A land of problems, but also a land of beauty and history

This post will be extremely hard to do as there is still disputed territory between the Palestinian Authority and Israel.  While I may piss some people off, I am going to do my best in trying to put cities and pictures where they belong.  It will not be easy, but nothing ever is.

First off, I really enjoyed my time in both Israeli parts and Palestinian parts.  I am hoping one day that they can bring peace to this area and live in total agreement.  I do think it is possible one day, but things always happen between negotiations and you always have external groups on both sides that end up causing problems and bring the populace into it.

I was with my friend Daniel on this trip and it is a person I have traveled with a lot.  We took a flight from Egypt to Tel Aviv that is not advertised online at all, and you can only book it through travel agents.  It is called Air Sinai and is operated on a wet lease agreement by Egypt Air.  Upon arrival to Tel Aviv, we were of course put in a room for about 30 minutes while they checked out to see why we have so many stamps from Egypt, then we were issued our card (no stamp in passport)

We took a shared mini bus into Jerusalem where I found out my computer was stolen in the Cairo Airport at security.  So I started the trip a little pissed off.  We probably stayed in what is arguably but surely the best hostel I have ever stayed at in the world called Abraham Hostel.  I would strongly recommend if you go to this city to stay here.  It is the cleanest I have ever been, even outdoing most hotels and the food was brilliant.  This place came with a bar, a restaurant area, and everything in between.  This is a place you could actually live in, and their message simply is “Stop Working, Start Traveling”.  They organized all of our excursions for us and are very efficient.  They also organize cooking classes:

The Hostel also organizes put crawls….but make sure you do not get up early in the morning as you will end up hating life and whatever you do the next day

 

Jerusalem by night was an amazing place as we walked around on Saturday (the holy day) and the city was a ghost town, but was nice:

It is also nice to walk around Jerusalem and just chill out and see the people:

Next day we took an excursion that jumped in and out of Israeli and Palestinian holdings.  We went to the baptism site of Jesus along the Jordan River that lies in Israel:

Hebron was an interesting city as we did a Dual Narrative tour of the city.  It is a city that is literally split in two-Palestinian and Israeli side.  We went around to some of the sites like the Cave of the Patriarchs and also the Abraham Avinu Synagogue.  We also took walks around the Israeli part of the town which has seen a decrease in its citizens because of the violence.  Very beautiful town but war torn-in the afternoon we crossed over into the Palestinian part:

The Biblical Zoo was a pleasant experience as my expectations were not high at all, but I really enjoyed how well it was kept and how it was set up:

The Holocaust Museum was obviously an eye opening experience.  We were not allowed to take pictures inside but on the grounds we walked through all the memorials of this tragic event:

A really neat excursion we took was on our second to last full day in which we hiked up to Masada way early in the morning.  Masada was an ancient Israeli city built up on a hill to prevent invaders from attacking.  I will say it is not a hill but a big mountain as the hike up was horrible.  However once we got up there we were able to see a beautiful sun rise.

We then went to the En Gedi Nature Reserve which is an oasis in the middle of the desert.  It has a lot of Biblical significance and is really a nice relaxing time walking around and seeing the beautiful waterfalls…

I can finally say I have conquered the Dead Sea.  I had been to the Jordanian part a year and a half earlier and now I was in the Israeli part.  I can honestly tell you not much is different between the two except that on the Israeli part….the difference is that more people were wearing less cover up clothes while swimming and the beers were cheaper:

Finally, what most people-Christians, Jews, Muslims, and even heathens like myself go to Israel for is the Holy City Tour.  This was located near our hostel and we saw everything here from Muslim Dome of the Rock, The Christian Church of the Holy Sepulchre, and the Jewish Wailing Wall.  There are also many other parts to see in this place and you can even take a walk up the Via Dolorosa where Jesus made his way up on his way to be crucified and you can see the stations of the cross, the final five being in the Church.  This was a great tour as you knock out everything in one, and it was awe inspiring to see so many places that have inspired world and religious histories…..