Then we went to Acco (actually the place we swam may have technically been in Acco, I'm not sure). Acco is an old Crusader/Arab city. They have a huge crusader castle, as well as a big, famous Turkish bath. So people used to go to Acco to stay in a dungeon or a resort, one or the other. There's also a big Arab market (the transliteration of the Arabic term for market is "shook" which is probably spelled incorrectly, but that's how it's pronounced), and it's basically situated between the Sea Of Galilee and the Mediterranean Sea. While in Acco we visited all three of those. Good stuff.

The first picture shows an M-16 casually strewn about the floor of our bus. The rest are of the market. It was very cool and real, with fish markets buzzing with flies, and lots of spices and such. In the market, I bought my mother a whole shitload of saffron. Saffron in the US is like $5 for a tiny bottle. I bargained a bunch with some of the shopkeepers, with the aid of Gary, our group leader who spoke Hebrew and some Arabic. One of the shopkeepers got so mad at us that he spat on the ground in front of us and told us to get out. But eventually, for 15 shekels (~$3.50) I brought home what would be at least $75 worth of saffron, so that was cool. Saffron is great, and you use it in a lot of spanish dishes like paella, or chicken and yellow rice. The saffron is what gives the yellow rice its color. Also, notice the Israeli Engrish on the ninja toys.

While near the market, I also got a glass of orange juice squeezed from a roadside vendor. This was my second experience with amazing Israeli citrus. The oranges were perfect, and so sweet. I know my citrus, coming from Florida. I've had orange trees at my houses all my life, and the one I lived in from age five to age eighteen also had grapefruit, tangerine, tangelo, banana, blueberry, cumquat, loquat trees, as well as pineapple bushes. Anyway, the Israeli fruit was amazing. I guess the climate is just right for it, but you never think of Israel as being a big citrus place.

I got a nice lunch that is pictured below. It was baked St. Peter's Fish (tilapia) supposedly caught locally.

Here we are in the old castle/fortress/dungeon thing of the crusaders. I didn't get many pictures. Hey, speaking of crusaders, here's something funny that we learned. There are a lot of places where Jesus Christ supposedly did certain things (here at this point on La Via De La Rosa, Christ fell and shed a tear and was helped along by a Spanish merchant, etc). These points are now marked and labeled, and are holy to Christians, but apparently none of them have anything to do with where things actually happened. Even the place where Christ was crucified. And the holy cities of Israel. They're just places where the Crusaders came and said, "Hmmm, this spot looks nice. Let's make it holy." and "Hey, look at this rock. Let's say Jesus used it for support while carrying the cross."

They had this tour through the Turkish baths where you wore headphones. You were guided through by some guy. While in the baths, one of the statues started talking (they had a talking face projected onto the statue, and it was silly).

These are on the Meditteranean shore of Acco. I cut a chunk out of my toe getting the shots of the kids looking for shellfish in the tidal pools, and that was no fun.

While staying at the second kibbutz, one night we barbecued for our bus. We had kebabs, burgers, hot dogs, chicken, salad, chips, and other stuff. So, our Israeli soldiers went in to shop for us, and a couple of us went with them to help out. The grocery store was pretty interesting. Just like American groceries, only with key differences. For instance, they have guards outside the entrance, and you have to get wanded with a metal detector and your bags are searched before they let you in. Also, shopping carts aren't free. They're like two or three shekels (fifty cents) to rent. I think American groceries should adopt this syetem: you pay for what you use.

Anyway, the bill was like $350, which was a lot. Seeing 1465 shekels on the screen seemed like a ton. Also notice the first two pictures. Notice the nice pictures of families on the display of those drinks.
This is hilarious because the drinks being advertised are malt liquor. Wow. You'd never see that in America.

We went to a detainment camp that was used during British occupation before the state of Israel was declared. Ashkenazi Jews who made Alia and returned to Israel would be allowed in, but they'd have to be detained for a while first. This is like the Ellis Island of Israel. It's interesting though because a lot of them came from situations where they, their families, or their friends had been at concentration camps. So they were very wary of being forcibly put into a camp again. And then at this camp they also had to take group showers and were always terrified at first that it would be mustard gas or something coming from the showers. But the detainment camps were generally happy places where they formed communities and culture while they were there for a couple months. There were quotas of the number that would be let in, so they used the camps as holding tanks until then. Not many pictures, but interesting stories.