Haifa is home to Israel's only subway/underground line (The Carmelit), but because of massive money loss and total lack of ridership there has been a lot of talk lately about shutting down the Carmelit for good (possibly as soon as the summer of this year). With that in mind, Inbal and I thought it would be fun to take some pictures of it so we can have something to remember it by when it's gone.


The interesting thing about the Carmelit is that it goes up and down the side of the Carmel Mountain, so every station is built as a bunch of steps. The entire system is only six stops and is made up of two cars that act as a counterbalance for each other. I hope all the people waiting for the next train don't crush each other in a mad dash to get a seat.


Here is an outside view of one of the two cars. Nothing too exciting.


Inside view of one of the cars. I have actually used the Carmelit quite a few times (and I'm one of the only people I know who has even used it once), and can tell you it is pretty much always this empty. I've never seen more than three people to a compartment, and I can't even tell you how claustrophobic it was to share my compartment with two other people. As you can see, the whole car has a bunch of stairs in it to accommodate the slant of the mountain. It's a really weird feeling when the slant changes about half way down and you are suddenly leaning forwards or backwards depending on where you are sitting.


Notice what is missing in every picture of the train and the station? It really wasn't hard to make sure nobody wandered into these pictures seeing as Inbal and I were the only two people in the station besides the conductor and the guy in the control room. I felt like we should've bought tickets and taken the train somewhere out of pity. We didn't, but I like to think that it's the thought that counts.


This poster represents how long it has been since anyone paid to advertise down there. That movie came out here at pretty much the same time as it came out in the states (which was two years ago or so, right?). On the poster it says "new in theaters." On the right is a nice map of the six stops nobody has any apparent desire to go to.


If people did actually buy tickets, it would be from a machine like this one. It's always a bit weird to me when I see "English" represented by a British flag.


On our way back home we walked past this store and I just had to take a picture to document what is currently there, because I know it won't last long. This is the location that nobody can keep open for more than about a year -- since I have lived in Haifa it has already been two or three different things, none of which had any kind of success. I decided that I'm just going to keep taking pictures of each new bad-idea that manifests itself on this corner. I think someone should finally just give-up and open a falafel and shwarma place there, thus bringing the total number of falafel and shwarma shops in the three-block stretch to about 274. Clearly only the power of falafel and shwarma together can overcome this cursed location.


We also ended up stopping by a liquor store in the area where I was reminded that Absinthe is actually legal here -- I vaguely remember trying this stuff once before...