Israel, the start-up nation – Part 1

Eilat

After choosing to celebrate New Year's Eve a bit differently, we decided to give Israel a chance. It’s a small country nestled between Jordan, Egypt, Lebanon and Syria, and you may find it a bit difficult to visit, especially regarding safety reasons as it is in conflict with its neighbouring countries. Thanks to several low-cost airlines, plane tickets weren’t too expensive, despite the fact that we booked a flight on New Year's Eve.

Landing in the State of Israel gives you impressions of high-security at immigration and customs where you may be confronted with many questions regarding your stay in the country. From this perspective, I recommend all travellers to be prepared to explain their exact plan and reasons of their visit.

We landed in the southern seaside city of Eilat where you’ll find the HI Youth Hostel Eilat that has a great location. It has the best views over the Red Sea, and its located nearly a three-minute walk from the beach and the nearby clubs, pubs and bars, of which there are many and with different types of music. The younger party lovers will enjoy the Crazy Elephant and you should take a taxi there because the club is in the industrial part of Eilat (probably the only part of the city where being loud until early morning isn’t a problem) where walking around empty streets alone during the night can get quite spooky. The city of Eilat has its own little tourist market with an adrenaline park in the centre, a long city beach with many luxury hotels and cafés and the very interesting Underwater Observatory Park. Overall, you might meet many Russian speaking tourists coming enjoying their holidays in Israel, along with many Americans who, together with Germans, represent the biggest target tourist group.

As you may know, Jewish people don’t use the Gregorian calendar, unlike Christians. They celebrated New Year’s in September and the celebration dates differ from year to year. In this regard, they don't pay much attention to the celebration of our New Year's Eve on 31st December, but they do prepare little celebrations in bars, pubs and clubs, mainly because of tourists. Speaking of celebrations, you take the Jewish Shabbat day into consideration when planning your trip. It’s the Jewish day of rest when people cease all work activities and take a day off, avoid using any electronic equipment (including pressing buttons in lifts, which are automatically configured to go up and down without any need to press a button). They also don’t use coffee machines as that would require pressing buttons, which is against the Shabbat rules). Shabbat starts on Friday at sunset and ends on Saturday, an hour after sunset (altogether 25 hours). I would suggest that you pay special attention on this day and observe people around you. You’ll see how seriously they take Shabbat, how families gather to enjoy a meal together and talk, how children chase each other outside, using no technology. Of course, you’ll meet all kinds of people, even the ones who don’t follow the strict rules of Shabbat, especially in Tel-Aviv, which is a very liberal and multicultural city and in this regard very similar to any developed European city.

Mitzpe Ramon – the Dead Sea – Masada

In order to truly experience Israel, I recommend that you rent a car and drive through the whole country. It doesn’t take much to travel from the far south to the far north with must-see stops along the way. If you’re planning this kind of road trip, you can either book a flight to Eilat and go through the whole country and then take a return flight from Tel Aviv, or vice versa. This way, you can stop for as long as you wish and you’ll also be more flexible when it comes to time. Renting a car isn’t expensive by Israel’s standards – that is, Israel is an overall very expensive country, and if you’re already travelling on a budget, it could turn out to be pretty expensive.

First, we headed to the small town of Mitzpe Ramon which is located at the edge of a large “erosion cirque” formation in the Negev desert. The small town offers a splendid view over the whole crater, the largest in the world. Tourism is well developed in the town, considering its location. We stayed at the HI Mitzpe Ramon hostel. Here’s a tip if you’re going to spend at least one night at the Mitzpe Ramon: you might want to wake up before sunrise to enjoy a beautiful view over the whole crater, the largest in the world, from the observation point. On your way to observation point, which is placed next to the Visitors Center, you might encounter an animal called Nubian ibex, a desert dwelling goat, in its natural habitat.

On the way to the next destination, the Dead Sea, you have an opportunity to visit the Wineries in the middle of the Negev desert. Many of them can be found around Mitzpe Ramon and its surroundings, so if you’re a wine lover this will be one of your must-stops. On the road to the Dead Sea, you will be come across many signs, such as “beware of camels near the road” or “beware, sinkholes area ahead”. Sinkholes are interesting phenomena caused by the Dead Sea’s receding salty water. As the sea becomes smaller, an underground layer of dry salt is left behind. When fresh water, such as the one from flash floods, saturates the salt, the latter quickly dissolves, creating underground holes. Overtime, these holes grow bigger until they suddenly, without warning, collapse and the earth above caves in. Each sinkhole seems to follow its own rules and there is still no detectable pattern for the formation of sinkholes, so you might not want to walk along the road with danger signs warning you of sink holes. More than 6,000 sinkholes have been discovered and the number is still increasing.

The Dead Sea is the lowest place on Earth (the current elevation is –430m) and this creates a special feeling. Even the very road that leads to the lake is truly a unique experience. You should take your swimwear with you and jump into water, but don’t forget to shower afterwards (showers are free of charge outside on the beach). The recommended bathing time is 10–15min because the high salt concentration can be harmful to the skin and damaging to the body’s electrolytes if you stay in the water longer. And don’t get the water in your eyes, it will cause a burning feeling. After you’re done swimming, jump into your jogging leggings for a short hike to Masada, an ancient fort in the Judean desert, from the top of which there’s a wonderful view over the entire Dead Sea. Just below Masada, you will find the magnificent HI Masada Hostel, a perfect place in the middle of the desert to take a day off, relax and rest your eyes with the view over the Dead Sea. If you don’t want to bathe in the Dead Sea, the hostel offers a comfortable outside pool where you can relax.

And speaking of relaxation, take a break and check out my second part of the article in the next issue of the Globetrotter Magazine where I’ll give you travel tips for Jerusalem, Acre, Haifa and Tel Aviv. Stay tuned.