A Story About Guns, Religion, and Really Salty Water

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Was it dangerous? Were there any bombings? How was the hummus? No it wasnt, yes but not in Israel, and really damn good. These are a few of the most asked questions about my trip to Israel, and its no wonder, everyone I have come across has been particularly interested in hearing about my travels there. It seems to be the great unknown, always in the news but you never really know what its like until you get there. I was in Israel for about a week and have had some of my most memorable experiences so far, but then again I say that about every new country I visit. I spent a few days in the great hospitality of Max, a friend of my brothers that I had only met once before by chance and offered to take me in for a few days in his home country. Max has one of the most energetic and contagious personalities you will ever come across, it also helps that he and his girlfriend are two of the most perfectly suited people for each other. I also met some very bizarre and incredibly interesting characters while I was in Jerusalem (including a guy who had literally sold everything he owned and was roaming the globe). Not to mention the weirdest and most unique experience I have ever had in the water, visiting the Dead Sea.

Once again, lets start off where my last story finished. It was a 100 meter walk to the Israeli border and I still had the stories of my brother's crossing 8 years earlier fresh on my mind. There were only a few other people ahead of me waiting at the checkpoint and they were getting through pretty quickly so I thought this wouldnt take too long, although they were all arabic, mostly from Jordan. The first guard came up to me as I was waiting and asked me a series of questions, from the standard "Why are you visiting Israel?" to the incredibly specific "Where did you go to elementary school?". After about ten minutes of questioning I finally went through the metal detector, apparently they didnt like what was in my huge backpack so one of the guards asked me to open it up. After he went through everything he didnt look satisfied so he called another two guards over to reexamine my stuff. They all deliberated in Hebrew for about 10 minutes and finally started asking me about my stuff. I was getting frustrated at this point but kept my cool, after all, this was nothing compared to what Rob (my bro) went through. Once they let me pack my bag up again I had another guard come up to me and ask the exact questions that the previous guard had asked. After the second round of questioning I was starting to get pretty pissed but quickly cooled off when I saw another guard pull back a curtain just in time to see a man from Jordan pulling up his pants while the guard took off his latex gloves. I'll submit to stupid questioning, I'll even let you go through every inch of my bag, but when it comes to internal inspections that require the use of latex gloves I just have to draw the line. Lets just be thankful that they didnt ask to do that.

My border adventures didnt end there. You see I hadnt originally planned on visiting Israel, meaning I didnt really do too much research on it. My brother had mentioned that his buddy Max from New York was going to be in the country visiting his parents and that he would love to show me around his country for a few days. This was all I needed. So here I am walking up to the Israeli border with no idea of what I'll actually be doing in Israel, I just know that I am going to visit some guy named Max, thats it. Apparently its not a very good idea to be so ill informed when talking to a tough-as-nails Israeli female military customs agent. The line of questioning pretty much went like this:

Her: How long will you be in Israel?
Me: About a week to ten days.
Her: What will you be doing here?
Me: Um, I'm thinking about going to Jerusalem and Tel Aviv, maybe hit up the Dead Sea while I'm here.
Her: You mean you dont know where you are going yet? What is the address of your hotel?
Me: Yeah, about that, I dont exactly have a hotel yet, I figured I would just walk around and look for one once I got to Tel Aviv by bus.
Her: So let me get this straight, you dont know where you are going, you dont know where you are staying, and you dont know how long you will be here? Do you know anyone here in Israel?
Me: Yeah that sounds about right, and no I dont know anyone here. (I didnt exactly want to tell her I was going to see some guy named Max whose last name I didnt know and I had only met once before)
Her: Why are you visiting Israel sir?
Me: I'm just backpacking my way through the Middle East and thought this would be a good stop. Just a tourist, nothing else.
Her: *with a very disapproving look on her face* Let me talk to my supervisor.

After the intense round of questioning at the security checkpoint and walking up to this cute Israeli customs agent I figured this would be cake but I should have known better. After a five minute conference with her supervisor she finally stamped my passport, but not before scratching off the 3 month part of the stamp and writing in ten days. Welcome to Israel, you have ten days then get the hell out. The welcome mat didnt stop there. I failed to mention before that I arrived early on a Saturday morning, right smack in the middle of Shabbat, the Jewish day of rest. They take it pretty seriously in Israel, so when I say everything was closed, I literally mean everything was closed. I found a cabbie at the border to take me to the bus station and waited about 3 hours for the next bus to Tel-Aviv.

Tel-Aviv was a nice surprise. It was my first real taste of Israel and I was pretty shocked to tell you the truth. Despite driving through 5 hours of desert in a bus it didnt really feel like I was in the Middle East. Israel is very "westernized". After spending the previous night in the middle of the desert in Jordan and not finding any internet cafe's that were open I had to rely on the cabbie at the bus station to recommend a good hostel. At this point I was traveling "blind", limited access to the internet and no guidebook whatsoever. Tel-Aviv was very accommodating however, everything was in hebrew (which after coming from an all arabic country wasnt half-bad) but almost everyone spoke English. I found a great hostel that had the most amazing high-pressure showers (a good shower is worth alot when travelling) which really helped wash all the sand off from the day before. Turned out that two Aussies and two Polish guys were my new roommates. Since the polish guys were arguing the whole time and I didnt understand a word they were saying I decided to befriend the Aussies. I only had one night in Tel-Aviv so I made the most of it. The Australian guys had been here for a few days so they knew where to go. They took me to a great bar right next to the American embassy, made me feel right at home with a menu very similar to what one would find in a Chili's. It was a little disconcerting to find out that the embassy that was about 30 feet to my right was bombed a few years back but the tension went away after a few pints of my new favorite beer, Goldstar. Once happy hour was over (and the prices doubled), we walked along the beachside and found an incredible beach bar that was right on the sand, just a few meters away from the ocean. Now I had seen military folk all over up to this point, with many of them carrying pistols and automatic rifles, even in plain clothes. But it was quite an experience to meet a girl, a cute one at that, chat her up then have her pull out her automatic rifle as she was getting ready to go... from a bar... after having a few drinks. The fellas were equally amazing and immediately asked to have their picture taken with her, she was a good sport about it as you can see. After a couple more drinks and a few refills of our sheesha pipe, we headed out. It was interesting to see on our bar tab an extra "security fee". Just about every restaurant, bar, club has an armed guard standing in front of it and we all have to pay a very small fee for it. We hit up a very surprising pizza place on the way home. No one believes me when I say it but to this day I have never tasted a better pizza, every other traveler I met who went there agreed.

The next day I bid farewell to my new Aussie buddies, laid out on the beautiful Israeli beach for awhile, and made my way to Beer-Sheba to visit Max. Now only those who have actually met Max, and his beautiful Finnish girlfriend Satu, can understand when I say he is one of the most interesting characters you will ever meet. And I say that in the best way possible. I got to Beer-Sheba by train, which was extremely comfortable by the way, and was faced with the same problem I have in alot of new countries I visit. I had no way to call the person I was staying with, oh sure there are public phones everywhere, but you need a telephone card specific to that country and you rarely find someplace that sells them nowadays. I asked the rifle-toting security guard if he knew of a shop that sold them but he couldnt think of any, he felt pity on me though and let me use his cell phone when I explained that I just needed to make a quick local call for a pick-up. 15 minutes later I see a guy roll in on his moped, I was worried at first that it might be Max since there was no one else waiting around to be picked up (remember, I had only met him once briefly). As soon as he pulled up I greeted him warmly, asked him how he was doing and remarked how great it was to see him again. The guy looked at me kinda weird but returned the warm greetings and then introduced me to his friend that was running up behind us. As I slowly started turning red from embarrassment Max pulled up in his car and asked what I was doing talking to that guy. I explained what happened to which his immediate response was, "Dude, why the hell would I pick you up from a train station knowing you are carrying a huge backpack, in a moped". I didnt have an answer to that but was just relieved that I didnt have to balance myself and my huge backpack while holding on to a guy riding in the backseat of a moped.

Beer-Sheba was a peaceful town, reminded me alot of Brownsville, my hometown. Max took me to a Ful house that served something like a falafel and then to a mall later that night to look for an ipod charger which I had forgotten in Turkey. No luck on the charger but it was interesting to note that there was a security guard checking every car as they were entering the mall, apparently looking for explosives. I believe Max had mentioned that there had been a bombing in the area a few years back, a common phrase heard throughout my journey in Israel. Despite this I still felt as secure here as I had anywhere else I had visited, perhaps it was because everyone was just friendly and there was a since of familiarity in the air. I was also able to finally watch SportsCenter (oddly something I missed quite a bit) and do a little channel surfing when I stayed with Max. The next day I finally had an encounter with the dead, The Dead Sea that is. The lowest point on Earth at almost 1,400 feet below seal level and water that is 9 times saltier than your typical ocean. I was already incredibly excited about visiting here, deliberately avoiding the Dead Sea while I was in Jordan so I can see it with Max and Satu. Satu hyped it up even more when she mentioned that despite traveling to many places all over the world this was one of her favorite spots. We got a semi-late start to the day (Satu was still adjusting to the extreme time change) but we still managed to take a hike in Ein Gedi, a nature reserve just north of the Dead Sea that quite literally looked like an oasis in the middle of a desert. Temperatures were soaring above 100 degree's so we stopped at every water spot we could find, there is nothing like the feeling of taking a dip in cold water in the middle of a desert during August. As incredible as that felt it was nothing compared to the truly awesome feeling of floating in the Dead Sea. Nothing will prepare you for it and you will never experience anything like it again. Walking up to the shore you know you are in for something unique when the sand stops and the salt begins. The water was warm, the sun was setting, and you could see the mountain ranges of Jordan in the distance. You cant exactly swim in the Dead Sea, you kinda just float, and you dont even have to try to do that, it just happens. It's called the Dead Sea because the extreme salt content doesnt allow life to flourish in its waters, it also causes you to float indefinitely. You have to force your legs to stay down if you want to try and walk around, otherwise the water literally kicks them back up. You also have to be extremely careful when paddling around to not get any salt in your eyes or even mouth, the smallest amount severely burns. The high salt content also has a secondary effect of being very good for your skin, royalty as far back as King David and the Egyptian Pharaohs used to visit the area for its medical benefits. I ended up lugging across Europe two packets of mud from the Dead Sea as a gift for my mother, as crass as it may sound she loved it. The next day I was in for a new and profound adventure, Jerusalem.

After spending another relaxing day with Max and Satu I was off via train to Jerusalem. The trip was interesting soley for the fact that one of the lines I was supposed to switch to was closed and I had a hell of a time trying to ask people and reading signs in Hebrew. I finally made it to Jerusalem about 9:30pm, the last line of the day. Naturally the train station was practically empty and my hopes for public transportation were dashed as buses no longer ran that late in the evening. As the last few people were getting picked up I got desperate and decided to ask the guy standing by his car if he knew how I could get to the old city at this time of night. Fortunately he ended up being a taxi driver who spoke a bit of English. We talked price and I ended up being about 25 shekels short (about five bucks) and I couldnt communicate ATM or cash machine to him, fortunately he accepted dollars as well so when I told him I had enough we were off. Once there I handed over all my shekels, my dollar bills, and 3 one dollar coins. He got pretty pissed when he saw the coins and thought I was trying to scam him, after a bit of arguing and convincing he let me out of the cab screaming something in hebrew and peeling out. As if this werent enough I still had to navigate my way around the Old City and find my hostel, not to mention convincing the front desk that I wouldnt be able to pay until the morning. Directions turned more into guidelines once I starting making my way through the maze that is the Old City, few people were walking around and the few that I saw seemed to blend into the shadows whenever I made my way through. The hostel was finally found and the front desk clerk was finally convinced that I wasnt going to run out on them the next morning. My hostel was formerly a citadel and I was fortunate enough to secure a bed in the basement with about 14 others. I settled into the only unoccupied bed that was left and I wish I was kidding when I say that there was at least 6 people within a 10 foot radius of me. It didnt help one bit that the guy behind me hadnt taken a shower in about 2 weeks and snored like his life depended on it.

Now my time in Jerusalem was intense, that really was the only way I could describe it. I met by far the most interesting cast of characters in those 4 days that I was visiting. The guy sleeping behind me apparently was working in the hostel as a janitor just so he could have a bed to stay in and have the time to pray for a few hours each day, he was from Spain. David, from Ireland, was a former physics teacher who sold all his belongings and was making his way around the world on some sort of pilgrimage. Carla was on her second trip to Israel and was devoutly catholic, her Dad was Cuban and mother from Mexico. I met a loud, boisterous chap from Norway who wend by the name of Jahn; he wore a yamulke and had the star of David around his neck, he was a self-professed Catholic. There was also another fellow named David, he was from the Bronx, Puerto Rican and a gay Jew. Tony was a young lawyer from Jersey who was a fast talker and tried to get laid every night he was there. Carla ended up getting into daily arguments with the guy from Spain because he followed every letter of the Bible to a T and felt that women should be submissive and serve their Men. Jahn snuck in a bottle of wine (kosher of course) to the hostel every night because the owners of the hostel didnt allow alcohol. David, from Ireland, prayed at the Wailing Wall every morning then tried to find every gravesite that claimed Jesus was buried in. I went on a "pseudo-date" with Carla one night; we had Thai food, walked around a busy square at night, then had some amazing ice cream.

If that all sounded crazy and didnt make any sense then good, you got somewhat of an idea of what my time there was like. There is much more about Jerusalem that I am leaving out, but that is intended, my time their was intensely personal and hard to put into words. I saw amazing things and had incredible experiences. Walking through Arabic, Christian, and Jewish markets as they blended into one another was unforgettable. It was a great precursor to my next country, hands down my favorite of the trip, Egypt was the reason why I did this in the first place and it did not disappoint.

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Photos

Jerusalem
Classic view of Jerusalem on top of the Mount of Olives. This mountain is said to be the place where the next coming of Jesus will descend from.

The Wailing Wall
The holiest of holies as the Jews say. This is all that remains of the holiest temple observed by the Jewish faith.

Jaffa Gate
This was my main entranceway to the old city of Jerusalem. The entire old city was walled in with about 6 gates allowing entry.

Dead Sea Pier
We visited the Dead Sea coast through a Hilton hotel.

The Dead Sea
Nothing but salt at the shore. Floating in the Dead Sea is definitely one of the most unique experiences I have ever felt.

Throwing Rocks at the Desert
I still dont know exactly why but Max thought it would be a good idea to pretend to throw a rock at something or other.

Oasis in the Desert
This is in Ein Gedi, a nature reserve just north of the Dead Sea.

Waterfall
It really was quite amazing to see so much life in the middle of the desert and right across from the Dead Sea.

Israeli Border
This was the first border I literally had to cross by foot. It was a great way to heighten the experience of not knowing what to expect.

The Gang in Jerusalem
Four different nationalities are represented here. I was surprised to find such a vibrant nightlife so close to the old city of Jerusalem.

Basilica of Agony
This is just a small sample of what the many churches in Jerusalem looked like. This was just outside the old city.

Female Soldier
So here were my two new Australian buddies and I talking with this cute Israeli girl. Conversation was going great, she was very friendly and when she got up to go with her friends she pulled out this automatic rifle.