Haifa, Dark and Deserted

My roommate Avinoam and I decided to go to join friends for dinner. We drove to Eyal's house and couldn't help but feel astonished at the sight of this new Haifa, at night. As I've mentioned before, I live in the Carmel Center, a bustling, vibrant area full of pubs, restaurants, and coffee shops. This is the hang-out place in Haifa. You would never know that now by these pictures that I took around 8:30 PM.


The Greg and the Toot coffee shops (above) are normally open twenty-four hours a day, seven days a week, and crowded. Notice also that the apartments above the cafes are dark and deserted as well. The inhabitants must have left the city.


The Mandarin, another 24-hour coffee shop, lies empty and dark.
Only the Levinsky Pub is "open." A few bar/restaurant/coffee shop owners have decided to stay open in order to boost morale and maybe try to pretend that it's business as usual. But it obviously isn't - the Levinsky, one of the most popular bars in Haifa, tonight barely filled a table.

Eyal prepared omelettes, bourekas, salad, and French fries for Avinoam, Adi, and me. Of course we talked about how the last couple of days have been for us. Though Adi has been called to work, she refuses to go. The drive to Nahariyah is just too scary for her. Many of the katyushot have been landing there. Eyal, too, has been at home for these past three days, as have Avinoam and I. Eyal's parents have left for Beer Sheva (in the south of Israel) to stay with cousins. They dropped the family cat off at Eyal's apartment. She's been crying all day and hiding under the bed.

I'm using Eyal's laptop to update the blog, but I'm about to put it away. We've decided to watch a movie to take our mind off the situation.