ISRAEL VACATION
Day One: Two looong plane rides, then Passport Validation and confusion at every step. I learned that terrible drivers exist everywhere, not just the US. I also learned that Israel has a lot of stray cats...it is very distracting for poor C. After going to bed early and waking up at 7:30am we're up and ready to go!!
Day Two: We walked all over Jerusalem today! Found a free parking lot to park the car we're not using right now and did some shopping. We learned to stay away from the Yahuda Market on Erev Shabbat at all costs!!! The biggest crowd I've ever been in! We ended our day in a community Shabbat dinner and met a lot of new people from all over the world. We ❤️ Jerusalem!!
Day 3: We had set out to find our way to the Jaffa Gate because we needed to meet our tour group there later in the day. Instead we got turned around and ended up at the Zion Gate where a kind British man took us on a tour of the back alleys of the Old City. Once we got there we decided to just hang out in the Old City until our tour started. So even though we go on our 'official' Holy City tour tomorrow we got to see the highlights as well as some serious shuk shopping. We were exhausted before our tour even began but the girls were champions and we even walked all the way back to our hostel from the Mount of Olives (through some pretty hostile areas with a baby on my back!). Tomorrow is the Holy City tour!!
Day 4: Another long day of walking and shopping. I think I've finally found my bargaining niche. Turns out that I'm shockingly good at haggling. Who knew? We spent some time in the Old City again today, this time with a guide which was very helpful. The biggest problem is that a lot of high holy places have not actually been proven to be legitimate. Some are based on rumor or speculation, others by people who decided to make these areas holy only to commemorate the real event because they don't actually know where it really happened. Either way, Old Jerusalem may not be quite as ancient as it feels but it's still an extremely old city with an amazing history. Afterward we snagged some gelato and went home to rest our aching feet!!
Day 6: We started off our morning in Jerusalem (sniff). After C and I took an early morning coffee run (for me, not her...) we had breakfast at the uber elite King David Hotel, which overlooks the western wall of Jerusalem. It will be our last look at the city 😭 Afterwards we headed to Beit Guvrin which was a super neat place with nary a tour bus in sight. Beit Guvrin has a system of caves and other underground areas from the Byzantine era. We would have loved to hang out there even longer but the temperature was hovering around 101F with high humidity and we're just not made for those temperatures. So we decided to drive to Masada, and the girls were glad that we did because the pool closed at 6:30pm and we had to hurry if we wanted to swim!! We ended the evening with a surprisingly good buffet style dinner at the Masada Hostel. Going to bed early tonight because tomorrow we brave the Snake Path at Masada to watch the sun rise over the Dead Sea. All with a three year old strapped to my back! Wish me luck...
Masada was the coolest. Because we hiked the Snake Path before sunrise we not only got to see the beautiful sun rising over the Dead Sea, we got to do it while it was still relatively cool and, because they don't start the cable cars until 8am, there were barely any people around (we beat the teenagers up that mountain by at least 10 minutes).
After taking the cable car down, we decided to go swimming in the Dead Sea. Well, swimming would not really be the correct word. We floated around. It was an unusual feeling - like you're super top heavy. What they don't tell you but I, of course, will, is that salt water of that sort stings quite a bit when it enters any nook or cranny. And I do mean ANY nook or cranny...
With temperatures around 103F and high humidity we were terrified to go to Ein Ghedi. But once we got there it turned out to be one of the highlights of the trip so far!! We all splashed in the waterfalls where David once hid from King Saul. It was a perfect day for it!!!!
Now we're heading for our Bedoin campsite for the evening. I'm guessing that we'll be off the grid so I'll update our camping adventure on tomorrow's update 😄
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| Before the hike up the Snake Path |
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| During the hike up the Snake Path - I was dying! |
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Day 8: Last night we stayed in a campground in an Israel settlement in Palestinian territory. It was a little scary at first but we quickly got comfortable. What an experience! The girls had a blast helping to prepare the dinner and we all made a bunch of fresh pita. Then we went to sleep in an open sukkah. When we woke up we went for a short hike to watch the sun rise over the Judean desert before eating a freshly prepared Israeli breakfast. We had time to kill before driving to our next destination, Nazareth, so we decided to drive to a place the locals recommended, the St George Monastery, which is essentially a castle carved into the side of a canyon. We didn't even get out of the car before we were accosted by vendors knocking on our windows asking if we wanted cheap jewelry or to ride their donkeys. We managed to evade them only to find that we were unable to get down the extraordinarily steep terrain and if we could we would never get A back up again. So we took in the awesome view and left. It was a bit of a bummer but sometimes you just have to cut your losses and move on!
We then decided to drive up to Nazareth by way of Jericho. I'm not going to lie - if you're not with a tour Jericho is scary. There are large yellow signs that let you know that Israeli citizens are prohibited and it's pretty obvious that we probably were only barely tolerated as well. We didn't end up stopping.
We had been warned that driving in Nazareth was not going to be easy. Ummmm...understatement! Talk about crazy. Absolutely no traffic laws, you drive where you can and you park wherever you want to. Lights exist but don't actually work. Super narrow two way roads that may or may not go through. I can't possibly exaggerate enough how terrible it is. It's going to be a while before I feel worthy enough to complain about I-5 traffic again.
We're getting used to being uncomfortable in our surroundings. Nazareth is Arab controlled (there seems to be an odd collection of Christians and Muslims who somehow live in relative peace with one another. At least it doesn't feel like there's a lot of tension, anyway.) We've gotten to the point where if a place smells good we just walk in and hope we can communicate at least a little. In Nazareth all of the menus are in Arabic - which looks like a bunch of squiggly lines to me!!
Day 9: We knew that we had a busy day planned today so we decided to eat breakfast at our hotel. It was an Arab style breakfast that was super good! Then we headed north to the Golan Heights region which, in my humble opinion, was the prettiest area we've been to so far. We spent the first part of our day at the Banias Nature Reserve, which seemed downright tropical. We took a long hike to the Banias Waterfalls. So beautiful!
We wanted to hike from Banias to Nimrod's Fortress but all of the National Parks close around 4pm (why the heck does everything close so early here??!!) so we knew we'd never make it back to the car on time so we swallowed our pride and drove to the Fortress instead. It turns out that it was a good choice; I don't know if I've ever climbed so many stairs in my life! I had Ariyah on my back again and I would have croaked if I climbed up the mountain and then did all the stairs and then had to run back to the car in time!
Because we took so long hiking around all morning, we didn't get to spend very much time at the Sea of Galilee. We did go to the beach and play around a little but that was really about it. We really didn't feel up to messing with the crowds anyway so we just cut it short and went back to Nazareth for dinner. Now we're back in our room ready to call it a night. Tomorrow we take a morning tour through the Old City of Nazareth and then we're Haifa bound!
Day 10: After breakfast we embarked on an Old City tour of Nazareth. This turned out to be an interesting experience and we learned a lot about the history behind the city. Nazareth is a city that feels like it should be much more than it is. It has the ancient feel of Jerusalem without nearly the charm. Much of its market is closed and you can tell that its culture has somehow disappeared. On the tour we learned that twenty or so years ago Nazareth was a beautiful town with busy markets and a bustling tourism industry. Then everything went down hill and the Old City turned into somewhere that even the police wouldn't enter. It was given over to the drug dealers and was very violent. Recently clean up efforts have taken place and the city is trying desperately to regain its former glory. I found myself kind of rooting for the city. It has so much history and beauty and the people seem resilient and want to get along. Everybody spoke Arabic and barely anything was written in English yet you could tell that they were genuinely happy that you were there visiting their city.
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| We're the black car... |
Haifa is a very modern feeling city. It can barely boast any real history compared to Jerusalem or Nazareth and it seems that they don't even try. To celebrate this modern twist we sprung for Chinese food. Lol. Our hotel is right.on.the.beach and 12 floors up. Ooh la la!! I had no idea that the Mediterranean had such enormous waves!! At no time when we lived in Florida did we see waves this huge. And it's so blue!! Simply heaven.
We spent a couple hours swimming and lounging on the beach. The undertow was fierce even though we were behind the break wall. A squealed and giggled with each wave.
Such an amazing place to spend our last few days!
Day 11: We really love Haifa. It's a beautiful city that has the feel of a modern US city but the longer you stay here the more you realize that the people here are different from those from Jerusalem or Tel Aviv; they're not as likely to speak English and there are very few signs on businesses that we understand. Subsequently, we spent an unusually long time looking for breakfast and an even longer time finding somewhere that sells sunscreen and little floaties for A. Luckily N was able to decipher the words "Cafe Brussels" and saved the day. We found ourselves at what we thought might be a mall and, sure enough, after having security search our car for explosives, we found a grocery store INSIDE the mall. There we found the elusive sunscreen and floaties.
After we got back to the hotel we spent three heavenly hours in the Mediterranean. So worth the struggle for floaties!! A learned how to work the waves and none of us wanted to leave.
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| The Lebanese border (Rosh Hanikra) |
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| The Lebanese border (Rosh Hanikra) |
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| Rosh Hanikra |
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| Rosh Hanikra |
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| Rosh Hanikra |
Day 12: Today I had scheduled a beach and relaxation day. After nearly two weeks of sightseeing and soaking up the Israeli culture today we wanted to soak up the sun. And after a quick breakfast and a little walk around the Bahai'i Gardens we did just that. Of course, we did find an awesome little playground that we stopped at as well, but that's part of the relaxation thing, right?
We spent at least four hours in the ocean. I know that we'll probably pay dearly for it but at least we won't go back home thinking that we should have spent more time at the beach. The winters are long and dark in Washington and I want to remember this for as long as possible!!
Tomorrow morning we say goodbye to Haifa. When we remember our time here we'll think of beautiful flowers and bright blue ocean. Tomorrow night will be our last night in Israel, we'll be spending the night in Tel Aviv before flying out Wednesday morning.
Caesarea Maritima is the town that Herod built on top of an ancient Phoenician city to honor the late Caesar Augustus. It's well known for its aqueducts and ritzy bathhouses, hippodrome and amphitheater, some of which is still in use today.
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| Caesarea - Hippodrome. A place where the ancients used to race hippos. Okay, that's a lie. They actually raced chariots here and judging by the hoof prints they're still racing something here. |
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| C'mon in, the water's gone! |
It was our last day in Israel and we had some free time on our hands and shekels to burn. What to do?? The choice was an easy one. Jerusalem!!!
We knew that there was going to be a drive there and back but it was worth it to see the Old City walls one more time. We blew through the rest of our shekels and ate one last chicken shwarma. Then off to Tel Aviv to find our last hotel of our trip.
Tomorrow morning we leave Israel, hopefully not forever, but we will be forever changed. Traveling halfway across the world has taught us so much about what it means to be American (both good and bad) and has given us a new and exciting view of the Bible.
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