I had my my last Ulpan course this week and my final exam so I now have a bit of down time before the semester starts up. The Hebrew course was a lot to handle at times, but I am glad that I was able to participate in it... my hebrew has definitely drastically improved (which isn't too surprising considering I couldn't spell my own name before... ha).

After the last exam my friend Zoe and I decided to take a camping trip to the Dead Sea and Ein Gedi. After getting to Tel Aviv we had to hop on another bus to Jerusalem and then another one to Ein Gedi... the buses in Israel are ridiculous. People get on and off in all sorts of random places-- you can be in the middle of the desert with no homes or civilization in sight and someone will be trying to get on or off the bus.

Despite all of the bus travel we managed to make it to the Sea by the afternoon. We immediately went into the Dead Sea to enjoy the weightlessness of all that salt... the water was so unbelievably hot though since the sun is much more intense in the south... so we didn't stay in the water too long...

After getting all the stinging salt water off us we set up our newly purchased $20 tent that we picked up in the bus station-- which I am so glad we got because there were sooo many bugs on the camp ground. I cannot explain how beautiful it was to camp by the sea... we camped in a small camp ground right by the edge of a cliff overlooking the water and we slept right beneath the stars with palm trees over our heads.

This morning we got up with the sun and headed over to Ein Gedi, which is a park just down the road from where we camped. We went on this really amazing hike at the base of the mountains and through a creek. There were a bunch of water falls and swimming areas along the way too so we got to take some breaks from the scorching sun. Well I am quite exhausted from my trip so I'm going to make some dinner and relax a bit.

De bus liet niet al te lang op zich wachten, dus al gauw waren we op weg naar het strandje van Ein Gedi. Al gauw liepen we naar de Dode Zee om eens even heerlijk te dobberen. Het blijft toch maar een gek idee om zo te drijven zonder dat je naar beneden zakt.

Uit het water gekomen namen we snel een douche en lagen we in de zon te drogen.

Om een uur of drie stapten we weer op en gingen we naar het hiernaast gelegen natuurreservaat. Héérlijk die watervallen, waar je onder kunt gaan staan. Op de terugweg zagen we zelfs nog een paar Ibexen. Dit is een soort geit die je in dit park erg veel tegen kúnt komen.

Onze volgende stop was weer terug naar Ein Gedi maar deze keer naar de watervallen die David Falls worden genoemd. We hebben hier heerlijk even in het water gestaan en daar fristen we weer heerlijk van op. Het enige nadeel was, je moest weer een heel eind terug lopen naar de bus dus daar kwamen we weer bezweet aan. Maar ja, het is nu eenmaal vakantie dus wat maakt dat uit.

Met een noodgang reden we weer verder, steeds maar zuidelijker. We zagen nu al gauw de Dode Zee voor ons liggen en dat gaf de burger weer moed. Alleen de Dode Zee is groot en ons reisdoel van vandaag lag een aardig eindje verderop.

Toen we eenmaal Ein Gedi bereikte hadden was het toch al gauw 17.00 uur. We kregen deze keer geen rieten hutjes maar caravans met airconditioning en dat was prima uit te houden. Eerst gingen we natuurlijk nog even zwemmen, nou ja zwemmen het was eigenlijk meer dobberen want echt zwemmen kun je niet in de Dode Zee.

Na het zout van ons af te hebben gespoeld, onder de express daarvoor op het strand aangelegde douches, ginge we naar onze respectievelijke caravans. Hier hadden we even de tijd aan onszelf totdat we zouden gaan eten. Dit eten bestond uit pannenkoeken en dat lusten we wel. Verder hebben we de hele avond gekletst en ook nog wat serieus gepraat over het oude testament. We meenden namelijk dat we de gids op een foutje hadden betrapt en dat bleek ook zo te zijn.

Rond middernacht zochten we uiteindelijk onze bedden op.

Met een nieuw gezelschap begonnen we aan het volgende deel van onze reis. Al heel vroeg ging het op pad (echt heel vroeg hoor want we werden al om 6.45 uur opgehaald) richting Ein Gedi. Hier werd nog een tweede ontbijt genuttigd voor de liefhebbers voor we verder richting het zuiden gingen.

Langs de Dode Zee gingen we naar Ein Gedi waar we een lekkere wandeling maakten naar de bron die de boel hier redelijk groen houdt.

Its hot. I mean its really hot here. Its so hot that I'm pretty sure that your body doesnt need to expend any energy in keeping itself warm. Just being in this air does that for you. This place is amazing. But its the kind of place where you need to let yourself go, let go of your own intellect and just really get into the story of the place. Otherwise its just a pile of rocks just like every other pile of rocks you've seen in every other country. The Story is epic. Its the Thermopolae of the middle east. The greatest jewish military venture, which was in the end a failure (which I've been told is very jewish, not being a jew I cant really comment as to the accuracy of that). Its amazing that this huge fortress/palace was in the middle of the desert was built with no real big water source near. And yet they were able to tease the Romans (who were carrying their water in from far far away) by dumping buckets of water over their own heads for 3 years. Speaking of which, make sure to see the cistern on the southern end, you can walk down into it and its the only cool place on the mountain. Its like a huge room with steps leading down into it, and back in the day it would have been filled with water. The conservation of water these guys had was ingenious. They really knew what they were doing. Nothing was wasted, and yet they were still able to have flush toilets and full plumbing. I would really recommend getting there to see the sunrise, I didnt, but everyone said that was pretty amazing. Even without that experience, the view is awesome. It really was a wonderful place to have a palace. Herod must have loved standing on his balcony surveying the lands. His bedroom was one which I would have loved to have. That was another way to let your mind get into the place. Imagine this Herod guy. He would have been the guy you wanted to party with. He had the cool houses, spared no expense and must have been a pretty cool dude. Aside from the slaying all the kids in that one episode of the bible. Anyway, Its a hike, its work, but its awesome. Just imagine yourself being the last of your kind holding out against the largest army in the world and feel the power of the place. Thats what Masada is.

Ein Gedi - Desert Oasis and Kibbutz An oasis situated in the heart of the Judean Desert. Here the "Song of Songs" was composed. Within this oasis the establishment of Kibbutz Ein Gedi and alongside its neighbour, the Nature Reserve, housing the desert fauna and the freshing, cool natural springs waters. Ein Gedi Spa Hot mineral spring waters, natural water swimming pool, natural black therapeutic mud, Dead Sea and beach, massage treatment center. Ein Gedi Botanical Gardens More than 1000 species of flora, world wide. The combination of a growing population amongst the growing vegetation. Ein Gedi 5th century Mosaic Floor of an ancient synagogue nearby the Kibbutz. Ein Gedi Nature Reserve Near the kibbutz. Visitors have access to the adjacent nature reserve for viewing bird sanctuaries and wildlife of desert, including the Nubian ibex. Hikers follow trails past waterfalls, springs, caves, canyons, and an early Bronze Age temple. Visitors have a choice of hiking along two riverbeds: The David Spring nature reserve walking tour (1.5-3 km), including a short trek to two waterfalls, can take between one and a half hour to 3 hours. The Arugut reserve is adjacent to the David reserve and includes a series of shallow pools perfect for bathing. The 4 km circular hike can take up to four hours. A marked path leads to an impressive waterfall. Recommended: binoculars, bathing suits, drinking water and hats.

Woke up from the sound and feeling of 5 flies hovering around my head just to realize that it's 6am and that evreyone else around me where suffering from flies. It's funny to watch people trying to sleep while using their hands to hush the flies away. I watched the sky and saw the sun is going to be up soon. So I took my camera and sat next to the water waiting for the sunrise over the Red Mountains of Jordan. The dead sea is actually the border between Israel and Jordan (at that area) and on both sides of the sea there are red mountains surrounding the sea, creating a beautiful crater filled with salty water. The place itself is at minus 270 meters!!! making it the lowest place on earth. The problem is that it doesn't get enough water and so in the current conditions it's getting drier and lower, making this beautiful place an exitent place (unless they'll find a way to shift some water into it from the red sea in the south).

After sunset, I made some tea for my friends and we had a small breakfast and off to the water we went. For my Japanese friend it was her first time, and it was very funny to see her walking into the water, not knowing what to expect and then suddenly feeling herself floating. The first time she went into the water she got scared, causing some water to splash on her face, which is the worst thing you can get, as the water is so salty it burns the eyes. But then on her second try (after wiping her face with a towel) she got relaxed and enjoyed the floating. It was only 8am but the sun was already very hot (it gets to around 40 degrees celsius by 12am). We decided it was time to enjoy the mud so we took a walk on the coast to find a mud hole from which we drew some black mud and put it on our bodies. The thing about the mud is that it's filled with minerals and so putting it on the skin gives you a natural peeling, that after a few minutes/hour in the sun freshens your skin. People with skin sickness from all around the world come to the dead sea to wash their bodies and put mud on it, helping them fight all kinds of skin diseases (thankfully they do it in special places and not on the normal shores).

When it got really hot we had a cold shower and drove to Mesada. The story of Mesada is an amazing story of a great war against the Romans, more than 2000 years ago. Look at a separate review about Mesada.

After Mesada, it was noon already, bloody hot outside, and we decided to go home and stop on the way in a very famous arab village outside of Jerusalem called Abu-Gosh in which there are some of the most amazing Humus restaurants. It's hard to explain the differences between Humus, but let me say this - first of all, the humus outside of the middle east area is usually crap. Sorry for the words, but it's true. Until you go and eat Humus in the middle east, it's like you never had one (unless you got really lucky and found some restaurant in Europe that imports the ingredients from the middle east and makes it by itself). And so in that village there are many famous restaurants, each one has a different degree of solidness to the humus and also the other side dishes are amazing. Some of them are Tehini, Labane (usually made from goat cheese), Tabule and also amazing meat dishes. Very recommended.

When out bellies got full, we went back to T.A. for R&R and for a drink ;)

Mesada is the name of a fort located on a small mountain next to the dead sea. The actual height of the mountain is only 200 meters, but because it's next to the dead sea, it appears like almost 500 meters high.The mountain itself is around 16km south of En Gedi (where we spent the night and floated on the sea) and just north of Sedom mountain.

Mesada is a part of the Unesco World Heritage list since 2001, due to its important role in the history of Israel and humankind as it symbolizes the eternal human fight between slavery and subdued to freedom.

The story is an amazing story - Israel was occupied by the romans around the year 0 (the era of Jesus). In the year 66 AC there was a big rebellion in Israel against the Romans, and Mesada which was a Roman Fort was captured by a group of militant jews. In 70 AC Jerusalem was destroyed and the last of the jews fled to Mesada which became the last free area in Israel. Mesada represented to all the occupied jews in Israel the last stand for freedom.

The romans started a siege on Mesada. The number of people inside the fort were around 2000 people, including elder, children and women. Around the fort the Romans put a task force of 8000 soldiers who tried to break the walls and occupy the fort. The siege started around 73 AC and lasted a few months. In the end the Romans built a tower to help them break the walls of the fort and storm the fort. When the jews realised they are doomed (there were only 960 people left in the fort at that time), they decided to commit mass suicide and die as free people than to be conqured and die as slaves.

The story of that night is an amazing story. They wrote down the names of all the men on stones and then picked up 10 stones. Each men went and kill his family, then lay on the ground with their bodies hugged in his hand and wait for the selected men to come and kill him. After the 10 finished killing all the rest of the people, they did a loterry between themselves and picked up one person who killed the last 9 and then commited suicide. In that way all 960 people died in that night. Died free. When the Romans broke into the fort the next day they found all the bodies spread around the place, and they adored the bravery and willingness of the dead people to fight and die free.

The story of what happend was documented by a famous writer from that time that found 2 women and 5 kids who were hiding in the wells on the mountain and escaped the mass suicide.

Up until today the name Mesada in Israel symbols the fight for freedom and the willingness to never let down and never be occupied again by another country and live under other regime.

The place itself is a beautiful one, a desert mountain, with amazing archeological digs on top of it, including ancient synagoges, storage rooms, fort walls, mosaics on the walls and floor and more.

You can climb the mountain by walk, it takes something like 45 minutes through a trail called "the snake trail", but this is really not recommended in the middle of the day in the summer. The 2nd option is to use the cable car which takes only 3 minutes.

On the mountain itself it takes around 1 hour to troll around, see all the areas. It's very organized with support for many languages.

Recommended!