Israel — 9 Days in 22 Photos

Day 0: Touchdown. First look at the city of Jerusalem. We learnt was that the various holy places in the city were lighted up and “color-coded” at night, e.g. green for the mosques and blue for the synagogues.

Day 1: Tour of Holy Sites in the Old City of Jerusalem. On the left is another view over Jerusalem, this time in the day. We can see the golden sheen of the Dome of the Rock in the distance, and to the left, Al-Aqsa Mosque. On the right are the narrow, winding streets of Jerusalem. The city is divided into 4 quarters: the Christian, the Muslim, the Jewish and the Armenian.

Day 2: Temple Mount, Al-Aqsa Mosque. We were actually visiting the Dome of the Rock and Al-Aqsa Mosque, but I took the chance to take a picture of the Western Wall, which we visited the night we landed. It’s a bit less crowded than when we visited (before Shabbat), but you can still see many people praying here.

Day 3: The Knesset. Two rows of Israeli flags greet us on our visit to the Knesset — one row of 12 flags, representing the 12 tribes of Israel, and another row of 3 flags. We heard from many interesting speakers, including the Education Minister, Naftali Bennett.

Day 4: West Bank and the Judean Desert. Our visit to part of the Barrier, and the Banksy Hotel nearby, was a very poignant one. The complexity of the conflict did not escape us, and it was amazing to get to listen to Palestinian speakers and hear their side of the story. The trip lightened up upon our journey south to the Judean Desert. We made a brief stop to ride some camels, and camped overnight in the Judean Desert.

Day 5: Hiking in Nahal Arugot, the Dead Sea. On the pulse of morning, we woke up to the natural beauty of the desert. We spent the morning hiking in the Nahal Arugot Natural Reserve. It was an amazingly beautiful and fun adventure — we walked along the river, plunged into the many pools, and then hiked along the trails that overlooked huge, wild expanses of cliff and sky. Later on, we made a trip to the Dead Sea. I did not believe that it was actually possible to float without effort. Turns out, not only was this possible in the Dead Sea, the mud on the seafloor was really good for the skin too. As Amir would say: Like, whaaat?

Day 6: Gulan Heights. We slept for a night in a Kibbutz. It was really interesting, and important, to hear about this facet of Jewish life — namely, the communal spirit of the Kibbutz that was so dominant for some decades, and still is a significant part of Israeli life today. Near the Israel-Syria Border, we met some UN peacekeepers. We learnt that they were stationed there for a year to monitor activities in Syria. That’s Syria in the distance in the photo on the right. It looks so peaceful from here, though the truth of the matter belies the illusion. We were told that it is quite possible to hear bombs frequently and even see rockets flying from this vantage point.

Day 7: Tel-Aviv. The name of the city is a portmanteau of “old” and “young”. To the left, we have the Artist Market, where various stalls sell trinkets and artworks. In the center is the beach of the Mediterranean. Israel touches 3 seas — the Mediterranean, the Dead Sea and the Red Sea. It’s quite crazy that we saw 2 of them within the span of 2 days. Of course, no trip is complete without music, and we had a mini-concert with Israeli singer-songwriter, Rona Kenan. She performed to us some of the songs she wrote herself in an intimate, lively setting.

Day 8: The Last Day. One of the coolest part of the Trek was a guided tour around Graffitiyul, a district in Tel Aviv surrounded by graffiti. Our guide, Elinoy, was a graffiti artist herself, and she did a great job in explaining to us not only the various pieces that we saw around, but also why people did graffiti, and why it plays a small but important role in the Tel Aviv scene. The last stop of the day (and trip) was Jaffa.

In very few countries, do you get to see such a diversity of geography and culture over such a small area. I learnt so much here, and had such a wonderful, wonderful time.