Day 159 - Masada and Dead Sea

Sunday, December 9th, 2018.

Today we got up early and left the house around 8:30am because we planned to go to Masada and the Dead Sea. We walked to the car rental office where they gave us a hard time when we tried to rent the car. The main problem was that they needed a letter from our credit card that explained we were insured. After a long time on the phone, I finally got the letter but with a different credit card number than the one we gave them. What happened is that our credit card was fraudulently used and it got canceled so they let me keep the old card temporarily but they had the new number in the file! After another call and an hour an half later we finally got the car. We left at 10:00am and we made it to a National Park in the desert around 12:30, but after going to the bathroom and asking a few girls who spoke English, we realized that it wasn't Masada. We hopped back in the car and drove for another half hour. We finally made it and ran straight to the ticket office where we bought tickets for the funicular to get us way up on top of the hill. But because it was expensive, we only purchased tickets to take us up, and we decided we would just walk back down.

By the time we made it to the top of the hill and walked around a little bit, we were starving. We found a spot and had lunch (that we had brought with us, luckily). Masada is an ancient fortress in southern Israel’s Judean Desert. It's on a massive plateau overlooking the Dead Sea. A cable car and a long, winding path climb up to the fortifications, built around 30 B.C. Among the ruins are King Herod's Palace, which sprawls over 3 rock terraces, and a Roman-style bathhouse with mosaic floors. The Masada Museum has archaeological exhibits and recreations of historical scenes.
According to Josephus, the siege of Masada by troops of the Roman Empire at the end of the First Jewish–Roman War ended in the mass suicide of 960 people, the Sicarii rebels and their families hiding there.

We toured it quickly because we still wanted to stop and swim in the Dea Sea and we still had to climb down. We walked down pretty fast. It only took us about an hour because there were some rocky stairs and it was downhill, still it was quite a workout! Afterward, we ran to the bathroom and we were on our way to find a public or free beach to swim in the Dead Sea. There are many places you can go to swim in the Dead Sea, but all of them charge a lot of money and of course, we are always looking for the free or the cheapest way to do things. Not impossible but definitely always harder. We stopped at a Spa, and there they told us they would only be open for one hour and they were asking 50 shekels per person! Of course, we said no. Gregory was on a mission and he was determined to find a place where we could stop the car and just float in the Dead Sea. We stopped on the side of the road where there were signs that said: "danger, sinking holes." Gregory asked me if it seemed okay, of course I said no. Then Sunshine saw some people down by the water along the way and told us to pull over. We stopped the car next to a sign that said forbidden swimming after sunset, and it was 4:00pm. We still had half an hour!

It is difficult to explain this part, but we parked the car on the side of the road which was still pretty far from the beach. We still had to walk down a long hill covered with stones and spikey plants. Daniel was so excited that when we finally made it to the crystallized salt on the shore, he was shaking with excitement. He said, "mom, look how excited I am!" Little pleasures!
Sunshine and Daniel were the first one to jump into the water and float! Gregory took his time and didn't want to lie back and float because the water was cold. I was taking pictures of them and trying to decide if It was going to change into my swimsuit or not. It was cold and I wasn't sure if it was worth it. But then I thought, I came this far, I have to do it. I changed into my swimsuit on the beach. Sunshine taught me to use a towel to surfer change when we were in Nice so that's what I did! Gregory lent me his sandals because I had forgotten mine in the trunk of the car. The water wasn't that cold. The moment I lay on my back, I started to float. It was a funny sensation, then I turned and turned and felt light like I was flying.
Gregory was nervous about the car being parked by the forbidden entrance sign so he told us to get dressed. Daniel wanted to stay longer, he had discovered the exfoliating mud at the bottom and was putting it on his skin.
We got out, changed into our clothes and headed back to the car. Gregory and Daniel went up quickly. Sunshine and I took our time hiking up the rocks. We were all sticky, salty and happy that we made it, but we still had two hours on the road ahead of us.
Going back home was a nightmare because there was a lot of traffic and because I'm a terrible navigator. We probably took the long way to Tel Aviv through Jerusalem. When we got to Tel Aviv, Gregory wanted me to guide him but I wasn't sure of the directions and I had Daniel navigate from the backseat. That's right, Daniel has a great sense of directions and gets it right away. We finally made it home around 8:00pm. Gregory was upset. He had wanted to wait for the traffic to pass but I had said no, we were all sticky and didn't want to get home late to leave the following day to Jordan.
Even our wet home felt nice when we got there and were able to take a warm shower! I wanted to wash all the clothes but decided against it because it wasn't going to dry in time for tomorrow. I hoped that we would have a washing machine in the next house!
We finish packing and we went to bed.