Day 9 - Sporadic Tranquility

After a morning of waiting 3 hours for the landlady to come around, Robbie (our first guest) had the idea to go for the afternoon to the dead sea! Which we could do, just because we felt like it! We got our gear, jumped in the car and drove off.

Was fun to bypass Ma'aleh Adumim to see some of the cousins and pick up a box of stuff - I finally have towels!

The route to the dead sea is very beautiful - the mountain ranges and desert sand provide for some awesome landscapes and contrasts between hard, soft and vibrant nature. (Being able to pray the afternoon service at a random carpark was again one of those moments of realisation for me - that I am home in the Jewish homeland, when things like this aren't viewed as weird!) Although driving back at sunset allowed for some incredible images, my favourite is still the one below.

Day 9 - Sunday 23 May 2010

The undulating pattern of the sun shades, contrasted with the calm dead sea ahead and in the far back, the vast mountain ranges of Jordan, to me showed the true tranquility of this place.

Being run dry from draining all the minerals, the lowest part on earth is sadly said to be losing about 1m of water a year - which means that without dire measures taken into account, sadly this peaceful place where you can float away into your dreams may be lost.

Day 6 - Method in the Madness

Day 6 - Thursday 20 May 2010

Today was spent as the first real day of collective shopping for the Bachelor Pad..
Starting with bartering for beds in Talpiyot, then shopping for basic necessities at Rami Levi (my how I've missed that!) and finally, going into town to investigate phone deals.

When I saw these two buskers, I had to laugh, because in all the crazy rushing we'd been experiencing over the day, there was a defined method within the madness - to find stuff we needed, that wasn't going to milk our pockets dry (which happened regardless..) and begin to furnish our new home.

The method here was to play music, to entertain the passers by on Ben Yehuda, collect some money and basically to enjoy what they love. The Israeli looking guy playing guitar isn't what I found amusing, it was the guy next to him, in a backwards baseball cap, sleeveless crew Tshirt and playing classical violin. The music was incredible, and they were very cheery - but to me it was the contrast that was evident that I enjoyed - the distinction between what could be deemed mad, as to what is clearly defined!