This is of course more exciting for me than it would be for most people, but remember that I wrote my undergrad thesis on light rail. It's called the "Carmelit" and apparently nobody uses it because it only goes up and down the mountain, from Mercaz haCarmel to Downtown and back. Even so, I was thrilled. For your sake (but really for mine because I think this is beyond cool), here are some pictures of the train:
I've never seen a train like this before, but it's probably because Chicago is flat. The cars go down the mountain at what I guesstimate to be a 30 degree grade.
And of course, here is a picture of me with some of my friends in the international school, just before boarding the train. This all went down while I was touring Haifa this afternoon. We started in Mercaz haCarmel, which is a neighborhood I'm already superficially familiar with. It's pretty upscale, lots of bars and cafes. The uppermost station for the Carmelit is in the center of the neighborhood, on Moriah street. We took the train down the mountain to Hadar, an older neighborhood in Haifa. Getting there by train takes 5 minutes, while getting there by bus takes about a half an hour.
Hadar used to be the nicest shopping district in Haifa. This is before the mall was built. Personally I prefer the shops and the local businesses, but globalization only moves forward. For better or for worse, the landscape has changed. For Hadar, it has changed for the worse. The shops are still there and there is a nice shuk where I bought some very cheap bananas (3 shekels per kilo.) As the shops were becoming an afterthought, wealthy people began to leave Hadar and move further up the mountain. The result is that Hadar has become a less than savory neighborhood. Nice to visit, and the fruits and vegetables in the shuk are very inexpensive, but I would not want to live there.
I've never seen a train like this before, but it's probably because Chicago is flat. The cars go down the mountain at what I guesstimate to be a 30 degree grade.
And of course, here is a picture of me with some of my friends in the international school, just before boarding the train. This all went down while I was touring Haifa this afternoon. We started in Mercaz haCarmel, which is a neighborhood I'm already superficially familiar with. It's pretty upscale, lots of bars and cafes. The uppermost station for the Carmelit is in the center of the neighborhood, on Moriah street. We took the train down the mountain to Hadar, an older neighborhood in Haifa. Getting there by train takes 5 minutes, while getting there by bus takes about a half an hour.
Hadar used to be the nicest shopping district in Haifa. This is before the mall was built. Personally I prefer the shops and the local businesses, but globalization only moves forward. For better or for worse, the landscape has changed. For Hadar, it has changed for the worse. The shops are still there and there is a nice shuk where I bought some very cheap bananas (3 shekels per kilo.) As the shops were becoming an afterthought, wealthy people began to leave Hadar and move further up the mountain. The result is that Hadar has become a less than savory neighborhood. Nice to visit, and the fruits and vegetables in the shuk are very inexpensive, but I would not want to live there.
No comments:
Post a Comment