Why Israel

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Why?

Neither of us had ever been to the Middle East, and Israel is as western as you can get whilst still being in the Middle East. On top of this, I wanted to visit the sites of important religious, historical, social and military events. Most sites being a combination of all four. I didn’t know whether we’d enjoy it, our parents tried to talk us out of it (we hear horror stories in the news and just before we left an American tourist got stabbed in Tel Aviv), but I knew it would be eye-opening.

Admittedly, my motivations also included the downright tourist trap of floating in the Dead Sea and the fact that no-one else we knew had ever been there, so it felt like we were forging our own path.

Where?

We slept at Chef Hostel, Montefiore. Only our second time in a hostel, BAM had concerns about safety (which turned out to be unfounded) and about quality of sleep (which she was damn right about). Chef Hostel had a back yard with chairs and a couch which was a really pleasant place for beers and conversation after a long day exploring. There were facilities for home cooking which we didn’t use, board games and computers with internet, the WiFi was free but patchy sometimes.

The dormitory itself was reasonable. The floor and surfaces were dusty and cluttered but not dirty. Everything worked, the bed was comfortable and the showers warm. Any sleeplessness was caused by the guests rather than the facility itself.

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Photos

Israel
Outside the grotto Jesus was born in