Gettin' Dirty

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Alex and I decided to hop on with a tour group to get us down to Tel Aviv and see Masada and the Dead Sea on the way. Our backpacks were put into the bottom of the bus and we climbed onto one of those big tour busses... The bus itself was nice, there were some cool people sitting around us, but Alex and I soon remembered why we have not joined tour groups for our trip. Because they suck... We were taken around Masada by a tour guide who was funny but in such a rush to get through everything. We couldn't wonder around and see it all we had to stay with the group and go to the select few places that they felt were worth seeing. The tour of Masada is not something I would do again.
After that we were taken to the Dead Sea which was awesome! The Dead Sea is 420 meters below sea level, you would think walking around here would be easy with all the extra air but I had a hard time breathing at certain points while we were climbing around. Alex and I found a little spot that was devoid of people and had a stream of water coming from the hot spring so the water was a bit warmer. We covered ourselves in mud which was hilarious and a ton of fun! The mud is soft and grainy, some of it is black and some white and grey. The soft parts of the mud went really deep some places I was in soft mud to up above my knee and found it hard to pull myself out! Alex almost pushed me over into the water face first to catch herself as she was falling! Luckily I didn't fall all the way because you are not supposed to get any water in your eyes. The water is 33% salt and would burn your eyes very badly! I imagined that they would fizzle out like when you pour salt on snails! hahaha It of course would not do that it just burns and is apparently very painful. After we were covered in mud we went out to float in the water! It was such a cool feeling, if you are floating on your back and try to push both your legs down together it is very difficult! The water was warmer than the air so once we were in we didn't want to get out! After floating around and rinsing all the mud off we walked up to the sulfur hot spring which was really hot and had that same float affect! Alex and I bobbed around with our legs crossed like genies letting the jets push us around! Then we rinsed off and got dressed quickly to make it back to the bus in time. Our skin was really soft after our Dead Sea bath! The cool thing was that it didn't dry our skin out like I thought it would. The bus took us to its last stop in Tel Aviv and we went into a little bar where we sat and had drinks till about 11pm. Then we got a cab to the airport in the hopes of checking our bags in early and beating the lines....
They would not let us check in early. We sat at the airport till 2:30am and then we were able to check in. The lines were massive. Our bags were opened and searched, our things and shoes swabbed for testing, we were questioned by multiple people and didn't make it through all the security checks till just before our plane was to board. It took 3 hours..... I have to say I loved Israel, but I don't know if I will ever go again because it is such a pain in the ass to get in and out of that country. Specially by plane. If I do go again I will cross at the Jordan boarder and fly in and out of Jordan instead. Our plane took off just before 6am and we landed in Athens Greece around 8am.
We took a bus from the airport into downtown Athens. Once we found our hotel(which worked out to be cheaper than most the hostels) we checked in and crashed. We were both extremely tired and ended up taking a nap. We got up around 2pm and showered and then wondered around to find a place to eat... This was semi difficult since they celebrate Christmas on January 6th in Greece, the day we arrived. We found a lounge type place that was open and had food. We got drinks and some dinner and hung out there till the sun went down. After that we walked around a bit more before heading back to the hotel. We watched a movie on tv and went back to sleep!

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