For some reason today was really frustrating for me. Part of it may have been my lack of sleep because of the party that went on outside our room from 12am to 4am. Apparently another group that is here spent that four hours yelling, screaming, smoking hooka, and getting drunk. Then some of them ended up in the room next to us. I am not sure what they were doing but my ipod could block out the voices but not the loud pounding and crashes. It sounded like they were throwing furniture. All that was quite loud and I slept horribly which may have been the reason for my bad mood.
But I felt that today was kind of pointless…Belvoir was pretty cool. It was a crusader castle that included a moat, a cool entrance, a dining hall, and the usual arches. But it looked just like all the other castles we had seen and other then that it involved the Crusaders I didn’t find any biblical importance behind it. I think I was expecting more connections to Jesus at most places, but like I said earlier I don’t think that will come until Jerusalem. But nonetheless here are some pictures of the castle. At one point one of the guides played his flute for us! It was really cool! I wish I had recorded the song.
One random thing I would like to note is that on this trip I have noticed that sunscreen is like gum. You don’t want people to see that you have it because then they want some. I’m actually quite annoyed by how many people didn’t bring their own sunscreen. I actually bought more sunscreen in Eliat because I knew I would run out. Just a random note…
After Belvoir we went on this random hike that I really had trouble finding meaning behind. I think we looked at the Jezreel Valley where Saul and his sons were killed but other then that it is like we were hiking to random places so that we could here more information that we could’ve heard anywhere else. It was like the locations didn’t have anything to do with what was being said. This hike also included a Japanese Garden…ya…not sure what that had to do with anything. I was so annoyed and I had to pee really bad so I didn't take any pictures haha. Sorry :)
After that we drove down to the Bet Alfa Synagogue. This was pretty cool. It was inside a building which was different…it had a lot of murals on the bottom and they showed a video with it. But as soon as they turned off the lights to show the video I knew it was a bad idea…I almost fell asleep. Haha. I was so tired that turning of the lights got to me J Here are some pics of the Synagogue:
After that we went to Ein Herod (Herod’s Spring). This wasn’t a spring…or what I thought a spring would be…It almost felt like a giant puddle…apparently it is where Gideon took his army to decide who would continue on by how they drank the water. That was the only biblical significance to the site…so once again I was confused by the time taken out of our day to stop there, but it was nice to just sit in the grass for awhile.
The way we ended the day though was incredible! We went to a place called Sakne. It was a bunch of fresh water pools that people could swim in! I hadn’t brought my bathing suit because it was still covered in Dead Sea grime but it was still a fun experience. Some people even jumped off cliffs into the water. Here are some pictures of Sakne:
The "kiddie" pool.
Yes. You can swim here. And yes there are fish!
Molly jumping of the highest cliff!
I got to put my feet in the water and get a “pedicure”. Basically these little fish swam up to my feet and ate all of the dead skin off of them. I was laughing hysterically because it tickled so much. It was probably really funny to watch. My feet felt pretty good afterwards though. I also finally tried a falafel for lunch. Not a huge fan of that, but now I can say that I tried.
Look really really closely at my feet! You can see the little fish!
Then tonight we actually got back to the hotel around 5pm. It was really nice because that gave us 2 hours to relax before dinner and then the usual time after dinner to relax. I spent most of the night just talking with people, getting to know them. It’s fun to be around people that are a lot like some of you at home, it makes it easier. It’s hard to want to get to know people though because I know as soon as I get home I will probably never see most of them again. Oh well. Haha. I hope things at home are going well!
-Wendi
No comments:
Post a Comment