Israeli Tourists At Last!

I ♥ the Dead Sea! So Phil and I went away for the weekend and had an absolutely wonderful time! We’d been putting off an overnight or weekend trip because it’s just so dang expensive here. But we decided to just suck it up and do it or before we knew it our time here would be up and we would have wasted away our time inside our apartment. It’s a little hard to swallow when you lay down a whole lot of money that in the US would get you a very nice room, and here it just gets you a room that is…..Meh. (Thanks Cat for validating my use of the word Meh!) But sometimes you just have to do it for the experience. And if you want to experience Israel then you are certainly going to have to pay for it! It is the Holyland after all! (That’s what every Israeli will tell you when you complain about the high costs here.)

So Thursday morning we loaded up the car with our bags and a cooler and Phil set off to work for the day. Later I walked to the train station and hopped on the train to the town where Phil works, he picked me up and we were on our way. It was my first time riding the trains here and despite the fact that it was incredibly crowded and that the dude next to me was loudly and incessantly yapping on his cell phone the entire time, it was very quick and easy and allowed us to get a much earlier start on our way to the sea than if Phil had driven home first. We arrived after dark and checked into the Guesthouse at the Ein Gedi Kibbutz. Our room was, as stated before, meh, and the dinner that was served was super-meh, but we knew to begin with that we were there to have a good time and that the food was not going to be so great. As a side note....like our trip to Turkey many tourist places here include a dinner and breakfast with the room. They call it the Half Board option. And at the Dead Sea in particular there are very few places (i.e. the golden arches.....blegh!) to eat outside of the hotels. So you just kind of eat what they serve you and deal. Needless to say the weekend was not about food!

So on Friday we got up early (shocking, I know….but I am capable of early rising, especially if there is fun in store!), and headed to the Ein Gedi Nature Reserve for a day hike. The hike was beautiful and the weather was outstanding. We hiked back into a little canyon where we saw a few waterfalls (not exactly teeming with water but nice to look at none-the-less) and bathing pools. We then hiked up the side of the canyon and then back deeper into the canyon, above David's Fall (the largest waterfall) where we explored more small waterfalls and pools as well as a small cave. From there, we hiked out of the canyon into a more dry and barren landscape (with stellar views of the Dead Sea and Jordan) until we came upon Ein Gedi Spring, a cute little oasis in the middle of the dry hot land, where we rested for a while and I cooled off my feet in the fresh cool water. Then we headed back down and along the way witnessed the most bizarre sight of the day. (Okay, so the lady that was hiking barefoot was a little bizarre too). As we were hiking down a group of young people passed us on their way up, and right as three of them were passing us, one guy pulled a giant snake out of his backpack and wrapped it around his neck as he continued his trek upwards. Why would you put a large heavy pet (I’m only assuming here) snake in your backpack before a long hot hike?!?!?! We’re stumped.

So after we made it back down we stopped for a quick picnic lunch and then headed to see (okay, we could already see it, but headed to actually get into the Dead Sea). Because we were staying at the Kibbutz we had free day passes to their spa that was located a little ways down the road. As we were warned, Spa is a little bit too nice of a word. If your idea of a spa is bathing in a nasty stinking sulfur bath with strangers then I guess you could call it a Spa. If this is your idea of a Spa, than I have to say, it was definitely not a spa. But we really went there only to have the private entrance to the beach instead of having to use the public beach. First thing we noticed was that the “beach” seemed like a very long walk from the Spa. Of course I was thinking to myself how stupid that was and wondering why they didn’t build the Spa right on the shore. As we walked down to the beach we found our answer. The Spa used to be right on the beach way back in 1985 but now the sea has receded so much that it’s a good half a mile walk to the shore. The sea is actually drying up rapidly and some experts estimate that it could be completely gone in a mere 100 years!!!! Now if that doesn’t just blow your mind than I don’t know what will.

The "beach" is actually a build up of salt crystals (you don’t want to go there barefoot!), as the Dead Sea is 10x saltier than the ocean. And it's called the Dead Sea because it is absolutely incapable of supporting any form of life. It’s also the lowest point on Earth. (Just helping to provide you with some useless facts for your next cocktail party!) Because of the salinity of the water, you actually float in the water. Absolutely effortlessly. You just float. After a long hot hike, effortlessly floating in the nice cool water was just the remedy for our tired bodies. And then of course there is the dead sea mud which is supposed to be excellent for your skin. So we cracked through some salt and started digging until we found some nice soft mud. Then we proceeded to slather it all over our entire bodies. Hey...when in Rome! It was a bit rough from the salt crystals but I suppose that just provided an extra bit of exfoliation. We looked like fools (I have the pictures to prove it!) but trust me....we weren’t the only ones. It was a great way to relax and we stayed until the sun started to go down. And to top off such a nice day, dinner was actually a small step up in quality from the previous night since it was Shabbat (though it was still nothing to write home about).

On day two, we packed up our stuff and headed to Masada. Now there are two options to get to the top of these ruins which are up on a plateau overlooking the sea. For the less adventuresome, they have a lovely cable car that zips you up to the top in no time at all. For the suckers who think they have something to prove to the world? You hoof it. We were indeed suckers. We contemplated taking the cable car but in the end decided to suck it up and trek up. It’s actually not that far, but it is virtually straight up the entire time with over 700 stairs built into the trail. I started out gung ho but soon realized that despite my best efforts to work out, that I am not actually in that great of shape. I got winded. Very quickly. And when a group of teenagers breezed passed us, well, let's just say it didn't do much for my ego. Damn young'uns. But I pressed on and with Phil leading the way and setting a nice brisk pace I just kept climbing as I huffed and puffed and moaned and groaned about how I could no longer breathe and how my tush was burning something fierce. But I made it! And in a mere 35-40 minutes! Those damn teenagers were already at the top chilling and watching all us "old people" slowly make our way up, but hey....their time will come eventually!!!

And what awaited us at the top you may wonder? More walking and stairs! Woo-hoo! So we spent the next few hours exploring the ruins and learning a little history. (Something that I am severely lacking in. Thank you very much Socorro Public Schools.) If you are interested in the history lesson, please read this. It will be much more informative than if I try to regurgitate the information I learned. And much more accurate I am sure. My memory isn’t known for being the sharpest. We tried to dodge the large tour groups as best we could and enjoyed the spectacular views offered 360 degrees around us. We wussed out (okay, I wussed out) and we took the cable car down when we were done. I feel fully justified in taking the easy way down after we hiked all day the day before and hiked up to the top earlier in the day. Then we were in the car and on our way home so that Phil could relax before having to return to work the next day.

And no I did not forget about our trip to Jerusalem either! The previous weekend Aunt Rose came for a quick visit. She was in Jerusalem for a conference and managed to sneak away for a night to come stay with us. The next day she had to be back in Jerusalem so we decided to give her a lift since we had not yet been to the Holy City. We decided it was as good a time as any to get our first taste. Up until now I’ve been a little nervous about going there.....mostly because of the driving and the ease with which one can get lost there. (So I’ve heard.....some friends of ours “accidentally” ended up in the West Bank and got their car side swiped by a crazy bus driver. Not my idea of a fun time.) But since Aunt Rose was somewhat familiar with the city she was able to help navigate us and get us near the Old City and her hotel with minimal freaking out on my part. By the time we got there it was early afternoon and as we didn’t have a whole lot of daylight left, we just sort of got the quick and dirty tour of The Old City. We walked through the market streets, parts of the Jewish, Christian and Armenian Quarters (the Muslim Quarter completes the pie), and meandered our way around the quaint cobble stone streets. We popped into the Church of the Holy Sepulchre (which was quite crowded indeed as some services were beginning) and then made our way down to the Western Wall.

As Shabbat was closing in the wall became quite the gathering place for many, many worshippers. We watched as they gathered to pray and sing and dance. It was much like when we look out our window into the Kabbalah Center across the street on a Friday night. Except everyone was dressed in black instead of white. And I think they get a little more rowdy in the Kabbalah Center. It was a special sight to see although I had a hard time thoroughly enjoying it as I was freezing my arse off! I didn’t quite think the wardrobe choice through as we left a very warm Tel Aviv and headed for the usually ten degree cooler Jerusalem. And I guess I wasn’t expecting to be there after the sun set when it got quite cool indeed. (Yay! Time to bust out the sweaters and the long pants!!!!) We enjoyed our short tour of the Old City and will most definitely go back again to explore and see more. Thanks Aunt Rose!

So Phil was “ordered” to take Thanksgiving Day off of work and we used the day to finally go get long overdue haircuts. Then we decided to go out for dinner and had a little Thanksgiving Day date at one of our favorite restaurants, Mel and Michelle. We are actually going to be celebrating Thanksgiving, just on Saturday instead. We are getting together with 4 other couples and putting together the whole Thanksgiving Day spread. Turkey, stuffing, potatoes (mashed and sweet), veggies, pumpkin pie, cranberries (or our best adaptation as we have not been able to find fresh cranberries here), and of course vino! I’m in charge of the sweet potatoes and a dessert. For my pumpkin pie hating husband I made (okay, I have to admit, he helped me out a lot....especially with a ton of pesky conversions!) my first flourless chocolate cake. It should be a fun and interesting day as I am not quite sure if Tom the Turkey will even fit in the tiny ovens here! Oh well, it will be an adventure! Enjoy the slide shows and we hope everyone had a Happy Turkey Day!