Military influence

I felt like I had to make a quick mention of the military things we've seen past and present.
So driving up to Golan and Galilee, we saw many tanks just sitting in bunker holes not in use from the past wars. Either a sign of strength or a sign of neglect these massive tanks line the roads on the way north with nothing but rusting barbed wired around in the fields.

Through out Israel you sea these barriers. whether they are concrete or just wire mesh somewhere in the time line they served for something or are still being used. Within Bethlehem walls divide Palestine and Israel. further afield, fences and walls divide what used to be the hostile boundaries of Israel and Jordan, and further north even smaller fences divide agriculture fields between Israel Syria and Lebanon.

As far as current military presence, not only can you see it in the many adults and even kids that walk around with rifles in their hands but in the air. Not to side track but children of Israel men and women are required to serve in the military after schooling. but anyways, if you look in the air every now and then you will see fighter jets scrambling in the air going from corner to corner of the state. thankfully its not a big country so I'm sure it doesn't take long for jets to get from ones side to another.

But keep in mind, It is NOT a war zone over here haha quite the opposite it is very quiet. And there isn't too much to worry about but as long as the Palestine-Israel problem gets resolved so to will the Arab countries begin to back off the Jewish state.

Caesaria

We saw allot of sites and ancient building finds and digs. but the one that impressed me the most was Caesaria.

It was mostly impressive because there was an ancient roman aqueduct just like we see in Rome running along the coast and yes on the beaches, to the city. The city itself isn't enormous but it is right on the Mediterranean sea. I haven't seen to many ancient cities found and dug up right along the coast. As a matter of fact as a video later shows us half of the city is in the water.

We watched a video of the city over time and how it was build to favor the roman empire and keep peace for them in the lands at the time. and they were taken over by Persians and Muslims and crusaders, and then Jewish people and then again byzantine empire. It traded many hands and over time had fallen into neglect until it was finally needed no more.

Now and days the modern city of Caesaria extends for miles along the coast and inland. but the ancient city center is still found with its columns and pools and amphitheaters right along the sea water.

Nothern Israel

It has been 2 weeks and we finally set sail for northern Israel. Our stops on the way include many archaeological finds and ancient cities. The very first stop was the Inn of the Samaritan where a bunch of mosaics were found.

We stayed at a kibbutz on the southern edge of the lake (the Sea of Galilee), the infamous sea from the bible stories of Jesus. We did many things, such as go up on top of the Golan Heights area and view the lake and small towns around it. we were told that not too long ago Syria and Jordan owned many borders close to this area and continued to shell mortars down into the area until Israel had enough and within six days took the entire mountainous area away from Syria.

We went to many national parks, one of them included the site where they filmed Jesus Christ Superstar. They left the fiber glass tree on top of the hill that Judas hung himself from in the movie. We went to the forest areas of the Golan with rivers and waterfalls, with many temples and synagogues that have been found and dug up. we went into Tiberius the famous fishing town, and also on top of the mountain of beatitudes were we took in more breath taking sites of the Galilee area.

We ate one night at a fish restaurant in another kibbutz near by. We all had mostly St. Petersfish which is just really tilapia, but they fried it up whole just the way we like it and had a great garlic sauce they poured on top. The restaurant had a beautiful view of Tiberius on the other side of the lake and as the sun went down behind the mountains we could see the lights from the city across begin to light up.

The Kibbutz itself wasn't too overly amazing. It had great rooms with small kitchens and nice bathrooms and had a huge breakfast feast that only some not all can eat from haah but the pool area was nice the tiki bar was fun of course but the lake shores were a bit uninviting with all the weeds and grass and the smell of bay water, cuz after all its a lake not a sea with a beach.

We eventually went to the top of Mt. Carmel, to see a carmelite convent. It was interesting and had a modest chapel. beautiful gardens. But we kept being interrupted by these fighter jets just buzzing around from the near by air force base.

The Jordan river isn't as big as we had expected. But it did provide some interesting sites. Such as the baptismal site of Jesus. I wanted to get baptised at first but I thought it wouldn't seem right if i was doing it just to do it and not be spiritual about it. However, Jason did do the baptism with a priest from Thailand or somewhere over there. It was awesome and I also took some water from the river in the bottles they give you.

Eventually we were in our way home and we stop in a few places as well as Caesaria. It was so beautiful it deserves its own blog. haha