I had a great time and met some friendly and amazing people while staying with my newly found friend and guide and his American wife and beautiful baby. I enjoyed seeing a different part of Israel, getting to know my new friend and his family better and going to a Christian church with services in Hebrew as well as on a beautiful hike through the land of milk and honey afterwards. It was a perfect ending to an amazing time in the Holy Land.

Labels: Travel, World Tour

The Holy City, The City of the Great King, City of David, Zion, The City of Gold. These are just a few of the many names Jerusalem has been called over the years. The City where Jesus taught, was crucified and buried and three days later rose again! Jerusalem is full of history, mystery and a diverse group of people and religions. It was interesting to walk through the ancient city streets and go from the Christian Quarter to the Muslim Quarter to the Jewish Quarter and then into the Armenian Quarter. I never been in a place with so many different religions and people groups living in such a relatively small area and know another place so unique doesn't exist on this earth.
I was pleasantly surprised to find how compact and walkable all the biblical landmarks are due to their close proximity to each other. In one day you can walk around and see the Church of the Holy Sepulchre, The Garden Tomb, Golgotha, The Temple Mount, The Garden of Gethsemane and the Mount of Olives not to mention many other historical and religious landmarks along the way! It was an amazing life experience to walk the streets Jesus walked and see so many of the places my savior went to and spent time at during his life on earth! Jerusalem will always have a special place in my mind, memory and heart.

Labels: Bucket List, Travel, World Tour

God blessed me with a divine appointment to meet a Christian tour guide who volunteered to take me to his church in Mt. Carmel and then on a tour of the Dead sea area with some other new friends from Oregon. I really enjoyed seeing En Gedi - the oasis where David hid in the cave from King Saul. As well as seeing the Ibex, a deer-like biblical animal that lives in the area, up close and personal. It was also amazing to hear for the first time about the history of Masada and the famous battle that took place there while being on top of the mountain and seeing the ruins of King Herod's Palace. I was also excited to be able to see the place and some of the caves where the dead sea scrolls where found and it helped me understand how it took such a long time to find them. Much like the landscape of Egypt, the area around the Dead Sea is hot desert mountains for miles and miles and finding anything buried in them pretty much takes a miracle or an act of God or both.

Labels: Travel, World Tour

I really enjoyed finally being able to see and experience the Dead Sea. The sea in has beautifully clear water so saturated with salt that it has a kind of slimy texture to it and tastes like pure salt with no sign of a water taste. I was able to experience the unique experience of floating in the Dead Sea and decided to try putting my head bellow the water to experience for myself the painful sensation I had hear about. I don't recommend trying it yourself. My nostrils immediately felt like they were on fire and although I waited a good five minutes before opening my eyes, when I did they too burned and stung from the salt. I had to thoroughly rinse my eyes out before the stinging eventually subsided.
This is what the perfectly clear water looked like after I mixed it up a little bit with my hand. It is so saturated with salt that the salt distorts the light and makes the rocks hard to see.

Labels: Travel, World Tour

Although the Jordan Dinar is currently worth one and a half US Dollars, I was pleased to find that Jordan is still relatively cheep to travel around using public transport and that a nice hostel with an all you can eat dinner of typical Jordanian food was about fifteen Dollars. My main and only reason for going to Jordan was to see Petra, although I did hear about some desert camping and camel riding opportunities that were also available. Petra is an amazing place. For those who don't know:
Petra (from the greek πέτρα "petra," meaning rock) is an archaeological site in Jordan, lying in a basin among the mountains which form the eastern flank of Arabah (Wadi or desert Araba), the large valley running from the Dead Sea to the Gulf of Aqaba. It is famous for having many stone structures carved into the rock. The long-hidden site was revealed to the Western world by the Swiss explorer Johann Ludwig Burckhardt in 1812. It was famously described as "a rose-red city half as old as time" in a Newdigate prize-winning sonnet by John William Burgon. Burgon had not actually visited Petra, which remained accessible only to Europeans accompanied by local guides with armed escorts until after World War I. The site was designated as a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 1985 when it was described as "one of the most precious cultural properties of man's cultural heritage." (from Wikapedia - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Petra)
It was quite an experience to walk through the beautiful natural canyon called the Siq (shaft) and to emerge on the other side to face the massive facade known as the Al Khazneh ("the Treasury") originally built as a tomb. The intricate detail and grand scale of this and other structures around Petra are both impressive and surreal. The Treasury made it's most famous appearance in the film Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade as the entrance to the temple holding the Holy Grail. If you are in Egypt or Israel, a visit to Petra would be a worthwhile side trip that is worth a day or two.

Labels: Jordan, Middle East, Petra, Travel, World Tour