In a country where everyone has to spend 4 years in the army and therafter every year an other 30 -50 days it is no surprise that guns are very common here in Israel. Where you would see people walking around with a cell phone in other countries, Israeli carry their gun - usualy an Uzi.
The Makhtesh Ramon Crater is the biggest one in the world and is very impressive. It was created 200 million years ago and is still evolving. Lot's of animals live in the crater and we took a full day to explore it. There are interesting fossils of acient creators of a lost sea.
The Negev Desert is huge and about 70% of all of Israel. It is also beautiful.
Wow! Talk about salt... This sea is 10 times as salt as a normal sea and you really notice it when you floated in it. Days after it you still taste salt :-) The floating part is really fun and it is funny to notice that it is difficult to try and stand up. Swimming is impossible. So just relax and float away in the perfect warm clear water and enjoy the view.
We passed Masada, a high rock plateau and which is the symbol of the jewish resistance against the Romans.
When the Romans sieged the palace of Herod the Great, the jews killed all their families and committed suicide. Untill recently every soldier in the Israeli army should take an oath that "Masada will never fall again". So the whole place is loaded with propaganda and love for Israel.
A
hilarious and insightful article of Benoit Denizet-Lewis in this weeks New York Times Magazines about Gay Life in the 21st century. In turns out that more and more young gays are opting to get married young and settle down. Since gay marriage was legalized in Massachusetts a couple of years ago, gay guys in their early twenties want nothing more then to get married and have kids...
Great pictures by Erwin Olaf (but you recognized that already didn't you?)
Everyone wants a piece of Jerusalem it seems and everyone has there own ideas of what has to be done with holy sites - or even which site is holy at all!
You have to jews, the catholics, the orthodox catholics (greek or coptic and oh: and the armenian), the protestants (in all their variations), the muslims and the nobodies. Let's face it: it is a mess :-)
Straight trough the West Bank the Israeli are raising a huge concrete wall. It is Berlin all over again...
People cannot cross this wall without special permission and the whole experience makes the security check at heathrow a nice day out :-(
You have to enter through special "Terminals" with the most unpleasant personel and the way in is a total different way then the way out. As usual if you are a Arab guy you get a special treatment. Let's hope this nonsense stops quickly and the wall will be teared down like any other wall eventually...
We went to bethlehem where Henriette, our guide took us to her family home. It was interesting to see how people live in Bethlehem and what kind of difficulties they encounter living in occupied territory. After that it was time for the grotto where Jesus was supposed to be born.
The Via Dolorosa is were Jesus walked to his crucifixion, he stopped a couple of times on the way. Strangley enough nowadays they sell women underwear at his stop number 4...
