6 in 6: Israel

Cities Visited:

Herzliya

Tel Aviv (well, just the bus station)

Jerusalem

Jericho

This is a long one.  It was a busy day.

The ship was docked in a marina in the city of Herzliya, Israel for a week, moored between 2 incredible yachts.  During that week, the Bible school that has been running on board left the ship to do days of endless walking and touring and studying and seeing all the sights.  Unfortunately, I had to stay back on the ship most of this week.  However, there was a day when I got to visit Jerusalem with my 3 friends and fellow crew members, Kyrah, Marina, and Whitney.

We set off in the morning to the bus stop.  Well, we had little hope for the bus coming so we just grabbed a taxi and he took us straight to the bus station in Tel Aviv which would lead us to a bus that would take us to the heart of Jerusalem.  This drive was beautiful.  It took us up, around and through the beautiful mountains of this amazing country.

We disembarked and began our quest to find the Old City.  We had no idea where it was.  We had managed to ask a few people and they told us to just go straight down this street we were on and we would find our way there.  So that's what we did.

As we navigated our way through the streets, we happened to look to our right and saw a little market so we decided to have a bit of a detour to walk down there and check out what goods were being sold.

There were stalls filled with fresh bread, fresh fruit and vegetables, olives (not for me), spices, nuts, and beautiful clothing.  We took our time walking down this street amongst locals and tourists alike, attempting to understand the signs that were clearly in another language along with prices for things that made no sense.  There is quite a difference between a dollar and a shekel.

After wandering around these streets for a while, we continued and finally spotted the walls to the Old City.  But before we got there, I looked to the left and saw something colorful in the distance so I decided to check it out.  They were stationary bikes.  But they were no ordinary stationary bikes.  They were bikes with which something happened above your head when you pedaled.  For some, a fan turned on to blow down onto you, for others a lamp or a drum or a contraption that played music.  That was the best one.

We finished our playing and headed to the Old City.  We went through the Jaffa gate and were met but crowds of people and open stalls selling all sorts of things.  It's like a labyrinth in that place.  There was the Jewish Quarter, the Christian Quarter, and a couple others.  It's hard to describe in words what we were seeing and what we were walking through.

These were streets that Jesus walked through.

There were a few places we wanted to see so we attempted to follow the signs as best as we could to find them.  We made it to the Church of the Holy Sepulcher.  This was is believed to be the place that Jesus was crucified and buried, known as Golgatha or Calvary.  It is beautifully decorated in every corner of this amazing church.  We walked around quite a bit and ascended the stairs to the place where Jesus was said to have been crucified.  Here, underneath a sheet of glass was the rock of Calvary which contained the hole that was said to have been where the cross went into the ground.

After this time, we wandering around some more and made our way to the Wailing Wall.  We didn't go down and say a prayer but we just watched from a distance.

We decided that we were tired, hot and hungry so we spotted a tree and sat on the stone wall underneath it to enjoy our peanut butter and jelly sandwiches.

Marina really wanted to go swim in the Dead Sea.  We had talked about it before but didn't know how we could work it to get there.  We brought our suits just in case we made it there.  Marina was determined to get there.  She walked down to where there was a line of taxis and managed to find a man who would not only drive us there (about an hour drive) but would wait there while we swam and then drive us back.  We pondered on it for a bit, deciding if we wanted to spend the money on the taxi ride (which was actually incredibly reasonable for what we were asking) and decided that it was totally worth it.  How often were we going to be in Israel, this close to the Dead Sea.

We hopped in the taxi and off we went.  Our driver was an incredibly nice man and turned into a bit of a tour guide for us and was telling us about all the places we were driving past.  As we were heading towards the road that would lead us to the Dead Sea, we passed by the Mount of Olives and he decided

to take us up there so we could see it and get a quick picture.  He even took the picture for us.  We were at a spot that overlooked all of the Old City of Jerusalem and it was a site to see.

We were off, on our way to the Dead Sea.  I couldn't believe what was actually happening.  The area we were in pretty much looked like a dry dessert with hills everywhere.  To think about how the people of the Bible had to walk through these places to get to Jerusalem was just incredible to me.  As we drove down, we watched the signs on the side of the road which told us the elevation.  But it was in the negative numbers.

We were then going below sea level.  Very far below sea level.  Eventually reaching 1,400 feet below sea level.  How that is even possible, I have no idea.  It was a strange thought that we were well below where the ship was.  It was a beautiful site to see as we were driving.

So we swam.  Well, we floated.  Weirdest experience of my life.  There was a sign which told us how to go about getting in so we followed it.  You would wade out to the water, squat down and then just lay back.  And when you lay back, your feet floated right up to the top.

As we were walking down to the water, we saw plenty of people all around us floating so we knew that's what was going to happen.  But when I experienced it for myself, I was still just as shocked at what was happening.

But a word of caution - do NOT get the water in your eyes or anywhere around your mouth.  Not a fun experience.

We rinsed off all the salt that accumulated on our bodies and in our hair as best we could and headed back to find our taxi man who was waiting on a bench for us.  He was from Jericho and he is very proud of where he is from so he wanted to take us there, free of charge.  We agreed.

He took us to what was believed to be the sycamore tree that Zacchaeus climbed so he could see Jesus walking by in Luke 19.  I think this was one of my favorite things we did because I knew that story well and to think that I was in the street that was once filled with people as Jesus was walking down this street was an amazing thought.

 As we finally started to head back to Jerusalem, we made one more stop to see some of our taxi man's friends and get bombarded by salesmen trying to sell us Dead Sea products.  We got to try them first and my hands have never felt so soft in my life.  If I had more cash on me, I probably would have got something but we awkwardly all said no and made our way out the door.

Our last adventure of traveling back to the ship in Herzliya consisted of another bus and taxi ride which we nearly didn't have enough cash on us to complete.  But we made it and it was a very good day.

It was an incredible experience to have the chance to be in these places, to see the history of it, to see the places where all of these stories I've heard all my life actually happened.  It makes the Bible come so much more alive and when I went back and read a few of the stories that took place where I had just been, I could picture it in my mind in a whole new way and it gave it new meaning.

I never thought I would ever have the chance to go to Israel, let alone sail directly there.  But it was an opportunity that I am so thankful for.