In my first day in Israel I decided to go to Haifa, it's a nice city at the coast of Israel 1 hour North from tel Aviv by train. I arrived to a small and nice hostel where they told me all the important places I should visit. I knew already the only real place I wanted to go where the bahai gardens.
I had to be quick as they only have a few tours per day, so after loosing my way a couple of times I managed to arrive to the place, but it was too late, so I could only see a small part of them. On the first gate I met a taxi driver that tried to convince me to take me around for 320ILS and he told me lunch was included and that he would take me to a place where they have the best falafel in Israel! I thought it was too much money so I decided I wasn't going with him and that I better walk my way back to the hostel so I could see around.
When I got down the hill I was on a neighbor where it seemed I could find something to eat, so I asked around where could I find falafel, and guess what? I found the taxi driver eating in the place where they had the best falafels on Israel, he wasn't wrong... After that I went to the beach to relax and watch the sunset.
My brother Mateo lived here for some months 10 years ago, so he knew a guy that was living close to Haifa, he introduced him to me but for a number of reasons he wasn't there at the time, so he offered to introduce me to one of his friends, Mor. She called me and we agreed on going for dinner
She was very nice and kind, she is from here and is an artist, she sells her work to galleries and lives with her boyfriend. We talked for hours as we had know each other for ever. After a very nice evening I went to the hotel to rest.
The next day I woke up and had breakfast at the hostel, I packed my stuff and went again to see if I could get in the tour this time. Fortunately I was on time and managed to get in :)
The gardens were amazing, full of flowers, trees and water. But the most amazing thing was the reason why they were there. They are the bahai gardens, a sacred place for the bahai religion (I didn't know they existed till that moment) this religion believes that all religions in the world are talking about the same God, the same creator and that we have different options just because we had different teachers (Jesus, Mahoma, etc) that we are all the same and should be treated equally, and that our only purpose in the world is to serve others. They don't want people to convert to their religion, just by believeing there is a higher power and respecting others opinions you are part of the bahai philosophy. I think it's a very noble and coherent way of thinking, something that we should all embrace and more in this time when we are all killing each other just because we think differently.
When I was done there I went again to the best falafel in Israel to have lunch and then took a bus to Nazareth.
