ISRAEL the Holy Land

After arriving to the country of Israel at 4:30 a.m. Carly, Suz and I went back to sleep until 11:30 a.m.
Michael then woke us up and told us we were going to his beach house for a cookout.

About a month before Suz and I were in Chiang Mai, Thailand. It was our last day and we still hadn’t jumped on the back of any elephants, and that was one thing we really wanted to do. So we booked an elephant riding tour. When our van pulled in to pick us up it was packed with six big guys that were being really loud. Suz and I looked at each other and said, “Omg we have to spend all day with them, and we are the only girls”, then slowly walked towards the van and got in. That day ended up being one of the best days of the whole trip. All six of the guys were Israeli and on holiday in Thailand. It just so happens that we were planning on going to Israel and at the end of the tour Michael invited us to stay at his home in Israel which is where we were now. (You can call it coincidence but I know God set it up this way 😉 )

In Thailand with the guys about to white water raft

So our first day in Israel was spent at Michaels awesome beach house with his whole family. The food was SO good; homemade hummus, falafels, salads, awesome steaks for meat-eaters, they had everything. It was an awesome welcome into their country.

The next few days we couldn’t do much because we ended up arriving during their holiday of Rosh Hashanah, which is their new year. Friday though was a special day. It was Shabbat, the jewish sabbath, and we were invited to join Michael’s family for Shabat dinner! His mom made an amazing meal and it was really cool to be apart of a day that is so important to the jewish faith. Christina also ended up arriving in Israel on Friday! She is our friend from germany, who attended one of our couchsurfing parties on Oahu. I was so happy to now have Suz, Car, and Christina with me! All my travel girls! The rest of the time we spent walking around Old Jaffa and eating really good Hummus.

Saturday we ended up spending the day around Michaels house, but we weren’t complaining his house was mansion size, with a pool and decked out in the latest of everything, including the bombest cappuccino machine I’ve ever used. We also got to see all the guys that we met in Thailand which was a lot of laughing.

On Sunday (the beginning of their work week) the holiday was over and everyone was back to normal life. Michael felt that it was very important that he take us to Yad Vashem- the holocaust museum. It is important for Jews to make sure that the holocaust is never forgotten. Soon everyone that was in the holocaust won’t be here anymore and they don’t want the holocaust to be a myth, or story passed around, they want people to know that it was real and painful. So we spent the day walking around the museum and I will be honest the whole time I was sick to my stomach. There were some stations at the museum that I almost couldn’t bare looking at because of how terrible the jews were treated. I felt sickened to be apart of the human race who showed no compassion or love for its brothers and sisters. It just astounds me that one day someone decided to kill off a whole race of people, who had no crime besides being who they were from birth. The museum was a hard place to be but I learned a lot about the holocaust that I hadn’t known before.

We ended up deciding to stay in Jerusalem for a few days and found a hostel. It was the best hostel I have ever stayed at (It’s name is Abraham Hostel if anyone is ever thinking of traveling to Israel). Carly, Christina and I decided we didn’t want to waste any time and booked an adventure for the following day. Suzanne had already been to Israel and didn’t need to repeat any of the site seeing so she planned out another agenda.

The next day we woke up and went to Masada. This is where King Herod built his palace in the desert, then all of his people, and the man himself killed each other instead of being taken over and turned into slaves. It was a crazy place, I had never seen anything like it, I had never seen a desert in general, so this was extreme. After Masada we went to the dead sea and floated around for about at hour. The dead sea was AMAZING! You hear stories about it, but there is nothing like testing it out for yourself! It was so fun, we had races, put mud all over our bodies, and I was tortured with the burning water by my new Brazilian friend Marcus. It was really fun. After the dead sea we hiked to a waterfall! It was beautiful, we all played in the falls and Marcus made coffee and passed out cookies. There is nothing like hot coffee in the hot desert! haha. The best part of the day however was going to the Negev Desert to ride camels!! We mounted our camels and took a ride through the desert on the same ground that biblical figures of the past rode on. It was one of the most beautiful things I’ve EVER seen. The Sun was setting, the rollin hills of sand were glistening, and my camel was blowing me kisses, it was perfect. I made sure to savor the moment, and tried my best to slow down time because I was so happy to be there. Riding a camel was on my bucket list, but riding a camel, on biblical grounds through the negev desert, at sunset just about blew my list out of the water. After the camel rides we ate a traditional bedouin dinner! As all Israeli food is, it to was amazing.
Here is a short video of our Desert Adventure Day: