A Date with the Dead Sea

Tuesday morning Ingrid arrived bright and early.  I met her at the train station, which is in a terrible part of town, and we took a cab back to our apartment.  Scott, Ellie, another Juilliard student, and I gave Ingrid no time to settle in and dragged her to the Shuk HaCarmel.  I had been before, but it is a great place to get groceries.  After walking down the shuk we made out way to the beach, which was more like a big, salty, warm bath.  Not the slightest bit refreshing considering it might have been hotter than the air.
Wednesday we decided as a group to tackle Old Jaffa.  It is a little town that is nestled in with Tel Aviv to the south.  It is made of stone and there are tons of little walkways and tunnels leading from one building to the next.  Almost all of the rooms are filled with stores and there is very little residential area, but it was cool to see these old buildings still in use.  While there we spent quite a bit of time in a visitor's center planning our at next day....
On Thursday we woke up at 5:15 to catch a bus to Massada and the Dead Sea.  The bus made a couple stops throughout Tel Aviv and Jerusalem, which is right on the way, and we were at Massada within two and a half hours.  Along the way you get a great view of the Israeli desserts.  There are mountains that are so clearly shaped by the water that flows through them in the yearly flash floods.  Also, the Dead Sea is the lowest place on Earth so at one point we passed a sign marking sea level and then proceeded down way further into a huge hole where the sea lies.  As we descended our ears began to pop, and we couldn't stop yawning because we were not used to so much oxygen in the air.  Once down near the sea, which looks like any other sea, the ground was pretty flat, but we seemed to be surrounded by mountains in every direction.
Massada was a city made by indigenous Jews on top of one of those mountains.  The mountain of Massada is separate from those around it and has a flat top.  My story may not be perfect, but King Harod had this city built on top of this mountain so that no one could attack it.  He had 20 foot walls built around the perimeter, and worked out a drainage system that funneled rain water from the surrounding mountains into wells throughout the city.  They were able to grow food, raise livestock, and run a completely self-sufficient life on top of this mountain in the desert.  The story is that the Romans decided they wanted to conquer Harod's city, and so they set up camps all around the mountain.  After months of work they finally stacked enough rocks on top of  each other to create a path that led from the the ground to the top of the mountain.  One day it became clear to Harod that Massada would be conquered on the following day so he ordered the everyone in the city to kill themselves before being killed or enslaved by the Romans.  If they were enslaved by the Romans then they would betray their God by being forced to practice another religion.  The men of the city basically drew straws, and the ten men with the shortest had to kill everyone else.  Then, from those ten one more man was chosen to kill the other men and himself.  The indigenous people also made sure so burn anything valuable so that when the Romans made their way in there was nothing left for them.  Today visitors rise up to the mountain in a cable car and walk throughout the ruins of the city.  Some of the buildings have been rebuilt, but a lot of the city still lays in ruin.  As the sun was beating down on us in the 100+ degree heat, it was amazing to imagine a whole civilization thriving on the top of this mountain.
From Massada we drove about 5 minutes to Ein Gedi, a spa owned by a local Kibbutz, on the edge of the Dead Sea.  Well, actually, it used to be on the edge of the Dead Sea, but the sea's edge has receded significantly in the past hundred years and now you need to take a short shuttle ride to get to the actual edge of the sea.  The Dead Sea is filled with salt water that runs into it from mountains in Jordan and surrounding countries.  From the sea the water had no where to go, and so it stays there.  Because the heat is so extreme, the only way for water to escape the sea is to evaporate, leaving behind the heavy salt.  This means that with each year the sea gets saltier and saltier.  It seems to only make sense that the water's edge is receding because temperatures are rising, constantly leaving less water behind.
Once we arrived at Ein Gedi we had a quick lunch and changed into our bathing suits.  Inside the building is a sulfur bath, which was our first stop.  Of course, it smelled like rotten eggs, but we went in anyway.  The sulfur water is from local springs and very hot.  Visitors can only spend 15 minutes in the pool.  Frankly, given the smell, you wouldn't want to spend much more than that in the pool.  From there we went outside to a regular, chlorine pool, to cool off.  After a quick pit-stop there, we went straight for the mud.  They have bin, after bin, of mud for the visitors.  Ingrid and I took turns covering each other.  It has crystalized salt in it, so it is a little rough, but it feels good.  We put it on our face, in our hair, down our bathing suits, and then sat in the shade for it to dry.  We didn't sit until we had an entire photo shoot, of course.  After letting it dry, which it didn't really do because we were sweating too much, we did a sulfur rinse, followed by a regular water rinse.  We had decided to wait to put on sun screen until after the mud so it would stay on, and when we put it on it almost felt like were were not touching our own skin because it was so soft.  Scott and Ellie even bottled some mud for the occasional at-home facial.  After our mud bath, we took the tractor driven trolly to the sea's edge.  The first step in the sea almost feels freezing, until your body realizes that what you are feeling is extreme heat, not refreshing cool.  The sea was literally like a hot tub.  We slowly made our way, feet scrapping against the crystalized salt that makes up the sea's floor.  Once deep enough we simultaneously made the plunge, which made us pop right back up to the surface.  It is really an awesome feeling.  Of course, this was our second opportunity of the day, to have an extravagant photo shoot.  We took turns trying to make the best pose on top of the water, like the splits or Martha Graham's pleading.  After being in the water for a while, we all had to get out and rest in the shade.  Our hearts were beating so fast just because of the heat.  It was almost scary how overwhelmed we were.  Finally we got back on the trolly and walked into the Ein Gedi building at 4:16 for our bus that was leaving at 4:15!  Oops!  We quickly changed into our regular clothes, still covered in salt, and hopped on the bus before it left.  We all slept the entire bus ride home, then went our separate ways for showers and a bit of rest.  What a day!
Yesterday we were still really exhausted from the day before so we took it easy.  We rode our bikes to a local vintage market, then Ingrid and I came home to watch a movie in the air conditioning.  At some point in the day two more Juilliard people arrived, so they joined us for dinner at night.
At the end of each day we have started cooking dinner as a big group.  We plan the meal early in the day, and each person is reaponsible for picking up a couple ingredients.  Yesterday we had a big pasta, salmon, asparagus dinner.  On other nights we have had mango, avocado, cucumber, peach, walnut salad, or quinoa with peppers, onions, and cilantro.  It is fun to use the brilliantly fresh ingredients here to make exotic combinations.  We have had a lot of fun in the kitchen, and it is nice to eat at a big group.  We have also discovered an amazing hummus place, and the glory of dates.  Why had I never had them before?!
It is time to wake Ingrid up because we are going on a walking tour this morning.
Thanks for reading!