Israel, Day 8: Yad Vashem & Dead Sea

For our last full day in Jerusalem (and Israel entirely), we visited two opposite sides of tourism - remembrance at Yad Vashem and relaxation at the Dead Sea.

Yad Vashem is Israel's main memorial and museum to the events of the Holocaust. As a history major and WWII buff, Holocaust museums and memorials are important for me to visit. I have visited holocaust museums in Skokie, Washington DC, Nuremburg, and Berlin, as well as several concentration camps in Germany and Poland. And it's especially important here because the Holocaust formed such an (unfortunately) important part of Israel and modern Jewish identity.

The museum is very well done and interesting, focusing on ghetto life more than the camps, and giving huge shout-outs to people who saved Jews during the Holocaust. It also contained tons of photos and stories of both the dead and the survivors, especially showing the terrible impact of the Holocaust on Polish Jews in particular. Heartbreaking but important.

Hall of names and photos at Yad Vashem

After our sobering visit, we headed down to the Dead Sea to relax at the beach and float in the water.

It's not that far to the Dead Sea, although you have to drive through the West Bank and see all the weird walls and barbed wire. Awkward. 

The signs near the Dead Sea let you know how far you're descending below sea level, which was interesting. It's the lowest spot on earth, and the oxygen there is 10% higher than at sea level, adding to the healing properties of the area.

We showed up at the beach that Mike had researched, and they charged us a hefty fee to enter the beach area (80 shekel, or more than $20). Scheisse! We thought, this beach and its facilities had better be good. Well, no, it was pretty crappy, hence this photo of sad faces.

Initial disappointment at the cost of visiting a fairly cruddy beach

The sea is losing volume every year due to water issues with the countries whose rivers flow into the sea - it's all being used elsewhere and too little is flowing in. So there were all these old beach cabanas far away from the beach because the water used to be much higher - each year it loses one meter of height and 5 meters of distance. Ouch.

Once we got in, it was kind of fun to float around. For all its high minerality and alleged healing properties, you can't float for very long safely - get out after about 10-15 minutes or you will get dehydrated and maybe poisoned. You also need to keep the water out of your eyes and can't drink any (not that you want to - Mike tasted it and it is really gross).

Afloat in the salty water

The water was, like, oddly viscous and kind of shimmery. It was interesting to float around, I don't know that I got much out of it health-wise. My hair got wet and it didn't dry, even hours later. I had to take a full shower when we got back to the hotel. 

Glad we did it, but if I had to make hard decisions about cutting a thing or two out of the whole trip, this would have been one of the things.

On our way back to Jerusalem, we were driving through a West Bank city and there were all these signs at the interstate exit warning Israelis that it is dangerous for them to visit. There was a security checkpoint there, as well as a merging lane exiting the West Bank. I waved a dude in, and he gave back the classic Midwestern courtesy wave. I guess it's an international sign for "Thanks, man." See, we aren't so different after all.

When we got back to Jerusalem, we had our last hummus & falafel at Pinati's, allegedly the best hummus in the city. I dunno about that, but it was good. We were disappointed because they ran out of shakshuka! (Mike still hasn't had it, which means we need to go out for brunch when we get back, because it's everywhere in Chicago.)

For dinner, we headed back for more malawach at Jahnun Bar - will someone please bring this sandwich to Chicago?? It's a wrap of utterly delicious bread (reminded me of a thick roti) stuffed with hummus, cheese, hard boiled egg, vegetables, and pickles. Mmmm.

We returned to the Mahane Yehuda market to spend the rest of our shekels on some baklava, which was obviously money well spent.

That wasn't the last thing we bought in the country, though - Dave and Mike managed to find some Cuban rum at the Ben Gurion airport's duty-free shop. This is now a ritual for Dave when we travel abroad; he managed to find some in Iceland but we were shuffled into a special American duty free area in Vancouver so we didn't get any, despite the Canadians' love of Cuba. D'oh!

What a wonderful trip. I can't say enough good about it - aside from the awkward issues of religious identity, the entire trip was full of friendly people, delicious food, breathtaking sights, and cultural experiences. I look forward to returning to the Middle East and hope that the area finds some peace in the coming years.