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

Western wall fotos (upload glitch separate)

Temple Mount

The day of the Temple Mount! we were all excited. but something was looming over my shoulders I could tell since I woke up.

We had been waiting forever to finally go see the iconic Dome of the Rock up close and in person. It was incredible, beautiful, enormous, unlike any mosque I had ever seen before, quite the jewel for the Muslims in the city.

Unfortunately, not to make this entry too short. as early as it was and as many other sites as we had planned to see such as the pools of Bethesda, the garden at Gethsemane, st. Anne's. It was at the temple of the rock where I collapsed in my mind of exhaustion. I was embarrassed even frightened to tell anyone that something horrible was wrong. but I couldn't wait any longer. the day was over for me just as it was beginning, and my journey back to bed, and the restless rough night of pain which no one could see or maybe they sensed it but i tried so hard to hold back from everyone, began. Little old joshie fell victim to food poisoning that had been building inside over the night and had finally taken control in front of the beautiful Dome.

Although I am well recovered, I currently and so week walking in the sun and trying to stay up for meetings was quite hard. the next day i wasn't demanded to go to a lecture our professor had set up but I did not want to keep missing things especially from 'lulic' who is so highly talked about. he gave a great presentation on the current status of the city, a little bit of history and then a possible future for Jerusalem be it peace or separation with peace. I'm glad i didn't miss that even though i felt so weak.

To see more images of the temple mount please go to the links for my friends blogs. they continued the treck through the day as i resigned into the background.

Bethlehem

Bethlehem... well it wasn't the same reaction as what i had in Jerusalem. Bethlehem isn't far from Jerusalem although i thought it would be much further than a 15 min ride. Bethlehem is surrounded by enormous walls. It looks like a giant prison. Now we heard jokes from local Palestinians that it was a prison and a modern day holocaust. but I'm not so sure the situation was the same. entering the city we felt a bit uneasy only because we had been surrounded by Jewish people the passed few days and now we were immersed in Muslim religion. who would have thought that the place of Jesus Christ's birth was surrounded by not Christians but rather Jews and Muslims. irony i tell you. but all went well and the Arabs weren't so bad they were friendly and talked about many things, but were alot more pushy when it came to trying to get us to buy stuff out of there shops as compared to the Arabs in the old city of Jerusalem.

Walking up the the nativity church it was quite astonishing to see it wasn't some spectacular cathedral the Christians usually build on top of sacred sites. but actually it seemed very appropriate given the nativity story. Jesus was born after all in a manger, in a stable, more like a run down church than some Vatican looking monstrosity (for the site, because the Vatican is beautiful where it is). you walk through the entrance of the church which is a tiny hole not even a door, and walk down tiny stairs to a small crypt where the stones remain of the floor. not much else other then pictures of the nativity scene and candles. but don't let me drag this down the experience of being with hundreds of people crawling down into the birth place of Christ was pretty intense and amazing.

Leaving Bethlehem was even an greater adventure. long story short we were told by military police we could not leave Bethlehem on bus. so we had to get a taxi to the border, form there we walked and herded up like cattle through large metal fences and barbed wires. through 2 security check points, with military and cameras every where. it was intense. of course they saw our American passports and smiled and let us through but as for the Palestinians they held them back even mocked some of them. I'm beginning to get a different idea about what is actually going on in Israel between them and Palestine rather then what i normally hear in the news at home. but not to stir trouble here ill mention other instances another time.