Jim is collecting spices to bring home. Marina (our Bethlehem hostess) gave Jim some Palestinian spice blends for meat and chicken. Today we picked up some saffron, za’taar and sumac from the Turkish souq in old Akko.
We are staying at the Akkotel B&B, an exquisitely gracious small family hotel in a former Ottoman police station that has been lovingly restored with lavish attention to detail and using top quality materials. Old Akko is picturesque, looking a lot like a movie set in Casablanca. Rick and Ilsa would feel right at home on these romantic streets - especially at sunset on the sea.
While we are in northern Israel, not near the Palestinian areas, the city appears quite Muslim, many women are covered -- in the contemporary way of using the hijab as a colorful fashion accessory, and mosques prominently define the skyline. Akko is also home to dark African-descended Israeli Arabs who were made citizens in 1948.
Tourists are prevalent during the day, but crawl onto huge white whales of buses and pull out of town in the afternoon. Old Akko is a contemporary working city, not a tourist museum, although it is a UNESCO Heritage site, and restoration and archeological work continues. It is very Arabic in feel, and its inhabitants live closely together in tight, twisting alleyways created by the stonework labyrinth of buildings behind the city walls. After dark, when it cools down, the jumbled and narrow stone streets worn smooth become outdoor living rooms and playgrounds. Everyone’s door is open, toddlers to teenagers are playing on the cobblestones. We felt intrusive as we walked along, like strangers inappropriately venturing into private inner sanctums. I kept my camera in my bag, but would have loved to capture the rich exotic details of domestic life for future paintings. Out on the sea quay, 8-10 year-olds climb the huge stones of the fortress walls, and parents supervise their wading offspring in the Mediterranean. Acre (Akko) was a Crusader fortress in the 12th century. Its city walls are so thick (6 feet or more) that Napoleon couldn’t conquer it.
There is a quality of life here that embraces the family, with neighbors engaging closely with each other. I noticed a similar cultural character in Egypt last year…there is something about these Arab cities that is so deeply civilized. First off, the cities are very young -- and while the young people all have cell phones, and young drivers love loud music, at the same time they are very family oriented…which seems to tone down the excesses of continuous entertainment and sensory stimulation, of individual exhibitionism, of public consumption of substances, of general noise…that pervades the public areas of American cities -- from beach towns to ball parks.
Regarding cacophony, Jim and I have been noise magnets on this trip. If you want to know where in the world there will be construction, just join us -- at EVERY stop there has been roadwork outside our window -- and they start early -- like 6am. In this beautiful Akkohotel, the road was quiet yesterday when we arrived. This morning a bulldozer began ripping up the cobblestones. The newly laid street of pavers seems nearly finished at 5:30 pm, so the next person in our room will have a quiet stay.
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