Who wouldn't love a country that serves cheesecake for breakfast?

After an eventful 11hour plane ride during which Simone discovered the consequences of opening her mouth in a Thai shower, we arrived in Israel and were collected by Richard's cousins.

We headed straight for the seaside town of Ashkelon, 60km south of Tel Aviv.

There Richard enjoyed the first of many, many, many shwarmas.

The day and evening were spent touring the beachfront and marina and spending some quality time with the family.






The following morning we were excited to hop in the car and head across the country to the Dead Sea.

For those of you who don't know, the Dead Sea, is over 400m below sea level and is the lowest point on earth.

This vast stretch of water receives a number of incoming rivers, including the River Jordan. Once the waters reach the Dead Sea they are land-locked and have nowhere to go, so they evaporate, leaving behind a dense, rich, cocktail of salts and minerals.

This concenration of salt in the water creates an environment where those swimming in the water can only float on the surface and can't stand up.The Dead Sea is surrounded by mountains to the east and the rolling hills of Jerusalem to the west, giving it an almost other-worldly beauty.

After surviving the Israeli freeways on which road rules and speed limits appear to be optional, we couldn't wait to jump into the sea to cool off.

However our excitement was short lived, the temperature outside was a dry 48degrees and the water was felt like a hot bath. We now understand what it feels like to be a poached chicken.

Never the less, it was incredible to feel completely weightless in the water and float around as though you were reclining in a lounge chair. The surronding landscape is also quite breathtaking.

Like many of the locals, we decided to return to the sea for a swim in the evening, expecting cooler temperatures...but were slapped in the face by a 37degree breeze when we left the hotel at 6:30pm

Alas, there was no respite from the heat, but then again, we are the shmucks who decided to visit the dessert in the second hottest month of the year.

The next morning we headed off to Masada, an anicent mountain-top fortress built by King Herod. It was also the site of a mass suicide in 70 CE, when almost 1000 Jews took their own lives rather than become slaves to the Romans.

 
One would expect the temperature to drop the higher one climbs, but this was not the case. We both shed several kilos as we toured around in the sun for 4hours learing about the facining history of sumpuous Roman palace that was built here and the Jewish rebels who built a community in this remote and hostile environment.

One of the highlights of our tour was sitting in the ruins of a 2000 year old synagogue, as seen in the photo to the left.

Next stop was Jerusalem which is simply OUT OF THIS WORLD!

As a massive history buff, Simone absolutely lost her mind when we first walked into the old city of Jerusalem.

The history of this 1 square kilometre is mind-blowing. Everywhere you look, you see buildings and ruins from various eras dating back thousands of years.

Our days were spent on the go, absorbing everything we could and stopping for the odd falafel or two.

Speaking of food, the breakfast buffets in Israel are phenomenal. In addition to the usual suspects (fruit, toast, ceral etc) they also offer sweet options including cheesecake, chocolate cake,  apple strudel...and best of all, cheese blinzes!!! (pancakes filled with warm cream cheese)

On the second morning, Simone couldn't wait to make it down to the breakfast buffet for her cheese blinze. To her horror, the blinzes that morning were filled with a substance that wasn't cheese.

Undeterred by this set back, she requested to have a word with the head chef at the hotel. The chef closely resemballed the soup nazi from Seinfield and demanded to know who had a problem with the quality of his blinzes.  

Simone enquired about the filling. He confirmed that it was in fact mushroom and that the cheese blinzes would not reappear until the next day. After seeing the disappointment written all over her face, he returned several minutes later with three freshly prepared cheese blinzes and made her day.

Over the 3 days we spent in Jerusalem, we managed to see the location of Christ's crucifiction, the cave he was buried in, the dome of the rock, prayed at the Western Wall and explored the 4000 year old ruins at the Tower of David.

We also made it to the Kenesset, which is the Israeli parliment house and took a tour in Hebrew as we didn't have time to wait for the English tour to start. Following the tour proved quite challenging given that the only word we could understand the entire time was "Kenesset".

On friday we took our lives into our hands once again and hit the Israeli freeways to Tel Aviv.

We are staying with Richard's family and enjoying touring this trendy beach-side city which reminds us a lot of Rio De Janero.

We have been introduced to some world class humus (which you eat with absolutlely everything..including breakfast)

Heading off to Santorini on Monday morning. Will write again soon.

You stay classy Sydney
Rich and Simone x

P.S  If you click on any of the images you'll see a larger version.