The south trip was now a while ago, so im finally getting to it.

On the first day we went to some ruins, im bad and dont remember exactly where they were, and also visited caves taht had been quarried out and lived in. Also we visited the place where a fortress usually was on a hill to the west of Jerusalem, the only real way to go from the sea to Jerusalem. That night we ended up staying at a bedouin camp and learning a bit about their culture, and hospitality-where visitors are very welcome-they have great coffee and tea and ways of preparing it. In the afternoon we went on a camel and donkey ride up to a viewpoint where we could see quite a bit of israel, and took the bus back down to the bedouin village. Since i wrote about dinner before, i neednt remind you, but the dinner there was an actual feast, with lamb and chicken rice pita, and all you could eat-probably the best/fullest meal i have had here in israel.

Breakfast in the morning would also count as a real meal with eggs, and of course a couple cups of the bedouin tea. That day we were able to travel up to Mesada, but were in a rush since we were unable to head down the opposite side-snake path- and thus had a shortened tour-but the fortress itself was very impressive with its view over the dead sea. After this we went to the Ein Gedi-possibly one of the most beautiful places to hike in all of israel, with a stream and a small waterfalll at the end of the hike. HIking and swimming in the water on the way up was nice, with the constant heat of the day. The dead sea was the last stop of the day, and it was an experience floating on the dead sea. How hard it is to try and not fload, and then piling rocks on a friend to see how many it would take to make him sink. Also i had cut open my elbow the day before so the very warm salty water was great fun in there. The hostile we stayed in that night was a short drive and had a beautiful view over the dead sea facing east.

Because of the beautiful view, i decided to get up at 530ish in the morning to take pictures of the sunrise-which was a view to behold-but sleep might have been nice also. In the morning we went on a short hike through some canyons and saw a spot where the second rambo film was shot. Yehudit had been there when it was filmed and made them stop while thye toured the canyon apparently on th trip a long time ago. After this we visited Timna Park-a place where egyptians mined for copper. We ended the day with a jeep tour of the southern mountains and then a free night in Eilat.

The last day we went snorkling in Eilat in the morning and then quickly took off to see a crater in the north on the way back to the kibbutz. Me and a couple others were dropped off afterwards in Be'er Sheva to make our way to Jerusalem for thurs-sat. That night after some much needed nourishment and finding a hostel near the joffa gate, we started to wander the old city. A couple times we tagged along with tour groups for the fun of it even though they were not in english, it was still entertaining. Ended up of course near the western wall which was quite empty and then visited the bazzar on Joffa street, where there was a small band playing mexican music and i ended up doing some salsa dancing, didnt end so well but figured i could make a fool of myself in a foreign country. The hostel we stayed in was alright, the only iffy thing was the shower, where it was in the same rooom as the toilet and sprayed from waist height onto the toilet, good adventures always showering.

In the mornign after the hostile 'breakfast' we went to another place for a little more food. And we saw bacon on the list, so of course had to order it. It was raw bacon served with lettuce, olives, and tomatoe. Guess i learned my lesson about trying to get bacon in israel, but i ate it anyway. Throughout the day we wandered through the different quarter-and ended up in the 'first church' with the upper room(actually 2 stories below) in here they had a middleages style painting of Jesus that was actually painted by Luke-the only one to have the real face of jesus and mary. The lady that let us in was really sweet and told us all about the recent miricle done-healing cancer, speaking in tounges to a man who spoke russian, and the most recent visitatin of jesus, about 6 months ago. We ended up at one shop twice in the christian quarter and the man was a bedouin, and made us tea and we had the chance to talk to him for a while, also he made some earings for Anne for free, it was interesting seeing the bedouin hospitality mentioned above in practice still in the city although they do it also to try and sell you more stuff.

To make my dad proud, we visited the bethseda pool, marys birthplace(which was cool and 2 stories underground) church at the second station, herods gate,lions gate, damascus gate, then went over to the mt of olives, garden of gethsemanae, and there saw many churches including the Basilica of Agony, Dominus Fleavit(great view of the old city/dome), up to the top of the mt of olives to dome of ascention(not worth seeign and too a while to get to) before heading back and meeting up with the rest of our group at the western wall for shabbat. The Western wall on shabbat wasnt as crowed as i would have figured, but was a scene to behold.

Still we had another day visiting the Church of the HOly sepluchure(wasnt great since lots of people taking and taking pictures) enjoyed the garden tomb way better that we went to later on which was very scerene and also said it was only a place where Jesus could have been killed on one side then buried on the other, but was there to at least give a visual of what it was like-i appreciated it alot that there was that disclaimer. After this we treked across jerusalem to the newer part and went by the great temple and lower hebrew university campus for adam, and made our way to the Israel museum to see some dead sea scrolls and their other exhibits which werent that exciting to me, but there was a mask display-ah the story of the first mask, good stuff.

SInce it was shabbat it took a few hours to find food, but ended up a a little place where i got some good turkish coffee(for some reason i was craving it) and pork ribs in bbq sauce. The busses started running at 9 so we made our way back to the kibbutz after that, and a very nice man helped us out by interpreting with a lady on what stop we needed to make, most people look out for each other very well in israel and are always willing to help even though they are a very loud culture.