Independence & after

On Independence Day I set out on my usual walk to the beach and was surprised at how quiet it was while there seemed to be an awful lot of police around. Because the sea produced nice waves I decided to walk towards the "Nemaal" (harbor) a bit just to have a peak. Then this beautiful bird flew right over my head and settled on a lamp post. Thinking that he wouldn't probably give me a chance to catch him on camera again, I started shooting him. He then decided to sit near the fishermen (who -as far as I can see- never catch anything) on the railing. By that time more people -mostly children- got him in their eyesight and approached him. He decided to fly away. At least that is what I thought. Well, I was wrong. He was putting up a great show of pretending to fly away and returning. But when I took this photo I still thought it was a chance of one in a million to have him photographed this way. Yup: the bugger fooled me, LOL.

In the end I stayed around the Boulevard all day since more and more people gathered and from the drumming sounds of a parade of foreigners demonstrating support of Israel near Hilton Beach I realized I had completely forgotten the festivities that were going to take place there. Hehehe...

It was a wonderful day, sunny and windy, and as far as I can tell everybody was happy. It was also the very first time that I saw public mobile toilets in the streets :D

Herebelow are:

1. the photo of the bird
2. a photo of police on horses
3. a photo of my favorite fighter airplane, the f-16
4. youtube clip of the foreign israel supporters
5. youtube clip of a few moments on the Boulevard
6. youtube clip of demonstration of the f-16