Israel Part 5: …Jordan

After a quite tiring week of digging (see a not restful but exciting weekend), we were headed to Jordan to close the trip on a relaxing note. Good thing passport control and border crossing in this part of the world is known for its ease and relaxation…

It really wasn’t that big of a deal, it was just hot and there was a group. Travelling with a group really complicates things. But we survived and I was truly elated to be in Jordan. As a person who collects countries, I was happy to add this to my list. Straightaway we headed to the Red Sea because actually we were going to relax and the beach and the water sounded amazing. We paid for our snorkeling and some of us were SCUBA certified so we also paid to go diving, because I would hate myself if I didn’t, and went out on the boat. Because I hadn’t dove in more than 6 months, I couldn’t dive off the boat, I had to wait and go off the beach where they could do a skills refresher for 7 minutes. What this actually meant was, for the price of SCUBA diving, I got to dive and snorkel for a total of like two and a half hours. Already I like this country.

Both the snorkeling and the diving were indescribable. I mean how do you explain the feeling of flying on your own over forests and through canyons seeing all kinds of wildlife? They said they saw a whale shark the day before. I saw sea turtles, moray eels, lion fish, a sea snake, more sea urchins and anemone than you could count, and all this while flying. If I could be in love with something, this could be it. The stresses and the busyness of the previous weeks, the hotness, the worries of my life back in America before the trip, everything just dripped away and I was just under the water, me and the forest of coral. I get it. I get what people say about the ocean.

Lost inside my head, I begrudgingly made my way to the bus where everyone was waiting. I was one of the last because there were only two of us divers from the group. We headed towards our hotel in Petra. I ate more food.

The hotel was superb. It was nice to chill after a summer of hard work. Later in the weekend we went to Little Petra, which is exactly what it sounds like it would be. Made at the same time as regular Petra, it was just an extension of the ancient city but with fewer and smaller facades. It was nice though because no one was really there except us.

The day of going to Petra came with the grandeur of…literally every other day ever. I was excited though. The group told us that if we wanted to go to both the High Place (a high place where you could see forever, duh I went) and the Monastery (the coolest one), we would have to really hurry. You know how you are never supposed to challenge a Sicilian to a battle of wits? Never tell a Colorado kid raised in the mountains that the only way to see everything is if he can walk 10 miles very quickly. Needless to say I saw everything because I don’t freaking lollygag and I managed to get there with time to spare. We walked back to the hotel and sat in the blessed air conditioning for more time than the others got to. We were completely satisfied with our trip. I wished I could eat. But that would come.

Petra is one of the 7 Modern Wonders of the World. It’s pretty cool. It looks just like the pictures except when I was standing there I couldn’t help but wonder if these people were giants. I mean I am no tiny human and their steps killed me. The opening to Petra is like a giant slot canyon, and much to our chagrin, it didn’t open to Indiana Jones chilling there. There was however some American playing the theme song on his phone. In a slot canyon things echo. It was great.

After Petra we sat in a bus for 4 and a half hours because someone’s bag with their passport got swiped and we were working on dealing with that. But we were headed to Wadi Rum. I had really no idea what to expect because no one from our group had been there before. This was the first time the University booked this on the trip. I knew a lot of people were jealous and I had seen An Idiot Abroad’s episode of Petra so I was expecting really anything.

It was so much beyond my wildest expectations it was so cool I don’t know how I could words oh my goodness I loved it and the food and the desert and aghh!

Freakout aside, it really was the perfect way to end a trip. We stayed in Bedouin tents that were more like mini cabins with hard fabric walls. They had their own bathrooms and showers and beds that were more comfortable than even those of the super expensive hotels. There was even wifi. I’m still not sure how I feel about that because we were in the middle of nowhere, 45 minutes straight through the desert to Saudi Arabia and where they filmed the movie The Martian. I mean, it’s desolate. But we had wifi.  Who cares it was great. And you didn’t have to use it, but I did. That night I was sure the stars were going to be amazing, and I was right. They were. I had some of the best Milky Way shots I have ever taken. Because of my late night photography session, and the fact that I could finally vacation a little, I didn’t get up for the 5am camel sunrise ride with a good portion of the rest of the group. Don’t judge, it just wasn’t as exciting for me. I’ve ridden camelids and horses and didn’t find as much hoopla in it. So I relaxed and had a good morning. The next day we were heading home and a long time on the plane would be worth this extra hour and a half of chill.

After being in the Middle East for several weeks, I have decided that I really like it there. Israel was fun but Jordan is way better. They are not pretending to be things they aren’t, they are friends with everyone (except ISIS, cause no one is friends with those knuckleheads) they are more deserty than Israel, more chill, happier, and the food is better. Still I loved both places. I want to go back. There is something about the hospitality that is genuine and the culture is different and the people are real and genuine. Though Jordan isn’t a first world country, it presents itself to you, like “Well this is me, I am not perfect, but if you love me we can have the best time, and if you choose not to, that’s okay, I understand, maybe next time. But I will be here with my arms open, ready to welcome you.” In short, the humble righteousness that is supposed to be what set apart Israel was clearer to me in Jordan. And that’s probably what surprised me the most.

Israel Part 4: Preppers, Peppers and a Wall

  

After the second week of digging, we went to Masada, Qumran, the Dead Sea, and a few other smaller areas. I had always wanted to see these three in particular because Qumran was where the Dead Sea Scrolls were found and a secret society lived there, the Dead Sea is famous for being one of the weirdest places on earth, and Masada is a boss fortress.

Qumran was about what I expected; really hot ruins in the middle of the desert with mountains that look similar to the foothills around western Colorado. It was cool to see what they were like back then and look at their rituals. There wasn’t much else to write about from what I saw.

Masada…the second coolest site we saw on this trip (first being Petra, but I’ll get to that). King Herod created the site as both a luxury getaway and a fortress in case people didn’t like him and tried to kill him. Because Herod was part Roman, there were a lot of Roman styles in the fortress. He was so paranoid that he had created a city, basically for himself that could survive a very long time on its imported resources. He never had to use it because he died somewhere else. But in first century AD, some Jewish zealots lived there and used it as a fortress against the Romans who eventually, through ridiculous persistence, conquered it.

Knowing the history of Masada and being there felt similar to walking through Gettysburg or some place similar. While I don’t necessarily subscribe to the Zionistic Nationalism that most natives who visited were feeling, I couldn’t help but feel a bit of reverence. A horrific battle took place there where details about horrible things happening on both sides were recorded. I also was astonished at the prepper mentality that Herod had when he first built Masada. I couldn’t imagine living with such paranoia that would cause me to kill my own family because I thought they would take my throne. So I guess you could say that I had a lot of feelings while I was there. I had time to really soak in the essence of the place.

The Dead Sea was an adventure. When you come back and hear about the Dead Sea, what you hear about is how you float and how the water will basically make your eyes fry off, but there are several things people don’t tell you about the Dead Sea. Here are a few. First, that mud that’s so special will kill you. Walking in, I was expecting to sink into the mud, but instead it was like walking on snow that had melted a little in the day then had people walking on it to make it uneven, then frozen again at night. Slippery uneven death, except at 115 degrees outside. It was by sheer willpower and a possibly dislocated hip that I made it out to where the ground was better. Then my feet no longer could touch the bottom and I found myself suddenly staring at my toes.

The Dead Sea actually hurts. That’s something they for sure don’t tell you. I mean they say to not shave for a few days before, and if you have cuts you’ll know. But they don’t say that it doesn’t really matter because everywhere will hurt because humans aren’t supposed to be in such a basic and salty conglomerate. It’s called the Dead Sea after all. You know that feeling you get the day after eating really spicy food with a lot of peppers? Yeah, it feels like that too. Another thing no one talks about… No way on earth was I letting that liquid from actual hell get near my eyes.

They say there is no current in the Dead Sea and if that is the case then this next story makes no sense to me. I was floating in the water, as relaxed and reclined as possible, eyes closed, ears just below the water. I couldn’t really hear and I wasn’t watching and all of the sudden I sensed something near me. I opened my eyes and I was floating in between two random humans having a conversation. Now because you can’t really be vertical in the Dead Sea, I had to somewhat imitate a giant squid to get out the way of these two semi recumbent humans. It wouldn’t have been as awkward except that after I had left they turn back to me and say, “Where y’all from?” “Crap, they’re Americans” I thought to myself as I now cruising in my giant squid-ness turned back around and said that we were from a University in Tennessee doing a tour. That seemed to satisfy them for a second before they started more conversation with me. I had to resort to conversation in a weirdly awkward place with some humans who I accidentally got inappropriately close to. Yippee.

The next day, we had the day mostly free to wander Jerusalem as we pleased. Well I pleased. I loaded up on an absurd amount of Arabic buffet food from heaven and rolled out towards the Old City. I have a complex of going to the highest places and looking out, so that’s where we were headed. There was a church overlooking the city I wanted to visit and the Old City wall. We got to the wall first, because that’s what you do when you enter a city; you go through the walls first, and decided to walk around the top of that first. We did. For 12 miles. It was awesome. Circumnavigating the Old City via the top of the wall gives you a cool birds eye view of the different cultures mixing. The various gates are busy to go through, but going over them is quite different, and you could see the vendors below. It was picturesque. We could walk around all the quarters of the Old City and when we got near the Temple Mount, we obviously were diverted through the city. We decided we would go back the way we came, go through the original gate we entered and go up the wall and around the other way. Walking through the streets of the Muslim Quarter was amazing. The tight windy streets created a feel similar to Venice, except all the streets made sense and there were no retarded drops off into nothingness. Fortunately we knew where the Via Dolorosa was and where it dropped us off, so we found it and followed it again, back to our gate and up onto the wall.

By the end of the walk, we were too tired to go to the tall church and were under a timeframe to return anyways so we headed back. I stuffed my face with amazing food again and we regrouped for the evening before going to bed to get up early to head back so we could dig for another week. I’m glad I walked 12 miles. It didn’t make me super tired for the next week at all…oh wait.

Israel Part 3: Jerusalem. Big Booms and Hangry people

“Jerusalem you evasive city, I finally got to you.” And boy do I want to go back.

It marks my third of the big three Christian cities, Rome, Constantinople (Istanbul), and Jerusalem. I remember driving in and being a little annoyed by the traffic. Apparently in Israel people use their cars without using literally any semblance of thought. That’s exciting for bus drivers, and ours was top notch. We were trying to get to our recently upgraded very nice hotel to drop our things off so we could go through Hezekiah’s tunnel. It was a pretty sweet tunnel filled to mid calf depth with nice cool water. I hoped that this wasn’t the water we would be drinking later, and as far as I know, it wasn’t directly (they of course have water sanitation plants there). I loathe how people back in the day weren’t as tall. I was bent almost completely in half for about a mile and a half, in the dark, using the light of my cell phone as the only buffer between happiness and brain damage.

After the shenanigans of straightening my wizened, bendy-straw self out were done, we moved on to search for food. A smaller part of the group wanted to walk down Ben Yehuda Street to get such food. I of course wanted to explore, so I went too. Here is where I found out I could fit in just fine. I had Israelis not native to the city asking me for directions, one asked if I wanted something for the Sabbath (in Hebrew) and was surprised when I told him (in English) that I didn’t live here. It was kinda fun. All that happened within about 10 minutes. I’m still not sure I wasn’t being filmed for a TV show or something. I ate food, then bought a sack lunch for the next day and walked back to the hotel. I did okay figuring out where it was in relation to us the first time through. Navigating isn’t that hard if you just pay attention.

The hotel was nice. Like, not the nicest I have ever been in, but I still haven’t figured out where I’ve been in one nicer (except maybe later in the trip). It most certainly wasn’t a place I would have paid for on my own. But there was a buffet (yess!) wifi, and a really nice shower. Now, the significance of a nicely functioning shower should not be downplayed, it’s really hot in Israel.

After supper at the buffet from heaven (no I really understand why Jesus came to this part of the world), we went to the Western Wall. Friday night at the Western Wall is pretty cool. It is one of the best cultural experiences that I have ever had. I walked through just watching everything. You see it in pictures a lot, but unless you have been there, you don’t even come close to getting a sense of it. This also may be more so the case coming on Friday night instead of a random part of the day on a weekday. Friday night is festive. It was crazy cool. There were dudes jumping up and down singing in circles, and then another group a little more charismatic, then there were the stoics worshiping from their chairs they set up, and just so much in between. A thing that at first didn’t stand out to me but once I saw it, I saw it everywhere, was that there were guys, dressed just like everyone else, with M16s on their backs. I say I didn’t notice it right away, because they were in the groups of dancers, they were in the group of stoics, they were in the group praying at the wall, and they all wore the gun like a backpack they take with them to school. It intrigued me. Then all of a sudden BOOM! “What?” BOOM! “Did people just die?” Nope. End of Ramadan. While the Jews were celebrating and dancing in the square below, all the Muslims were sitting down to eat for the first time that day ending their Holy Day with their family as the Jewish one began. Suddenly I understood why people seemed so hangry all day. It made sense. I would have been too.

Because I have a complex about needing to find the highest places and view cities from them, I wanted to get to the roof of my hotel (not the highest place in the city but it’ll do) and watch the sunrise. I don’t read Hebrew, not even a little. But I was pretty sure the sign to the roof said, “Emergency Exit,” and an alarm would go off if opened. Pictures help. It was either that or there was red and yellow wifi on the roof. So I went down to the front desk to ask if there was roof access to view the sunrise. They looked at me like I was some unscrupulous pariah. A simple “no” would have sufficed. No worries, I was going to the Mount of Olives later and would have a splendid view from there.

I did. It was awesome.

Later we walked through the Via Dolorosa, which was less cool for us than traditionalists because we knew pretty conclusively that Jesus would have walked somewhere else. But it was a pretty walkway through an Arab bazaar. Knowing where it was and where it ended up saved us the next week. We followed the Via Dolorosa to the Holy Sepulchre, which was cool in that, “what in the world am I looking at” sort of way. It was a church divided up by like 5 (or 8, cant remember) denominations and they have turf wars, and none of the church is free standing and there are a lot of people and there are turf wars and liek5 (or 8) different scents of incense and…

I never thought it would be less chaotic to walk through an Arab market. But it was.

The next week was more digging. For the purpose of this blog, it is the same routine as the week before. There were several marked differences, but far be it from me to make an academic blog about something I know very little about. After that week was finished, we were back in Jerusalem for the weekend. We visited Masada, Qumran, the Dead Sea (Strange place) and I spent basically an entire day autonomously exploring my newfound joy of a city.

Israel 2: The Digging-est Dog meets Indiana Jones

When I was a child I had a book called “The Digging-est Dog”. I related to this book in many ways. I LOVED to play in the dirt and dig and keep digging until I found the other side of the earth. You know, typical boy stuff. So I ended up getting called that a lot from my family in those days. That absolutely came to my mind while excavating.

I was the photographer on the dig, which means that I wasn’t really assigned a square to dig in, or really any sort of dig work. My job was to take photos of anything that was found, and of the people who were digging so that there could be something for marketing. However, it is in my nature to not sit around and watch while other people are slaving away. I had a job to do, and I did it, but when I was done, I would help dig. I reality, I was most helpful hauling buckets. That’s fine with me. It was fun. I like manual labor, its good for me. While on some of my photography stints, I noticed that excavating and digging aren’t really synonymous all the time. I mean, I didn’t expect us to be blasting through with shovels all the time, there is a delicacy to it, but I mean there can be a delicacy to it. It goes something like digging a 4 meter by 4 meter hole many meters deep, with brooms. You can sometimes be using a pick if you know there isn’t anything in that layer (they use science to know) but once you hit a layer that has things, back to broom digging. Sweep until you fill a dustpan. Dump the dust pan into a bucket until the bucket is full. Hand the bucket off to an unsuspecting photographer. Dump the buckets into a pile of dirt. Bring the buckets back. Fill them. Dump them. Water break. Fill the buckets. Dump the Buckets. Food! Buckets. Water. Buckets. Food! Buckets. Buckets. Done. It’s not completely unlike Indiana Jones. Actually there’s way more to it than that. And you can use more than a broom. I just saw that a lot because I was only ever around when there were pictures to be taken and at that stage, you have to use a broom because there is an artifact and using a giant pick seems a bit overkill. It was actually loads of fun and I had a great time.

Remember how previously I said that it was really hot. Well if you don’t, it was really hot in the desert of Israel. Like upper 90s-100s hot. And while we had self-made shade to dig under, it still gets ridiculous. I drank absurd amounts of water every day (and Gatorade. I learned a long time ago, that you need to also drink Gatorade if you drink 3 gallons of water a day). But also the food. Before I go on I must express my adoration for the food. I love food. Especially good food. This was great food. So I ate absurd amounts of food every day too. Early on, I thought Jewish Israeli food was the knees of the bees, but as it turns out Arabic food from Israel or any Arab country is the real bees’ knees. That is not to downplay how good the Jewish food was. At one point, three chickens had to die because of the amount of food I personally consumed in one meal. I didn’t feel barbaric, I had walked like 12 miles that day hauling hundreds of pounds of sand back and forth up a hill.  Working like that built an appetite, and food like that did too. It was harmony.

At the end of the week we headed off to Jerusalem to hang out there for the weekend. I was beside myself. I wanted to see this city so badly and finally it was about to be my experience. Before I left, people said I would stick out like a sore thumb, being tall and blond. Well not in Jerusalem.

Israel Part 1: Surprise!

Well, I’m back. I made it back from Israel in one piece, much to the shock of some of my media inoculated friends and acquaintances. I had a swell time. It was an abbreviated form of a previously longer trip, so we managed to cram way more things into a shorter time. Also knowing that it was going to be shorter, I pushed it harder, because, well, I only had to last a few weeks.

Because I have travelled quite a bit, there were fewer things about Israel that surprised me than I would say, would have the general population. However, that is not to say that things didn’t surprise me. First off, it’s a desert. Where I am from deserts are dry, and blessedly dry. The parts of Israel we stayed at were humid. Not like south Georgia/Alabama humid, but way more humid than I would have expected or wanted. So the unrelenting heat (which surprised no one) was accompanied by a stupid thickness in the air that made me want to just dig a hole and hide in it.

When you (well at least I) think about Israel in the context of military, you/I often think about how boss their military is and how techy they can be. I mean they have a dome of iron (not really, its just called the Iron Dome) that shoots missiles at other missiles coming into their country. They also invented the conceal carry assault rifle, which is a sweet gun. I had also heard that their airport in Tel Aviv was a mastery of spy tech gear that would make Q’s lab in James Bond movies look like an archaeological dig site. So I was on the lookout for things of shininess and Jason Bourne camera spins and fingerprint reading handrails, and DNA testing toilets and sharks with laser freakin beams man and…It was one of the most boring looking airports. I mean they had a small caricature statue of David Ben Gurion various places that you could take selfies and that was kinda fun. (I don’t take selfies, especially with things). But there was not very much apparent tech and coolness. “This is probably their point!” I schemed to myself. “They make it look boring so that people don’t suspect! Like putting a super computer into an old frame.” Meh. That’s an old trick. Besides, literally everyone would suspect Israel to have stuff like that. And maybe they do. I just didn’t see it. And that surprised me.

Travelling from the US to anywhere in Europe or the Middle East is generally a lot easier than coming back, assuming you can sleep on a plane. I am 6’4”. I can sleep on a plane easier than most people would think. So travelling isn’t that hard for me. We arrived in Tel Aviv at 5am (guhh). Then we spent the rest of the day skipping merrily through the country basking in how blessedly hot it was, wishing we could get in the water, or at least a shower, or really anything with air conditioning. When I say skipping merrily through the country, what I actually mean is peeling ourselves off the ground and rolling from site to site. Yes travelling isn’t that hard this direction. But a 14 hour day with only actually a little sleep is. Finally, the hotel. Air conditioning, a pool, food, etc. Did you know they close the city at 2pm on Fridays? I sure didn’t. (Another surprise! Yay!) I’m pretty sure it was in a pre-trip meeting, but I may have missed that. Sad, food was on the line. 2:45 rolls around and I am ready to get a sack lunch for the next day. Now as a person who loves food literally as much as life, I was growing increasingly anxious with every passing storefront that said, “Closed”. But I was leading a group of people searching for food and I had to remain calm, “Brave face. You will find food. You will find food.” (long exhale). “Oh look! A gas station! They sometimes have food.” Yes, I had resigned myself to gas station food. So we walked in, I saw a packaged container that had a picture of a caprese sandwich on it and made pointing motions (only after trying to communicate in English. Apparently not everyone in the country speaks English. Surprise again) and handed the man my credit card. That exchange rate is beautiful. We trudged back to the hotel encouraged by our success of at least a little future sustenance.

The next morning shone brightly through my thinly blinded 4th story window and I shot out of bed as bright eyed and bushy tailed as an exploding supernova. Well at least compared to everyone else around me. They couldn’t stand to look at me for fear of being drawn in and imploding. But I was on the Sea of Galilee and in a new country and the day’s a wasting if you aren’t out ready to explore it. We took a boat ride across the Sea (that is actually a lake with jet skis and wake boarders, but whatever). It was beautiful. I lathered on sunscreen like mayo in a potato salad. Sunburn was hardly how I wanted to start the trip. In addition to the trip on the Sea of Galilee, we also went to the Mount of Beatitudes, which was beautiful. On the way I had my gas station sandwich. It turns out the picture of the caprese was incorrect. It was barbeque chicken. Oh look, another surprise. Heh. Whatever, what’s a little adventure.

The morning after this previous next morning (if you’re following along, this would be Sunday), we went all the way up north the Caesarea Philipi. Cool place. The headwaters of the Jordan come out of a rock. Jesus taught there. But what I found surprising was that I was in Syria! Wait what? I mean kind of. If you look at Google Maps, and find the Golan Heights, you will see that there isn’t a clearly defined border there. There was one, but then people shot at each other and there became a new one. Then people got pissed and there became a new one. And then…Everyone just kinda decided, you put some people here, and we’ll put some people here, and some land mines, and…yeah, that will fix it. So I mean I wasn’t not in Syria. There was a man with an M16 that was there to make sure I knew I was in Israel, and while I was around, I didn’t argue. But now I’m like 5,000 miles away, and I can say whatever. I was also a rock’s throw away from Lebanon. I mean if I threw a rock it might have landed on a land mine and exploded and the shards of that previous rock might have been propelled the rest of the two hundred or so meters I couldn’t throw, but the point is, I was also really close to Lebanon. I collect countries. This made me sad. To further my torment we ate at a Lebanese restaurant on the border. Just kidding, that wasn’t torture, that was heaven. I stuffed my face like a fat guy coming off a diet. It was spectacular.

The morning after the morning previously known as “the morning after this previous next morning” (now its Monday), we were digging. There were many surprises to how an archaeological dig site worked, and even though I was the photographer, I thought at one point, people would have to excavate me in the future.