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| Day 9: The South to Tel Aviv | | Date Created: Jan 12, 2005, 01:56 AM |
 So, at two o'clock in the morning, a fatal thing occurred that is still a mystery. The heater was no longer heating the tent and literally it was 5 below. Everyone began waking up and grabbing anything that was near them to keep warm. I couldn't sleep because I was so cold. It was cool to be in a bedoin tent, but honestly, I was so ready to be back in a warm hotel room with hot water and heat. 4 o'clock came around and it was time to get up and hike Mosada-- promising to be one of the most promising activities of the trip. The lines went outside the bathroom as people brushed teeth, took care of their business and did the minimal grooming. It was SO COLD. The Jewish bedoins provided us graham crackers and tea then we boarded the bus to take the 1 1/2 hour drive. |
 the bus was very quiet for the drive, but we arrived at Mosada to of course, a mega amount of buses full of birthright people. The hike up took only about 15 minutes. I was concerned that the sun would rise before we got to the top. Mosada is a biblical place where King Harrod built a villiage and his vacation home. The Romans advanced and took a long time to get onto the mountain, so they built a bridge that took four years to build. The Jewish people watched this happen until the Romans were ready to conquer, pillage and burn the town. They were definitely overmatched, so the village leaders decided that the 900 plus people would die instead of being subjugated to the Roman legions. They chose ten men to commit homicide. The next morning, the Roman army did take Mosada-- but found everyone in the village dead, except for a mother and her two sons that decided to escape.
We climbed to the summit just before sunrise. It was incredible. In front was the dead sea, the lowest point on earth, and behind it was the Jordanian mountains. We were looking at what once was Israel's enemy, but today a partner for peace. The sights were amazing. I couldn't believe where I was. |
 The sun rose behind the mountains for my first sunrise in a very long time. I love sunrises because dawn is so peaceful. Everything comes to a halt, even in Manhattan. People move slower and things are much quieter. It was the same at Mosada, although there were about 1,000 birthright people there. At about 6:40 AM, The sun rose gently behind the mountains. It was great to see that, but even better that I was seeing it in solidarity with my friends, both Israeli and American. Sitting on that wall was full of power that enveloped me. |
 For the rest of the morning, we toured the buildings of Masada. I was not tired at all, which was surprising having only 3 hours of sleep in 2 days. The buildings were filled with history. As I walked through each room, I envisioned how life was like in BC. Was there a good quality of life? Were people happy? Were they as complicated as we are today? Seems like our priorities have changed dramatically in 2000 years. We then took a long descent down the "snake road" to a shopping area where we bought soveniors and products from the Dead Sea for our friends and family. |
 Our next stop on this incredibly long day was to Ein Gedi, a natural spring that is also famous from the bible. Ein Gedi contains a cave that was famous for David's fight with Goliath. Of course we were greeted again by mega amounts of tour buses, but we were used to it already. I was really glad to be hanging out with the Israelis that were on our trip. As we walked to different sites, we would engage in amazing conversations about life, history and culture in both the United States and Israel. The soldiers would enjoy talking about their life in the military and their dreams for when they get out. We walked to a few waterfalls where the most brave took a swim in the cold, but fresh water. It was cool to see- and very funny when Ariel, one of the Israeli soldiers, took a bet that he would put his head underwater in an algae infested pond. It was gross, but the crazy guy did it-- I head so many stories about him during the week. The best was that he flipped over a Hummer and had to spend time in Army jail for it. How do you flip over a hummer? We departed and went over to what was to be one of the top highlights of my vacation- a trip to the dead sea. |
 We had a delicious lunch then headed down to the Dead Sea for an afternoon of swimming. I heard some horror stories about how if you have cuts or bruises, or if you put your head in the water, it would be very painful. I didn't mind-- it was SOOO cool to be able to float in water. I was destined not just to float on it, but I was going to test if I was the messiah and attempt to walk on it as well.
Anyway, we got to the beach and took me a real long time to go in the water. It was cold and I was a little worried about specific body parts being in pain. I eventually got in and yes it was everything and more than I expected. I really just floated on top of the water-- it was like one big seat. Also, I was not worried about crabs and fish because it is the dead sea. Nothing lives in it. The water is 30% salt while the Atlantic is only 4%. Not to be vulgar, but my ass started to hurt big time. It is the only exposed hole in the water and the burn was crazy. I got used to it after a while and just had a great time floating-- what was more amazing was I was only miles from the Jordan border. Josh and I decided we were going to plot a way to swim over there. The plot didn't work. The last thing I did was try to walk on the water, but unfortunately I fell in. |
Our crazy day kept on going with a trip to ride a camel. it was late-- the sun was setting and the group was getting tired. We weren't the only ones that were tired. The camels we were supposed to ride revolted. They would not ride any more people-- they put up a good fight and the camel rides were ditched. Instead, we wrote letters in ancient hebrew and saw some cheesy skit about some guy who thought he was Moses. We had a very unfulfilling dinner in yet another bedolin tent and were on our way to our last stop of the trip to Tel Aviv.
We arrived at the hotel around 7:00. I burned some CD's for Aviad then took a quick 45 minute nap. Since it was our last night together, we decided to hit a local bar-- we were so tired but nothing was going to stop us from spending these last days with our new friends. We were so close now-- and the sadness was sinking in that we had to say goodbye in a little less than 24 hours. We headed out to the club on foot and had a great time dancing with everyone, both Israelis and Americans... It was so great. On the way home, I was horsing around a bit with our medic. I decided that I was going to convince him that I was going to run to Jordan-- because I always wanted to visit Amman. I took off in a sprint down the street as the medic with his automatic rifle took off with me. It was hysterical! We attempted to order pizza, and tried to find a shwarma shop, but both attempts failed. We went to sleep around 4:00 AM, exactly 24 hours after we woke up to hike Masada.
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