Today I blogged early and decided on my itinerary for the day, I googled The Castra centre or the Kastra centre depending on googles mood, this is a centre for artists to work and display their goods, and also there are general shops too, I found a lovely supermarket with everything I could need had I got a fridge, a house, or even something to clean other than smalls.
Getting here was a bit of a trial, I used good old google maps and worked out the best route, but i do believe Haifa has changed a bit since the last time google was here, my map said it would take me one hour and fifteen minutes to get where I wanted to be, I had my phone out tracking my blue dot, because that is how google sees me, I am a pulsing blue dot on the map, so I do everything I'm told and get to the top of a set of steps, I head down only to be confronted with a barricade and a house, this must be one of the things google missed, so back up the steps I go, I had to detour way, way over the top of the Mountain before I could pick up the trail again, by which time I had run out of path, was the wrong side of the dual carriageway and could do no more than get on a bus. Now this is my first time on a bus since arriving in Haifa, and I have to say I was pleasantly surprised, as I have said most people speak some or a lot of English, I held out my grubby hand which was full of small change and said Castra please :), the lovely man took some money gave me change and my ticket and promised to tell me where to get off!!!
A little while later Castra came the shout and my driver set me down what appeared to be in the middle of nowhere, but as it is always in Haifa, you are never in the middle of nowhere you just have to look a little deeper and you are in the middle of somewhere, so I found myself just around the corner, which wasn't actually a corner but a flyover, from Castra.
Once I had had my bag searched as is the morm in all centres, buildings, car parks and other facilities, I was inside, there were ladies making dolls, not the playing kind the displaying kind, there are painters and whilst having lunch I was watching a gentleman making glass things, and I only says things because I'm not sure what they were, he wasn't blowing the glass but he was heating it with a Bunsen and moulding it, it was all very creative. So whilst eating my Mediterranean salad (hold the bread) I watched as this gentleman created his things on sticks.
I had a bit of Facetime with Lou Lou who wouldn't show me her face as she is lying in bed with Flu, and is blaming her gentleman for passing on his bugs, didn't help that he has informed her he feels much better...I showed her my holiday hair, I'm surprised she didn't have a miraculous recovery, because I don't feel ill and I look this bad.
I left the Castra Centre and headed towards a car park, and miracle upon miracle, here was another hidden gem, Haifa Mall, three floors of lovely shops, bumper cars outside for the kids, Holmes place gym inside for the adults, I shopped till I dropped. Afternoon coffee was taken in a little cafe within the centre and I watched how the Israeli's do things. They appear to do them very well I have to say.
I left this particular centre around 3.30 and decided to take a taxi back, its alright going down hill at the start of the day, but bugger going up hill at the end of the day. My taxi driver took it into his head I am from Stockholm, and not Scotland as I had told him, it all gets lost in translation, but he was happy, I was happy, and we didn't care.
Gym time, so I hit the gym before if closed early as its almost weekend time again, I will get my head around this weekend one day, just not today, so I beasted my upper body for an hour or maybe a little less and felt superb when I finished, time for a shower and plaster on some of my new lotions and potions purchased today.
Now I couldn't decided weather to be mad with My Beloved because 'he had gone out to dinner and forgot about me' or because 'he was lying dead on the road side somewhere' but as it turned out all was well, almost all, the poor lad had a dead iphone, and was stressed out because he couldn't phone, couldn't text, luckily for him he had been able to get the immobiliser code out of the phone before it died, cos that really would have stressed him out, all cars in Israel have to be fitted with immobilisers by law, but the law says nothing about dead iphones. So he is now the proud owner of a Peugeot 308 silver ish, and he tells me its quite comfy to drive and his new GPS managed to get him where he needed to go, without breaking into Hebrew or even cursing.
Our evening was spent at Japanika more sushi, you have to love the sushi, and oh they do it very well here, we noticed this time that the chefs are all Japanese which is probably the reason its so good, I know we will be back again, My Beloved is even asking to go now, where as before we arrived in Israel although he would go, it was a little more effort to get him there.
Now I apologise in advance if this blog comes out gobblydegook as I'm on the Mac and have no idea if what I'm doing is saving or not, fingers crossed for when I hit the publish button.
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