25th and 26th of June, 2019.
I have another 2 free days followed at the Hostel, so I go to visit Tiberias and Nazareth. I usually do not do these trips while I am volunteering but since I got free accommodation in the hostel, let’s do it! The hitchhiking works pretty well, of course, and at the Tiberias Hostel, Poloma is the wonderful woman who is very gentle and help me a lot! My plan is to climb mount Arbel, which has a wonderful view of the Sea of Galilee. At the beginning I really thought I would have to give up. Damn the thing is high and it is fucking hot! Only 9 o’clock in the morning! But apparently, Tiberias is the hottest town in the world. It is one of the lowest for sure, so the humidity is suffocating. But I do not give up and managed to get to the top.
Over there I meet this wonderful girl, Anna (even though we just ask our names hours later, when we had to introduce ourselves to somebody else), just as it supposed to be. We have so much in common that it is crazy! We spend some hours together just talking and enjoying the view from the best part of the mountain, under the fantastic shade of some trees. During the whole time we were there, no one single person passed by. Maybe because it is too hot to climb during the day, I do not know, but it is better this way.
We decide to hitchhike back to town together and go to swim at the Sea of Galilee. By a wonderful lucky (since there was no one else at the park), three nice young people from France and Italy, are coming back from the mount because it is too late to go up. They are wonderful people and also are going to swim, so we go all together.
The entrance to the Sea where we get is not that nice because it is full of garbage. Shame on you, Tiberia’s people! Just because something is public (there a lot of private beaches over there) does not mean you can treat like shit! Anyway, the sea itself, the water, it was great! It is quite nice how the temperature it changes all the time, from warm to little cold. Fantastic! After one hour or so me and Anna take our way back to the hostel and say goodbye to our new friends.
We were exhausted and starving but still had energy to look a little bit around the old city and take a picture. At the hostel we meet Poloma again and she is so nice to invite us to eat with her and the stuff. “You are family” she says. But first we spend some time in the roof, admiring the beautiful view from the Sea of Galilee. The food it was amazing! And finally I have some Israeli food. Even that me and Anna were super tired, we spend some more time at the roof after eating, just to be nice with Poloma who insist so much. She deserves. But at some point, I say goodbye to my very special new friend Anna and go to sleep.
Next morning, hitchhiking to Nazareth it works in four steps but it works. Even the last one it is from the beginning of town to the centre. I found the Hostel easy but then it starts a nightmare. The Coffee Shop under the Sim-Sim Hostel it is so nice that you imagine that the owner is a wonderful person. Wrong! She is so rude and not kind! After a few information that she gives me, it is all like: “There is nothing I can do”. So I can not explore the town because I want to cook my porridge in the kitchen of the Hostel, even that I know that the check-in is in the afternoon. But in our Hostel in Katzrin, that would be possible because we are such cool people! Not here! So I wait somewhere until around 12 p.m., hoping that when the owner arrives, he can help me in somehow. But then the only information she gives me it is wrong because he does not arrive at that time. So I find another place to rest, a nice secret spot, under some beautiful grapes and jasmine ceiling. Luckily for me, the house belongs to a wonderful old lady, who invites me to come and see her house inside. It is a very old Arabic palace, incredible beautiful inside. And she gives me candy! Later, while I am still waiting, her sister arrives and we talk for a while. Very nice and smart lady, who now leaves in Canada after being for 17 years leaving in UK. Lucky her!
Finally is time for the check-in so I leave. The owner of Sim-Sim is better than the woman but treats me as any other person / guest. The Hostel is quite crazy for being in the top of a some kind of deposit. So when you open the door you wonder if it is the right place. At the top, in the actual Hostel, is quite normal though.
I prepare my breakfast porridge and something for dinner, so I do not have to cook again later. I rest a bit and go to explore the town. In the churches I do not even get inside because of the clothes restriction. In one of the places they even offer me something to cover myself but I am so pissed that I refuse. So since the most “important” thins to see in Nazareth are the churches, I ended up just walking around the streets. For the last part of the evening, I go up a hill to check a viewpoint. I do not know how these people can leave in this town! Jesus! (Irony). Because it is all up on the hills and the small streets you need to take all the time are crossing people’s front door. Is like having strangers passing in front of your leaving room or kitchen or whatever, all the time. Anyway, the view is nice, I take a picture and after a few minutes I come back to the hostel. I will wake up very early and go to hitchhike out of town as early as possible, to make sure I will get back to Katzrin for my evening shift.
