Published via Ecency

In this post, I will talk about visiting Israel. This is not an entertaining tour, it is better to immediately find out all the nuances, and I would not advise traveling with children at all. The excursion program is quite extensive, rich and far from easy.

The hardest thing, in my opinion, was to cross the border from Egypt to Israel, it's a nightmare! Of course, I had heard a lot about the duration of this procedure, but the reality turned out to be much harder. For 3-4 hours, you must become a steadfast tin soldier and patiently wait for your turn in an endless line of those eager to get to the Promised Land. There are no conditions! There is a toilet, and that's it.

Inspection of things is not slow, but very slow. They can rummage through everything, or they can just shake out all the things - be prepared to endure everything without a murmur. The questions of customs officers must be answered calmly, clearly, without jokes and smirks. Questions can sometimes seem extremely strange, but they must be answered. I was already starting to get nervous. In general, we crossed the border from about one in the morning until 5 in the morning. Photography is not allowed there so hide them if you decide to take any.

Well, did I scare you? Well, if you are not one of the shy ones, then a long journey in a comfortable bus awaits you next, a long journey in a comfortable one. Three hours drive, maybe more. On the way, stop at a roadside cafe for tea-coffee-toilet. And all around the desert - velvety, hilly, pure sand color, very beautiful!

I always envy people who can sleep on buses and planes, but I just can’t sleep sitting up. Therefore, my advice is to take a nap before the excursion during the daytime in the hotel, this “quiet hour” will make this excursion easier for you.

And now, after a long journey and a sleepless night (the whole night passed standing in the border zone), we enter Palestine and were heading to the unique Dead Sea. The Dead Sea is an amazing place - it is the lowest point on the surface of the globe, located about 400 meters below sea level. It is so salty, you feel that the water is oily to the touch. You can’t swim with your head, I can’t imagine if the water gets into your eyes. In the sea, you just need to go in and try to lie on the water like on a sofa. She will push you out herself, a very interesting feeling. The coast itself is all in salt, the salt literally protrudes from under the sand. By the way, the air in the sea area is considered curative, you will immediately feel the taste of bromine or iodine as soon as you get off the bus.

They say it is slowly drying up, so hurry up to visit this healing sea, the saltiest on Earth. You can read a newspaper while sitting in the water, the main thing is not to lose your balance. And at the bottom everything is in salt balls. You can't go into the sea without slippers. The beach there is equipped with a shower, toilet, places for changing clothes. There are a lot of buses, a whole regiment of people, and only two places to change clothes. Therefore, in order not to stand in a kilometer-long queue, change clothes under a towel. Take a larger towel for the journey for convenience. Swimming in the Dead Sea will take about 1.5 hours.

Then you will go to the Jordan River where Jesus was baptized. It is located right on the border with Jordan. You can't dive without a shirt. Guide sold them for the price is $10. Later, when walking the streets of Bethlehem, these shirts were sold for 3 bucks. Therefore, in advance in Egypt, buy long white shirts-to-the-floor. You can't go into the river without a shirt.

They will give you 40 minutes to visit the river. Everything is equipped, there will be large changing rooms. Put on a shirt and go to the river. The river is the border between states - Israeli border guards look at the Jordanian border guards. The descent into the river is equipped, there are handrails. The water is icy, but after you plunge, you feel a crazy surge of strength, and the body stops burning from the cold at all. An amazing feeling, like a holy beginning.

After the Jordan River at 10 am there will be lunch at a roadside cafe. Type of buffet, but no choice. And all drinks are paid. Water in Israel 0.5 liters will cost about 1.5 dollars. A mug of tea from a bag - $3.

Next point of our trip - the Biblical city of Bethlehem. One of the oldest cities in the Holy Land. It is immediately clear that Palestine is a Muslim state, although it is located on the territory of Israel.

In Palestine, we will have to get acquainted with the Church of the Nativity, built according to legend over the cave in which Christ was born. Before visiting the temple, of course, you will be taken to an icon shop, where you will be given a short tour and offered to buy icons consecrated in one of the main Temples of Christianity. Prices are too high, but still many people buy icons, crosses and gold crosses.

Church of the Nativity in Bethlehem is one of the main churches of the Holy Land, one of the oldest and continuously operating, founded in pre-Islamic times. Since 2012, it has been under the protection of UNESCO. The Temple itself is very beautiful and ancient. I entered like a museum, I left the Temple - it is simply impossible not to believe in the Higher.

The next step was to move to Israel. Everyone knows that girls serve in the Israeli army, mostly apparently at such checkpoints and at customs. And now we have a white city - Jerusalem in front of our eyes. In general, eight gates lead to the Old City, each has its own name.

The Old Town itself is quite interesting and original, somewhere there are deserted streets, on some there is a brisk trade, but history is felt everywhere and some kind of special energy is felt too.

In fact, the entire old Jerusalem, with an area of about 1 sq. kilometers, is one big attraction, and you can walk along its streets for a long time. But we are on a group tour, we don’t have time to consider anything, the main task is not to lose sight of our group, running after the rapid pace of our guide. The streets are narrow and there are a lot of people.

The purpose of our tour is the Church of the Resurrection of Christ - the main shrine of Christianity, which houses the Edicule of the Holy Sepulcher, which is why it is called the Churche of the Holy Sepulchre. There are so many people, huge queues everywhere, although in general they do not interfere. Everything can be seen. Literally everything is saturated with the spiritual, you can feel the whole antiquity of the surroundings.

Further from the observation deck, we can take a look at one of the oldest cities in the world - the Holy City of Jerusalem, which is already over 3,000 years old! Israel is the holy land of the three religions of the world: Judaism, Christianity and Islam. In the distance, the mosque of the Dome of the Rock (Qubbat as-Sakhra) shines with gold, built over the stone from which the creation of the world began.

And in front of him is the very well-known wailing wall. The Wailing Wall is popular with tourists from all over the world, many travel with the sole purpose of asking here for their secret. There are so many tourists in this quarter that you can easily break away from your group and get lost. Therefore, be careful.

People approach the wall separately - separately for women and separately for men. Men are given a special headdress at the entrance. There is a custom to put notes in the cracks between the stones of the Wall, in which they ask for health, good luck, and solving various problems. And there are a lot of such notes in the wall!

In principle, this tour in Israel ended there. At 6 pm we boarded the bus and headed back to the Egyptian-Israeli border. This time the border crossing was fast. In about 1 hour, we completely crossed it, boarded buses and went to the hotels.

I recommend taking on the train to Israel water in a sealed bottle, more food, soap for washing after swimming in the Dead Sea, a large towel, crosses, icons for consecration in the Temples, floor-length shirts for swimming in the Jordan River, a pillow on the bus (many transfers, you will fall asleep faster, you will have more strength on the road), a portable charger for your mobile phone.

In general, this tour is excellent, very useful. Everything was very interesting. The only thing is that everything is very fast, literally in a hurry. After a sleepless night at the border, we constantly tends to sleep. But it's okay. The main thing is unforgettable impressions and a lot of things seen in one day. I highly recommend!