Highlights Around Israel, by Hannah

          I really liked the Sea of Galilee.  It was very peaceful.  It felt a lot like I remember Abbotsford - it was very, very cold and a bit dark with cloud cover.  It felt rainy even though it wasn't raining.  I am really enjoying the hot weather here in Penang compared to the really cold weather in the Galilee area.  

          The church on the Mount of Beatitudes was very beautiful with all the gardens and fruit trees.  I also thought the Golan Heights were very beautiful.  They have been extremely militarized in the past decades because they are right next to the Syrian border and an hour away from the Lebanese border.  But they are so beautiful in a war-touched kind of way.         
         
          The Dead Sea was also very, very fun.  I loved all the smells of the minerals and salt and the feeling of the mud and water.  Luckily I didn't get any water in my eyes because it would really, really hurt because of the salt.  I put a lot of mud on my body because the mud is soothing and it makes your skin feel nice. Masada near the Dead Sea was also very interesting with the old yet obvious ruins of the fortress.  Masada was an old Roman fortress that was taken over by the Jews and it was the last group of Jews to fall to the Romans.  It was interesting to see all the salt deposits everywhere as we travelled in this area.  In some areas there are so many salt deposits that in some areas it looks like snow.   

         Another highlight of Israel other than Jerusalem is all the ruins we stopped and saw on the way to main tourist attractions. We saw so many old things.  In some ways the ruins must be a nuisance to the Israelis because even if one ruin is found on a lot they must stop all building and let the government have access to the land.  But all of the ruins are amazing and very well preserved.  Some of my favourite parts of ruins were the frescos, which are like old beautifully painted plaster, and I also loved the mosaics.  They must have taken years to build each mosaic floors.  Some of them, even today, are really beautiful.  Like 'stop and look at the floor' kind of beautiful. 
             

Mount of Beatitudes

At the church on the Mount of Beatitudes

Me with Dead Sea mud.  (Our camera was slowing dying from being dropped by Aimee on a previous day)

Masada

Mosaic floor seen from the second story (we weren't allowed to step on it)

A fresco in Masada (the black line shows the original wall - below - and the more modern rebuilt wall - above)

Our boat on the Sea of Galilee