I knew I wanted to visit Caesarea just because it's a good tourist stop and it was supposed to be scheduled on my taglit trip but we never made it. I never made to the park when I visited it with family and friends in the extremely upscale neighborhood. When I mentioned this to the Ravids, they looked at me as "how the hell are you planning to get there?" I shrugged and asked them if they had any better ideas than taking the train. They said no....
I arrived at Caesarea train stop without a hitch. The rumors about Israeli trains being quite nice inside were very true- they beat NJ Transit and LIRR trains with a little table for your drinks and more comfortable seats! When I got off the train, suddenly I could tell that I was in for a bit of an adventure because A) the station was tiny and practically non-existent B) the sea was nowhere in sight and C) the place did not look one bit familiar as I remembered. So I began walking around looking for the sea or signs to the park. After wandering for half hour and almost walked along the highway, I decided to head back to the train station. I began thinking, "I hate Caesarea already. This isn't Israel. That joke ring so true- it's 10 minutes from Israel." I considered giving up and just going back to Herzliya if the cab didn't come within reasonable time. A cab came to drop off a passenger but a family of girls beat me to it even though I already called for a cab. I grumbled and sat around for another 10 minutes even though I already overheard the cabbie calling for another cab to come and get me. Finally that cab came. The driver wanted 40 shekels to get there and I figured that sounded reasonable giving that I didn't see any signs of life relating to the old park during my wanderings. I realize that the train station must be built exclsuively for the businesses in "Caesarea Park," a largely business oriented park like office parks in the US. Idiot Israelis for making this completely untourist-y friendly.
After a 10-15 minute ride, I made it to the more familiar sights of beautiful houses and old ruins. There was a guy right at the entrance selling cut up watermelons and offering to squeeze oranges for a freshly squeeze OJ. I was tempted to buy the watermelons but since it was 12:30, I had no idea how long those things had been sitting out... I paid for my ticket at student discount and made my way in.
Caesarea has a very interesting history, a bit of reminder of Jerusalem's history, where many different rulers took over the city and reshaped it each time. Some parts of Caesarea were built over by later rulers. It used to be a huge, huge place to be because it was a port and King Herod wanted to make this one of the grandest cities in Palestine aside from Jerusalem. Obviously, this was dedicated to King Augustus Caesar. After the Great Revolt in 60-70 C.E. and Jerusalem was destroyed, the Romans made this the capital of Roman Palestine. Caesarea was also a place where the father of the Misnah, Rabbi Akivah, was tortured and executed by the Romans a bit later on. After Caesarea fell under Muslim hands, the flourishing city dwindled into a little Arab village. When I examined the different sites and found evidence of changing rulers, Caesarea did indeed remind me of Jerusalem except it isn't just as well perserved.
So as you can see from the photographs that the archeaologists never really "fixed" the place like they did with Masada. It made it more tricky to navigate the grounds with a pair of flip flops. So wear sneakers!
I arrived at Caesarea train stop without a hitch. The rumors about Israeli trains being quite nice inside were very true- they beat NJ Transit and LIRR trains with a little table for your drinks and more comfortable seats! When I got off the train, suddenly I could tell that I was in for a bit of an adventure because A) the station was tiny and practically non-existent B) the sea was nowhere in sight and C) the place did not look one bit familiar as I remembered. So I began walking around looking for the sea or signs to the park. After wandering for half hour and almost walked along the highway, I decided to head back to the train station. I began thinking, "I hate Caesarea already. This isn't Israel. That joke ring so true- it's 10 minutes from Israel." I considered giving up and just going back to Herzliya if the cab didn't come within reasonable time. A cab came to drop off a passenger but a family of girls beat me to it even though I already called for a cab. I grumbled and sat around for another 10 minutes even though I already overheard the cabbie calling for another cab to come and get me. Finally that cab came. The driver wanted 40 shekels to get there and I figured that sounded reasonable giving that I didn't see any signs of life relating to the old park during my wanderings. I realize that the train station must be built exclsuively for the businesses in "Caesarea Park," a largely business oriented park like office parks in the US. Idiot Israelis for making this completely untourist-y friendly.
After a 10-15 minute ride, I made it to the more familiar sights of beautiful houses and old ruins. There was a guy right at the entrance selling cut up watermelons and offering to squeeze oranges for a freshly squeeze OJ. I was tempted to buy the watermelons but since it was 12:30, I had no idea how long those things had been sitting out... I paid for my ticket at student discount and made my way in.
Caesarea has a very interesting history, a bit of reminder of Jerusalem's history, where many different rulers took over the city and reshaped it each time. Some parts of Caesarea were built over by later rulers. It used to be a huge, huge place to be because it was a port and King Herod wanted to make this one of the grandest cities in Palestine aside from Jerusalem. Obviously, this was dedicated to King Augustus Caesar. After the Great Revolt in 60-70 C.E. and Jerusalem was destroyed, the Romans made this the capital of Roman Palestine. Caesarea was also a place where the father of the Misnah, Rabbi Akivah, was tortured and executed by the Romans a bit later on. After Caesarea fell under Muslim hands, the flourishing city dwindled into a little Arab village. When I examined the different sites and found evidence of changing rulers, Caesarea did indeed remind me of Jerusalem except it isn't just as well perserved.
So as you can see from the photographs that the archeaologists never really "fixed" the place like they did with Masada. It made it more tricky to navigate the grounds with a pair of flip flops. So wear sneakers!
The entrance to the park through one of the old watch towers.
The seats for the public baths.... they didn't look too comfortable!
The seats of the amphitheater. 
The amphitheater was shaped in a U to allow for horse chariot races (like in the movie Ben-Hur). It was pretty cool to scale it given that I'm an equestrian fan and imagining all the entertainment that went on here.
The amphitheater was shaped in a U to allow for horse chariot races (like in the movie Ben-Hur). It was pretty cool to scale it given that I'm an equestrian fan and imagining all the entertainment that went on here.
I decided to climb on some "roofs" but I think that the actual roofs were gone and these might've been the floors of some of the houses. That was very cool to see mosaics and they were in pretty good condition considering it's been thousands of years! My most exciting find all day.
Some more places but can't quite remember what they were...
Oh, this was the view from the upper palace!
After I passed the amphitheater, I went up to see the grounds of the upper palace and this enormous theater. It totally reminded me of the Mega Event on my birthright trip because we had a similar Roman-style theater. It was definitely beautiful. And that was all of it. I went back to the entrance along the beach. Much to my disgust, I found that the sand unappealing as it was quite heavy and had to manually clean out my flip-flops and feet to get rid of it- it's more heavy rocky sand like in Maine. I explored some of the artisan shops that had Roman glass beads. The jewelry was very pretty. There was supposed to be a Cats' Quarter but I think it's just a joke that the cats just make their home in that particular area of the park. Then I saw the signs for more sites- the Church. The Church grounds were shaped like an octogan.
Then I stopped for a quick lunch of roasted eggplant with labaneh and bread and drank some ice coffee (I had been drinking my big water bottle...). Afterwards, I stopped in Ester S's shop and there, I saw the most beautiful Israeli art pieces I have seen thus far in Israel. (http://www.ester-shahaf.com/). She had the most gorgeous Shabbat candles but I couldn't decide whether to get them or not but I opted to get a wall decoration of a Star of David with Israel written on it for my new apartment in Michigan. I'd love to have more of her stuff. I asked her if she sold at the Carmel Market and she said no but has small collections in stores all over Israel but this was her flagship and she sells them at face value rather than additional profits that her sellers get.
I went for a little walk to see how far away the famous adaqucents were but it turned out a little too far. So I rounded around another ancient site that I wasn't sure exactly what it was. By then, it was 4 PM and I figured that I could have the next half hour or hour to jump in the water to cool off. Then I found out that it cost 20 shekels just to get into the beach and I told them to forget it. Finally, I asked the woman at the entrance if there was a bus out and she said the next one wouldn't be for another 2 hours and asked if she could call a cab for me and I said fine.
The cab driver took me to the wrong train station- to Binyamin instead of Caesarea. I told him that I had a ticket from Caesarea to Herzliya and he came with me to the ticket counter in Binyamin to make sure my ticket would still be good and the woman said I should be fine. So I waited a goooodddd half hour for the train. Yes, Israel Railways need some work on its frequency. But the train wasn't crowded as I feared for some reason.
I was very glad to be back at the kibbutz and went straight to the bathroom to clean off my dirty feet! I realized that every since I landed in Israel, I wore my sandals nearly everyday except for one or two days. I did wear my sandals a lot when I interned in D.C. but I wore my sneakers aplenty during my commute. It was just weird thinking about how my feet have rarely been clean.
For dinner, all the girls were home and Linda made chicken and pineapple stir-fry with a light touch of soy sauce. It was fun seeing what life would've been like if i had sisters... the conversation was definitely different than say... with my own brother! Suddenly, things revolved around boys, Yasmin's crazy beach hair, the awesome necklace that Maayan had on... I could see that Shlomi was bored by all of this but I think he's proud to have such independent daughters who can think for themselves.
Tomorrow, off to Tel Aviv to see what Air Canada's up to.
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