Can I Use An Eyeclops With My Computer

is down again to resort again to the coast to Akko the Acre of the Crusaders. As usual, the goal was ambitious, a long list of things to see. On a spit of land right on the beachfront, the fortified citadel, a World Heritage Site, has a long history and tells it with ease and discretion: no Western fashion boutiques, souvenir or futuristic restoration, its old houses are simple houses for families, the streets and the market for the people, the port for fishermen. Akko (apparently from the ancient greek "ake" strip of land) if it has news from Egyptian texts of the nineteenth century before the Christian era, its port has seen ships come ashore from Genoa, Amalfi, Pisa and Venice over the centuries have visited Alexander the Great, Romans, Arabs, Crusaders, Mamelukes who, as usual, they destroyed everything on their arrival. The city remained Ottoman until the British mandate in Palestine. The fulcrum of revolt against the progressive Jewish immigration in the years to fight the independence of Israel, the citadel within the walls, beautiful, has kept its Arab population, while the Israeli side has developed outside the east fortifications ..

had to visit the ancient hammam turkish El Pacha, the caravanserai, a stretch of South Street artery for Christian pilgrims who came to the Holy Land recently discovered deep in the belly of the earth and above the underground city of the crusaders , with salt Knight, in a distant headquarters of strategic meetings and very little religious soldiers.

Well, revolutionized the program, all these places were closed, access to the citadel itself was closed. The service was very well organized, we left the car in a parking lot in suburbs and we slipped into a shuttle bus filled to capacity with people in the party that led to the gates of the fortifications. Unbelievable crowd, people came from other places, the Feast of course all the other Arab towns in Israel, lucky mom to be there in the middle, Gaston had struck again! It was the feast of Eid al Adha , four days of prayer and partying together at the end of Ramadan, for Muslims the two most important religious festivals of the year.

Eid al Adha, or Feast of Sacrifice celebrated throughout the Muslim world to commemorate the willingness of Abraham to sacrifice his son Ishmael as an act of obedience to the Almighty. As you know, the last time you see the ram, and this will be the object of the sacrifice, not his son.

The festivities usually begin after the annual pilgrimage to Mecca. It usually sacrifice a cow or a goat or a sheep or a camel and religious observance requires that the meat is divided into three parts, one third for the family, third to the relatives and friends and to third the poor and needy. Fortunately, the days of animal sacrifice was to earlier, so we have not seen. For the Jewish tradition is a matter of Isaac instead of Ishmael and the practice of animal sacrifice ended with the destruction of the Temple.

great festival atmosphere of the country, the streets crowded and noisy, some even on rooftops to enjoy the show, many gigs with children and families for a walk the alleys, the men just to look at the bar smoking a hookah, the rides, the seller of powdered sugar, Gaston makes a close contact with a snake that is a very nice gentleman generously offered to place the neck of all.

Fortunately, at the end of the prayers we could visit the central mosque El Djezzar end of 1700 in a typically Ottoman Empire. I love the ancient mosques inside are always essential, empty, but with beautiful decorations, carpets, some minarets off that challenge sky, the quiet courtyards.

Acre, a beautiful joyful atmosphere, a festive city, I was always possible ... ... in Israel.

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Rosh Pina and the ark of Noah

leaving Haifa, via inward towards the Galilee, Israel's green lung, historically the first and moshav agricultural kibboutz for a people who, having never been able to own land in the host countries, had never been a farmer. The earth is thirsty, a few green fields and lots of parched red soil, it does not rain here for several months, is a real and dramatic water emergency. The Israelis had become specialists in the bombing of the clouds and I'm not sure what to make them rain, but how do you do when even the shade of clouds? But you can never say, these parts are in "area miracles." In the distance Lake Tiberias increasingly poor water, the city of the same name, Mount of Beatitudes, Capharneum.

Gaston argues that you should never return to the places that you are loved and that we have a good memory, and perhaps he is right, review Safed (Zefat, Tzfat, discrediting) ten years later was disappointing. The highest mountain village, perched at 800 meters in the Upper Galilee, with the sight and thought that go out of its maze of stone alleys, the old scribes who, in their banquets on the verges of the road painted the letters of 'ancient Hebrew alphabet seeking the hidden meanings, the bohemian artists that modern reinterpretation of the sacred with the inspiration of the magical silence of the place, of that certain something mystical that hovered in the air, I did not find the flavor.

Sure, it's always very religious town, the blacks turn caftans in abundance, preposterous hats in the windows of Queen Elizabeth for the brides that practitioners must never appear at the head found in public, but unfortunately also an endless row of modern shops, business at the exhibition of the sacred. The Kabbalah, the mystical interpretation of Judaism is at home here, here in the '400 and '500 have come great masters and scholars fleeing persecution by the Inquisition in Spain and in the 700 and then another large influx of men from Russia. Many people, especially Americans, hungry for spirituality, they started studying the Kabbalah, but this leaves me puzzled. It 's like if I wanted to climb Everest without a sudden I've ever coached, Kabbalistic studies should eventually be a point of arrival and departure, to be tackled only after years and years devoted to the knowledge of the foundations of religion. In the famous quarter of those we visit ancient synagogues of Joseph Caro was born in Spain and Isaac Lourie, called Ha'ri, one of the greatest Masters, born in Jerusalem, both of Sixteenth century.

A magnificent carved olive wood tabernacle containing the sacred scrolls of the Torah, the window-glass representation of the Sephiroth, the ten emanations through which the Transcendent is manifested.

The sun sets very early, at four o'clock, we put ourselves in the car with the last rays of sunset because we are afraid to face the dark roads that we do not know, but all right, Rosh Pina to sleep at night is a few kilometers. I did not know the charm of this rural village founded by Romania at the end of '800, the first colony Jews in Galilee, but is a tip of my cousin and he Eldad they will be. A Rosh Pina hotels out there, but much better Zimmer, the rooms, so here they call them, the German way, coveted by the Israelis for the weekend in these parts is synonymous with mountain chalets, bungalows and very comfortable and trendy (We even have a room in a bath tub jacuzzi like an idiot not to use all those buttons disorient us). La Villa Tehila, recommended by the guide, as a farm in the forest Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs is full of corners, crevices, courtyards, halls, lounges, rooms at all heights and never ceases to amaze with the tide of disparate objects, even a Sicilian cart, transships everywhere.

But above all we seem to embark in Noah's ark. Dozens of animals peacefully together in pens in common: parrots, a variety of birds, rabbits, raccoons, chinchillas, toponyms unidentified rates, a llama, chickens, guinea fowl, geese, two horses and so on.

owners fit perfectly into the landscape, they sound like prophets of '68, a past almost Archaeological idealism, pioneering, pacifism, spinels and guitar, long white hair with a ponytail (her husband) and last but significant detail, their dog, a mutt that is very petulant named Aaron, as the brother of Moses.

The country is tiny and beautiful, tranquil, there is almost nothing but room for the imagination, the old stone houses partially restored the rough country roads , luck still plays for real. There is an old synagogue, the old photos that show the history of the place and the early pioneers in selling some handicraft, honey, of cinnamon and homemade liqueurs limoncello.

To Nimrod: the end of the country, bumpy road and uncultivated land abandonment check suddenly the whole wall in a pitch well placed. Nimrod is written on a sign. A gentleman of a certain age tills, hoe, system, clean all around. I play from that point you should see Nimrod, the ruins of the fortified citadel in the direction of Mount Hermon and request confirmation to the ladies. No, Nimrod was his only child, a beautiful boy of 35 years died last war in Lebanon. To remember, to work and do not think he made this observation point over the valley. To Nimrod

Rosh Pina, a wonderful surprise, the Golan Heights in the distance.