Contextualising

Palm Tree farms in the Judean and Samarian deserts

After a couple of weeks of getting acquainted with the city, our daily routines, and the breadth of options available to us, we—most things are definitively group activities—have had the time to reach further afield and explore Israel a bit.

Last weekend we drove in two cars to Eilat (Elat) on the Red Sea for some beach time and amazing snorkeling. When trying to picture Eilat think 'boardwalk on the Jersey Shore' and you'll be close. The beach is a crazy scene, tons of folks on a narrow band of sand and rocks fronting on crystalline waters. And trash. Lots of trash. I realised at this point how spoiled I am in such things.

Liz, Jesse, Sarah on the beach of the Red Sea

Eilat child vom scene at the Red Sea

 

Thai Food massages

 

Eilat hostel interior courtyard

On the way down and back we also stopped at the Dead Sea... that would be the water body which: has a salt content of 25% (and increasing, due to evaporation), you should not put your head under (or you'll need to call for emergency help), and that buoys you up with almost zero paddling assistance from you. Nutty. Huge crusts of crystalline salt line the shore and you must slip across them when entering the water at certain points.

Dead Sea

Dead Sea mud treatment

The cornerstone to this weekend trip, however, was a trip to Masada. We hiked up to the top of the mesa very early in the morning in order to be on top in time to see the sun rise over the Dead Sea.

Masada, aerial view

Tristram's grackles overlooking the Judean desert at Masada

North, hanging palace of Masada

The story of Masada is an amazing one dating back to 37 BC, with both Alexander Jannaeus and then Herod building this palace and city atop the mesa, training mules to go down to the valley unaccompanied where they were laden with food by farmers and then sent back up to the town. The Jewish Sicari rebels then took the town before the Roman breaching of the walls of Masada.










The Romans somehow* built a 375 foot siege road—a giant ramp almost as tall as the mesa—where upon breaching the fort walls they found the populace had all killed themselves in order to avoid the dishonor of being ruled or killed by the Romans. Then it was taken by Jewish Rebels in 66 AD, retaken by Romans, and eventually abandoned.

Mosaic at Masada in the small palace

It is an amazing place to really get a sense of that history. It is also the most visited archeological site in Israel.

Sunrise over Masada and the Dead Sea

* Originally, Jewish rebels on top of Masada threw stones at those building and constructing the ramp. When this plan was realized, the Romans put captured Jewish prisoners from previously conquered towns to work the ramp. The Jewish people on top of Masada stopped killing those who built the ramp, choosing not to kill their fellow Jews, even though they understood this might result in the Romans penetrating the fortress. The walls of the fortress were breached in 73 CE According to Josephus, when Roman troops entered the fortress, they discovered that its 960 inhabitants had set all the buildings but the food storerooms ablaze and committed mass suicide or killed each other. Josephus wrote of two stirring speeches that the Sicari leader had made to convince his fellows to kill themselves. Only two women and five children were found alive. Josephus presumably based his narration upon the field commentaries of the Roman commanders that were accessible to him. There are significant discrepancies between archaeological findings, and Josephus' writings. Josephus mentions only one of the two palaces that have been excavated, refers only to one fire, while many buildings show fire damage, and claims that 960 people were killed, while the remains of only 28 bodies have been found.

Exploration

Visiting a new city has its own style of exploration: food, top tourist sites, beautiful objects... Moving to a new city—even if for a somewhat limited time—on the other hand, has a different style of exploration: exercise locations, local foods and what days they are sold, the cheapest grocery stores, where "your people" hang, inexpensive and good bars and restaurants, pharmacies, the good bathroom at the museum, etc.

We have the benefit of gaining from the group's discoveries; at one week, we have finally discovered: the cheapest place for fresh vegetables (the "Shook"), the best coffee nearby (Cafe de Paris), the second best place for cheap, fresh veggies (the Armenian quarter of the Old City), and a wine we like (Golan, Cabernet Sauvignon 2012).

The Shook

We have also discovered the nearest climbing area (Wadi Qelt), joined the climbing gym (er...The Jerusalem Gym? can't read Hebrew...oops), and determined just how far it is to the Dead Sea (40 minutes) for our salt body soak.

Lowering off at the Wadi Qelt

As of this week, I now feel like I have the mental space to tackle the Old City in a more comprehensive manner. I did have the chance to see tour groups being led to the most holy and historic places there, and immediatly headed off in a different direction, but I would actually like to see those places too.

Good graffitti

In the Old City

The museum staff have been lovely to interact with. We find ourselves lunching in the tiny staff cafeteria at the buffet, and have been able to chat with them at length. They have been warm and welcoming. I've also enjoyed chatting with the head of grounds (we're in the Noguchi Sculpture Garden), who also does framing, about music. There is an interesting intersection of fine art and music everywhere you go and it's excellent to have that when you are far from home in NY and the center of the discussion is England.

Israel Museum grounds looking to the east (Big Bambú at near right)

Exploration also comes in the form of finding your place in the community. I am lucky that I have a built in community in the rock climbing world and that many of the local crew are climbers. On the street or in the stores it's a different matter—at least for me. I try to be my friendliest self and say my polite things in the language dictated, and this is generally received one of these ways: friendly interest, non-interest, brusque dismissal, or being asked out. Ah, well.

Sunrise over the Old City

Tonight we entered the fray of those who were cheerfully celebrating Independence Day. We were definitely the observers of this national celebration, even if we did get sprayed with the foam that everyone carries in order to spray on anyone nearby, and even if we did dance to the DJ in the middle of Mahane Yehuda.

Structure

Settling into the apartment and project here. There is good food, kind people, hot sun and hard work, good roommates, a nice apartment in a good location, and a whole country to explore.

 The Calatrava Bridge was the first clearly designer structure we saw when arriving to the city.

Visually (so far), the city outside of the Old City is an interesting mix of shiny, new buildings, 1960s buildings, and stone-fronted, 3-story apartment buildings. I know there is a great cache of Bauhaus architecture to be found, but have not yet had a real chance to explore beyond a limited circle. As well, East Jerusalem hasn't even been on the many lists of things to do and see, so I expect more visual interest there.

Apartment building a couple of blocks down the road from us.

We are housed in a few apartments very near the Old City—Jaffa Gate,—parks, restaurants, etc. It takes about 20 minutes to walk to the Museum, mostly through a park, and on the return trip we've discovered what we've dubbed the "Middle of the Road Bar" situated on a wide median in a tree-lined neighborhood. It's a nice place to stop for socializing before heading home. The sting of the price of drinks in Israel certainly keeps this place from taking up whole evenings.

Most of the crew at the Middle of the Road Bar

The structure has come along nicely and we are still moving along at a good clip; it feels good to grow the piece in the Starn Brothers vision. While the area below is cordoned off, there are still visitors coming as close as they are able, and an intrepid few even venture to speak to us; one group of children even drew pictures of one of our members. He was delighted, naturally. Today I ended up working on what is soon to be the dance/party platform(!).

Day One of the building: morning

Day One of the building: 10 hours later

On the upper deck at the end of Day Five

So the building days continue, the banter, laughs, getting to know the local crew, and learn their languages will keep us entertained as we tie our knots and place the poles—as will Jerusalem.