So this has been a really long weekend, but
probably the best of this whole trip. On Wednesday, we went to Yad Vashem,
Israel’s official memorial to the Holocaust. They had so many amazing
artifacts given to them by survivors and family of survivors, which I found the
most fascinating. My favorite part of the museum was all the videos set up
throughout the rooms of survivors telling their stories and own accounts of
what they went though. I think I sat down and watched almost every single one I
could. It was just so moving to see them smiling about old times before the
Holocaust, watching them tear up when talking about losing their families, and
just describing what they went through and what their lives were like. The one
artifact that got me was a letter from a woman to her family in the United
States. She was told she was going to be brought to a place to work. She wrote
to her family how excited she was to be going on a trip and that she would
write soon. Underneath the letter, it said that she wasn’t going to work; she
walked right into a gas chamber. It really brought tears to my eyes. We also
saw a children’s memorial at Yad Vashem, where mirrors reflected 3 or 4
candles, so it looked like hundreds of thousands of candles in the room. As you
walk though, a recording is reading the names of children who died because of
the Holocaust. This was another very moving part of the museum.
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| People climbing up Masada |
On Thursday, we made our way
down to Masada. When we arrived, just under half of the group decided to walk
up Masada, while the rest took the cable car. (I couldn’t walk because of a
medical condition, so I took the cable car for 3 minutes instead of the 45-minute
walk in 100-degree weather…) Those who took the cable car waited around at the
bottom to give the hikers a chance to get to the top. According to them, it was
like hell, but worth it to say you did it. On our way up we saw the last three
people climbing the second to last staircase. They saw us in the cable car and
waved. My friend was one of them, and he told me later, “All I could think when
I saw you guys in that cable car was I hope it falls, because I was so hot and
tired.” When we got to the top, we walked around and saw the remains of an old
Jewish town. Here, in the first century CE, the Romans attacked the Jewish
people here, and they were very out numbered. The Romans advanced quickly, even
up the mountain, and began to seize the castles. Rather than become slaves, they
rebels killed their wives and children, and then each other. We saw the
different parts of this town, like their bathhouse, synagogue, and our guide
even pointed out water ducts and old Roman forts used during the siege. At the
end, some people even decided to climb down as well, but most people took the
cable car back down.
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| View of the Dead Sea from the top of Masada |
Now somewhat off topic, but a
funny story, at the food court there was a McDonalds. The people who came down
on the cable car had to wait a while for the walkers, and we were so hungry. As
it turned out, this McDonalds was non-kosher. Many of us had been talking for
weeks about getting home to be able to have a cheeseburger, so this was just so
exciting. And I have to say it was pretty good. :)
After Masada, we went swimming in the Dead Sea. This was an
experience I don’t even know how to describe. Walking in it felt like normal
water, it wasn’t thick or anything, just water, and very warm at that. However
as soon as you waded in farther and let go of your legs, they were swung into
the air with ease. We all floated around and got a group picture, although
staying in one line was very hard. We found salt rocks that were made
completely from hardened salt. It was sad to learn that the Dead Sea is
shrinking one meter every year. While it’s still very big, in as little as 10
years, it could be completely gone. I’m just glad I got to have that experience
while I still could! That night we drove to Eilat, where we would be staying
for the weekend.
Friday was a short day, at 2pm
we went snorkeling in the Red Sea. The water was so beautiful and blue, and
there was so much fish and coral to see. We also saw a spot covered in coral
that is supposedly Moses’s tomb, which was really interesting to think about
how long it must have just been sitting there.
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| Treasury in Petra |
I think they gave us a light day
Friday to make up for Saturday. On Saturday we crossed the border into Jordan
to go see one of the Seven Wonders of the World, Petra. We drove two hours from
the border to get there, and began our walk. The rocks around us had to be 100
feet high. We walked for about an hour until we came to a treasury build right
into the rocks. Around it were many other buildings, all carved into the rock.
It was astounding, and almost seemed impossible that they had so much precision
and detail. After looking around and doing a little tourist shopping, we headed
back up and went back to Israel.
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| Riding a camel with Greg |
Sunday we left our hostel in
Eilat and headed back to the Kibbutz. On the way, we visited a prison and had a
tour. We learned about their system and how it’s set up. For example the prison
we were at had all different levels of criminals and security. They had a high
security ward for prisoners, who were a danger to themselves, whom they
believed might be suicidal. Right next to it was a low security facility, where
prisoners had much more freedom, more space, and were allowed to work on the
prison. It was something you would never see in an American prison. After the
prison we went to a Bedouin camp in the Negev. We had lunch here and learned
about life in these small Arab villages. These people live in tents in the
middle of the hot desert. The most shocking aspects of life for these people
are that men have many wives, he can take a new one whenever he gets bored or
frustrated with her, and that all the chores, like raising the kids, making
dinner, milking the goats, the list goes on and on, all lay on the shoulders of
the women of the tribe. So what do the men do? They sit around and make coffee,
waiting for guests to come to visit at the tent. When they explained this, ever
girl in the room was shaking her head, and every guy was nodding, and wishing
they could live in this world. We then took a short bus ride to go ride camels!
Everyone was extremely excited about this, and although it was a cool
experience, it was painful! Not something I’d rush to do again.
There are only 10 days left on
my trip! This weekend was the last long going away weekend, the next 10 days
will be a lot lighter than they have been. I’ll try to post again soon!
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