Rebecca's Page

Well I have blogged Southern Greece and 2 days of Israel so far and uploaded the pictures. I am slightly exhausted. But who knows if I will have internet again on this trip so I am taking full advantage of it! I know we definitely won't have it when we stay in the Bedouin Tents.

First site was Tel Dan. We got a new tour guide today whose name is also Yosi. Our first Yosi was a member of Masad at some point and in the Israeli army. We took a nature walk down to the excavated parts of the site. The Tel (which means ancient city) is over 50 acres big and they have only excavated about 3% of it. The border of Lebanon was about 50 meters from us. I wanted SO bad to run over and stick my toe in it but was told that wouldn't be a good idea since there were mines all over.

I Kings 12:25-30
25 Then Jeroboam fortified Shechem in the hill country of Ephraim and lived there. From there he went out and built up Peniel. [a]
26 Jeroboam thought to himself, "The kingdom will now likely revert to the house of David. 27 If these people go up to offer sacrifices at the temple of the LORD in Jerusalem, they will again give their allegiance to their lord, Rehoboam king of Judah. They will kill me and return to King Rehoboam."

28 After seeking advice, the king made two golden calves. He said to the people, "It is too much for you to go up to Jerusalem. Here are your gods, O Israel, who brought you up out of Egypt." 29 One he set up in Bethel, and the other in Dan. 30 And this thing became a sin; the people went even as far as Dan to worship the one there.

So as you can see once Jeroboam and the northern tribes split off he didn't want them going down to Jerusalem to worship and trying to rejoin the Southern Kingdom. I've always wondered why Bethel and Dan and I learned today that it was because they were the northern most and southern most towns of the Northern Kingdom. The Israelites probably still thought of God and gods in general as regional (ie. The Egyptian gods, Babylonian gods, etc.) So the further away the people got from God's temple the less power he had which is another reason for the golden calves being placed at the most northern and southern points.
If you look at the pictures there is a replica of an ancient alter in front of the temple that would have held the golden calf. This is a replica of King Solomon's temple. The other opinion that isn't very popular but is still out there was that the area was instead a palace with a cult center.

Here is a bible verse that reference what I saw:
And Jeroboam ordained a feast... and he offered upon the alter...sacrificing unto the calves... and ordained a feast unto the children of Israel; and he offered upon the alter, and burnt incense." I Kings 12:32-33

Like I said we were REALLY close to Lebanon so I got to crawl through a bunker on my way to see the look out point over Lebanon. That really has NOTHING to do with Tel Dan but I thought it was pretty cool just the same.

We saw a couple other things such as the Canaanite Gate which was built in 3500 BC. Otherwise known as the Gate of the 3 Arches. And we saw the entrance gate to Dan from the time of the Israelite Kingdom.

Then went Boaz up to the gate... and he took 10 men of the elders of the city, and said, Sit ye down here. And they sat down. Ruth 4:1-2
And the king arose, and sat in the gate... and all the people came before the king.
I Samuel 19:8

Once inside the gates we saw the principle mentioned in the above verses. The King and Jury sat RIGHT inside the gate. I found this really neat to see something talked about in the bible right before my eyes. This wasn't a reconstruction and it hadn't been altered. This was something actually from the time of the Israelites where they would have come to be judged by their King they were so desperate to have.

We made a quick stop off at the Golan Heights and saw the Banyas Waterfall. There's not a lot to tell about this stop except that it was beautiful. Go take a look at the pictures

Next... Ceserea Philippi. Now if you're tired imagine how I'm feeling. I know I have it SO rough. I'm in Israel. But it's still exhausting! Ceserea Philippi was more of an area than a city. We saw what is called the Place of Pan. It was the center for pagan worship of Pan.

13When Jesus came to the region of Caesarea Philippi, he asked his disciples, "Who do people say the Son of Man is?"
14They replied, "Some say John the Baptist; others say Elijah; and still others, Jeremiah or one of the prophets."

15"But what about you?" he asked. "Who do you say I am?"

16Simon Peter answered, "You are the Christ,[a] the Son of the living God."

17Jesus replied, "Blessed are you, Simon son of Jonah, for this was not revealed to you by man, but by my Father in heaven. 18And I tell you that you are Peter,[b] and on this rock I will build my church, and the gates of Hades[c] will not overcome it.[d] 19I will give you the keys of the kingdom of heaven; whatever you bind on earth will be[e] bound in heaven, and whatever you loose on earth will be[f] loosed in heaven." 20Then he warned his disciples not to tell anyone that he was the Christ.
Matthew 16:13-20

We added an extra site in that we weren't supposed to get to see-- Nimrod's Fortress. It is named after the biblical hunter, Nimrod. It is at the foot of Mt. Hermon about 815 m above sea level. It was important because it controlled the road to Damascus. We went down secret passageways and dark spiral staircases where you couldn't see your hand in front of your face. Basically castles are a big-kid's playground

LAST stop for the day was a float trip down the Jordan River. We got there a little late but what do you expect after all we did. We split into pairs of 2 and set off down the river in kayaks. My roommate back at the Artemis, Kurstin, went with me. I asked her if she wanted the front or the back and before she could answer I said... WAIT. Have you ever done this before. When she said no I said you get the front. I'm steering. We ran through our fair share of bushes still. We went down a couple of small rapids and got throughly soaked. The water was freezing cold but once you got sufficiently numb it was alright. It made me think of Naaman who was told to dip 7 times in the river Jordan. I now understand why he was having issues with it... It's not the cleanest river in the world but it's not the dirtiest either. When we finally finished up most of us when to go play in the Jordan River. Now tell me... How many people get to say that?! When the guys finally showed up (they were behind because they had been waiting to ambush all the girls and throughly splash us) it turned a little into water tackle. If you're hair wasn't wet or you weren't coming up spluttering you hadn't been dunked enough. That will definitely be one of my favorite memories that I take away from Israel.

I rounded out the day with a swim in the pool, a soak in the hot tub, and a trip to the sauna. Life is GOOD! I'm looking forward to sharing the rest of Israel with you!

Love, Rebecca

Day 3 Pictures:
http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2004786&l=4a3c3&id=1523040053

My first observation today was the Jordan River is TINY! At least the section we say today. We are supposed to go on a float trip tomorrow so I hope it gets a little bigger
First stop was Bethsaida. This means house of fish and was a village of fisherman. When archeologists first went looking for the city they couldn't find it because they were looking by the modern coast line of the Sea of Galilee. The current coast line is about 6 miles away from the city. It just is amazing to look at this city and know that Jesus was ACTUALLY HERE!

And he took (the apostles) and withdrew apart to a city called Bethsaida. When the crowds learned it, they followed him; and he welcomed them and... cured those who were in need of healing.
Luke 9:10

Woe to you, Chorazin, woe to you, Bethsaida, for if the mighty works done in you had been done in Tyre and Sidon, they would have repented long ago sitting in sackcloth and ashes.
Luke 10:13

Here are some other biblical facts about Bethsaida. Peter, Andrew, and Philip were all from here. It is also maintained that James and John, the sons of Zebedee, also lived here. This is the place of the Miracle of the Loaves and Fishes and the healing of a blind man.

From here we rushed down the Sea of Galilee. None of us tried walking on the water... Sorry. We took a ride on a replica of a boat that dates back to the time period of Jesus. It's called the Jesus boat. They demonstrated how the apostles and other fisherman of the day would have fished. The only difference is the type of material used to make the net. Instead of nylon they would have used cotton and instead of weights, small stones. We didn't catch anything so we cast our net of the other side of the boat and still came up with nothing. We got out into the middle of the sea and sang together. Every time I praise God in a place where I know Jesus was it is an amazing and unique feeling.
Anyway, let me tell you a little bit about the Jesus Boat. When they found it as they were digging it out they had to keep it soaked because when the wood dried out it turned to powder. When it came time to move the boat they coated the entire thing in polyurethane, dug channels to the sea and sailed it for the first time in 2000 years. I would have like to have been there to witness it. It was then lifted with a crane and transported to the Jesus Boat Museum.
Next site was Capernaum. The modern day spelling of the word is Capharnum. Matthew 4:13-- And He (Jesus) left Nazareth and went to live in Capharnaum. Here we saw was is traditionally thought of as Peter's Mother-In-Law's House. (Luke 4:38-- Jesus left the synagogue and went to the home of Simon. Now Simon's mother-in-law was suffering from a high fever, and they asked Jesus to help her.) The house was changed into a church but the original walls are still standing.
We saw a synagogue which was almost right next door to the house. It is called the "White Synagogue" and dates from the 4th century. It was built on top of the "Jesus-Synagogue".
5 o'clock comes all too early when you're in Israel so we finished up our day with a nature hike up to the Mt. of Beatitudes. The catholics bought up all the land surrounding where they though the "mountain" (more like a hill) was and built a church on top of it. We skipped the church and went to the place where it is more likely that Jesus actually taught from. The catholics even think the archeologists might have gotten it right because they are making plans to build another church in that location. Well if you don't get it right the first time try again... Like I said I find it really ANNOYING they construct churches on all of these sites.
We read through the Sermon on the Mount as we watched the sun set over the Sea of Galilee. I've heard that Sermon my entire life but it came alive for me in an entirely new light. If you haven't read it recently you should read it again. It's beautiful.

More to come... There are still 8 days left and LOTS to see!

Day 2 Pictures:
http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2004785&l=db590&id=1523040053

I FINALLY finished blogging about Southern Greece... A little later than I would have liked but I felt SO guilty starting on Israel without finishing Southern Greece.
I am becoming an expert at navigating airports and going through customs. This trip had an additional component though-- Questioning. We went up in groups of 2 and were asked things like: How long have you known each other? How long have you know you were going to Israel? Who pack your luggage? When did you pack it? Who was in the room? Where has it been since then?
The airport in Tel Aviv is AMAZING! I wish our airports were that nice. There is a large open circular area with a "waterfall" that looks like it's raining down from the ceiling into a fountain.
I always give you a little update on the guy situation in every country so I wouldn't want to disappoint you. Alright... Quick re-cap. Greek men- UGH! There's occasionally a cute one but I've been highly disappointed. I've come to the opinion all the cute ones work in the police force. Egypt- The men were much cuter. Israel- I got off the plane and saw cute guys everywhere! That combined with the fact that Israel is SO clean compared to everywhere else I've been if forced to choose I would pick someone from here. Lol
Israel is BEAUTIFUL! I keep thinking of Jesus as a young boy running around this area and think... Lucky Duck! We went to Ceserea and Nazareth today. This area looks very similar to the hill country. It's very "Americanized" over here. We saw an ACE, Toys-R-Us, Burger King and of course McDonalds.
Our tour guide Yosi kept reinforcing that archeology, religion, and politics are very mixed together sometimes making it difficult to get a true picture.
At Ceserea the two most important remaining structures are a Byzantine Church and the remains of the Herodian Harbor.
The Harbor was built in 25 BC by Herod the Great and was the first artificial harbor in the world. We also saw the first artificial pool. This pool was constructed outside the summer villa of Herod the Great. When you look at the picture of the pool you will see a big rock. This is called Poet's Island and as the name suggests poetry was read here.
Herod was a real scum-bag personally but he was a fairly good king. Jesus was born under his rule and Herod is considered very important because he shaped the atmosphere Jesus was born into. Herod killed a lot of people including his wife, who was an Asmonian and her 2 sons. Because of this Caesar Augustus said the now famous saying-- It is better to be Herod's pig than his son.
Our last site at Ceserea was a roman theater. Yosi played his flute for us with a background composition similar to something that might have been played back in the day.
We finally ate lunch around 4. It was a pita and chicken which tasted almost EXACTLY like a breaded chicken sandwich at Wendy's. So I have now had "Israeli Wendy's."
By 5 it is dark here so unfortunately we saw the remains of ancient Nazareth in the dark. Israel also has an annoying habit of building churches on top of holy sites sort-of as a monument. Soooo... There aren't too many pictures from here but take my word for it, it was interesting!
We also went to church in Nazareth. There is a church of Christ there with about 50 people. It is very hard for them because they are disowned by their families. they are also persecuted. There were some teenage muslim boys who had come by and vandalized the church just the night before. You hear about these types of things happening ALL the time but being here and seeing it with your own eyes just brings it home in an entirely different way.
We spent the night at an AMAZING hotel. Scratch what I said about the Best Western being my favorite hotel. This one by FAR is. The beds are incredibly comfortable and there is a heated pool, hot tub and sauna. So while all of you are at work I have been soaking in the hot tub. Greece and Europe obviously doesn't believe in hot tubs but hooray for Israel believing in them!

Day 1 Pictures:
http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2004784&l=72e38&id=1523040053

After Egypt I was sure that anything else I went to see after that would be a huge let down. So when our trip to the Peloponnese rolled around needless to say I wasn’t too thrilled. I still had horrible memories of our bus trip to Northern Greece.

We packed a sack lunch for later in the day and set off towards Southern Greece. We made a restroom stop near the Corinthian Canal. Most of us had already been there when we went bungee jumping but it was fun to look at again just the same.

Our tour guide’s name was Dionysus, which was highly intriguing because Dionysus was the god of sex, wine, and basically partying. I can’t imagine naming my child that! We started our sightseeing out at the city of Ancient Corinth. Paul spent a lot of time in this city and there were several interesting biblical references. The place smelled horrible though because it was near the sea. We saw the theater there that was built during the 5th century. The modern day remains are from the Romans. At the theater there was an inscription with the names Sostines and Erastus on them. These names are both found in the text of Paul and while they probably don’t refer to these specific people there’s always a possibility. Sostines is referenced in Acts 18:17 and was the leader of the Synagogue. Erastus is mentioned in Acts 19:22, II Timothy 4:20 and Romans 16: .
Once in the actual ancient city we saw the Temple to Apollo. This particular temple is famous because it houses the skin of Marcius and his flutes. Story goes that Apollo had a contest with a man named Marcius. Apollo was jealous of him because all the people of Corinth loved Marcius’ flute playing. Apollo won and as his prize he took Marcius’ skin. The other notable thing we saw was the bema. This is where the counsel of Corinth would meet and where Paul came before Galio to be tried.
The Museum at Corinth was full of states, pottery, and other items found in Corinth. I found this interesting…. One of the reasons so many of the statues are headless was because emperors used them to show their citizens what they looked like. So to conserve marble instead of making an entirely new statue they would just put a new head on it.
From there we wound our way up to AcroCorinth. Someone decided it would be a great idea to have lunch at the very top of this huge fortress so up we climbed. And we climbed and we climbed and we climbed… It was used as a fortress because of the great view and let me say from personal experience… It’s AMAZING! This was also the location of the Temple of Aphrodite. The priestesses had their temple at the top and were essentially prostitutes. Men would come to the temple to worship them through sex. I was trying to tell my mom about AcroCorinth and the prostitutes and she misunderstood me and thought I said they were still up there. I was about to correct her wrong impression but instead what came out of my mouth was, “Yeah. It’s a tourist attractions. It’s x amount of dollars for 30 minutes.” I had her going for a little bit. She would go, NO! And I would say, YES! It was an interesting couple of minutes. NO! YES! You’re kidding! No mom, completely serious. I came clean though and told her the truth.
Just when I thought the day was going to be over we packed up and headed off to another site. The theater we went to see is one of the best preserved from classical Greece. It is dedicated to the god Dionysus. Our tour guide stood in the center, ripped paper, whispered and did numerous other demonstrations to show how amazing the acoustics are. We sat at the very top of the theater and could hear him perfectly. It was pretty amazing!
We rounded out the day at a really cute hotel is a sea side town. After dinner a bunch of us walked down to the beach and walked along the sand, dipping our toes in the surf. Samantha and I got this really big urge for ice cream so we went in search for some but couldn’t find any. We checked about 5 different places but no, none! Even at the place that was called, Café Ice Cream. Personally I think it’s a crime to call a place Café Ice Cream and then not sell any.

Day 1 Pictures:
http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2004725&l=e4901&id=1523040053

Day 2:
The night before I had planned on getting up early and going down to walk along the beach again and watch the sunrise. Well guess what…. I didn’t want to get up. Luckily I caught the tail end of the sunrise from my balcony. It was so beautiful I decided I had to walk down by the beach again even if it was just for 20 minutes. It set a wonderful tone for the rest of the day.
First stop: Naphtilon where we saw the Castle Palamidi. This castle was sweet! It made me want to live in one. Well minus never getting to bathe and no central air or heating, and no deodorant and numerous other factors. It was built during the 2nd Venetian period and fortified by the Byzantines. You can see round stones that were used in trebuchets. When you walk through the gates there is a hole in the ceiling, which they used to pour hot olive oil on any intruders that got past the other defenses.
After Dionysus told us a little about the castle we got free time to climb all over the thing. I’ll give the people who lived in that thing this… They would have to be in pretty good shape. Luckily we got to climb down the set of 999 steps rather than up. I think I would have stopped half way up and said NO castle is worth this.
We followed this site up by Mycenae, one of the most ancient Greek cities. This city is famous for several reasons. One is because of its walls called “cyclopean walls”. The stones are so massive that later civilizations decided the wall could have only been built by Cyclops. The Lion Gate is another famous landmark of this city. Just inside this gate an archeologist named Schliemann discovered grave circle A. He discovered what is called the Mask of Agamemnon (you may recognize this name in connection to the city of Troy) even though the mask dates much earlier than Agamemnon. There were some amazing domed tombs here that make you just marvel at the technological advancement of the people during that time period.
That night we stayed in a hotel owned by Best Western. We had like a 6-course meal and AMAZING beds. If we stayed in that hotel every time we traveled my life would be complete!

Day 2 Pictures:
http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2004724&l=30d9a&id=1523040053

Day 3:
Well it rained all night and into the morning. As we headed off to Olympia it was STILL raining. We started out in the museum… I won’t bore you with everything we saw expect 1 thing… The famous statue of Hermes by Praxiteles. It is a statue of 2 gods (Hermes and baby Dionysus). Zeus as usual was up to some of his old tricks and got some woman pregnant. Zeus’ wife Hera got jealous and told the woman in order to find out if Zeus really loved her she must ask him to promise to do whatever she wanted. The woman asked to see Zeus in his true form and as a result she was burned up. Zeus rescued her baby (Dionysus) and continued the pregnancy in his thigh. Hera went on a rampage looking for the baby so Zeus gave Dionysus to Hermes. The statue depicts Hermes carrying off the baby to be raised by the nymphs.
Olympia was BY FAR one of my favorite sites in ancient Greece. It was beautiful! The leaves were starting to turn golden and the air was nice and crisp. It made me feel like fall had finally come. It made me think of hayrides, roasting marshmallows by roaring fires, and hot apple cider. Have I mentioned I LOVE fall. I tried to get a picture of the leaves falling and failed miserably.
The boys raced at the stadium and now are 2008 Olympic Athletes. The “track” is 193 meters long. The first Olympics was held in 776 BC in honor of Zeus. The games were held every 4 years on the 2nd full moon after the summer solstice, a tradition that is carried on to this very day. Besides the stadium there were the buildings used for trainings, an ancient basilica, and the temple to Zeus and Hera.
Once we finished up at Olympia there was a fantastic 6-hour bus ride back to Porto-Rafti. The bus rides aren’t as bad if you sleep through most of it but sleeping on a bus is difficult and NEVER comfortable. More to come… So read up, look at the pictures, and enjoy!

Day 3 Pictures:
http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2004722&l=aa812&id=1523040053

Every time I head into Athens I'm amazed by the fact that I'm really here... in Greece... eating gelato while staring up at the Acropolis. It's memories like this that will "haunt" my dreams till the day I die. A couple weekends ago ,was our "free-weekend". No one wanted to spend a fortune, having spent almost all our money in Egypt, so Athens was the obvious choice.
So Saturday afternoon, 8 other girls and myself headed into Athens. We arrived at the Metro and bought our tickets. Being savvy college students we realized that we could buy a student ticket and it would 30 Euro cents cheaper. So we stood there, debating the pros and cons and whether we actually qualify. Some piped up and said, "Colby said we could buy them." Which was quickly followed by, "Well if Colby said we could buy them, then lets go ahead.
We got onto the Metro and 2 stops later one of the girls said, "We need to get off". I looked at her kind-of funny and whispered, Why? This isn't our stop. She said... Just trust me. I looked over her shoulder and low and behold there is a man coming down the center of the train checking everyone's metro ticket. Fear and panic sliced through me because I had NO CLUE whether I could actually use my ticket or not. All I knew was that there's a large fine for breaking the rules. Unfortuantly some of our girls were a little too loud asking why we were getting off at the wrong stop so the man skipped all the other passangers and makes a beeline for our group. We handed him our tickets and he got a really mad look on his face. He started demanding to see our student cards so I pull mine out. I breathed a large sigh of relief when he nodded his head and handed back my ticket. Three of the girls in our group didn't end up so lucky. They didn't have their International Student IDs on them so the man wrote them a ticket for 48 euro. Thankfully they were able to avoid paying the fine by simply going to the main metro station and proving they had a student card. So we now have international felons in our group.
By this time we have missed our stop but as the saying goes 2 heads are better than 1 so 9 must be the the equivalent to a genius. Or not. But anyway the 9 of us manage to figure out how to get back to the mall and set in on the arduous task of picking out a movie to see. Mind you the titles are in Greek and the the times based on a 24 hour clock. We finally agreed on Journey to the Center of the Earth. Eagle Eye wasn't showing till 10 something and we had no clue where our hostel was so we decided THAT wasn't a good idea. Kung Fu Panda had shown on the plane ride over and the rest wasn't fit to watch. I'm guessing it's this way all over Europe but in Greece for certain you are assigned a movie seat. So for all of us to sit together we had to make one payment. As I handed over my debit card the woman looked at me incredulously and said, "You are a very brave woman."
I handed my ticket to the woman taking them and she says something to me in Greek. I look at her in confusion and said, "Huh?" She laughed, "Oh, Theater 2, all the way to the end, on your right." We made our way down to the theater and walked in. The man standing there handed everyone a pair of glasses. We looked at each other in confusion wondering if we had gotten the wrong theater. Nope. Turns out we had picked out a 3D movie. As we sat there watching the previews we were all silently praying the movie was in English. I definitely recommend going to see that movie in 3D though. It was great!
We finally made it to our hostel, after stopping a couple of places for directions. As we were checking in some of our guys, who were also staying in our hostel, walked in. I don't remember the last time when I was so glad to see someone. Once we got settled in we still had about an hour and a half till midnight so I did something quite out of character for me... I went out on the town to experience the Athens night life. Brenda, Kathleen, John, and I walked up out of Syntagma Station to the pounding sound of a Greek Rapper concert. We stayed there for a little bit then made our way towards our favorite gellato shop. There's no feeling like eating gellato while staring up at the Parthenon lighting the night sky.
The next day I say the Byzantine Art Museum, the Islamic Art Museum, a Greek Cemetery, and went shopping in the Plaka. Just a typical Sunday in Athens. I loved the content of the Islamic Museum. It was very unique and a welcome relief from all the greek sculptures I've been looking at over the past couple of months. The Byzantine Art Museum's presentation was much more impressive but the content was as interesting.
Overall... I had a wonderful time!

Since my free weekend I have paid a visit to the National Museum of Athens and taken a trip to the Southern Peloponnese. There isn't a lot to write about the Museum but I saw some amazing things in Southern Greece. I'm going to try my hardest to write about it before Sunday. Why Sunday you might ask... Well if I don't write about it soon I will forget exactly why these places were important. But more importantly I am leaving for ISRAEL on Sunday!

God Bless and you'll be hearing from me soon.

Love, Rebeca