Caesarea

I started writing this post about a week ago and I never finished it. Okay. Here goes on publishing it.

So last Friday, after getting up rather later than we should have and leaving two hours after our plan of leaving at nine o'clock, we bundled into the car and drove to Caesarea.

Caesarea (which in Hebrew is pronounced kay-sar-i-a but in English is pronounced see-zar-i-a or sez-a-ri-a) is a town halfway between Tel Aviv and Haifa and it's a little over 2,000 years old according to Wikipedia. The Romans were there, and they brought to it the famous aqueducts and giant amphitheater in which concerts are still held. A lot of tourists come to see the archeological entities, but it's also a popular vacation place for locals.

My aunt and uncle own a small vacation house there, which is the reason for us going and staying overnight. We arrived at one or two, and shortly after one of my mom's and uncle's old school friends arrived. The charcoal grills were started up and various things on sticks were put to roast, the first of which were hot dogs. Later on, there were chicken wings, pargiot (which is essentially grilled chicken), and roast beef (which was not on a stick). There were salads, rice, olives, hummus, tahini, and potatoes baked in the grill. After dessert, which was watermelon, cookies, strawberries, and chocolate, we went for a walk on the beach.

The beach in Caesarea is beautiful. It's one of the main highlights of the place. The sand is almost unnaturally soft and there are millions of seashells. There are so many that sometimes they cover an entire area in a giant mound. I will say that they are far less pleasant to walk on than sand. I picked out a few that caught my fancy, as well as a rock with holes carved by the sea that looked like a piece of modern art.

A bit later, the guests left, leaving us to relax for about two or three hours until more guests arrived, at which point a fire was made in the grill again and the coals were re-heated. For dinner, there were kebabs, grilled vegetables, sausages in various degrees of spiciness, and shrimp. There were also more salads, pickled vegetables (peppers, carrots, cauliflower, and cherry tomatoes), and sweet carrots cooked with plums.

I do believe that I ate more in that day than I have in a very long time.

After dinner, we were so exhausted that all we did was drag out the mattresses and go to sleep.

The next morning everyone was a bit disoriented. It was a bit like the morning after a sleepover, when you wake up earlier than you should and everyone is just tired and woozy, except not as bad. We decided to don bathing suits and go to the beach again. Mostly we waded and stood around in the water. No one really felt like swimming. I paused to carve in the wet sand "Hello Sweetie," which, if you're a fan of Doctor Who, you will know is the message that River Song leaves in various important places in time for the Doctor.

There wasn't much to do after that, so we basically packed our things and drove back home. It was a brilliant weekend, though.

Of course, the next day we were back at school. That wasn't particularly enjoyable, but there you go. Most good things come to an end. (I will not say "all" because that's just depressing.)