day 8, 9, 10

Sorry about the late post today. It's fairly hard to find Internet access when we're constantly moving. On day 8 we went to Haifa, Israel's largest port city. In Haifa, we saw the bahai gardens. The gardens were planted on a slope in the middle of the city by members of a religious group called the Bahai. After our visit to Haifa, we went to an ancient roman build town called Cisearia. Cisearia is a port town that was built by Herod the Great, and had been taken over by the Arabs, Romans, and crusaders in it's history. It originally was a magnificent city, but storms and earthquakes have destroyed most of it. The next stop we made was to Tel Aviv, our last town. We had dinner in the Yemenite quarter, and made our way to the hotel were we would stay for the night. The next day, we went to the Palmach museum, were we learned about the secret Israeli Militia and it's involvement in the war for independence. The same day, we saw a movie about Tel Aviv's history, and visited Independence hall, were David Ben Gurion declared Israel's independence. We later separated into two groups, one which went to Jaffa, where we ate dinner. Then we went back to the hotel for some free time and Friday night services. The next day is Shabbat, so there are optional services to attend in the morning. The rest of the day is left to enjoy Shabbat before we make our way home! It's been a wonderful trip, and hopefully not my last.

P.S. I apologize for any inaccuracy or vagueness in this post. It's been three days since I was able to post, so my memory of events was slightly hazy. If anyone sees any problems or something I forgot to mention, please comment or e-mail me. Thanks!