My two most favorite places in the world (aside from Pittsburgh of course) are Capri, Italy and Cartagena, Colombia. How would I describe Capri? In three words — majestic, peaceful and unique. This is based on a day’s worth of memories from 22 years ago, but I still think it’s accurate. How would I describe Cartagena? Beautiful, magical and energetic. I have already waxed poetic on Cartagena before. These are the two places I want to see again.
Now, I assume you already knew where this was going. How would I describe Haifa? Please see the title 🙂 Not exactly an endearing and eye-catching way to advertise your city on Trip Advisor. I had this image of beauty of Haifa before coming here, which was accurate to an extent, but definitely skewed by only being around the Baha’i sites, which are amazingly well-kept. They really are like a paradise.
But when you leave the bubble and travel around the city and do your daily routine things, you recognize some patterns and come to some conclusions about the place. For one, there are cats everywhere. And I mean, honestly, everywhere. You can’t go more than a block without coming across at least one cat, with plenty more hidden nearby. They are harmless, but you definitely notice them.
They sit on top of cars. They are often under cars. I wouldn’t be surprised if I see a cat one day break into a car and just drive off. Someone recently mentioned to me that they were introduced to the city to take care of a rodent problem, which I guess makes some sense. I don’t know if it’s true, but it obviously wasn’t well-thought out beforehand. Do Israelis watch The Simpsons? There is a way to fix the problem.
And I have never seen so many stairways ever in one city before. I remember coming across all kinds of rickety, seemingly out-of-place stairs in Colombia, but they don’t even compare with Haifa. You have stairs that go up so high you can’t even see over the top to know how far they go. You have weird dual stairs — two sets of stairs right next to each other, I still haven’t figured that one out. You have stairs with famous Israeli philosophers painted on them. It really boggles the mind.
I really love finding a new stair path and following it to see where it goes. That’s always exciting, especially when I’m going for a run, since I like to explore. Sometimes they lead into an apartment complex or a dead-end, but usually they lead to a cross street that I recognize. I love doing my stair workout now, I did one tonight. It was relatively quick (45 minutes) and intense — it had me breathing hard by the end, which was great.
And the last one — this blog’s namesake, falafel. The one thing I remembered most from my first visit to Israel in 1999. It’s a staple food / snack and is all over the place. I’d say it’s the equivalent of a hot dog in the U.S. — simple, cheap, yummy and plentiful. You’re never more than a block or so from a fresh falafel sandwich and it will normally run you about 15 NIS (~$4.25 USD). That being said, I haven’t had falafel in months. I decided to stop eating them, since they’re deep-fried and not too healthy. I stick to my hummus, which is the same thing but in a different form.
So there you have it. My initial lasting memory of Haifa, based on a 9-day visit, was paradise and falafel. My current memory is now cats, stairs and falafel. Interesting how falafel made the list both times. The views in the city are beautiful too, especially with the Mediterranean Sea.
Viva el Falafel 