This morning after a better hotel breakfast than the the last one we set out with our suitcases down to the parking garage where we had left our car the night before. En route we passed my mums great aunt’s old house which is kinda in ruins now but that was quite amazing for her because she used to stay there when she lived in Israel 20 years ago.

We drove and parked under the council buildings and then made our way to Alatefer The Museum on the Seam which is a gallery of art about coexisitance and promoting peace and justice. The exhibit we saw was called Bare Life and has some really awesome pieces – mostly multimedia.

After the museum we made our way into the heart of the shuk (market) in the old city of Jerusalem via the Jaffa gate and soon got buried deep inside the myriad of cobblestoned lanes and alleys. Theres no real way to describe this shuk but its world famous and there are many people roaming around and many slick salespeople calling you their friend and asking where your from and what your looking for. Mum loves a good haggle and we roamed around abit looking at scarfs and other bits and pieces. You really need hours to search this place its just awesome. For lunch we eventually found a hummus place we were recommended and sat down to eat. I can’t explain how good it was. Actually. It was amazing. Best hummus I think I’ve had in Israel so far (and I’ve had alot.) I basically died.

On the way out we bought a few things and did a bit of haggling to get prices down then we went back to our car and started our drive back to Rekhovot. We got stuck in traffic and it took hours then I got lost trying to find Rekhovot. It was bad.

(Click for big photo + caption)

We started the drive back up the country to Jerusalem with me forgetting my travel wallet in the hotel room duh and I remembered just as we were driving outside of Eilat – and just before I checkpoint I pulled over to check in the boot but then I got paranoid that the soldiers would see me getting out and rummaging in a SUITCASE in the BOOT OF A CAR and would shoot me. Mum calmed me down and I looked but it wasn’t there so we went back and found it.

Fast forward a relatively uneventful 2 hour drive through the south Negev (although this time I had the insight to burn a music cd to listen to in the car rather than having to listen to Arabic music all day long) and we were standing at the foot of Massada. Now this is a place also that really needs to be visited to understand its amazingness. Massada is an ancient fortress on the top of a flat plateau hundreds of meters up the top of a cliff. It was the last stronghold of the rebel jews when the romans conquered Judea. They survived up their while it was being sieged for a long time because they had many stores but the romans eventually built a ramp up the western side with the rocks and drove a battering ram thing up and got into the city. Before they could the rebels had killed themselves rather than to be enslaved.

Anyway up a cable car ride you can walk around the ancient ruins of Massada and they are quite something – much of it has been restored but they paint a black line to show you where they’ve built up and which is original excavated ruin. There is a palace and a bathing house and a synagogue and a water cistern and storerooms – its basically awesome and the view out to the dead sea is spectacular.

After massada we went for a quick dip in the dead sea at Ein Geidi then proceeded to head to Jerusalem. Now let me tell you out of all the stressful places I have driven in Israel Jerusalem really cuts the mustard. Especially because we arrived in rush hour and most of the streets are one way – so finding the place was a nightmare and only after going round in circles for half an hour and stopping and asking for help did we discover that theres no parking in the city and at the hotel and you were supposed to just know this!! Anyway the helpful lady let us take our suitcases from the car and leave it in her shop (cause we were close to the hotel) and we went down the road and parked and walked back and got the suitcases and walked to the hotel. Phew.

That night we went to visit a childhood friend of my mums from Australia who is now religious and has 9 children and lives in some freaky religious area in Jerusalem and we had to cover our arms and legs to visit. She was really funny and her little kids were really funny and cute. After awhile some of our family Ella and Hayim picked us up and took us on a night time car tour of Jerusalem which was just awesome! Through some of the older parts of the city and up to the university and the mount of olives where you can see the entire city. Afterwards we all went and had a hot chocolate in a cafe which incidentally had been suicide bombed 5 years prior – its pretty much the center center of Jerusalem’s center. Afterwards we crashed!

(Click for big photo + caption)