The Masada Hostel Ein Bokek

Today Greg drove us down to the Dead sea and Mazada.<br><br>1st up i was Mazada, we left seriously early to try and beat the heat but failed miserably - it was a really hot day today even by Israel's standards. After an hour and a half we made it to the foot of the mountains in which the ruins are perched on top.<br><br>Olia had to get the cable car up as it would have been impossible for her to climb up in her condition - and dangerous. Greg and I walked up and it was tough - even ...

... Nazis and antisemitism in the war. The museum photo makes it look like a small exhibit, but interesting. The names of the communities have been carved into stone and it stands as a memorial to these forgotten villages, schtetls, and communities within larger cities. But the reality of it is so much more. This is a quarry. Carved into bedrock and with so many passages and alternate paths that we got lost in it. The walls are 10-15 yards high and the ...

... scale of the real Grand Canyon, and I enjoyed the slow drive down through the canyon to the bridge far below. Out the other side we continued towards Um Ar Rassas, following brown signs which lead us out past tiny shacks and along potholed roads.<br><br>We wound around and around, following occasional signs, whilst I peered at my map wondering where the hell we were. The combined stubbornness of the group kicked in, and we all resolutely pressed on, determined ...

... neighborhood could be considered in danger of rocket fire from Gaza, because as he described, rockets shot into Israel would be shot over his house and not at it. Ironically as well, his house was incredibly modern, probably the nicest I'd seen in all of Israel. I figured that this could be due to how cheap it was to live in this area. Arriving back to the Tel Aviv bus station, I saw two of the commanders from Marva ahead of me in line. They might have even been on ...

... bobbing there, I could feel the salt on my face as I was stupid enough to shave in the morning. We didn't really stay in there long as it is pretty salty being the lowest point on the earth and it doesn't feel that nice after a while. We had a shower and headed to the pool and meet some British lads who had just done the dead sea marathon. After the dead sea we were going to go to see Bethlehem beyond the ...

... We enjoyed the tour and then went through the museum on our own. It isn't busy, just the odd small tour coming through. We then take a walk down the hill to find where we get the bus. Real easy with the paper and the words written in Arabic to get to the bus station. There is a bus waiting, but we say tomorrow. They tell us it is 7 a.m. Hopefully there are several busses through out the day, don't think we will make the 7 am one. Came back up the ...

... of our whole planet. We were not slow to regain the air conditioned interior of the bus. Around the southernmost part of the upper section of the Sea, we came to the ruins of Herod's mountaintop palace at Masada. This place became famous, not so much for Herod, but for the Jewish zealots who held out for years here against the Romans during the Jewish rebellion of the 60s and 70s AD and who finally committed suicide rather than submit to slavery under the Romans. We ...

... a step back and realized that we were in the middle of a quiet desert with nothing around us...a pretty amazing sensation. My guide taught us about uses of the different plants we passed in the dessert- one succulant plant he squeezed water out of to drink a few drops, another we made tea out of (sitting in the middle of the dessert with a hot water heater, so cool!) Also, I haven't really done any ...