.
Since I work on Sundays, I woke up early to handle a few emails, get a few areas of work completed and then started the process of getting ready for today’s adventure.
I left the house at about 10am – not too bad I thought considering all the work I completed. I headed to grab the 83 bus (goes from Jaffa to Azrieli/HaShalom train station). Let me put it this way, this 15 min bus ride ended up being one of the highlights of the day.
Once I got to the train station, I got my roundtrip ticket for the Haifa journey. I found out as soon as I reached the platform that I apparently missed the last train to Haifa by a minute or two – a sign of the luck that would follow me throughout the day 
. Another 25 minutes later and I was finally on the train. When I boarded I knew there was trouble. We were only on the 2nd Tel Aviv stop and already there were hardly any seats on the train. As I said in my last post, typically the train is quite comfortable and relaxed – not today! From this, I learned lesson #1:
Lesson #1: Under no circumstances at all should anyone take the train in Israel on a Sunday. Sunday is the day that soldiers go back to the army so it is swamped with soldiers and just people in general. JUST SAY NO!!!
Luckily, I found a seat but knew that it was going to be a very squashed and unpleasant one hour journey. Thank goodness for Apple’s little invention called the iPod. I found some of my favourite tunes and tried to chill out. I was supposed to be on a bit of a travel adventure.
No one really got off the train until we made it to Haifa so it wasn’t the nicest of rides as I expected. C’est la vie. I got off at the Haifa Mercaz (Centre) stop as from the map I looked at beforehand, it looked like the right place to be.
Lesson #2: Maps are a good tool but my advice is, just like ex-boyfriends, maps can sometimes fool you when you least expect them to.
Random Haifa
I stepped out of the train station expecting to be in the middle of Haifa (it is called the Haifa Centre stop!) amongst signs pointing me in the direction of where I needed to go to get to the Gardens – my first stop. The reality was much more disappointing! I came out in the middle of an industrial park with the only sign stating “Welcome to Haifa Port”. I was very confused and very hot! The humidity was worse here than in Tel Aviv – something I didn’t think was possible. So I decided to go to the next method of requesting for information – ask!
I walked up to one of the train attendants who I could see spoke English and asked him, “how do I get to the Baha’i Gardens?”. The glazed look on his face made me know that I was in for a bit of a rough ride during this day out in Haifa. This attendant became the first of 5 people (yes 5!) I asked the same question to who gave me the same glazed stare of confusion. I was thinking to myself, “this is the top site to see in Haifa and no one seems to have a clue where it is”. In all my travels, I can honestly say this was a first.
Well, I wasn’t going to give up so quickly. I went up to the taxi rank and asked around to see if someone knew how I could get there. Again, glazed faces. The, one kind soul told me to come into his taxi van – he said he wasn’t headed to the gardens but could drop me somewhere that would get me close to it. I obliged.
Haifa
Lesson #3: Don’t always listen to taxi drivers as they may not always give you the best advice.
He dropped me off on what appeared to be a main street and told me that if I continued about 10 minutes down on foot, I’d get to the gardens. By this stage, it was already 1pm and I needed to sit down and have a bite to eat. So I did. The absolute highlight of my day was the restaurant I found – Cafe Egoza. I had a lovely lunch with an iced coffee and everything only cost 45 shekels. Since I thought I was nearly at the infamous gardens I was starting to relax and get excited for the day ahead.
Lesson #4: Don’t get too ahead of yourself!
As lesson #3 says, don’t always listen to taxi drivers. When I paid the bill at the restaurant, I thought it was wise to ask the waitress about the gardens just to double check I was heading in the right direction. When I asked, she looked at me with a different stare – not glazed but worried. My first thought: “ah oh”. She continued to tell me that I was actually on the wrong side of town – DOH! I couldn’t believe it. She told me if I carried on walking for 30 minutes (not 10!) I would get to the bottom of the gardens but it wasn’t where the entrance was and it would mean I’d have to walk uphill (a steep hill!) for quite some distance. By this stage, it was nearly 3pm and if I’m honest I started feeling a lot unhealthier than I did first thing in the morning. Actually I wasn’t feeling well at all.
Lesson #5: If you are having so much bad luck on a travel adventure, sometimes its best to surrender and move on. There is always tomorrow and another chance to come back if it’s worth it.
I decided that I’d walk a bit further on just to see if the time to get to the bottom of the gardens was a bit under 30 minutes even if it wasn’t 10. I started walking through this part of Haifa which I now believe is likely the dodgy bit or possibly even the “Haifa ghetto”. All that was around was some very low budget, dirty shops with a number of little food stands all conveniently located around drippy air conditioner units from above. Not my cup of tea. I honestly started feeling a bit nervous too. With no gardens in sight, it was time to go.
Lesson #6: When trying to get back to where you came from, always try and retrace your steps.
I turned around and started to head back to the station. Haifa is very hilly – ups and downs all over the place. The last thing I wanted to do (especially with not feeling well and in this heat) was to get lost and have to walk back uphill again! I think we’ve all been there before and I wasn’t really in the mood for that today.
En route back to the train station
So I took time to remember my tracks. Between that and asking a few kind people on the street, I made my way back to the station quite quickly. At least I was able to validate my fantastic navigation skills – a positive for an otherwise struggle of a day.
So what is the moral of this tale? Well, I’m not too sure really. I guess planning in advance is important but sometimes you need to realize that even with the best plans, there is always room for events to happen that are outside your control and you need to be prepared for that. Also even if you are going to the main tourist site, people still may not be able to help you find where you need to go. Finally, listen to your gut and if you feel that seeing something isn’t worth the sweat (literally) or the pain (literally) abort. If its something that you really want to see, you’ll make time for it on another occasion.
I hope you found my little non-adventure adventure in Haifa entertaining! At least someone can laugh about it now!
I’ll be heading back to Haifa at some point to actually see the 3 sites I set out to.
Keep reading my blog and tell me some of your travel nightmares in the comments section. I’d love to hear all about them!
Miriam x
