Places to see: Caesarea, Israel

There are a lot of historical places in Israel and there is also a lot of information about these places. I invite you into short trip to very special city – Caesarea.


Caesarea, the ancient port city is located mid-way between Tel Aviv and Haifa. In general it takes about 25-35 minutes on high way from Tel-Aviv to get there (if there is no traffic jams).


A little bit of history: The ancient port city was established in the 3rd century B.C.E. as a small Phoenician harbor called Strato’s Tower. In the year 90 B.C.E. the Hasmonean king Alexander Yanai took over the place and by the end of that century, King Herod the Great constructed magnificent city – deep sea harbor. The city got its name in honor of Herod’s Roman patron, Augustus Caesar. Caesarea was serving as one of the most important maritime centers in the eastern Mediterranean during Romans and Crusader periods.

As you can understand each inch of this city is full of reminders of forgotten greatness of ancient Empires.

To me, it is the place with atmosphere of old port-city.


I like to visit it, just a couple of hours before the sunset.


The smell of the sea, the fresh wind and the rustle of palm trees create a magnificent scene for the main act – the sunset. The mysterious moment – is so stunning, a little bit sad and completely unpreventable.






But before it – there is a lot of time to enjoy the old streets of the ancient city.


You can enjoy historical excavations, visit local gift shops, enter in to the sea (in season) or just enjoy the breeze from the sea sitting on the bench looking over the horizon.




If you are hungry, there are several restaurants overlooking the sea shore. They serve mostly Mediterranean cosine but there is also a sushi restaurant (OMG, think about it you can eat sushi in the tower built by Crusaders :) ).



There are a lot of places where from you can have amazing sea sight.


On my walk I met a wonderful cat. I called him a royal cat – he was full of dignity and had very self-sufficient look.




And yes, the civilization is just behind the corner – the power station. Many people would have claimed that this closeness of “civilization” ruins the atmosphere of old city but I disagree with them. I think it creates effect of the time machine – depending where you are standing you can see either future or past.


When you plan visiting Israel, I suggest you to add Caesarea to you “places to see” list.

Story by Maria (CallOfEarth)

Interview with a Star - Maria (CallOfEarth)

Please welcome Maria. Maria is a jewelry artist who owns her shop on Etsy. Her shop has a very unique name – CallOfEarth. Maria makes her creations by threading the smallest beads on one by one till a masterpiece emerges.

Here is what she said about herself:

I didn’t expect writing for the blog of Russian Etsy Team (that I am a proud member of) to be such a difficult task. I was very excited about it at first, but then my excitement was replaced by confusion. I postponed writing until the last possible moment. I didn’t want to write another bio in the style of “Me and my family” English grammar exercise :) You can find that kind of a "masterpiece" in my profile text on Etsy and some more facts about me in my blog.

Words today are like the shells and rope of seaweed which a child brings home glistening from the beach and which in an hour have lost their luster - Cyril Connolly

I didn’t know where to begin, so I decided to take a break from just thinking about it (“OMG how I’m going to do it?!!?”) and started to make a “treasury” (Etsy term for a collection of 16 items united by some mysterious ties known only to the creator of the collection). As I added one of the items, I looked at the profile of the artist. I was stunned by its simplicity and depth at the same time. When I was reading that short bio, where in simple words were described the feelings, dreams and wishes of that person, I felt the presence of that person beside me. I call this feeling the "feeling of Life". This meeting with a "gypsy" (the nickname of that person included the word "gypsy") stirred up my gypsy roots.

“It’s the possibility of having a dream come true that makes life interesting.” – The Alchemist

I reminisced and realized that the chain of events in my life consisted of some random (at first sight) but really nonrandom (as seen later) encounters - just like I create my necklaces - bead to bead. When you look at beaded artwork from very close up, you only see dots of different colors but when you looks from the distance you can see a beautiful pattern.

The beauty of the Life continuously inspires me and this inspiration is expressed in my creations.

Yours,

Maria

A matter of taste. Miniature food style

Tastes differ. But whatever your preferences are, you would have to agree with me that the taste of a store-bought pie is always different from one that was baked at home.

Imagine a woman baking in her kitchen. Maybe she is singing to herself, maybe just quietly listening to the sounds in the house. She could be watching the news out of the corner of her eye, or just looking out of the window. It is clear, however, that she is baking this pie thinking of people whom she would like to enjoy it. She is baking this pie for YOU - the real homemade pie full of love. Finally, the pie comes out of the oven, it is being placed on the table, then cut, and you get to try a piece…

Now imagine that you strolled into a supermarket, got a pie off the shelf, drove it home, took it out of the box, and placed it on the table. :)

Feel the difference?

If you think about it, in both cases the pie is on the table waiting to be eaten. But those two pies are, clearly, incomparable. Would you agree?

Same holds true with jewelry, clothing and housewares. Mass-produced things are clearly distinguishable from handmade ones. The handmade items have a different "taste", taste of love.

This was just a preface…

"Tasty" Handmade. Miniature food decor style

I dove into the world of handmade and tried to peek into the workrooms of artists that create these unbelievably gorgeous items. There I discovered "tasty" handmade.

For example, there are many items among works created by members of the Russian Artists Team on Etsy.com.

Chocolate theme

Photo sources from top, then left to right: 1, 2, 3, 4

Berry-fruity theme

Photo sources from top, then left to right: 1, 2, 3, 4

Cakes and cream

Photo sources from top, then left to right: 1, 2, 3, 4

Bon appetite my dear friends!

Story by Maria (Callofearth)
Translated by Alla (FleetingStillness)