Dead Sea Adventure

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Yet another weekend down. We made two day trips. In my opinion, the first trip on Friday was by far the best. We made a trip along the western border that ended with a stay at the Dead Sea. The first place on the itinerary was a stop at a town called Madaba. It has one of the largest Christian populations in the country. It is famous for its mosaics. Their crown jewel is this old map of the middle east area. The other big event in the town was a shared lunch I had with two other UofR kids over true sausage pizza: nothing like some old fashion ham, which I haven't had in two weeks. An interesting point here too involved another restaurant in the town. We went to meet up with some other "Amrikis" at a cafe. Once seated we were handed a menu where a soda starts off at 2JD, even though u can get it for 30 cents. We decided to leave and just get food/lunch at a store. As we left, the manager called us over to ask why we were leaving. He said he knew we thought the prices were high and handed us another set of menus where the prices were 50%!l(MISSING)ower!. We still decided to leave after this and ended up grabbing the pizza, which turned out to be the best choice.

After our Madaba trip, we headed on towards the Dead Sea. One stop on the way was Mount Nebo . The sight where Moses got to look at the Holy Land, because he wasnt allowed into it. The view into the valley was pretty sweet and one could almost make out the Holy City. This was also the sight of Pope John Paul's visit to the Holy Land, so we got some pics of the peace tree he planted. There were also some other old mosaics here.

The next point along the way to the Dead Sea was at the Jordan River. We went to the sight of Jesus's baptism. I even performed a baptism under my official status in the Universal Life Church Monastery. I was also baptized myself by a random Greek Orthodox Nun who tagged along on our tour group. I think she may have been more official then I. It was pretty cool to see the sight where Jesus had actually been. We also were less then 5 ft from the border!

After my baptism, I headed onto the Dead Sea to rest my body after cleansing the soul. The Dead Sea is pretty salty to the point where the eyes burn with salt. We floated around the sea awhile and then went onto slop our bodies over with the mud from the sea. It was a free spa trip! I didnt notice any real change with my skin afterwards cept for a lot of scratches from the rocks and crystals in the mud. The place was very nice to chill at and relax. However, next time i need to remember to bring flip-flops because I it is a long and HOT walk to the beach. Now after two hours of swimming and chillian at the lowest point in the world, we headed back to University to get some rest and relaxation.

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Comments

[Emily]

Jordan River
Wait to til Will and Yoli hear about this one......