Lots of cool museums and what-not become free to the public during Passover, so my old friends from Chicago (who also live in Israel now) Neil and Tova Somers decided that they would take the opportunity to visit both Haifa (which neither of them had really been to before) and myself. Despite all of us living in Israel, I hadn't seen them since their wedding (which was so long ago it is just embarrassing) so it was great to hang out with them again. Anyhow, here is our day in pictures...


Here we are starting off the day. We asked some random old lady to take this picture for us hoping that she could swing the digital camera -- I guess it turned out ok.


Our first stop was the Museum of Japanese Art. I'm not entirely sure why Haifa has a "Museum of Japanese Art," but my guess is that there was a guy named Tikotin who had a lot of money laying around mixed with an interest in Japan. Either way, it all added up to us stopping by. Here we see Tova and Neil honoring the ancient traditions of the samurai by showing us what they would look like were they to throw down samurai-style.

All of the "art" we saw was from the late 1700's to the mid-1800's. I wonder how they knew then to just rip-off modern Japanese comic books...

This drawing features a samurai warrior in way over his head with lizard-faced zombie chicks to his left, melty-faced zombie chicks to his right, a whole bunch of snakes all up in his grill, a pair of ghosts above him, and some random dude bleeding from his carotid artery holding down the fort behind him. I am creeped out by this now, so I can only imagine how creepy this was a couple hundred years ago.


This drawing features a large number of creepy-looking ghost/demon things coming out of boxes while one dude shits himself and the other dude acts all smug that his box is still closed. I don't think the ghost/demons get along so well...but I guess they probably got pretty annoyed with each other after being cooped up in those boxes. If I remember correctly, a few of the ghost/demons actually look a bit drunk. A good reminder for everyone to make sure you bring plenty of booze if you're ever gonna be trapped in a box for an extended period of time.


So we were walking along to our next destination when we walked past this hotel. It looked kinda 1950's or 1960's retro, so we decided to take a pic...but in the process of discussing the design of it...


...a full on debate broke out! Neil was of the opinion that the hotel had to have been built no later than 1965 and they were just too lazy to bother updated the exterior of the hotel since then, while Tova was of the opinion that it was most likely built later using the 50's style as inspiration. After a few minutes of back and forth on this, it was decided that we had to go inside and find out when exactly the building was built.


The answer turned out to be 1963. This is Neil basking in the glory. He has to do this every time he is right about something, because he knows that any minute there will be a new stain on his pants that will bring him right back down to earth.


You could probably guess that it was only a matter of time before the Bahai Gardens turned up in this post. Considering that they are on nine out of every ten postcards in Haifa, new people coming to Haifa always means another trip to the gardens. You may remember them from Cara's visit to Haifa, as well. Regardless, here is a picture of Neil and Tova from the top of the gardens. Aren't they adorable?


While I was up there, I noticed that there was a good view of Kiryat Eliezer (the neighborhood that contains the stadium Maccabi Haifa FC play in), so I decided to take a picture. In case you can't see it, the stadium is on the left. You can also see the building I got my allergy test in on the right side of the picture. Oh, the memories.


On our way to the next place we went, we walked past this park in the Carmel Center, so I took a picture to capture the vibe of Passover in Israel with all the kids out of school and all their parents on vacation. Good times.


We took a bus to the next museum, but ended up about an hours walk away from it because somebody was positive that the National Maritime Museum couldn't possibly be the building with the huge battleship in front of it we were passing. That was over 24 hours ago, though, so I'm sure everyone has long since forgotten which one of us was stupid enough to veto getting off of the bus at that point (I know I tried my best to forget). Anyhow, this miscalulation meant that we were going to be able to make a stop at the best-named building in Haifa (nee, the world). It was also the perfect time for Neil to tell me about the time he beat-up Jean-Claude Van Damme at the MTV movie awards. The building was closed for Passover, but when it is open it is a pretty cool place to hang out and listen to the stories people tell.


We finally made it! And for future reference, there is, in fact, a large battleship on the other side of this building. No skull and crossbones flag, though.


The first floor of the museum was full of pictures such as this one. Considering that we were at the National Maritime Museum and the first thing we saw was a picture of a bunch of plastic chairs stacked on the beach, Neil was compelled to pull out the "thumbs down." Strangely, this is the same picture they use in the Tourist Booklet to represent the museum, so it looks like the main exhibit at the National Maritime Museum is a pile of plastic chairs. I'm not sure if it is better or worse that it is actaully a picture of a pile of plastic chairs, instead.


The real action was downstairs. The carving in the middle is really impressive not because it was carved into the penile bone of a whale, but because the penile bone is incredibly large. Neil and I were impressed by this because we are horribly immature. Tova just rolled her eyes as Neil and I made "witty" comments about it for about five minutes.


While looking at this display of various knots, Tova made a joke (that I won't bother repeating) that Neil and I laughed at, then had to spend the next five minutes explaining to Tova why what she just said was, in fact, a very funny joke (it had been a long day).


While at the museum, it was decided that because of how much walking we had done to get to there (at least it was good exercise!), we needed to sit down for awhile. Here is Tova and myself feeling good to be off of our feet. The booklet in Tova's hand is blurry because there was no air conditioning on the lower floor of the museum, so she was using it as a fan in an attempt at cooling down. This lack of air conditioning also resulted in the museum smelling like a locker room...which I guess gives people a taste of what it is like to hang around with a bunch of smelly sailors. I'm surprised they didn't advertise it as "virtual reality."

After this, we went to the beach and ate popsicles while Tova explained to me how Menachem Begin was so left-wing that he was actually a member of the PLO at one point. I can't wait to spend shabbat in Rechovot so we can pick that conversation up again! I kid, I kid. Anyhow, a great time was had, and we made tentative plans to see Star Wars: Episode III together (because we are nerds like that).

So I did it for the iPod shuffle, and now I have that, too. For anyone who thinks these deals are a scam, I now have two ipods to disprove that theory. Awesome. Now I'm gonna get the 60GB photo ipod. You guys totally have to get in on these free ipods!

I'll get back to regular blogging soon. I've been really lazy lately, but I have a couple old stories to tell that I'll post in the near future. In the meantime, you should all go download Skype! It's gonna change the world.