Two months after the war, northern Israel looks (almost) like there was never any war. The damage made by 4000 rockets, courtesy of Hezbollah, isn’t seen.
My girlfriend and myself took a short weekend off in the Galilee, and this is the impression we got. We haven’t been to Kiryat Shmona, the city that was hit by 1000 rockets, so maybe we haven’t seen it all.
Here are all the pictures.
We started in Safed (Tzfat), which is an ancient Jewish center. Located in the mountains, and holding so much history, it could be a great tourist attraction. Lots of old synagogues of different styles and narrow walkways are seen in the old city. The authorities probably don’t care too much. Many buildings are in a shabby condition, and too much garbage is seen on the streets. This is not a result of the war. It can be blamed on years of negligence. When asking some locals about the war, they said that it was scary, but almost all the damage was fixed, and the rest is being fixed right now.
We then headed to our “Zimmer”, or guesthouse, at a small place called Harashim. Our host complained about too much competition, a problem that began already a few years ago. War? Well, he said that during the war, he had only one guest, a settler from the West Bank. Afterwards, the regular crowd came back, like in the days before the war.
We joined his hospitality and the fresh cold air of the high mountains (900 meters is high in Israel!), so we didn’t bother to leave the warm bathtub. After some rest in the quiet and cold mountains, driving in the noisy and polluted streets of Tel Aviv made feel… at home.