Boy am I tired! As much as I want to fall asleep right now, I'll write this blog post so that you people living vicariously through me can continue breathing. Then I'll hit the sack.
The city was much calmer today. The streets were clear and Old Akko was open. Today we were tourists. We did tourist things and acted like tourists. Shelley, the director of the program, said that today was the only day we were allowed to be tourists. That just shows that the rest of the time we will be special visitors, with "backstage passes". We started off with a tour of the Old City, starting at the Knights Hospitaller Fortress ruins, underneath an Ottoman castle and the British prison where Jewish "freedom fighters" were imprisoned during the Mandate Period. Watch the movie Exodus for a good representation of it, shot on location. The tour started with a very cheesy, kid-oriented movie about Old Akko, very much for tourists. Then we entered the fortress and walked around, with Shelley being our tour guide. We also saw the old Turkish Bathhouse, but it is unfortunately no longer in service. There are two bathhouses still in use, and I hope to make it to one of them!
The tour took us out through the Templar Tunnel, which leads to the coast where the Templar Fortress has sunk beneath the waves of the Mediterranean, right across the street from our apartment. We continued walking through the Old City back to where the tour began, where we caught a bus to take us on a tour of the modern city. After the tour of the modern city we went back to the bed and breakfast where we stayed the night and packed to take our stuff to our apartment, where we can now stay. After a brief respite and tour of the apartment we headed out on a trek to a grocery store in the modern city to get food. When we got back it was already evening, so we spent a little time on the balcony watching the sunset over the Med, drinking wine and talking to the landlord Nzar, and then ate dinner (burgers). That was our day.
One extra notice: I packed my camera in my carry-on luggage, but they made me check the bag because there was no room. When I picked the bag up there was a rip in the front pocket, things were falling out and my camera was shredded in the front, unusable. So until I can go and buy a new (cheap) camera I will be taking pictures with my phone. I won't be getting the best quality photos.
On that note, check out the next post for a few photos from today's adventure!
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