Banner Pic #1

I think every week or so I’m going to continue rotating the banner pic at the top of this blog. Every pic is an image I have photographed on my travels. This current one is the fourth or so banner pic, but I think I will begin telling what exactly the picture is of and the story behind it.

This particular one was taken in Haifa, Israel during my first week there. It is of a pub on the top of Mount Carmel called The Beer House. One night when our friend David had to go do some work at a neighbor’s, he dropped Jamie and I off and told us to walk about half a block or so to French Carmel, an outdoor street similiar to the Promonade in Santa Monica, but on this huge top ridge of the mountain that Elijah once roamed, overlooking the sea. Well, we ended up walking for over eight miles round trip, because the signs for French Carmel were all facing the opposite direction of which we were walking. We eventually came to Carmel Center, which is another huge maze of hotels, clubs, restaurants and stores that sits just north of the Bahai Temple Gardens.

After climbing all over and stopping to view the Gardens from the top down onto the entire city of Haifa, we finally found this place, a Crusader-style cave built into the side of the mountain, surrounded by a little park on the side. We were the only people inside except for the two ladies and the cat who owened the joint. I chugged down a pint of specialty beer made by Catholic-Israeli monks, and we helped ourselves to bowls of free pretzels.

We paid our bill, and still getting used to the monatery routine of this foreign country, realized that I forgot to tip. I turned back inside and apologized, and laid a ten shekal coin on the counter and petted the cat one more time. The lady laughed the laugh that natives give to foreigners like myself, and I returned to the busy street and bustling city lights. We found David, who was looking for us along the main drag, and we rode back halfway down the mount in the cool Israeli night air.

Exhausted, I turned in and curled up in my bed at the end of the hallway, put in my earbuds to the tune of Blindside’s “Shakina,” and slept a sound and peaceful sleep of walking and alcohol, at least until the air raid sirens ringing through the city woke me up at 8am the next morning. I ran to the window and porch, and saw Haifa standing still, but not running. Then I remember the sirens were sounding for Holocaust Rememberance Day, and the city was safe.

Blessed be those who had to be scared of those same sirens a mere month-and-a-half later.