Highlights of Israel

Israel is such a small piece of land that has seen so much history, and is jam-packed with things to do. All of this makes Israel a thoroughly entertaining place to visit, and I enjoyed so much of it, but one day of our stay there (which encompassed a couple different activities, of course), truly stuck out to me as my favorite. This day, our group took a day trip from our hotel in Jerusalem. We hopped on the bus bright and early in the morning and headed out into the dessert.

Our first stop, and I must say, the least exciting or entertaining of them all, was a quick peek into what they call, the Ahava factory, but in truth, it's just a big store. What is Ahava? Its a line of skin-care products produced with dead-sea minerals, which are supposed to be very good for your skin. But we soon shoved off, and now, it was only a short drive to our next destination: Masada.

Masada is a great, mountain-top fortress and palace built by Herod the Great, the very same one who built Caeseria around the time of Christ. It was also where a small band of about 100 Jews held out for over three years while besieged by the great Roman army. I'm afraid we weren't able to experience Masada as the people of Herod's time would have, for we had to take the cable car, a thoroughly modern addition to the site, up to the top due to time constraints. In the end, though, it was a truly memorable experience, even though it rained which I'm pretty sure it only does about twice a year, so you can imagine our surprise. But the views and history were truly wonderful, all animated greatly by our guide, Ruven. After Masada, there was another bus ride through winding sand dunes in the middle of the dessert, to a Bedouin’s encampment. It was a fake camp, set up to show tourists what Bedouin life was like before technology began to degrade their traditions. But, we learned about true Bedouin hospitality, and ate a truly delicious traditional lunch, and we even rode camels along the way. But it doesn't stop there. Oh no, the most memorable stop is still to come.

We jumped back on the bus, we drove back onto the winding sand-dune road, and a little down the “main road” of the desert. We arrived at the Ein Gedi Spa, on the banks of the Dead Sea, the lowest and saltiest place on Earth. We all went into the spa's changing rooms to lock up our valuables and put our swim trunks on. At this point, I was with my dad, and we managed to find our way down to the huge troughs of special, mineral-rich, Dead Sea mud for smearing onto your body. If you've ever been to the Dead Sea yourself, you'll recall that covering in mud is like covering yourself in grease, which smells quite distinctly of sulfur. And at 4 or 4:30pm when we were there, and the sun was already beginning to set over the mountains and dunes to the West, it was very cold mud. But – it's supposed to be great for the skin, so of course, we had to partake in the tradition. Dad and I joked with a group of kids from somewhere up North, near Denmark, as we all shivered profusely, and piled a thick layer of stinky, black mud onto just about every exposed inch of skin, yes even our faces. I made the mistake of putting it on, and subsequently in my ear, where it remained until we returned to our hotel later that evening. So a tip for tourists, don't put Dead Sea mud in you ear, even by accident. People will laugh at you. Now that we've got that squared away, I can tell you that then we went to the showers, which sprayed the sea's highly potent water down on you, to wash off the thick layer of horrid smelling mud we'd accumulated. It does sting a bit on your face and other delicate skin, so we tried to get those parts done first. Then we took our time washing off our torsos and legs. Then the main attraction: a dip in the sea itself.

We took a tram type-thing to the edge of the sea. Those who were there twenty to thirty years ago may be wondering “Why is this? Isn't the edge of the sea just outside of the spa?”. It was, back in 1985, but since then the sea has receded about a third of a mile, leaving salt flats back where it used to be. But now was the moment of truth, the Dead Sea. And when going in, always remember to wear something on your feet, because the bottom is pointy – there's no sand at all, just hardened salt. Going in felt like walking into jell-o, or maybe something a little less viscous, but you get the point. We waded out, amidst many warnings to not get your face wet, and cries of how cool it was, to where the water was up to our chests.

It was kind of hard to do at first, but what you must do, to achieve the Dead Sea's iconic floating experience is to simply lay back, and let your feet fall out from under you. It's a bit strange to start because, normally, you would just fall on your butt, but not there, not at the Dead Sea. There, your feet float up in front of you and you gently recline, bobbing up and down effortlessly on the surface to the rhythm of the gentle, shore-bound waves.

After a while of floating around and realizing just how cool it was, we had to get out and tram back up to the spa, where we took a quick sulfur-bath, which smelled as bad as the mud, and then dried off and changed. Then back on the bus and back to Jerusalem for a very sound night's sleep.

Me and Andrew Gordon on our camel, and Stan and Melody Katz on theirs

Ellie and Dad and then me and Andrew Gordon behind

Inside the Bedouin tent, where we had lunch

This is Uncle Craig, Mom, Aunt Marcy, Miss Lisa (O'Rourke), and Ellie and Jenna in front - none are as completely covered as Dad and I were but we can't find a picture of us yet.  My bald grandfather even smeared it on his head! (more pics to come!)

THIS is the picture we were looking for! (Thanks Grandpa!)