Even though Passover enforces some dietary restrictions on non-observant, non-Jews, like me, this holy period is one of the very few in Israel when public transportation still keeps the country moving.

Thanks to that, this 10-day period is preferred by many to travel around Israel. The crowds that gather at popular tourist destinations, like Nature Parks, Museums, etc., are sometimes so large that the sites are shut down without notice to grapple with the massive inflow of tourists.

Last year for Passover I visited a couple of museums in Tel Aviv. The Ha Poalim Bank here has a nice Passover tradition where they sponsor 30-40 museums across Israel for the holiday period to enable visitors to enjoy the museums for free. Taking advantage of that, I visited the Tel Aviv Museum of Art and the Eretz Israel Museum in the city.

With a few friends I also visited Jerusalem Old City last year, because who needs an excuse to visit the Old City? On this trip we quickly saw the sights and proceeded to do the Old City Ramparts Walk. I recommend the walk to everyone who visits the Old City. It gave me such unique views of the Old City, and we played the “guess that building” game while walking. The Ramparts Walk actually gave us a breather from all the sweaty bodies that were clamouring around on the streets of the Old City.

I have been to the Old City many times since I started living in Tel Aviv, so I can say with confidence that the crowd I saw at the Old City that day was overwhelming. Five of us could not get in front of the bus doors to enter the bus, because we had a swarm of people blocking us from entering the bus. In a Westernised society when situations like that arise, it seems very apocalyptic.

This year, we ventured into Northern Israel ticking off Rosh HaNikra from our Israel Bucket List. Rosh HaNikra literally translates to Head of the Grottos.

Rosh HaNikra is actually just a speck at the northernmost tip of Israel. It is hardly a village, there is just a kibbutz here. The kibbutz has a meagre population of 1,000 or so. Rosh HaNikra, it seems, is not even prepared to handle the kind of crowds it receives during Passover. The cable car that transports visitors from the hill top to the grottos can accommodate only 5-10 people per ride! I am comparing this to Masada, where the cable car can easily fit 20-30 people. It could be an unfair comparison, but that is the point, Rosh HaNikra is not one of Israel’s most popular tourist destinations even though it is a very beautiful place.

Still, Rosh HaNikra was on my Israel Bucket List because it is located at the northern most tip of Israel, where Israel shares its border with Lebanon. The hills above Rosh HaNikra house an army base and beyond that is Lebanese hummus. The strategic location of Rosh HaNikra meant that it served as the gateway to now forbidden lands. A coastal railroad connecting Rosh HaNikra to Beirut and Tripoli was built and used by soldiers during WWII. This railroad was later demolished by the Hagana (Jewish Army during British Mandate) to prevent the passage of arms from Lebanon into hands of Arabs to fight the 1948 Israel-Palestine War.

Today, the railroad leads into a sound and light show room. Standing in that tunnel with the worn out rail tracks beneath my feet as kids ate cotton candy and ice cream was a very sobering feeling for me. 

Not only is the cable car small, other transportation is also minimal here. To get to Rosh HaNikra we took a train from Tel Aviv to Nahariya (a city 10km south of Rosh HaNikra) and from there we took a taxi. The return was not as smooth because Gettaxi had no taxis in the area, the public bus was no where in sight and we would have to compete with many people to get into the bus. But anyway, we waited long enough for a shuttle to arrive (drops us off at the bottom of the hill). People wasted no time and crammed into the shuttle, leaving us not surprised but still frustrated. Finally, a public bus driver who was going to another city, gave us a ride to the bottom of the hill, from where we caught another bus to the train station.

Phew!

On our way back to Tel Aviv we stopped at Haifa for lunch and dessert. God bless the Arabs for they have nothing against bread during Passover. We got to have tangy and spicy falafel at an Arab stall in lower Haifa while bread remained banished from stores in Jewish-run grocery stores and all Jewish-run pita falafel stalls had shut in Tel Aviv.

After lunch and kanaffeh for dessert, we headed to the Baha’i Gardens in Haifa from where we got a magnificent view of Haifa’s Germany Colony, the port of Haifa and the Mediterranean Sea.

And that, people, is how you spend Passover in Israel. Traveling, negotiating crowds, and eating Arab pita falafel.