Jane in the Middle East: Baha'i Gardens Haifa

Yesterday evening I met up with a girl who is staying in the same Hostel as me. We ate dinner together in the German Colony. I got this great photo of the gardens. It is so steep.

We sat and ate and chatted together. It was good to have company. Daniella is from Glasgow, so of course after dinner we had to go for a few drinks and yes, we got home about 3am. This morning I felt fine though, I'm sure they must water the beer down here or it's especially weak because I didn't feel rough at all!

Both of us headed of this morning to the Baha'i garden tour and walked up with a Baha'i guy called Niam who was going for one last look before he headed back to work as a surgeon in Nashville,Tennesse.
Every Baha'i person has to volunteer here for a period of time and he was telling us tales of when he was a security guard here over 10 years ago. The strange thing is he hadn't visited anywhere else in Israel even though he'd been here about 8 times. I found that a bit weird and a bit insular really.

We walked down the steps of the garden. It was beautiful but like the Chemin Neuf yesterday, a bit too over clinically perfect and manicured for my taste and the steps were not ergonomically designed. They were like steps down to a shopping precinct! God, I'm a perfectionist! I remember reading once that steps have to be elevated in a certain ratio for the best comfort on the feet and legs. (I can testify to this theory with all the ancient steps I have climbed up and down in my lifetime!) and these 200 babies didn't pass the test.

Anyway, enough of my moaning. Here are some photos of the gardens.

Flowering cactus

Strange photo...

My favourite one.

The shrine of the Bab.

Inside the visitors' centre.

We then watched a film about what the 5 million Baha'i are trying to do around the world and then we left. There was never any attempt at getting you to join or any dogma at all. All pretty chilled really. But, nah, the Baha'i faith is not for me. Any group of people who decide to worship every 19 days are just a bit too weird for me. They believe a year is 19 months broken down into 19 days each. So their year is 4 days short of everyone else! STRANGE!! WHY??!!!! The main ideas of the faith are good but ultimately another religion on the planet is only asking for trouble!!!and to base it all in Israel....... Many Baha'i in Iran (where the Bab came from) have been killed and imprisoned by the authorities there because they see the faith as nothing but a corruption of Islam. And as every Baha'i has to do a pilgrimage to Haifa at least once in their lives, the Ayatollahs think they are all in cahoots with their biggest enemy. Not a good start I think.

I said goodbye to Daniella, she was off to Tsfat on the Sea of Galilee, the home of the Jewish mystical sect of Kabbalah...the one Madonna advertises. I hope she reads my blog. If she does. HELLO DANIELLA, HAVE A GREAT TRIP!

It was funny last night when we were eating. I ordered veal and she's a vegan. Ummm, bit embarrassing really! But, as I've noticed here they bring you things you never ordered and the meat I ate was definitely NOT veal.

After the gardens I wandered through the Arab quarter of Wadi Nisnas and ended up sitting in a restaurant for hours reading my guide book. I then felt utterly exhausted and to my shame I had to come back here and fell asleep for a couple of hours. So, no beach today unfortunately but I was knackered and I need energy for Jerusalem tomorrow. Shabbat starts at sunset tomorrow so let's see what it will be like to be part of it in Jerusalem. Here are a few pictures of the Arab area.