By admin While my initial interest in visiting Israel stemmed from my desire to hang out at the beaches and bars in Tel Aviv, I couldn’t go to the country and not go to Jerusalem. Although I am not a religious person, I was curious about the holy city that I had heard about my entire life, and as I saw more of the world, I wanted to learn about the history of a place that was such an important symbol in so many people’s beliefs. I planned a three night visit to cap off our time in Israel.
Getting to Jerusalem
The drive from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem took about an hour, and while buses were an option, David and I both agreed that we preferred the more efficient option of taking a taxi. Uber was not legal in Israel, but it was easy to book very nice, clean taxis with the Gett app, which was our go-to for all our transportation needs. Actually, it was my go-to and David just freeloaded. He couldn’t be bothered to create an account and add his credit card, so I was in charge of logistics for the entirety of our week in Israel.
The road to Jerusalem was over a long, winding hill, and our driver had no qualms about pushing 150 km/hour (over 90 MPH) around the curves in his Mercedes. David opened up his laptop and attempted to work during the drive, asking me for advice on a couple situations. While I rarely get motion sickness, I found myself feeling extremely queasy, so I put down my phone, looked out the window and took some deep breaths. I also told David that I didn’t work for him anymore, and if he wanted my advice on work, he’d have to pay me.
We finally made it to our hotel (yes, we were staying at the same hotel this time): the David Citadel. Just minutes to the Old City, the hotel was large and luxurious.
Old City Walking Tour
We didn’t have much time in the hotel, as we had to meet our guide for our private walking tour in the Old City. I had booked a private guide through Tours by Locals to help introduce us to Jerusalem. When researching the destination, I realized it would be best to book an organized tour to show us the vast number of sights, and after our disappointing group tour in Tel Aviv, David and I both agreed to splurge on a private tour. Our guide, Meir, was a native Israeli and retired Project Manager who decided to become a certified tour guide as a passion project.
As I mentioned before, I’m not religious, so I didn’t personally feel an emotional connection to any of the sites that we visited, but it was hard not to be moved seeing some of the other people in Jerusalem. Jews, Muslims, Christians – they all had a strong tie to the city, and many seemed to be overcome with emotion as they visited sites like the Church of the Holy Sepulchre and the Tomb of the Virgin Mary.
We had planned the four hour tour with Meir to give us a quick break before our Western Wall Underground tour at 6pm. He dropped us off right at the entrance for the next tour and also gave us directions on how to get back to our hotel (because of the Old City’s narrow streets, it could be difficult to accurately navigate with GPS). While Meir was overall a very knowledgeable and respectful guide, he said a couple things that stunned me. First, he essentially admitted to racially profiling people. “I know it is not acceptable in your culture,” he said, “But in Israel, we profile people.” Then, as he was giving us directions, he advised us to stay away from the Muslim Quarter at night, even though it offered the simplest route. “You should avoid the Muslim Quarter at night, as those people are not always safe,” he told us. Wow. I knew that there were tensions between Jews and Muslims in Israel, but this was the first time that I was seeing it firsthand.
We ended up walking back to the hotel through the Muslim Quarter anyway. It was fine.
We had a quick dinner and drink at the hotel and crashed for the night. The next morning we were getting picked up at 3am (yikes) to hike Masada at sunrise.
Masada Sunrise/Ein Gedi/Dead Sea Excursion
All of my Jewish friends who went on birthright trips to Israel told me that one of their favorite activities was hiking Masada at sunrise, so it was a must-do for me. Masada was an ancient fortress built atop a plateau by Herod the Great between 37 and 31 BC. Then, in 70 AD, a group of Jewish rebels called the Sicarii settled at Masada during the first Jewish-Roman War. By 73, the Romans had built a ramp to reach the Sicarii, but found that the 960 Jews had committed suicide rather than allowing the Romans to capture them. Happy story, right?
I was looking for a private guided sunrise tour of Masada, but could not find one (plenty of guided tours are available later in the day, but do not include the hike). Hikers usually began before sunrise to avoid the mid-day heat; if you wanted to visit Masada without hiking, there was also a cable car to take visitors to the fortress. We ultimately booked through Tourist Israel, which provided us with transportation to Masada, Ein Gedi and the Dead Sea, but was self-guided. At least the pickup point was at our hotel. I set my alarm for 2:40am and made sure to have everything laid out and ready to go in the morning.
Our fellow travelers appeared to mostly be in their 20s, and I guessed that many of them were from Europe. We boarded the bus and David tried to sit next to me. “What are you doing?” I asked him. “I want to sit by myself.” At first David was surprised; it almost looked like his feelings were hurt. Then I pointed out that the bus wasn’t full and this way we’d both be able to stretch out and try to nap on the drive to Masada. “Ah. Makes sense,” he said as he lounged out on the row of seats across from me.
It was still pitch black when we got to Masada, and the park hadn’t yet opened, so we had to stand around and wait until a park ranger let us in. Then we paid the entrance fee and were off. I had brought a head lamp to help guide us in the dark and David pulled out his phone to use its flashlight as well. The route was all uphill, with lots of switchbacks (we took the Snake Path), but I didn’t feel like taking breaks, so I soon left David behind.
Next up was the Ein Gedi Nature Reserve. The bus dropped us off and we were left to our own devices. There was a trail to some waterfalls, so I decided to explore a bit.
After a while I got bored, so I returned to wait for the bus to leave with David. This was when being on a group excursion was annoying. We finally all boarded the bus and were ready to go, when the bus started to have mechanical issues. The driver got out and started to try to fix the issue himself while also on his cell phone. We could not figure out what was going on, and the driver was providing no explanations, so we all just sat around helplessly. I started to get anxious about getting stuck in the middle of Israel. How long would it take for them to send another bus to rescue us?
About thirty minutes later the bus driver somehow fixed the problem and we were finally off again. Last stop: the Dead Sea. At 430 meters below sea level, the Dead Sea is the lowest elevation on land. One third of the water is saline, which makes it one of the saltiest bodies of water on Earth. Because of this, you essentially float when you get in the sea.
We were dropped off at a resort that tried to sell us all kinds of products made from the waters of the Dead Sea, but which we ignored. After changing, we headed to the banks of the sea to try swimming/floating in the salty water. The workers at the resort warned us to not swallow the water and not submerge our heads under any circumstances.
I’ll be straightforward: I didn’t like it at all. The banks were muddy, the rocks were slippery, the water was hot and not refreshing at all (it was already nearly 90F outside – not the kind of day when you want to dip in a comforting hot tub). On top of all that, the salty water just felt dirty. People were rubbing the mud all over their bodies and having a blast floating in the gritty water (David included), but it was not my idea of a good time. I carefully dipped in and experienced a requisite float for a few seconds (you really do float without any effort), then stood up and marched straight to a fresh water shower to rinse off the grimy residue from the sea.
Mahane Yehuda Market
Our last night in Jerusalem, we had to visit Mahane Yehuda market. It was quite the scene, with the locals buying their produce, baked goods and meats or enjoying a meal at the many casual eateries.
One comment about eating out in Jerusalem – we struggled to find good food. Most of the restaurants are kosher, which means that they have to keep dairy and meat separate. As such, at some restaurants we were given the option to eat at either the dairy side of the restaurant or the non-dairy side (other restaurants either served dairy or meat, but not both). This was particularly problematic for me and David because I don’t eat meat, but David almost only eats meat. I wanted to eat at the dairy restaurants, but he wanted to eat at the meat restaurants. We found ourselves each trying to compromise, which resulted in neither of us being happy. Moral of the story? Don’t travel to Jerusalem with someone who has a vastly different diet than you do – or just don’t go out to eat with them.
We had one other day in Jerusalem that I’m covering in a separate post. We took a bus to Bethlehem in the West Bank of Palestine and met a local guy named Abood, who showed us around some of the religious and political sites. It was an incredibly moving day that opened my eyes to the realities of the Palestinian occupation, which I felt deserved its own post.
We didn’t do much on our last night in Israel, as we had a big day of travel to get to Jordan the following day. Our plan was to drive back to TLV, fly south to Eilat, take a taxi to the Eilat-Aqaba border, walk across to Jordan, take another taxi into central Aqaba, then pick up our rental car to drive to Wadi Rum. Yep, we got to do all of that. I was a bit anxious about all the logistics, but happy to not be alone for this part of the trip.
