What I Learned On My Trip to Israel and Jordan

It was amazing.  Did I say that already?  It was a long journey to Tel Aviv; but it was doable, even in coach.

1.  I learned that Melatonin is pretty good for helping you sleep on the plane and for combatting jet lag.  I took Melatonin to help me sleep, as recommended by several people and my doctor; and it helped.  Just fair warning that one of the side effects is "vivid dreams" and vivid dreams I had.  I also took it a couple times after we arrived in order to sleep at night.  Israel is 8 hours ahead of St. Louis so we really felt flipped around and worn out on the first day.  When they served breakfast on the plane it was 3:00 a.m. to us.  Crazy.  The first day was spent touring the city of Tel Aviv and it's all a bit of a blur now due to the jet lag but the hotel we stayed in was right on the Mediterranean Sea.

2.  The Mediterranean Sea was as beautiful as I had always imagined but pretty cold in April.  It was a dream of mine to see the Mediterranean.  Unfortunately, the water was pretty cold and I didn't go in further than my ankles.  I did enjoy a nice little catnap on the beach while Lindy braved the water further than me.

We packed up early the next morning and drove down south to the desert.  We went to David Ben Gurion's home.  He was the prime minister of Israel when Israel was declared a country in 1948.

3.  I learned what a "tel" was while in the desert.  They are large hill-looking things that are actually one ancient civilization stacked upon another.  We heard the phrase "lower is older" several times.  One tel had remnants of 25 different civilizations.  We think about some things in the U.S. being "old" but compared to thousands of years of history in Israel our 200 hundred-year-old stuff at home is pretty inconsequential.  

That late afternoon we arrived at the Dead Sea and it was a sight to behold.  I have long dreamed of seeing the Dead Sea and floating in it.

4.  I learned a whole lot about the Dead Sea.  The salt and mineral content of the Dead Sea is 6 times that of the ocean and nothing can live in it.  Hence, Dead Sea.  When you get out of the water your skin is really oily feeling from the high magnesium content.  The high mineral content causes you to float so it is literally impossible for you to sink to the bottom.  Besides, due to the saltiness of the water you would not want to put your eyes under the water anyway.  You are instructed not to splash when you go in the water because you don't want the water in your eyes or anyone else's.  Our friend, Roberto, had some issues with the weightlessness in the Dead Sea and had several of us yelling at him as he was splashing around to get his bearings.  If you lean back your legs automatically pop up and it's a bit of a challenge to get your legs to go back down in the water.  Of course, I came up with a technique to counteract this right away, but it is a little unnerving and makes you feel out of control to not be able to put your feet on the bottom.  Dead sea salt and mineral items are sold all over the world.

5.  I learned that it's a good thing that being a nurse combined with childbirth times three has eradicated all sense of modesty for me in a spa setting.  I opted to have a salt scrub at the hotel spa and it was quite an experience.   Apparently, an "all over" salt scrub by a Hebrew-speaking woman is just that--"all over."  And it was vigorous indeed.  I felt thoroughly scrubbed.

The next morning we were packed and on the bus by 7:00 a.m.  We visited Masada.  I learned so much that day and plan to read the writings of Josephus.  If you've never heard of Masada, just google it and read all about it.  It is an extremely significant historic event to the Israelis and I was enthralled with everything I learned.

6.  I learned that tour groups travel with an armed guard in the country of Jordan.  After visiting Masada and the Dead Sea souvenir place we arrived at the border crossing to go into Jordan.  This was quite an event because our tour guide and bus driver did not travel across with us.  They were only able to take us to the border and then once we went through border patrol we were put on a different bus with a new driver, a new tour guide, and an armed guard.  Yep, that's right, we had an armed guard who traveled with us for the three days we were in Jordan.

7.  I learned that there is a noticeable difference when you cross from Israel into Jordan.  I hope that nothing I blog about in this post is offensive to anyone because it's not intended to be that way.  For the most part, Israel is very clean with beautiful land and very little trash.  From the border on in to the country of Jordan there seemed to be an abundance of trash to be found.  There are probably many opinions as to why this is the case, and I won't try to parse that out in this blog post, but it's something that's impossible not to notice.  I spoke with a friend of mine who is originally from a middle Eastern country and his thought was that Israel is a much more prosperous country than Jordan and they have more resources to keep things clean.  Also, if someone has always lived amongst trash they start to get desensitized to it and don't recognize it as someone does who is coming in from the outside.  This desensitization can carry on from one generation to the next.  Interesting concept to ponder.

8.  I learned that the food we ate in both Israel and Jordan was excellent and that it wasn't difficult to adjust to a Mediterranean diet.  We stayed our first night in Amman, which is the capital of Jordan, and a large city.  It was a very nice hotel and the food was very similar to that in Israel--lots of fresh fruits and vegetables, olives, cheeses, pita bread, hummus, etc.  There was also a variety of meats and salads and rice served with each dinner.  We had wonderful food everywhere we went but it was definitely a Mediterranean diet.

9.  While in Amman, I learned that it's difficult to distinguish a toilet from a bidet in the dark.  You see, since I live in a house with four boys I have developed a habit over the years.  If I make a trip to the bathroom in the middle of the night I do not turn on the light but I do ALWAYS feel to see that the toilet seat is where it should be before I do my business.  I did the same thing in Amman and when I reached for it I didn't feel the toilet seat.  I reached behind me to try to see if it was up instead of down.  Not there, either.  I was frantically feeling for it in the dark since I was trying to avoid turning on the light at all costs.  Finally I gave up and turned on the light only to find that I had been trying to find a toilet seat on the bidet which was next  to the toilet.  I'm glad I was persistent in my search because I imagine that might have been a mess.    

10.  I learned that riding a camel is an acquired skill and probably not something I would want to have the opportunity to improve upon.  Our second day in Jordan was spent at Petra.  If you've never heard of Petra all you need to do is watch the last half hour of Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade.  When Indiana and his Dad ride their horses toward a building carved out of red stone you will see the treasury in Petra.  Now, that's where reality ends and Hollywood begins in that scene.  They go running in to the treasury and the movie makes you think there is a lot to see inside.  It's just a small empty room which tourists were not allowed to enter when we were there.  Petra was a beautiful sight to behold.  There was a lot of walking involved that day--about six miles in all--but you could rent a donkey, a carriage, or a camel if you got tired of walking.  After lunch several of us opted to ride camels back to the treasury--about a mile and a half.  Having never ridden a camel before I wasn't quite sure what to expect.  I didn't expect for my fear of heights to kick in, but sure enough it did.  When my camel started standing up I gave a little squeal.  Then, as the rider of the camel tethered to my camel decided to see what it felt like to ride a camel that was running I was then riding a running camel.  She was yelling "Yeah, yeah!"  I was yelling, "No, no!"  Just as I was finally getting used to the motion of riding a camel it was time to dismount.  This little action resulted in a bruise on my back for a few days.  As the camel got down on his front knees I felt like I was going to pitch forward so I leaned back quickly.  The post on the back of the saddle hit me in the back.  By then, I was ready to get off and be done with my camel experience.

11.  I learned that it was easier to get in to Jordan than it was to get back into Israel from Jordan.  We sat on our bus for a long time guarded by plain clothes soldiers with M-16s while they had our passports inside at Border Control.  The whole process took nearly two hours and we were pretty worn out by the time we got to our kibbutz in Tiberias.

I guess that's enough learnin' for one post.  I'll have more pictures and points to ponder with the next published post.